It is a peculiar, but nevertheless well-founded fact, that there is something magnetic in fantastic fiction that will attract the reader as no other type of fiction can. One of the consequences resulting from the reading of this absorbing and fascinating type of fiction is that the fantasy fan feels the urge to save and collect fantasy stories, and will, indeed, go to extreme ends to make his collection complete as possible.
But how is he to go about accumulating a good, worthy collection?
The first rule is simple: collect all the fantastic fiction that is appearing in the current magazines. Wonder Stories, Amazing Stories and their quarterlies, and Science Fiction are the current magazines that specialize in the printing of science fiction, probably the most popular type of fantastic fiction.
However, without a shadow of a doubt the foremost magazine that specializes in fantastic fiction is Weird Tales. Its editor, Farnsworth Wright, insists that the stories appearing there be of high literary quality, and thus we find that many stories have copped honorable mentions in O'Brien's list of the best stories of the year and in the O'Henry Memorial Prize list. The range of Weird Tales comprises every type of fantastic fiction: from the occult to science fiction, from ghost stories to the supernatural, from voodoo thrillers to vampire tales, from werewolf yarns to reincarnation, and from the mystic to the physic.
Other current magazines may occasionally print fantasyarns. Keep an eye on Argosy, Blue Book, Magic Carpet, Ten Detective Aces, Dime Detective, Thrilling Adventures, Doc Savage, the Science Fiction Digest, and The Fantasy Fan, and, in truth, any of the detective, air, and adventure magazines.
(Next month Mr. Schwartz takes up the more difficult tasks in the collecting of fantasy fiction. No collector should miss this series.)
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FAMOUS FANTASY FANS
1—Allen Glasser