Transcribe
Translate
Fantasy Commentator, v. 1, issue 3, September 1944
Page 34
More information
digital collection
archival collection guide
transcription tips
34 FANTASY COMMENTATOR This-'n'-That My apologies, first, to one and all for failing (as promised) to have Fantasy Commentator #2 in the mailing for which it was dated. Fact is, friends, your editor had a chance to take a two-week vacation in New England, and didn't have the heart to turn it down...For rectification, if all goes well, two issues will find their way into the September mailing. I'm very pleased to be able to present, in this number, Sam Moskowitz' long article on magazine science-fiction of the past. It is a sequel to his article "Uncrowned Greats", which appeared in the second anniversary issue of Fantascience Digest and will prove, I think, equally interesting. Needless to say, all opinions expressed in "Forgotten Classics" are Sam's own, and do not necessarily reflect those of your editor...By the way, for those who would like additional information on the story "Omega the Man", which is mentioned in the article, there is a short statement by the author on how he came to write it to be found in the June 1934 number of Fantasy Magazine. Along with the foregoing feature, this number has an article by your editor on William Hope Hodgson's writings. As noted therein, it is the first in a series of two such write-ups; this gives the impressions garnered from Hodgson by the reviewers of his own day, while that yet to be written will deal with the opinions held by critical enthusiasts of this decade. The majority of the material in the first of the two will be new even to such Hodgson devotees as Koenig and Wheatly, I believe. Most important is probably the bibliography of Hodgson's books, which will be seen on the opposite page; your editor believes that it is the first time that it has been given complete anywhere. Three of its listings were but recently discovered. Here's-the-$64-question department: Is the John Collier who authored "The Radium Veil," which appeared in Popular Magazine for July 20 1921, the John Collier of Presenting Moonshine fame? And can anyone cooperate with an editorial desire to beg, borrow, steal, or even buy this yarn? There is literally room for no more than a word or two concerning current fantasy books. $2.75 of your hard-earned cash will buy a copy of Lord Halifax's Ghost Book (Didier Publishing Co., 1944), published some time ago in England, but never (till now) in this country. And those who remember with pleasant memories Clark Aston Smith's translations (in the old Weird Tales) of those poems of Charles Baudelaire will be pleased to know that the French poet's biography has recently appeared; Flower of Evil (Sheed & Ward, 1944) is by Edwin Morgan, and sells for $3... Fans who would use the word fen as the plural of fan would do well to examine their dictionaries; fen is defined as a 'marsh or bog' and also (perhaps better) as 'a disease of hops, caused by a mold of rapid growth.' While such an appelation applies most fittingly to many cerebra in fandom, I nevertheless feel that the correct thing to do is still to retain Webster's plural, fans. (Speer take note.) The length of the two articles in this issue has, as you can see, resulted in the elimination of "Devil Take the Hindmost---". I hope to see it return again in Fantasy Commentator #4....In the meantime, a very hasty glance at the June 1944 mailing: The Reader and Collector and Memoirs of a Superfluous Fan take top honors in my opinion. Why? Because both have something to say and say it well. And that is more than can be said for Star-Stung, Take-off, Degler tripe, Arcadia (with its juvenile muddlings and annoying "bw" interlineations at every turn; how did Honig get in F.A.P.A.? I thought we had an age-limit of five years) and other "magazines" I could name. Black & White: Ackerman, as usual, presents no cogent argument, but simply a hodge-podge of breast-beating emotionism---which is why Speer's side wins out in this instance. But I still maintain that racial discussions have no place in fandom, or in F.A.P.A....
Saving...
prev
next
34 FANTASY COMMENTATOR This-'n'-That My apologies, first, to one and all for failing (as promised) to have Fantasy Commentator #2 in the mailing for which it was dated. Fact is, friends, your editor had a chance to take a two-week vacation in New England, and didn't have the heart to turn it down...For rectification, if all goes well, two issues will find their way into the September mailing. I'm very pleased to be able to present, in this number, Sam Moskowitz' long article on magazine science-fiction of the past. It is a sequel to his article "Uncrowned Greats", which appeared in the second anniversary issue of Fantascience Digest and will prove, I think, equally interesting. Needless to say, all opinions expressed in "Forgotten Classics" are Sam's own, and do not necessarily reflect those of your editor...By the way, for those who would like additional information on the story "Omega the Man", which is mentioned in the article, there is a short statement by the author on how he came to write it to be found in the June 1934 number of Fantasy Magazine. Along with the foregoing feature, this number has an article by your editor on William Hope Hodgson's writings. As noted therein, it is the first in a series of two such write-ups; this gives the impressions garnered from Hodgson by the reviewers of his own day, while that yet to be written will deal with the opinions held by critical enthusiasts of this decade. The majority of the material in the first of the two will be new even to such Hodgson devotees as Koenig and Wheatly, I believe. Most important is probably the bibliography of Hodgson's books, which will be seen on the opposite page; your editor believes that it is the first time that it has been given complete anywhere. Three of its listings were but recently discovered. Here's-the-$64-question department: Is the John Collier who authored "The Radium Veil," which appeared in Popular Magazine for July 20 1921, the John Collier of Presenting Moonshine fame? And can anyone cooperate with an editorial desire to beg, borrow, steal, or even buy this yarn? There is literally room for no more than a word or two concerning current fantasy books. $2.75 of your hard-earned cash will buy a copy of Lord Halifax's Ghost Book (Didier Publishing Co., 1944), published some time ago in England, but never (till now) in this country. And those who remember with pleasant memories Clark Aston Smith's translations (in the old Weird Tales) of those poems of Charles Baudelaire will be pleased to know that the French poet's biography has recently appeared; Flower of Evil (Sheed & Ward, 1944) is by Edwin Morgan, and sells for $3... Fans who would use the word fen as the plural of fan would do well to examine their dictionaries; fen is defined as a 'marsh or bog' and also (perhaps better) as 'a disease of hops, caused by a mold of rapid growth.' While such an appelation applies most fittingly to many cerebra in fandom, I nevertheless feel that the correct thing to do is still to retain Webster's plural, fans. (Speer take note.) The length of the two articles in this issue has, as you can see, resulted in the elimination of "Devil Take the Hindmost---". I hope to see it return again in Fantasy Commentator #4....In the meantime, a very hasty glance at the June 1944 mailing: The Reader and Collector and Memoirs of a Superfluous Fan take top honors in my opinion. Why? Because both have something to say and say it well. And that is more than can be said for Star-Stung, Take-off, Degler tripe, Arcadia (with its juvenile muddlings and annoying "bw" interlineations at every turn; how did Honig get in F.A.P.A.? I thought we had an age-limit of five years) and other "magazines" I could name. Black & White: Ackerman, as usual, presents no cogent argument, but simply a hodge-podge of breast-beating emotionism---which is why Speer's side wins out in this instance. But I still maintain that racial discussions have no place in fandom, or in F.A.P.A....
Hevelin Fanzines
sidebar
