Saturday, December 08, 2007

Lovecraft's Legacy: 1975 (Willis Conover Fanzine)



The Seller States: Willis Conover (ed). SCIENCE FANTASY CORRESPONDENT ONE: AN ANTHOLOGY OF VARIATIONS ON A THEME. Arlington, VA: Carrollton Clark, 1975. 64 pp.Willis Conover was a youthful correspondent of the great horror writer HP LOVECRAFT. Conover many years after Lovecraft's death published their correspondence as the book LOVECRAFT AT LAST, a wonderful memorial to his relationship with his literary mentor and master.Science Fantasy Correspondent was his youthful fanzine, originally published in 1937. After a lapse of many years, Conover revived it in the mid-1970's but only one or two issues were published. (Maybe only one - I haven't traced any copies of a number two on the Internet). This is ISSUE No. ONE, with a front cover illustration featuring HP LOVECRAFT'S BOOKPLATE (the entrance to his house at 66 Barnes St, Providence, RI). The issue also contains several Lovecraft-related items along with a wealth of other contents by sf and fantasy writers.
This anthology contains: The Wine Dark Sea by Robert Aickman; New Settings: Villiers de L'Isle-Adam by Brian W. Aldiss; First Patrol by Joseph Bryan III; To the House Subcommittee on Space Science Applications by Arthur C. Clarke; The Guise of Youth (verse) by Robert E. Howard; The Perpetual Honeymoon by David H. Keller; Fantasy Film News Bits by Henry Kuttner; Last Autumn Last Winter by H. P. Lovecraft (actually segments of letters to Clark Ashton Smith under this umbrella title), Hit and Run by Joseph Allan Ryan; In Search of Lovecraft: Caverns Measureless to Man (an essay/memoir on Lovecraft by Kenneth Sterling); The Duke of Portland by Villiers de L'Isle-Adam; Psychology and Characterization by Jack Williamson; along with an assortment of features including Odds and Ends by E. E. Doc Smith.Condition: A few faults. Has at one time had a plastic cover which has left light tape-stains on the inside front page and inside rear page (64). Pages 60 through 64 have a wrinkle which appears to be due to going through the press, in other words, an original publication fault, which however does not affect the readability of the text. There is some light bumping/folding to the extremities (top front edge, the front leading edge and the rear top edge (left corner only) ), and the very bottom of the spine has a bump, so these make the copy less than mint. Nevertheless, a SCARCE Lovecraft-related item and generally in GOOD CONDITION. LAID IN IS THE PUBLISHER'S ORIGINAL ANNOUNCEMENT FLYER FOR THIS PUBLICATION (folded thrice).

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