TO THE EDITOR:
Boy, RD (No. 19) was sure a neat job. Gosh-Whow was sure a neat idea. Sure swell. I like RD's stuff, I sure do. Sure glad to hear the good news about your claim on the moon. Sure am glad, yes, sir! Cover was sure keen. The cover for Gosh-Whow was rather dull though.
Enclosing 30¢ for ish #20 of RD. Sure looking forward to receiving it - I sure am. Like I tell all my stf friends - boy, RD is sure a neat job - they've got real george ideas.
RAY SCHAFFER. Jr.
TO THE EDITOR:
The current RD (20) struck a depressing note, for I have recently taken out subscriptions to ASF, GALAXY and NEW WORLDS, and the review of ASF dwells upon 'the declining standards of ASF.' Is this magazine really going to the dogs? The last time I saw a copy of it was way back when, and then, as far as I was concerned, it was the only magazine worth reading.
My latest subscription copy of F & SF is to hand and I'm pleased to see it's gone monthly at long last. I only hope Boucher and McComas are able to maintain their standard. Three Day Mischief wasn't at all to my liking, but you can't satisfy all of the customers all the time.
I've enjoyed reading the RD; and I'll be renewing my subscription at the end of the month, now that I know your regular rates. My subscription (?) should be up at about this time. I particularly enjoyed Ray Bradbury's letter to Anthony Boucher, and also the article on the Time Capsule.
WILLIAM GUNTER
Kimberly,
Union of South Africa
TO THE EDITOR:
Received, read, digested RHODOMAGNETIC DIGEST No. 20. I just figured out what is wrong with R-D; namely, no editorial. How about a three or four page editorial? I know you have got the ability because DHJ TAIM KAEPSYUL was very interesting. I really enjoyed it. You boys are really original - who would have thought to put page 5 where page 4 should be and vice versa?
"Life in the Universe" and "Notes on Gotterdamerung" were both interesting and educational but were too long. "Some Editors Say -" was enjoyed very much. Hey, all of you pro-zine eds, let's get them questionnaires back! Us fen want to know what you say, too. (Note to H. L. Gold: I agree partly with what you syay. And if STF owes fandom something, how about STF paying off with space for fandom in the pro-zines?)
"Recent Rockets" was very interesting; hope you have more articles like this in the future. "L'Apres Midi d'un Fan" explained all; I was wondering how a fan keeps up with all the news, stories, reviews, prozines, fan-zines, etc. . . Next, "Poor Man's Paleo-Pathology". . . I liked this one very much. On the Newsstands was better. For awhile I thought them reviewers were mad at the world. A complaint: the letter section is too short.
LARRY TOUZINSKY
St. Louis, Missouri
TO THE EDITOR:
I saw the review of your RHODOMAGNETIC DIGEST in the October issue of Startling Stories. From Bixby's comment it sounds like an excellent magazine. Enclosed please find 30¢ (thirty cents) in coin for which please send me your latest issue of RHODOMAGNETIC DIGEST.
PAUL POWLESLAND
Oneida, New York
TO THE EDITOR:
Mr. Atkinson's letter (Rd. No. 19) asks whether or not there is any s-f in the Soviet Union, and cites the mention of "scientific romances" by a Moscow high-school principal. Now obviously the Comrades don't like American s-f, we all remember that article in their Literary Gazette a few years back; and I don't know how many stories in the genre are being written amongst them. But for what it's worth - when I was in Denmark last year, a Communist acquaintance (very nice person, by the way, apart from the usual incredible dogmatism) showed me a Danish translation of a new Russian novel. That edition, at least, had the titleThe Warm Earth, and dealt with a project to tap the interior heat of the planet. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to read it then, just glance through; but at least that one s-f story has come out behind the Iron Curtain.
(Can't say I think much of European "neutralism," but to the extent that it still exists, it does have certain advantages. I doubt if an English edition of such a novel will ever be published.)
Possibly other readers have run across Soviet S-f works from time to time. Be interesting to hear of it if they have.
With regard to Mr. Atkinson's further inquiry about non-English s-f, I can offhand think of some few Danish works. Sophus Michaelis wrote a rather good trip-to-Mars novel many years ago, under the title Himmelskibet (The Sky Ship). Johannes V. Jensen did a few short sketches, futuristic satires, and of course took the Nobel Prize with The Long Journey. That one, by the way, is available in English, and well worth reading; though of course it's not to be taken literally, even the author regarding it more as a 'myth' of man's progress than as straight fiction.
POUL ANDERSON
Minneapolis, Minn.
TO THE EDITOR:
I would like to congratulate you and the others who make up your magazine.
The important thing is this: here is the money for a year's subscription.
HILARY F. WIGGIN
Malden, Massachusetts
TO THE EDITOR:
Having seen a couple of numbers of your really first rate magazine in the hands of local fans, I am quite keen to get a few copies myself. I am averse to writing begging letters where only my own gain is involved, particularly as Lyell Crane tells me Australian fans have a bad name for this in the States. Therefore, enclosed is our circular appealing for 'booster ads' for our Convention Souvenir booklet. I would be glad to take advertising space in it for you in exchange for copies of Rd. Also on the way to you are two copies of my own fiction-zine, FORERUNNER; 80 duplicated pages with printed cover.
R. DOUGLAS NICHOLSON
Double Bay
Sydney, Australia
TO THE EDITOR:
Alas, I capitulate. After much wriggling and squirming to avoid anything so crass as actually paying for a fanzine, much less subbing to it -- I now find myself putting in an order to purchase a copy of the Rd containing Boucher's Gilbert & Sullivan parody read at the Con.
G. M. CARR
5319 Ballard Ave.
Seattle, Wash
TO THE EDITOR:
I happened to pick up a copy of your 1952 calendar at the Chicon. I like! Please tell me if you are producing a 1953 calendar -- if so where, when, and for how much I can obtain a copy. I really like the art work very much -- right now I'm looking at Faraco's "Lunar Landscape," which I think is especially good. I also like Faraco's "Takeoff" and Buell's "The Room Where It Happened" and "The Hunting Season."
WM. R. ZUFALL, JR.
5060 Forbes St.
Pittsburgh 13, Pa.
(It doesn't look like there will be a 1953 calendar, very largely because there is no one to do it. If anyone happens to turn up with some time on his hands and some talent, we'll try to knock one out. If so, we'll send you a copy. DF)
Dear Mr. Fabun,
Andrew Gregg did a commendable job in his SOME EDITORS SAY, in view of the puzzling refusal of ten other editors to fill out and return his questionnaire, which, as he noted, necessarily made his survey incomplete.
I was pleased, of course, that he chose to quote my additional remarks, but there is a further item that I wish had been included.
Because GALAXY does not review fan magazines, I suppose it's only natural that too few of them are sent to me.
However, I enjoy going through them, occasionally find something that calls for explanation or debate, perhaps even mention or discussion in my editorials, and, above all, keeps me in touch with fans' attitudes toward GALAXY.
I would therefore appreciate your noting my request to editors of fan magazines to put me on their mailing lists, and herewith offer my thanks in advance to those who do so.
One point in the article is worth elaboration -- pro magazines use letter departments because they represent a saving in the budget. The more pages of letters, the less money has to be spent to fill the book. I wouldn't care to say that the statement that letter columns help circulation is hogwash, but I'll say it just the same. They're free material and that's it; the whole purpose in running them is to save money. If I can make it any blunter than that, I don't know how.
Issue 20 was a splendid one, not a dull article in the entire lineup. I'd like to explain why T. K-W. couldn't possibly like all the stories in any issue of GALAXY, but I'll be damned if I'll give away my methods for nothing. However he (she?) and W. W. Wagner negate each other on "The Luckiest Man in Denv" vs. "Specter General." I'll repeat: sociology is not the hallmark of GALAXY. I simply happen to believe a story can't take place in a societal vacuum; it must arise from a civilization of some sort. Sociology? No. Background.
Cordially yours,
H. L. Gold
Data entry and page scans provided by Judy Bemis
Data entry by Judy Bemis
Updated November 8, 2007. If you have a comment about these web pages please send a note to the Fanac Webmaster. Thank you.