Friendly Aliens: Contents

Thanks to Martin for locating the table of contents !
_____

Friendly Aliens ed. John Robert Colombo (Hounslow Press, 1981, 181pp, hc); Thirteen Stories of the Fantastic Set in Canada by Foreign Authors.

1 · Preface · John Robert Colombo · pr

5 · A Haunted Island · Algernon Blackwood · ss The Pall Mall Magazine Apr, 1899

18 · A Relic of the Pliocene · Jack London · ss Colliers Jan 12 ’01

27 · In Search of the Unknown [“The Harbor-Master”] · Robert W. Chambers · nv

Ainslee’s Aug, 1899

50 · The People of the Pit · A. Merritt · ss All-Story Weekly Jan 5 ’18

65 · Polaris · H. P. Lovecraft · ss The Philosopher Dec ’20; Weird Tales Dec ’37

69 · The Thing From—"Outside" · George Allan England · ss Science and Invention Apr ’23

85 · The Place of Pain · M. P. Shiel · ss The Red Magazine May 1 ’14

94 · Devolution · Edmond Hamilton · ss Amazing Dec ’36

108 · Arctic God [as by Frank Jones] · John Russell Fearn · nv Amazing May ’42

129 · The Thing that Walked on the Wind · August Derleth · ss Strange Tales of Mystery and Terror Jan ’33

139 · The Tattooed Man · Vincent Starrett · ss The Quick and the Dead, Sauk City: Arkham House, 1965

149 · Forever to a Hudson Bay Blanket · James Tiptree, Jr. · ss Fantastic Aug ’72

165 · Swan Song · Chelsea Quinn Yarbro · ss Cautionary Tales, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1978

175 · Whither Canadian Fantasy? · Donald A. Wollheim · ar Uncanny Tales Dec ’42

1981 Book of Lovecraft and other Stories (Canada)

COLOMBO, John Robert (editor) Friendly Aliens Hounslow Press, 1981. Very Good condition. 13 stories of the fantastic set in Canada by foreign authors. Includes Algernon Blackwood, Jack London, H. P. Lovecraft, August Derleth and others. Donald A. Wollheim essay from 1942 on Canadian fantastic literature. First Printing.

Phatagraph of 1936 (Night Gaunts)

The missing covers actually give us a rare peek inside the copy.





The (FEBRUARY/SPRING) 1936 (1936-II) issue of the fanzine THE PHANTAGRAPH, Volume 4 Number 3, edited by Donald A. WOLLHEIM (New York), featuring:
The Hyborian Age (part 1) ……………….Robert E. HOWARD (original publication of this essay)
Phantasy’s Trend……………….Louis C. SMITH
Night Gaunts (verse) ……………….H. P. LOVECRAFT
Sun - Spots……………….Donald A. WOLLHEIM
The Study of Witchcraft (1) ……………….H. KOENIG
The Garden and The Tomb (a prose pastel)……………….Clark Ashton SMITH
Is Science Fiction in a Rut? (part 2) ……………….C. W. LONSDELL
Also: PHANTASIES Book Reviews (by Emil PETAJA) and short items

A FAIR copy due to MISSING covers, but otherwise in nice readable condition, small chip to front top inner corner, light tanning, pages supple. Digest-sized. 15 pages.

NO RESERVE! Additional information available upon request.

Fanciful Tales 1936

Robert E Howard
H P Lovecraft
David H Keller
August Derleth

The seller states: This is the first – and only - issue of Fanciful Tales (of Time and Space) (vol. 1, no. 1; Fall, 1936). This magazine, edited by Donald A. Wollheim, is a thin pamphlet which is stapled at the spine; the wrappers are a glossy paper and extend beyond the edges of the text block; the text pages are a pulp grade; the coler illustration is by Clay Ferguson, Jr. Seven stories are printed, including “The Man from Dark Valley” by August Derleth, “The Typewriter” by David H. Keller, “The Nameless City” by H. P. Lovecraft, and “Umbriel” by Donald Wollheim; there is also a poem, “Solomon Kane’s Homecoming,” by Robert E. Howard.

Starts at $250.

Phantagraph of January 1937

The JANUARY 1937 issue of the fanzine THE PHANTAGRAPH (“published monthly for the phantasy enthusiast”), Volume 5 Number 4, featuring:
Greegree (poem, by Ray H. ZORN)

Phantascope (Donald A. WOLLHEIM)

Reverie (poem, by Duane A. RIMEL)

On the Trail of the Weird and Phantastic: More Notes on William Hope Hodgson (by H. KOENIG)

A Writer Comments: On the Anger-Wright Controversy
Editor, Donald A. WOLLHEIM Associate Editor, Wilson SHEPHERD
A VG+/NEAR FINE copy, tiny closed tear to outer edge of first 2 pages. Under-sized format. 8 pages.

Rare Copy of Phantagraph Surfaces (March/April 1937)

The MARCH-APRIL 1937 issue of the fanzine THE PHANTAGRAPH (“published monthly for the phantasy enthusiast”), Volume 5 Number 6, featuring:
To Edgar Allen Poe (poem, by Robert W. LOWNDES)

Phantascope (by Donald A. WOLLHEIM)

“Only Deserted”… (poem, by Augustus W. DERLETH)

Editorial Notes The Ronald Milne Memorial Volume (by Milton A. ROTHMAN)

On The Trail of the Weird and Phantastic: In Appreciation of William Hope Hodgson (by Clark Ashton SMITH)

Howard Philips Lovecraft (full page death notice, died March 15)
Editor and publisher, Donald A. WOLLHEIM
A NEAR FINE copy. Under-sized format. 9 pages.

Phantagraph November 1936

PHANTAGRAPH, THE. November 1936 (volume 5, number 2). Edited by Donald A. Wollheim. New York: Shepherd and Wollheim, November 1936 (volume 5, number 2). Small octavo, single issue, printed from typeset copy, self wrappers. A legendary amateur magazine of the 1930s. Includes "Harbour Whistles" by H. P. Lovecraft, the second appearance of this poem, part of the "Fungi from Yuggoth" sequence, in a magazine. Also present is Donald A. Wollheim's "Phantascope" column and "Phantastic Bread & Butter or the Mystery of the Missing Authors," an article on the poor quality of fantastic fiction in recent issues of WEIRD TALES. "Encouraged by the excellent material being received from Smith, Lovecraft and others, Wollheim decided to pattern the publication after the now-defunct FANTASY FAN... The quality of material used was very high, and in this respect the magazine easily equaled its ideal... Collectors who have overlooked this periodical have missed much indeed..." - Moskowitz, The Immortal Storm, pp. 30-1. Pavlat and Evans, Fanzine Index (1965), pp. 82-3. Wollheim, Operation Phantasy: The Best from The Phantagraph, pp. 9-14. Early issues of THE PHANTAGRAPH were printed on wood pulp paper and extant issues are generally brittle. Paper stock age-darkened, a nearly fine copy. Early issues of the magazine are rare, especially in nice condition. (#110516)
Price: $100.00

A Lovecraft Story in Science Fiction Reader No 3

I don't particularly collect pristine antiquarian items because I like to handle and read and study them. I'd not want to do that for valuable collectables or museum pieces. I was a bit changrined, because I wrote to a very nice library recently asking some research questions (which I would have gladly paid) and offered some scans of my items that they apparently didn't have. Nothing. Nada. No response. *sigh* I chalked it up to my small letter being of no consequnce to some busy, prestigious librarian and this school in the North East.

Anyway, I digress. Here are some scans of a 1952 pulp 'zine of reprints. I think the scans show how the paper has darkened, though it was probably pretty beige when it was fresh off the presses. It is kind of eerie to think that it's 56 years old - older than I am. Heh, I'm starting to get a bit frayed around the edges too these days come to think of it. More below ... first enjoy the pix.

OK, I found some neat stuff on the net about this magazine and its origins. There are a lot of collectors and many now have blogs on magazines such as these. Kudos to all of them, and YOU who are fans. I know many of you have your own blogs, and you post to other forums, so you know how much effort it is to scan something in, do the research, write it coherently and I appreciate that you forgive my frequent, bleary-eyed, midnight and early A.M. typos.

I really got this one for the Hannes Bok story and the Frank Belknap Long Story. The bonus is the story about ants. I'm a huge fan of Dr. E. O. Wilson and have his books - a scientist who has spent his life studying ants. A highlight of my life was to listen to him lecture one time.

The original Avon Fantasy Reader series ran eighteen issues ostensibly published monthly but in actuality it came out irregularly. In 1952 Wollheim began a companion publication, the Avon Science Fiction Reader which focused on sf reprints. It ran only three issues before Wollheim left Avon for Ace Books and both series were abandoned by Avon.

1952 Issue #3 – January ($0.35, 128pp, Pub: Avon Novels Inc.;New York,
cvr artist: Earle Bergey)
Contents:
(1934) The Robot Empire ["The Vapor Death"] by Frank Belknap Long (short story)
(1949) P.N. 40 ["Love in the Year 93 E.E."] by S. Fowler Wright (novella)
(1927) The Master Ants by Francis Flagg (novella)
(1939) In the Walls of Eryx by Kenneth Sterling & H. P. Lovecraft (novella)
(1937) The Black Stone Statue by Mary Elizabeth Counselman (short story)
(1930) The Planet of Dread by R. F. Starzl (short story)
(1942) The Alien Vibration by Hannes Bok (short story)
(1945) The Ultimate Paradox by Thorp McClusky

The Lovecrafter (Another Copy) 1936

{The story: CP}

Book Description: No Place( Oakman, AL.? ): Donald Wollheim & Wilson Shepard ( Shepherd ), 1936, 1st and Only Edition, 1st Printing, 1936. Broadside . Book Condition: Good. ........ (illustrator). First Edition. .......Please see: Joshi I-B-iii-71; III-G-i-5 and Currey, p. 330.. Lovecraft, Howard Phillips, ( H. P. ) A SONNET ( The Lovecrafter), Publisher. No place: Wilson Shepherd and Donald A Wollheim,( Printed with the deep gratitude and best wishes of Wilson Shepherd and Donald A. Wollheim), August 20, 1936. 1st and only edition, issued with Fourty-Sixth mis-spelled, offered as a filler copy, originally issued at the following size .126 x 203 mm ---this copy has been trimmed and glued to a piece of white card, this has been trimmed to about 125 mm x 173 mm, why it was trimmed I do not know, there are some closed tears, browning to paper as usual (and in fact this paper might have started out as a brown paper ), broadside printed on wood pulp stock which is prone to browning, There were 16 copies printed, 1 on rag paper, the rest on paper. The rag copy and 1 of the paper copies were given to HPL and are now in the Lovecraft Collection at the John Hay Library. The remaining 14 copies were sent to friends and early science fiction enthusiasts I suspect that I know where this copy has come from, but I cannot prove its provenance.I believe it is from the collection of an early fanzine publisher ). This sonnet is number XXX (30) in the Fungi from Yuggoth poetry cycle. This is the only issue of The Lovecrafter and was prepared for Lovecraft's forty-sixth birthday (August 20th). The broadside is from 1936. The date on the broadside is in honour of HPL's birthday, not the actual day and month of publication. Of the 14 remaining copies, they are RARE!!! an

Rare Copy of The Lovecrafter (1936)

Description: .......Please see: Joshi I-B-iii-71; III-G-i-5 and Currey, p. 330.. Lovecraft, Howard Phillips, ( H. P. ) A SONNET ( The Lovecrafter), Publisher. No place: Wilson Shepherd and Donald A Wollheim,( Printed with the deep gratitude and best wishes of Wilson Shepherd and Donald A. Wollheim), August 20, 1936. 1st and only edition, issued with Fourty-Sixth mis-spelled, 126 x 203 mm, NEAR FINE, browning to paper (although I suspect that this was issued on a brown coloured paper), broadside printed on wood pulp stock which is prone to browning, There were 16 copies printed, 1 on rag paper, the rest on paper. The rag copy and 1 of the paper copies were given to HPL and are now in the Lovecraft Collection at the John Hay Library. The remaining 14 copies were sent to friends and early science fiction enthusiasts. This sonnet is number XXX (30) in the Fungi from Yuggoth poetry cycle. This is the only issue of The Lovecrafter and was prepared for Lovecraft's forty-sixth birthday (August 20th). The broadside is from 1936. The date on the broadside is in honour of HPL's birthday, not the actual day and month of publication. Of the 14 remaining copies, they are RARE!!! and rarely come on the market,

Lovecraft's Legacy: 1940 - One of A Kind Ephemera

This is a remarkable find. A promotional card mailed by the Visionary Publishing Company of Cleveland Ohio upon the release of their series of fantasy novels. This card promoted The Titan by P. Schuyler Miller (which appears never to have been released as it was later published in 1952) and the first edition of The Shadow Over Innsmouth by H.P. Lovecraft.

The card states that Innsmouth is ". . . a first edition you will treasure all your life. Only four hundred copies have been been (sic) printed and most are already distributed. Your copy will be mailed iwthin 24 hours after your order arrives. It is on heavy book paper, bound in black cloth stamped in silver." No mention is made of the dust wrapper, which was apparently printed after the book was published. A total of 200 copies of this book were rumoured to have been destroyed.

This card was sent to Arthur Saha, a science fiction notable who later edited anthologies and worked with Donald Waldheim (Ebay seller means Wolheim). The card was sent to Saha at his address in Hibbing, but was misaddressed to Michigan instead of Minnesota. The card was sent in January 1940 (although the book was noted to be published in 1936), and Saha was only 17 years old at the time. According to Wikipedia, Saha coined the term Trekkie.

Arkham House Collector #7

This is issue number 7 of The Arkham Collector, published by Arkham House in the summer of 1970. This magazine measures 5 1/4" x 7 13/16"; 39 pages. No photos. The magazine features short stories by Gary Myers, Donald A. Wollheim and Brian Lumley; poetry by Joseph Payne Brennan, Clark Ashton Smith, Manley Wade Wellman and Lin Carter among others; two prose poems by Donald Wandrei; news of upcoming Arkham House releases and much more.

Interesting Anecdote by Donald Woldheim

{No images}

Wollheim, Donald A. TYPED NOTE SIGNED (TNS). 1 page, dated 20 July 1953, to "Dear Mr. [Philip Jack] Grill," signed "Donald A. Wollheim." On 8 1/2 x 11-inch sheet with Ace Books letterhead. Wollheim declines "to part with any of my own Lovecraft material. I did have the brief pleasure of knowing him, a most unusual man and a talented one -- though as the years have passed I have wondered if it was not a hideously wasted genius...". Faint mailing creases, fine. (#109163) Price: $75.00

Lovecraft's Legacy: 1959

The Macabre Reader, edited by Donald A. Wollheim. Published by Ace Books. Copyright 1959, probable 1st or early printing based on the 35 cent cover price.
This has a great group of stories by classic horror authors - Thorp McClusky, Robert Bloch, John Martin Leahy, H.P. Lovecraft, Thomas Burke, Donald Wandrei, Clark Ashton Smith, Zealia Brown Bishop, Robert E. Howard and Henry S. Whitehead.Apparently Thorp McClusky was a late 1930's mainstay of the pulps including Weird Tales. Many of the others were compadres of HPL. I located on the 'net a few mid-1920's tales of Leahy in Weird Tales.

Lovecraft's Legacy: Some Notes On Interplanetary Fiction

It makes Chrispy shaky to think of James Blish, Donald Wolheim, KlarashTon, Ech Pi El, Frederick Pohl, Edmond Hamilton, and A. Merritt all in one fanzine. Great Gods of "Scientifiction" !

For many who don't know, the esoteric James Blish - the same one who wrote all those Star Trek novelizations from the screenplays - wrote one of the most definitive King in Yellow stories ever.

***

Here is a rare image of The JANUARY 1937 issue of the science fiction fanzine THE INTERNATIONAL OBSERVER, Volume 2 Number 7 Whole Number 19, featuring:

The President’s Message……………William S. SYKORA

Magazines of 1936……………Donald A. WOLLHEIM

Science Fiction and Society……………David H. KELLER, M.D.

I Dare To Prophesy! ……………Clifton B. KRUSE

The Standardization of Science Fiction……………Raymond A. PALMER

The Epigrams of Alastor……………Clark Ashton SMITH

The Science Fiction Motion Picture……………William S. SYKORA

Five Minues Slow! ……………J. Harvey HAGGARD

Sun-Spots……………Donald A. WOLLHEIM

Some Notes on Interplanetary Fiction……………H.P. LOVECRAFT

The ISA Hall of Fame: “Frederik Pohl” ……………William S. SYKORA

How Will Interplanetary Travel Affect Us? ……………Edward E. SMITH, Ph.D.

The Greatest Adventure……………Milton A. ROTHMAN

Has Science Fiction A Future? ……………Jack WILLIAMSON

Has STF Been A Help To Rocketry? ……………Laurence MANNING

More Realism in Science Fiction……………Edmond HAMILTON

The Honorable Bean……………Robert A. WAITE

Science and Witchcraft……………A. MERRITT

The Philadelphia Convention……………John B. MICHEL

How To Culture Amoebae……………Jim BLISH

The Science Fiction Special……………Frederik POHL

Read ‘Em and Weep……………Frederik POHL

Official Notices……………ISA Business

Excerpts……………The ISA Mailbox

The STF Exchange……………Donald A. WOLLHEIM

The Contaminator of Space……………Neuty & Deuty

A Matter of Velocity……………Daniel C. BURFORD

Cover by John B. MICHEL

It is sated that it was published monthly by the International Scientific Association - ISA (Long Island City, NY)

Editor: Frederik POHL

Associates: Donald A. WOLLHEIM, John B. MICHEL, David A. KYLE, Arthur L. SELIKOWITZ Publisher: William S. SYKORA

Associates: Walter KUBILUS, Harry DOCKWEILER, George H. HAHN, Jack RUBINSON, Jim BLISH

Stapled. 40 pages.

David A. KYLE writes of this issue: “That 1936 social 'convention' had a very important result. The ISA began preparations, under the vigorous leadership of Sykora and Michel, to have a return engagement in New York City in February of 1937. Wollheim and Pohl went about creating a 'special convention issue' of the club publication which appeared that January. That issue of The International Observer was truly remarkable -- a thick, large-size mimeographed fanzine with a fancy silk-screened cover that sold for ten cents! The contributors were almost a roll of honor: A. Merritt, Doc Smith, Edmond Hamilton, H. P. Lovecraft, Jack Williamson, Ray Palmer, and many others, both pro and fan. I don't remember my contribution and the copy I once had is now long gone.” (“Farewell, Teens, Farewell!”)

Lovecraft's Legacy: 1945

This rare item was seen on ebay. It marks a parallel effort (apart from Arkham House) to market HPL's work during the WWII era.


The seller states:

THE PORTABLE NOVELS OF SCIENCE, Edited by Donald A. Wollheim, 1945.
THE VIKING PRESS New York 17, New York

The preface states:

The four works of fiction here reprinted in full represent a branch of literature curi­ously neglected by anthologists and other students of world literature, and yet sci­ence fiction is as old as Gulliver's Travels. In fact, this volume is the first comprehen­sive collection of the science-fiction novel.

The editor has made a most interesting analysis of this type of fiction in his Intro­duction, and has included the books in the field which manage "to combine a sound imagination and believable prognostica­tion with a sincere desire to set the reader thinking along concepts vaster than his petty life, concepts as large at least as the movement of earth's inhabitants as a whole." Included, with an excellent Pref­ace to each, are: The First Men in the Moon, by H. G. Wells; Before the Dawn, by John Taine; The Shadow Out of Time, by H. P. Lovecraft; and Odd John, by Olaf Stapledon.


CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS vi

INTRODUCTION vii

THE FIRST MEN IN THE MOON 1
By H. G. Wells

BEFORE THE DAWN By John Taine 231

THE_ SHADOW OUT OF TIME 391
By H. P. Lovecraft

ODD JOHN 481
By Olaf Stapledon


INTRODUCING a collection such as the four novels contained in this volume presents a problem greater than the usual opening lines for a book of ghost stories or supernatural lore. For that is exactly what these novels, fantastic though they are, are not. These lines must also serve to introduce a branch of literature which has been curiously neglected by anthologists and other students of world literature.

It must not be supposed from this neglect that it is some small, obscure, esoteric, or ultra-modern style of writing of which this is written. Science-fiction is a branch of literature that is as old as Gulliver's Travels, that all people are familiar with, in one or another form, and that has many representatives among all eras of English prose. Yet up to a couple of decades ago, it lacked even a name for itself. The fact that it has now come to the fore is a product of our times, for we live in an era of constantly accelerating change, when the margin between what is and what will be has drawn so close as to force speculation and prognostication upon even ordinarily unimaginative persons.

When one remembers that a few years before World War II, children might be seen playing with toy weapons described as "rocket guns," when advertise­ments depicting the daily use of helicopters and televi­sion sets could be seen in conservative periodicals, it was evidence of the hold that this science-fiction had ob­tained on the minds of this generation. For it is directly to the immense multiplication of that type of writing, forecasting future scientific discoveries, guessing at what might lie just around the corner of history, that these toys and advertising features may be traced. For the prototypes of these things had yet to be invented!

Now into what class of fantasy shall a story featuring such an invention fall? When the literator thinks of fan­tasy in the novel, the classifications Gothic, ghost, su­pernatural come to mind. But how can any of these suit such as Jules Verne's A Journey to the Center of the Earth, Thomas More's Utopia, or The Purple Cloud of M. P. Shiel? The More classic could be weakly and redundantly called a Utopian novel.

Now the term Utopian novel is' not sufficient for the entire field, for it is but a sub-classification of the larger field with which this book deals. A Utopia.n novel is a prognostication in sociology, a science, however contro­versial. It is here that lies the bond between most Uto­pian novels and such scientific romances as Verne and Wells penned. It brings all these books together that base their fantasy upon any extrapolation of science. Hence, the generic term of science-fiction.
When Shakespeare said that there were more things in heaven and earth than we dream of in our philos­ophy, he was setting forth what could be the dividing line between science-fictional fantasies and fantasies that are not (assuming that by heaven, Shakespeare meant only the universe of natural, measurable things). Science-fiction covers many types and overlaps on others. Frankenstein, that classic of the Gothic period, is science-fiction. The Castle of Otranto is not. More re­cently, C. S. Lewis's excellent interplanetary tale, Out of the Silent Planet, is science-fiction, whereas its occultish sequel, Perelandra, slides into the realm of su­pernatural novels.

For the measuring point of a fantastic romance is exactly this: if it does not transgress beyond the bounds of heaven and earth as we know it, then it is science ­fiction. But if it does, if it relies upon the immeasurable, the imponderable, the presumably forever Beyond, then it is not science-fiction. If the theme of the fantastic transgression from what is accepted knowledge today is presented as something science deems possible, how­ever improbable, then no matter how seeming wild the romancing, it is science-fiction. If the book crosses the scientifically claimed impossible (or in any case the forever immeasurable), it cannot be science-fiction no matter how otherwise prosaic the tale.

Within this field can thus be found such divergent themes as depiction of the end of the earth, of the pre­historic past, voyages to the planets and stars, political prophecy such as Looking Backward, future satires of the Brave New World type, and even such slight and satirical advancements as Hilaire Belloc's The Man Who Made Gold. Such is the width of this branch of fantasy which literature has somehow failed to notice in its midst.

For in all the myriads of critical books that students of letters have published, in all the endless rows of an­thologies, including a horde of ghost-story collections, there is only one slim book, prior to this Viking Port­able, that dealt directly and exclusively with this field. That was my Pocket Book of Science-Fiction, which appeared in 1943, and dealt only with the short story. This present volume is therefore the first comprehensive selection of the science-fiction story in its most power­ful sphere, the novel.

It should not be supposed that the compilation of this book is something that might have happened any time and that this year was chosen arbitrarily. The field of science-fiction is rapidly maturing, taking an accepted and challenging place in the writings of this troubled period. The very days in which we live seem fantastic. The newspapers carry items that seem incredibly fu­turian, not to be expected. Rocket planes that were first conceived in fiction within only the past ten or twenty years are reality, and thousands of men already have been trained in their construction and navigation. Ra­dar, television, electronic microscopy, synthesis of or­ganic products, and mass methods of production were all products of some vivid pen originally and in our time.

To predict a future requires some knowledge of at least the fundamentals of the world. That knowledge we have had only recently. The acceleration of human progress since 1900 has been unlike anything in all his­tory. Never have so many changes occurred in so short a time. The racing minds of writers can barely keep ahead of them. Inevitably there has arisen a feeling, subconscious perhaps, that we are living in a world of science-fiction. A world in which somehow the science­ fiction writers have seized hold of the pen of history and are scribbling furiously away with it. So that, to­day, science-fiction is something that has penetrated finally to the man in the street, the man for whom liter­ature has been merely entertainment not to strain the mind.

It will be noted that two of the four writers repre­sented in this collection are British, and their novels the longest and most profound. It may be felt that this is curious in so far as it is America that has been the most science-fictional both in actual works and that branch of writing. This is true and it is a strange aspect. For dealing with literature of depth and meaning, we have always to deal first with mankind itself, rather than with machinery. In that field the British writer has, possibly because his island is not the center of the mechanical hurly-burly, been able to penetrate beneath the surface more deeply than Americans.

There is another reason, too. It has been both the greatest impetus to science-fiction and its greatest detri­ment that the first mass development should have come through the medium of action-slanted American news­stand magazines of the genus described, by the quality of their paper, as pulps. An impetus by virtue of the fact that these periodicals offered a market to imagina­tive writers who, though bursting with visions of fu­turity, had lacked previously both a market and an audi­ence. From 1926 onward, these magazines have cap­tured the imagination of a considerable sector of the American newsstand-reading public. Consequently, dozens of fine writers have found themselves warping their concepts and fantastic constructions into the chan­nels laid down by the laws that govern pulp-thrillers.

There is nothing wrong with the adventure novel. It fills a proper place in entertainment. It may have great values as reading. It may portray, in its own manner, problems as deep as any. The interstellar novels of Ed­ward E. Smith, for instance, are pleasurable reading, though packed with scientific prophecy. The works of Edgar Rice Burroughs, whose Tarzan and Mars novels are known all over the world, cannot be denied their power to excite the imagination. But somehow they are not what is sought for a serious consideration, a worth while, study. For the thriller is, at best, an ephemeral pleasure. Something to be read and conveniently for­gotten. When it stirs the mind, as in the cases of such lively imaginings as those of Robert Heinlein, A. E. VanVogt, and John W. Campbell, it is only to entertain, to amuse with a clever thought-picture as with a bon mot, and then to be laid aside.

No literature has any lasting value unless its main theme is man. Science, mechanics, futurian perspec­tives, all have no value in themselves. Their value is only in what they mean to men, to humanity as a whole. Therein lies the great handicap of pulp science-fiction. For it lays stress on the amazing, the astounding, the startling, and not on the significant and guiding. Barely can the pulp astounder get his newest imaginary gadget into print than history overtakes and surpasses him. His writing becomes, in a few short years, merely a curi­osity, a milepost left behind. But the writer who under­takes to weigh the meaning on humanity itself of the impact of these things, that writer's work remains, re­tains its value. Startlingly little of the mass of thriller fiction has had this inner stability.

The meaning of the world to man is the testing gauge on which all science-fiction must be measured. Gadgets we can overtake. Social predictions time will prove or disprove. But where mankind is going and the mean­ing to us all thereof is the only problem we cannot easily toss aside. It is with that in mind that the material in this book has been mainly chosen.
Length of story was a factor, as it had to be. But allowing for all that, the story's depth is what counted. Doubtless there have been greater compendiums of new inventions. But the ideal science-fiction novel is not the one which displays the most gimcracks, or the most astounding adventure, or the most grotesque in­terplanetarian. It is the book which manages to com­bine a sound imagination and believable prognostica­tion with a sincere desire to set the reader thinking along concepts vaster than his own petty life, concepts as large at least as the movement of Earth's inhabitants as a whole. I have tried to present a few novels which seem to come up to these ideal requirements.

I wish to acknowledge the kind and valuable advice and assistance of John B. Michel, Robert W. Lowndes, and Elsie Balter W ollheim.

DONALD A. WOLLHEIM
Forest Hills, N. Y. May 7,1945

Fanciful Tales: Fall 1936

Here is a facsimile of Fanciful Tales. The original can be seen in this blog post (click).

The seller states:

Bookseller Photo H P Lovecraft ...The Nameless City ...in Fanciful Tales of Time and Space, Fall 1936 ( Umbriel; The Forbidden Room; Solomon Kane's Homecoming; The Typewriter; The Man from Dark Valley; The Globe; The Electric World ) Lovecraft, H P ( Howard Phillips ) Donald Wollheim; Duane Rimel; Robert E Howard; David Keller; august Derleth; William S Sykora; Kenneth B Pritchard Necronomicon Press (1977) A facsimile LIMITED EDITION reprint of the original 1936 edition. Copy # 162 of 750 copies. There are no previous owner names and other markings and the wraps are without tears or chips. This collection of fantasy stories includes works such as H.P. Lovecraft's "The Nameless City" and Donald Wollheim's "Umbriel.".

Avon Fantasy Reader

In the generation after Lovecraft's Death, many pulps exploited the fascination of HPL's writing. The Arkham service man editions perked interest, and then onward to the lurid covers of the Avon Fantasy editions brought in more readers to the Mythos writers.

Here is a collection of images of the 18 editions of Avon Fantasy Reader by Donald Wolheim. Details of the issues follows - as much as Chrispy has been able to find. More text below.

Avon Fantasy Reader was published by Avon Book Company and edited by Donald A. Wollheim. This title appeared from 1947 until 1952, and mainly featured reprints, especially from Weird Tales. The list of authors are a Who’s Who of fantasy including the Mythos gang. H. P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, Clark Ashton Smith, Ray Bradbury, William Hope Hodgson, A. Merritt, C. L. Moore, Robert Bloch, Fritz Leiber, and countless others.

Each issue was in digest format, with 128-130 pages, depending on pagination. Here is a list of contents, as best as Chrispy can reconstitute. {I have a few issues}

Avon Fantasy Reader #1, February 1947, cover price 35¢, a vintage digest-sized science-fiction-&-fantasy magazine edited by Donald A. Wollheim. Contributors include A. Merritt, H.P. Lovecraft, Ray Bradbury, John Collier, Stephen Grendeon, H.G. Wells, Frank Owen, C.L. Moore, and Donald A. Wollheim. Cover art is uncredited.

#2: Robert E. Howard, David H. Keller, S. Fowler Wright.

#3 Wollheim, Donald A. (Editor), A. Merritt, H.P. Lovecraft, H.G. Wells, Ray Bradbury, C.L. Moore, John Collier, Frank Owen, Stephen Grendon, Donald A. Wollheim (contributors). Avon Fantasy Reader, No. 3, 1947.

#4 Wollheim, Donald A. (Editor), Thomas Burke, P. Schuyler, Lord Dunsany, Ray Bradbury, Clark Ashton Smith, Nelson Bond, M.R. James, A.E. Van Vogt(contributors). Avon Fantasy Reader, No. 4, 1947.

#5 Wollheim, Donald A. (Editor), C.L. Moore, Robert Bloch, Frank Owen, Carl Jacobi, Clare Winger harris, W.F. Harvey, Robert W. Chambers, C. M. Kornbluth, and Stephen Vincent Benet (contributors). Avon Fantasy Reader, No. 5, 1947.

#6 Wollheim, Donald A. (Editor), A. Merritt, H.P. Lovecraft, Jack Williamson, Henry S. Whitehead, Edmond Hamilton, Frank R. Stockton, Thorp McClusky, Joseph E. Kelleam, and David H. Keller (contributors). Avon Fantasy Reader, No. 6, 1947.

#7 Wollheim, Donald A. (Editor), Sax Rohmer, Robert E. Howard, Clark Ashton Smith, Lord Dunsany, C. L. Moore, Frank Belknap Long, Fritz Leiber, JR, Frank Gruber, A. Merritt, and Donald A. Wollheim(contributors). Avon Fantasy Reader, No. 7, 1947.

#8: H. P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, Ray Bradbury, Algernon Blackwood.

#9: Clark Ashton Smith, Fritz Leiber, Otis Adelbert Kline, William Hope Hodgson. (September 1948 ?) "The Curse of a Thousand Kisses is the favorite tale of the author of Fu Manchu -- an astonishing account of sorcery in ancient and modern Egypt." -- Inside cover

#10 Wollheim, Donald A. (Editor), Robert E. Howard, Bassett Morgan, H. P. Lovecraft, Malcolm Jameson, Donald A. Wollheim, Francis Flagg, Miles J. Breuer, and Amelia Reynolds Long (contributors). Avon Fantasy Reader, No. 10

#11: Ray Bradbury, Seabury Quinn, Frank Owen, Nelson S. Bond.

#12: Robert E. Howard, Clark Ashton Smith, Manly Wade Wellman, Sax Rohmer. "In the Valley of the Sorceress by Sax Rohmer: A modern explorer violated the tomb of an Egyptian queen and learned an unforgettable midnight lesson." -- Inside cover

#13 Wollheim, Donald A. (Editor), F. B. Long, R. Cummings, D. Wandrei, S. P. Wright, C. W. Diffin, A. Derleth, B. Grimshaw, J. Long, S. F. Wright, M. E. Counselman, C. Simak, C. Jacobi and A. R. Wetjen (contributors). Avon Fantasy Reader, No. 13, 1950.

#14 Wollheim, Donald A. (Editor), Ray Bradbury, David H. Keller, James F. Dwyer, Ray Cummings, Henry S. Whitehead, Zealia B. Bishop, Clive G. B. Jackson, Robert E. Howard, Allison V. Harding, and Irvin Ashkenazy (contributors). Avon Fantasy Reader, No. 14, 1950

#15 Wollheim, Donald A. (Editor), Stanley G. Weinbaum, Bassett Morgan, P. Schuyler Miller, Maurice Baring, Miles J. Breuer, Gilbert Wright, C. M Kornbluth, Donald A Wollheim, John Martin Leahy, mary E. Counselman, and Clark Ashton Smith(contributors). Avon Fantasy Reader, No. 15, 1950.

#16: Robert Bloch, Frank B. Long, Francis Flagg, Donald Wandrei, Greye La Spina.

#17. Wollheim, Donald A. (Editor), Nictzin Dyalhis, Ray Bradbury, G. K. Chesterton, Anthony Boucher, Wallace West, Nelson Bond, Frank Owen, William Hope Hodgson, H.P. Lovecraft, and E. Hoffmann Price (contributors). Avon Fantasy Reader, No. 17

#18 Wollheim, Donald A. (Editor), Robert E. Howard, Dale Clark, Hugh B. Cave, James Francis Dwyer, Gelett Burgess, Hazel Heald, W.H. Hodgson, Edward Lucas White, and Algernon Blackwood (contributors). Avon Fantasy Reader, No. 18

Rare copy of Fanciful tales of Time and Space (1936)

This is an extant copy of Fanciful Tales of Time and Space published by Donald A. Wollheim and Wilson Shepherd. The one and only issue (Fall 1936, Volume 1, Number 1) contained Lovecrfat's The nameless City, and stories by Robert E. Howard and August Derleth.

Joshi declares (*) that Lovecrfat counted 59 misprints. A correspondent of Lovecrfat indicated that there were actually more than that!

* p. 620, H P Lovecraft: A Life, 1996