"I have been following with interest the Ackerman adventures inyour pages. I am wondering if he ever wrote any stories, besidescriticizing then?"--Natalie H. Wooley
"The Ackerman-Smith debate amuses me. Of course, I am squarely onSmith's side, and don't understand why you publish the more puerile ofthe letters on the matter, such as the one by Lloyd Fowler."--AugustW. Derleth
"The whole argument was caused by Ackerman claiming that Smith's'Dweller in Martian Depths' should not have appeared in _WonderStories_. Smith should have sent the story to _Weird Tales_, thusavoiding a clash with Ackerman, who, I take it, has no use for weirdliterature. Or the editor of _Wonder Stories_ should have foreseensome catastrophe and promptly returned it to C. A. Smith, who I esteemvery highly, by the way."--F. Lee Baldwin
We stated last month that the Smith-Ackerman debate would end in thisissue--and so it has. Many of our readers have started to get boredwith it--and more than that, some ill-feeling has been aroused. We gofurther to state that there will be no more department known as "TheBoiling Point." The name implies that everything contained thereinshould be boiling hot--and these boiling hot arguments, as we havefound out, create an unpleasant atmosphere for many concerned. THEFANTASY FAN is attempting to bind the lovers of science and weirdfiction tighter together with friendship, and not to separate themthru dislike of each others ideas. However, to take the place of "TheBoiling Point" we are starting a new department next month entitled"Your Views." This will not contain any debates, but the opinions ofyou, the readers, on various subjects which we will nominate. So,write in us immediately answering the following questions: "What isthere in the 'horror' story as associated with weird and fantasticfiction? Is there any virtue to them? How can they be defended whenpeople will read them and say that they are distasteful to the welland normal mind? Why does a person wish to read a sinister tale ofevil or monstrosities? Is it healthy reading? Is it not morbid?"Forrest J. Ackerman has suggested this subject. Let's see what youthink about it.
SUPERNATURAL HORROR IN LITERATURE
Part Five
by H. P. Lovecraft
(Copyright 1927, by W. Paul Cook)
Just as all fiction first found extensive embodiment in poetry, so isit in poetry that we first encounter the permanent entry of the weirdinto standard literature. Most of the ancient instances, curiouslyenough, are in prose; as the werewolf incident in Petronius, thegruesome passages in Apuleius, the brief but celebrated letter ofPliny the younger to Sura, and the odd compilation "On WonderfulEvents" by the Emperor Hadrian's Greek freedman, Phlegon. It is inPhlegon that we first find that hideous tale of the corpse-bride,"Philinnion and Machates," later related by Procius and in moderntimes forming the inspiration of Goethe's "Bride of Corinth" andWashington Irving's "German Student." But by the time the old Northernmyths take literary form, and in that later time when the weirdappears as a steady element in the literature of the day, we find itmostly in metrical dress; as indeed we find the greater part of thestrictly imaginative writing of the Middle Ages and Renaissance. TheScandinavian Eddas and Sagas thunder with cosmic horror, and shakewith the stark fear of Ymir and his shapeless spawn; whilst our ownAnglo-Saxon "Beowulf" and the later Continental Nibelung tales arefull of eldritch weirdness. Dante is a pioneer in the classic captureof macabre atmosphere, and in Spencer's stately stanzas will be seenmore than a few touches of fantastic terror in landscape, incident,and character. Prose literature gives us Malory's "Morte d'Arthur," inwhich are presented many ghastly situations taken from early balladsources--the theft of the sword and silk from the corpse in ChapelPerilous by Sir Launcelot, the ghost of Sir Gawaine, and thetomb-fiend seen by Sir Galahad--whilst other and cruder specimens weredoubtless set forth in the Supernatural Horror in Literature cheap andsensational "chapbooks" vulgarly hawked about and devoured by theignorant. In Elizabethan drama, with its "Dr. Faustus," the witches in"Macbeth," and the horrible gruesomeness of Webster, we may easilydiscern the strong hold of the daemoniac on the public mind; a holdintensified by the very real fear of living witchcraft, whose terrors,first witnessed on the Continent, begin to echo loudly in English earsas the witch hunting crusades of James the First gain headway. To thelurking mystical prose of the ages is added a long list of treatiseson witchcraft and daemonology which aid in exciting the imagination ofthe reading world.
(Continued Next Month)
MY SCIENCE FICTION COLLECTION
by Forrest J. Ackerman
Part Six--Conclusion
Lastly there is the third--and an extremely interesting part of thescientifilm division of my collection: the sound discs from "Dr.Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." Of an evening, it is a great enjoyment to listento the Doctor with coughs and groans and an accompaniment of whirringthoughts change into the savage Mr. Hyde or before that, to hear himexpound his theory of man being "not one, but truly two;" and laterto listen to the final battle in which he is killed. As the recordsare recorded at two or three times normal speed, it proves mostinteresting (ordinarily, they must be slowed down by a weight or thehand). Run at recorded tempo, one hears characters speaking as theywould if they were speeded up as in such stories as "A Year in a Day,""The Super-Man of Dr. Jukes," "The Super-Velociter," and "A NewAccelerator." The result is startling.
In conclusion--I have complete files of The Time Traveller (withissues of The which preceded it), _Science Fiction Digest_ and ScienceFiction. And I'm looking forward to every number of _The Fantasy Fan_.Good luck!
FAMOUS FANTASY FICTION
by Emil Petaja
Perhaps the most interesting collection of mystery stories everbrought together under one cover is Dorothy L. Sayers' "Omnibus ofCrime." This is of special interest to weird story fans, as of its1177 pages, over 400 are devoted exclusively to this type. It'sauthors include A. Conan Doyle, Bram Stoker, Arthur Machen, AmbroseBierce, and many others whom Fantasy Fans are familiar with. Don'tmiss reading it.
Among other weird story collections are "Famous Modern Ghost Stories"and "Famous Humorous Ghost Stories," both edited by DorothyScarborough. These books are filled with fascinating ghost stories,all by famous authors of all times.
Elliot O'Donnell, famous English author, has written many collectionsof true ghost stories. His two latest are "Haunted Houses of London"and "More Haunted Houses of London." You will find many of his storiesand articles reprinted in various collections. He has also written for_Weird Tales_.
Some years ago, The Macauley Company published a collection under thetitle, "Beware After Dark." It includes H. P. Lovecraft's "Call ofCthulhu" and Machen's "Novel of the White Powder," and others of note.A splendid addition to your book-shelf.
The Modern Library's collection "Best Ghost Stories" is no doubtfamiliar to most of you, but it is certainly worth mentioning. Itcontains an introduction by Arthur B. Reeve, and stories by AlgernonBlackwood, Dr. M. R. James, and Rudyard Kipling.
FANS I'VE MET
by Mortimer Weisinger
Julius Schwartz--who is probably the greatest living authority on allexisting science fiction, and who worships Dr. Keller--don't we all?
Michael Fogaris--who holds one of the most brilliant scholasticrecords held by any s-f fan, and who idolizes the writings of A.Merritt--again, don't we all?
Milton Kaletsky--who is the world's greatest torture fiend. He coercedhis sister into typing up his first s-f story, the 16,000 word "Visitto Alpha Centauri."
Nathan Greenfeld, who, besides being a devout s-f fan, is quite adeptat painting.
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ADVERTISEMENTS
Old Amazings, Wonders, Astoundings, Argosy science fiction such as:
The Snake Mother, A Brand New World, The Planet of Peril. Sciencefiction from the present to 1900 in ALL magazines. Please list storieswanted most when writing for list. Weird Tales, Black Cat, Munsey,Blue Book, etc.
Isidore Manzon 684 Flushing Avenue Brooklyn, New York
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CLARK ASHTON SMITH presents THE DOUBLE SHADOW AND OTHER FANTASIES--abooklet containing a half-dozen imaginative and atmospherictales.--Stories of exotic beauty, glamor, terror, strangeness, irony,and satire. Price: 25 cents each, (coin or stamps). Also a smallremainder of EBONY AND CRYSTAL--a book of prose poems published at$2.00, reduced to $1.00 per copy. Everything sent postpaid. ClarkAshton Smith, Auburn, California.
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_Back Numbers of The Fantasy Fan_:
September, 20 cents (only a few left); October, November, December,January, 10 cents each.
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_Weird Tales_, dated 1923 to 1924, are wanted, please communicatewith the Editor if you care to part with any.
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Transcriber's Note: Minor typographical errors have been correctedwithout note. Irregularities and inconsistencies in the text havebeen retained as printed.
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