NEW YORK DESTROYED AGAIN!
by Bob Tucker
Once more New York City is destroyed! For decades, this has been the delight of science fiction authors. You must either destroy or attack New York before you can become a famous science fiction writer.
The first account of the destruction of New York is given in "The End of New York" by Park Benjamin, published around 1890.
Of recent times, Ray Cummings has probably destroyed it more often than anyone else. He takes a crack at it (and a good one, too!) in his "White Invaders" (Dec, 1931 Astounding).
In the following issue, Arthur J. Burks sets his ape loose in it ("Man-ape the Mighty"), and in February, Cummings is back again with "Wandl, the Invader," which brings the enemy right into the big city.
C. D. Simak almost gets into town with his "Hellhounds of the Cosmos" but something happens to prevent them. Maybe he has some sympathy for the old burg. But the March 1933 Astounding makes up for it by destroying it (in part) twice!
Arthur J. Burks in his "Lord of the Stratosphere" and "Monsters of Moyen" just tears it all to pieces and Wallace West puts everyone to sleep in "The End of Tyme," as does Dr. Keller in his "Sleeping War." Marius covers it with an ice-berg in his "Sixth Glacier," and Isaac R. Nathanson burns it up with a comet in "The Passing Star."
Going to Weird Tales, Edmond (World-Saver) Hamilton musses it all up with a crazy man in "The Man Who Conquered Age," in the Dec., 1932 issue and in the next month Murray Leinster has his "Monsters" tramping through it.
A particular delight, of late, is tearing up the Empire State Building. The builders would groan with agony, if they could read some of the tales wherein their work is smashed in three seconds flat!
The movies have had their share in destroying New York, too. "King Kong" does some fancy exterior decorating, and in "Men Must Fight" it is bombed.
So, remember, if you are not an author, but hope to be one, destroy New York City in your first story, and you will be on the road to fame in no time!
SIDE GLANCES
by F. Lee Baldwin
In a sale conducted by Linus Hogenmiller he sold the Weird Tales Anniversary number for only one dollar.
Stories by Gaston Leroux that have appeared in Weird Tales are translated in the office of Jacques Chambrun, New York literary agent who represents Gaston Leroux's agent in this country. Some of the translating was done by Mildred Gleasson Prochet. "The Crime on Christmas Night" was translated by Morris Bentinck.
R. H. Barlow won the National Amateur Press Association Laureateship for the year 1933.
WEIRD WHISPERINGS
by Schwartz and Weisinger
Paul Ernst is now illustrating his own yarns for Weird Tales, and several of them will soon see print.... Ray Cummings, now living in New York, informs us of his fantastic novelette, "The World of Doom," sold to Thrilling Adventures.... M. Brundage is a woman and has a boy in grammar school. She swears that Howard's serial which started in the September WT is the best Conan story he has ever written.... Greye La Spina has received plenty of rough treatment from her fellow weird authors. Seabury Quinn, for instance, once received a letter from her criticising some of his work. In his answer to her he used words that shouldn't exactly be used to ladies. (He thought she was a young man.) However, he soon found out different and they are the best of friends. Then again, Arthur J. Burks remarked to her in a letter that judging from her work she had a bright future. La Spina wrote back that her daughter and grandchildren thought likewise!
Catherine L. Moore, already acknowledged as one of the most promising weird tales authors, gleaned a rejection slip from Amazing Stories for the first story she ever penned. And she doesn't blame the editor for spurning the manuscript!... Seabury Quinn's latest Jules de Grandin story is "Hands of the Dead," a story of hypnotism.... A. Merritt's serial, "Creep, Shadow," currently running in the Argosy, differs considerably from the forthcoming book version, he confides.... Some time ago, a reader wrote a letter to the Evrie praising Francis Flagg's "The Picture" to the skies.... Nothing wrong in that, except that the story did not see print until the month following the arrival of the letter, the story having been postponed for an issue!... Farnsworth Wright owns a miniature rogue's gallery of Weird Tales contributors and they are on display at his office.... Milt Kaletsky's weird yarn, "The Mantis," met with an N. G. at the office of WT. He sent the same story to Terror Tales on Sunday, the magazine received it on Monday and he got it back on Tuesday!
Wright blames the failure of Oriental Stories on ex-president Hoover. After listening to one of Hoover's speeches in which he stated that prosperity was just around the corner, Wright thought that it would be an opportune time to launch a new magazine.... You, we, and Farnsworth Wright know what happened.... Harry Stephen Keeler claims cats bring him good luck, and so he has four cats in his home, the latest one being named "Mencken the IV".... August W. Derleth has forged ahead and has crashed Scribner's and Story.... Eando Binder is really Earl and Otto Binder working together in collaboration.... Their other brother, Jack, does s-f illustrating work.... The fancy lettering of Weird Tales on the cover of the magazine was designed by J. Allen St. John.... "The Destroying Horde," Donald Wandrei's next in Weird tells of a giant one celled organism spawned in a chemist's laboratory and an orgy of hideous deaths.
Winford Publications will positively launch a new all-weird magazine within a few months, designed expressly for the purpose of competing with Weird Tales.... Charles H. Bert, of Philadelphia, is the only fan, to our knowledge, who owns copies of the now defunct weird tales magazine, Tales of Magic and Mystery.... Edmond Hamilton has recently written "Cosmo's End," "Master of the Genes," and "World Without Sex".... Otis Adelbert Kline's Weird Tales story, "The Bird People," which he admits was based on the 1926 Amazing Stories cover contest, was originally titled "The Log of the Laurtanian".... His Kline's popular "Thirsty Blades" was originally written by him as a 20,000 word novelette. Wright said that he would use the yarn if Kline boiled it down to a shorter length. So Kline turned the yarn over to Price, who did the necessary revising, and the result was published as a collab.... Just the reverse is the short story Price wrote as a sequel to Lovecraft's "The Silver Key," which he turned over to Lovecraft who worked it into the novelette.
"Through the Gates of the Silver Key."... Otis Adelbert Kline was in New York the other week, looking up editors and writers.... He had dinner with his friend, Seabury Quinn, and for the first time in twelve years, was treated to some Napoleon brandy.... It may be a coincidence, but the circulation of THE FANTASY FAN has increased thirty-five per cent since the inception of this column!
ADVERTISEMENTS
Rates: one cent per word
Minimum Charge, 25 cents
Back Numbers of The Fantasy Fan: September, 20 cents (only a few left), October, November, December, January, February, March, April, May, June, July, 10 cents each.
CLARK ASHTON SMITH presents THE DOUBLE SHADOW AND OTHER FANTASIES—a booklet containing a half-dozen imaginative and atmospheric tales—stories of exotic beauty, horror, terror, strangeness, irony and satire. Price: 25 cents each (coin or stamps). Also a small remainder of EBONY AND CRYSTAL—a book of prose-poems published at $2.00, reduced to $1.00 per copy. Everything sent postpaid. Clark Ashton Smith, Auburn, California.
IMPORTANT! Many subscriptions to THE FANTASY FAN expire this fall. Yours is probably one of them. DON'T forget to send in your new subscription if you want THE FANTASY FAN to continue publication. EVERY DOLLAR COUNTS!
FOR SALE: E. F. Benson's best work of fantasy, "Visible and Invisible"—$1.25, ppd. Forrest J. Ackerman, 530 Staples Ave., San Francisco, Calif.
READ TFF's contemporary, Fantasy Magazine, if you want to keep up with the latest doings in the fantasy field. Schwartz's newsy "Science Fiction Eye" and Weisinger's gossipy "The Ether Vibrates" give all the news that's fit to print. They jointly interview a lot of famous fantasy authors, and a monthly biography is one of FM's most popular features. Try a copy, only a dime. SFDCO, 87-36 162nd Street, Jamaica, New York.