slight confession at this point.  Walt was not unaware of tbe fact that I was in England
as I bad written to him soon after winning TAFF.  Judging by the information that was
being relayed to me, all British fandom was in revolt because of my election, and I
wanted to make sure I had a friend or two located in the British Islea.  (My informants
had told me that my winning was bad enough - but when active British fandom saw the
list of the fifty plane passengers and not a fanzine fan in the bunch. "Well, there was
no telling what might happen.  Archie Mercer, for instance, jokingly threatened to dis-
tribute tacks over the runway immediately preceding the landing.  Other Americans
visualized the Fake Fan being confronted with "Madle - Keep Out" signs, and doors
being slammed in his face.  As it turned out, tbe only things slammed in the Fake Fan's
face were large glasses of beer, and faster than he could drink them.)

     Anyway, Walt and I exchanged a letter or two - for the first time since before the
war.  He had told me that he had been away from the sweetness and light that was fandom
for several years and that my letter had fanned one of the glowing embere i.nto a slight
fire.  I suppose Walt is one of those very few who will be a fan forever.

     Ken and I headed for the railroad to catch a downtown train and, to be expected,
we had to race madly to catch it,  Ken wouldn't think of casually missing it and catch-
ing the next one, which must have been at least five minutes behind.  Ken's charming
Pam met us outside ber place of employment, and we ambled over to find Pete Hamilton.

     Two years prior, Peter had contacted me and aaked me to become American Represent-
ative for his magazine, NEBULA SCIENCE FICTION.  The ultimate aim was newsstand distri-
bution, but we plsnned to go slowfor a while.  I had, through independent distributors
in Charlotte and Atlanta, placed about 500 copies of several issues on the stands and,
while the salea weren't anything sensational, they compared favorably with most of the
magazines except for the big three,  So we had decided to try to find a distributor
who would handle about 5,000 copies on a nationwide baais.  APter American News folded
(they had agreed to handle NEBULA) things looked mighty dark.  However, I had made an
agreement with Acme News to handle 5,000 copies.  As it turned out, NEBULA became a
monthly, and 10 issues were distributed in the States.  Unfortunately, despite its
attractive appearance and fine selection of storfes, it never sold well enough in the '
States and it was given up as an experiment that failed.  Several isaues later (early
summer 1959) the msgazine ceased publication altogetber.

     Pete is a rather stocky, curly-headed blond - a real handsome Scotsman.  He has
been a fan for years and it was always his dream to publish a professional S-F magazine
This materialized in late 1952 with the advent of NEBULA which, incidentally, had a
print-run of only about 5,000 copies of the first issue.  Pete is a firm supporter of
fandom, and usually attended British conventions.  He also pushed fandom as much as
possible in NEBULA.  (He ran Walt Willis' fan column and Ken Slater's book-review
department fram the magazine's inception.  In the last few issues, he also included my
fan column.  NEBULA was probably the only magazine ever to run two fan columns
simultaneously.)

     After dinner, Pam and Ken went to a movie while Pete and I discussed the munda.-.e
matters of S-F, including the all-important distribution aspects.  At the time, things
looked mighty fine and we would have been satisfied with a little better than 50% sales
in America.  But the bubble was about to burst and, in retrospect, NEBUIA came into
America at the wrong time.

     Pete was staying overnight and invited me to have lunch with him the next noon
prior to his catching the trafn for Glasgow.  At thie point, Ken, Pam and I headed for
Catford.  On the way to Ken's I suddenly noticed that I was catching a cold.  But a cold
is something that never bothered me, thought I.

     The next morning I awoke feeling pretty chipper after a good night's sleep - some-
thing I hadn't been having much of lately.  Had my usual morning tea and fried eggs -