During Chicon 8, First Fandom Experience had the privilege of organizing the 1946 Project. The program track encompassed sixteen panels and presentations:

• 1946: A Year in the Life of a Fan
• The Life and Impact of C.L. Moore
• The Life and Work of A.E. van Vogt and E. Mayne Hull
• Titus Groan: Genre or Not?
  (Click for a great summary by moderator Dave Hook.)
• 1940: The First Chicon
• Undiscovered and Forgotten Gems of 1946
• Remembering Erle Melvin Korshak
• Leading Ladies: Women in Fandom in 1946
• How Did Atomic Weapons Change Science Fiction?
• The SFF Art and Artists of 1946
• Extinction and Evolution: The 1946 SFF Book Publishing Boom
• Science in Science Fiction: The Guesswork of 1946
• James Kepner and Edythe Eyde:
  Pioneering LGBTQ+ Activism in 1940s Los Angeles Fandom
• The Likely Hugo Nominees From 1946
• Ray Bradbury’s Preposterously Productive 1946
• How the 1946 Pacificon Saved Post-War Worldcons

Fan Guests of Honor Joe Siclari and Edie Stern, curators of the remarkable Fanac.org archive, provided invaluable guidance and material in support of the project. Mark Olson, shepherd of Fancyclopedia, worked with us to create a display of fanzines distributed at the 1940 Chicon.

We’d like to thank all of the terrific panelists who lent their expertise and insight to one or more of these sessions:

TrishEM	Alec Nevala-Lee	Joe Siclari
Peter Balestrieri	Rich Horton	Dr. Bradford Lyau
John Hertz	Connie Willis	John E. Stith
Helen Montgomery	Jerry Kaufman	Sue Burke
Kate Heffner	Dr. Lisa Yaszek	Tom Whitmore
Dr. Jason Aukerman	Carrie Cooper	Gary K. Wolfe
Doug Ellis	Dave Hook	Tad Daley
Orton Ortwein	Brendan Detzner	Rebecca Campbell
Travis Creason	G. David Nordley	Henry Spencer
James L. Cambias	Michael Haynes	Jane Frank

Extra special thanks to Convention Chair Helen Montgomery, Program Division Head Nchanter, Exhibits Division Head Benjamin Levy, and their great teams — for their outstanding collaboration and support.

Also, we offer deep appreciation to Stephen Korshak, the son of Erle Korshak, Fan Guest of Honor (sadly departed prior to the con), and Dean Ziff, nephew of Mark Reinsberg. As high school students, Erle and Mark were the co-organizers of the 1940 Chicon. The presence of their descendants at the panel discussing that first Chicago convention added a moving sense of history.

A last-minute surprise addition to the 1940 Chicon panel was a showing of recovered sections of the assumed-lost film, “The Monsters of the Moon.” A version of this 1930s stop-motion monstrosity was viewed by attendees of the first Chicon. Restored by “Dr. Film” Eric Greyson and hot off the presses, special guests Bruce Lee and Mindy Grayson shared the six-minute space opera with an amused and appreciative audience. (The film is available as part of a collection offered on DrFilm.net.)

To inform our program, we published a series of blog posts with historical context on SFF and fandom in 1940:

• Science Fiction and Fantasy in the Pulps: 1946
• Science Fiction and Fantasy in Books: 1946
• The Fan Cave, c1940s
• A Year in Fandom: 1946
• A Vote for van Vogt in ’46
• What Can We Learn From the 1946 Pacificon Program Book?
• A Year in the Life of a Fan: Joe Kennedy in 1946
• Ray Bradbury’s Preposterously Productive 1946

In addition, we assembled an exhibit representing the den of an active fan from the 1940s, drawn from fans’ published descriptions of the period — perhaps most directly, Bob Tucker’s essay from Le Zombie in June 1940.

The star of the den exhibit was an (almost) functional 1920s A.B. Dick Number 77 Model A mimeograph machine. This particular make and model was common among fan publishers of the day, including Tucker. Also featured were full facsimiles of 1940s fanzines and a collection of reading pulps. The (mostly) working period typewriter and the guestbook tempted some visitors to leave thoughtful messages.

We now turn our attention back to our core mission: the completion of The Visual History of Science Fiction Fandom. We hope to have Volume Three out in the first half of next year, with a focus on the very-important year of 1941. The series will (may) conclude with Volume Four, covering 1942 – 1946. Our work on the 1946 Project has already set us up with a rich base of research and material regarding that also-very-important year.

Thanks for all of the great conversations and support at Chicon 8. We had fun!

Weird Tales	4
Planet Stories	4
Amazing Stories	2
Thrilling Wonder Stories	1
New Detective Magazine	1
Dime Mystery Magazine	1
Collier’s	1
Charm	1
Mademoiselle	1
The Californian	1

At the same time, Bradbury was deep into writing new stories, revising old stories and collaborating with publisher Arkham House to prepare for the release of his first collection: Dark Carnival, issued in 1947.

Amazing Stories, February 1946:
“Final Victim” by Henry Hasse and Ray Bradbury

Bradbury’s collaboration with fellow Los Angeles author Henry Hasse dates back to his first professionally published story, “The Pendulum” (Super Science Stories, November 1941).

Planet Stories, Spring 1946:
“Defense Mech” by Ray Bradbury

Amazing Stories, July 1946:
“Chrysalis” by Ray Bradbury

Planet Stories, Summer 1946:
“Lorelei of the Red Mist” by Leigh Brackett and Ray Bradbury

“For five years Leigh Brackett taught me to write stories for PLANET STORIES.  These were terrible, wretched stories – imitation Leigh Brackett.  Then she got the job of writing a film – The Big Sleep – at Warner Brothers.  She said that she was writing a story for PLANET STORIES that she would be unable to finish and she asked me to take over and finish writing it for her. “

“So, I wrote the last half of “Lorelei of the Red Mist” and it was published with our names on it.  You can’t tell where Leigh Brackett ends and Ray Bradbury begins.  She was such a teacher and she influenced me deeply.”

Ray Bradbury, from an interview conducted by John L. Coker III, Archon 20, Collinsville, IL, October 4 1996

Mademoiselle, October 1946:
“Homecoming” by Ray Bradbury

“Bradbury had submitted ‘The Homecoming’ to Mademoiselle… but it languished without a reader for months. Bradbury was not surprised – he was beginning to send his remaining weirds to magazines that were publishing his fantasies – but the story was saved by a most unlikely chain of events. Truman Capote, who was then as editorial apprentice at Mademoiselle, was at loose ends one day in the late winter of 1946 and found the story on the floor of the fiction editor’s office. He read it, loved it, and recommended it to Rita Smith, his editor. Soon Bradbury found himself working closely with the magazine’s staff as his story became the centerpiece of a ghoulish October 1946 issue complete with a Charles Addams illustration.”

From Ray Bradbury, The Life of Fiction by Jonathan R. Eller and William F. Touponce, The Kent State University Press, 2004

“In 1946, I wrote a short story called “Homecoming” and I sent it to Weird Tales, but they sent it back to me.  They refused to give me fifteen dollars for it.  I had a hunch that I should try a big magazine like Mademoiselle.  So, I sent it off and they held it for two or three months, not knowing what to do with it, because I had created this vampire family, which was very strange.  ‘Homecoming’ was about a big celebration of all of these vampires.  They finally bought the story, and they got Charles Addams to illustrate it.  I was beginning to create my family and Charles Addams was starting to create his family.  I went to New York, this time on the train.  I arrived in New York City and met the editors at Mademoiselle Magazine.”

“I saw the wonderful illustration by Charles Addams for ‘Homecoming,’ which was a double page spread.  I loved it so much that I bought it from him.  It was three hundred dollars.  I didn’t have it, so I bought it on time.  I gave Charles Addams twenty dollars a month and bought that painting.  So, when my novel From the Dust Returned came out two years ago, I had that cover which I bought fifty years ago and kept all that time and finally gave it to my publisher and you see it on my book.  Charles Addams and I planned to do a book together.  But, nobody wanted the idea, so we separated.  He went his way with his family and I went my way with my family, and we had two separate careers.”

Ray Bradbury, from the Introduction to TALES OF THE TIME TRAVELERS, 2009, edited by John L. Coker III

Planet Stories, Fall 1946:
“The Creatures That Time Forgot” by Ray Bradbury

“The Creatures That Time Forgot” was later published with the title “Frost and Fire.”

And… these for which we cannot find copies

New Detective Magazine, November 1946:
“A Careful Man Dies” by Ray Bradbury

The Californian, 1946 (month unknown):
“The Electrocution” by Ray Bradbury, as by “William Elliot”

Simply… preposterous.

In our series of posts in support of the 1946 Project at Chicon 8, we’ve already explored the year in fandom. We also want to understand what it was like to spend that year as an active fan.

One of the most prolific and well-regarded fans was Joseph Charles “Joe” Kennedy. His remarkable 1946 is worthy of note, if not entirely representative of how most fans passed their year. Born August 21 1929, he turned just 17 in the Fall of 1946 — but ranked among the most accomplished fans of the period.

In January 1946, Milton A. Rothman provided a guide to fannish activities, intended to provide something of a “Fandom 101” for new adherents. Originally published in The National Fantasy Fan (v5n1, January 1946), the essay identified eight primary activities in which serious fans engage.

Kennedy pursued all of these to some degree, but he was most prolific in writing and publishing for the fan community. His primary effort, Vampire, had run for four issues in 1945 and was already recognized as a leading fan publication. The full extent of his output throughout 1946 is, to us, impressive.

January

January 1 — the very dawn of 1946 — Kennedy joined a gathering at the New Jersey home of Sam Moskowitz. This was the second meeting of the self-designated “Null-A Men,” satirically named after the controversial novel by A.E. van Vogt. As Moskowitz noted in The 1946-47 Fantasy Review, “The initial idea of a loosely knit, social group was abandoned when 10 fans showed up… The idea of an organizational meeting was expanded into a full-fledged convention.” This was the origin of the “First Post-War Eastern Science Fiction Convention,” which would convene in March of that year.

Also at the start of 1946, Kennedy issued the first of his ambitious yearbooks, The 1945-46 Fantasy Review. Weighing in at 48 dense pages, this review of the field and fandom included a rich summary of fan events during the year, as well as poll results ranking books, stories published in the pulps, professional authors and fan journalists.

As a member of the Vanguard Amateur Press Association (VAPA), Kennedy published Joe’s Jottings. This ‘zine primarily featured commentary on VAPA and the contents of the mailings, with occasional poetry and short fiction by Kennedy and others. The January issue was sparse — unsurprising given Kennedy’s other activities.

February

Kennedy and his frequent collaborator George R. Fox published Speculations, a fanzine that lasted only a single issue. It featured articles by Sam Moskowitz, an original radio play by John H. Cooper, and a “Composite Readers Report on TTTT Number Three.” This last was a summary of reviews of Fox & Kennedy’s humor fanzine Terrible Test Tube Tales that ran for three issues in 1944 and 1945.

March

On March 3, Kennedy attended the First Post-War Eastern Science Fiction Convention at the Slovak Sokol Hall in Newark, New Jersey.

April

Vampire, Kennedy’s primary and most ambitious fanzine, saw its fifth issue in April 1946. Most dramatic was a to-and-fro between Sam Moskowitz and August Derleth concerning the publication of The Outsider and Others.

The fourth issue of Joe’s Jottings boldly proclaimed itself as “The Magazine of Cultural Americana” — but delivered only more commentary on VAPA and an odd poem by Dale Hart.

June

The sixth issue of Vampire appeared in June 1946 with a stunning cover by fan-artist John Cockroft.

September

On top of all his activities in fandom, Kennedy began his higher education in Fall 1946, attending Seton Hall.

Kennedy also attended the September 8 meeting of the newly-revived Queens Science Fiction League in 1946, and submitted this article on the club to Fantasy Times.

The fifth issue of Joe’s Jottings also appeared in September, featuring more of Kennedy’s cartoon rendering.

Last but not least, the seventh issue of Vampire was issued in September. The macabre cover by Walt Kessel was titled “Morning After the Convention.”

October – November

For the October 1946 mailing of the Fantasy Amateur Press Association (FAPA), Kennedy inaugurated his membership in the Association with the first issue of his fanzine Grulzak. With minor exceptions, the 18 pages were entirely written and illustrated by the editor.

On October 27, Kennedy attended the Philadelphia Conference, a revival of the annual event that had been on hold since 1941. He quickly penned and published his account of the proceedings, issuing his Expose!! A Kennedy’s-eye View of the Philly Conference dated November 2.

In the November 1946 issue of The Scientifictionist, Kennedy contributed a four-page article titled “Utopias Made to Order.” He poses the eternal question facing fans of speculative fiction:

“So we have, in fandom, two seemingly opposing schools of thought: one which foresees a bright future for the human race, and recommends that fandom do everything within its power to aid social and scientific progress; and the other, which adopts a sort of philosophical resignation to the aimlessness of life and the utter lack of meaning of the universe. Which, then, to choose?”

December

The final 1946 issue of Vampire featured a remarkable cover by St. Louis fan-artist Van Splawn.

In addition, Kennedy cooked up another offering — though we’ve been unable to track down any copies. In 1950, he wrote:

January 1947

At the dawn of 1947, Kennedy delivered his 77-page omnibus, The 1946-47 Fantasy Review, cited throughout our work on the 1946 Project.

Reputation Realized

Kennedy was recognized at the time by his fellow fans. In a poll published in July, Kennedy ranked fifth as Top Fan Poet and fourth as Top Fan Editor. His fanzine Vampire placed fourth among its peers.

In Kennedy’s own poll published in The 1946-47 Fantasy Review, Vampire was ranked tops of the fanzine pantheon.

Recognition, well deserved.

Kennedy’s later career was (is) impressive as well. As “X.J. Kennedy,” he is a widely-read and much-awarded poet and author. As with other prominent fans, his early days as an active amateur publisher helped to prepare him for a prominent life in letters.

What are your thoughts on Joe Kennedy and his contributions to fandom? Please drop us a note!

The next in our series of posts in support of the 1946 Project at Chicon 8.

The Front Cover

The Los Angeles fan community in 1946 boasted an impressive range of talent, and lead the way in innovative publishing. The landscape format of the 8.5×5.5-inch program was novel. Fan-Artist Lou Goldstone designed the book overall and rendered the striking lithographed cover.

Goldstone was a regular contributor of art to fanzines. His own 1941 title, Fantasia, featured his illustrations, fiction and poetry. His jacket design for the 1948 Fantasy Publishing Company’s volume Death’s Deputy by L. Ron Hubbard bears macabre resemblance to the Pacificon program cover.

The Membership List

One hundred and fifty-eight (158) fans are noted as contributing the $1 membership fee to the convention. (This isn’t an attendee list. Later accounts indicate actual attendance at about 120.)

The roster primarily includes fans from across the United States, as well as a smattering of family members and other adjunct supporters. We count 23 women. Notable professionals include Leigh Brackett, David H. Keller MD, Robert Bloch, Robert Heinlein, J. Harvey Haggard and Jack Williamson. Perhaps the most surprising: Fritz Lang, director of the iconic fan-favorite Metropolis (1927). Forrest J Ackerman described Lang’s 1944 visit to his home:

The Welcome Page

The membership fees covered “over 50% of the expenses” — implying the the event cost something around $300 to put on.

The Philadelphia Science-Fiction Society Announced Their Bid

(The PSFS Conference held in October 1946 was a highlight of the year for East Coast fans. We now know that Philadelphia was awarded and hosted the fifth World Science Fiction Convention in 1947, the first Philcon. There was no opposition to their bid.)

The Ackerman Family Ads

The Ackerman family supported their own. Full-page ads in the program cost $4, so this was another way to fund the convention. Forry’s quirky sense of humor seems genetic. Forrest’s brother Alden was killed in action in January 1945. We have no idea why his father would refer to Alden as “one of the cleanest boys I have ever known.”

The International Shout-Out

Ackerman maintained ties with fans overseas through regular correspondence. His tribute to foreign fans includes a greeting in his beloved Esperanto.

The First Two Days

The Fourth of July in 1946 fell on Thursday. The four-day program concluded on Sunday, July 7.

A single program track, like the previous three Worldcons. Distribution of badges. Welcome from Russ Hodgkins. The Guests of Honor address. The inevitable auction, inevitably run by Erle Korshak. A presentation of a recording of Robert Bloch’s radio show, “Stay Tuned For Terror.”

(What’s not revealed by the Program: the “Special Session” presented by Ackerman and Laney was a pitch for the Fantasy Foundation (working code name: “Operation Futurian”). This was intended as something of a “Master Library of Fantasy Fiction,” mostly comprised of Ackerman’s collection. The idea never took root. Sadly, following this presentation, Ackerman nearly collapsed from exhaustion and the flu, and missed the rest of the convention.)

On Day Two, an offsite visit to the “Ackerman Museum” (prior to its designation as the “Ackermansion”)… (was cancelled due to Ackerman’s illness.)

A “Weird Session,” in honor of the fans of fantasy and horror — a growing cadre in fandom, with Francis T. Laney’s impressive fanzine The Acolyte as a rallying point. A one-man show by stage personality “Brother Theodore.”

The Last Two Days

Fun at Westlake Park (now MacArthur Park), but no baseball game. The National Fantasy Fan Federation (NFFF). The masquerade. Impromptu music and dancing. (Rothman, Leibscher and Perdue at the piano. Liebscher’s performance was dubbed the “Pacificoncerto.” Rothman played “Ritual Fire Dance.” Tigrina sang her original, “The Sabbath Summons.”)

Day Four: Another offsite at the West Coast reincarnation of Michigan’s Slan Shack. Bidding for the next convention (Philadelphia won; see above). The “Fanquet.”

On Sunday, the afternoon session featured a presentation not on the program, a sobering speech by a representative of the Federation of Pasadena Scientists on civilian control of atomic energy.

H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Dunwich Horror” was delivered via a recording of the radio drama aired on November 1 1945 by the CBS Radio series, “Suspense.” (This was actually played on Saturday the 6th, rather than Sunday the 7th. Audio is available here.)

(The “Surprise Fantasy Film” was to have been “Turnabout,” but the film was unavailable. “One Million BC” was substituted.)

(We’re unsure of the identity of the woman with the tall headdress mostly hidden behind Dale Hart. Cay Forester was an actress hired to portray “the girl we’d most like to be wrecked on the moon with.” Jack Speer described her as “unutterably bored to everyone except the photographer.”)

The Guests of Honor Took the Centerfold

Why van Vogt and Hull in ’46? The husband and wife were having a capstone year. Ackerman later recalled:

Something happened prior to the convention that is not known.  We had a committee of five fans, and it was our duty to decide who should be the guest of honor.  I had a novel notion and said that, for the first time, we should make the guest of honor a woman — Catherine Moore.  She was a very well-known author in science fiction. I said we should also get Margaret Brundage, the popular artist for Weird Tales.  I said we should get a major female fantasy fan and a female fantasy fanzine publisher and a female assistant to one of the professional magazines.  Someone spoke-up and said that we couldn’t have Catherine Moore by herself without her husband, Henry Kuttner.  I said that Kuttner should be proud that his wife was the professional guest of honor.  Three votes were needed to vote in favor of my idea, but it lost.  There were only two votes to see it my way.  In the end, A. E. Van Vogt and his original wife Edna Mayne Hull were made the guests of honor.

From the 2006 Worldcon in Anaheim. Recorded and transcribed by John L. Coker III.

Support Came From Across the Land

The Pro Mags Chimed In

Ackerman Still Held a Torch

In 1945, Forrest J Ackerman proposed marriage to fellow fan Tigrina (Edythe Eyde) by posting an open letter in a fanzine (FANews, n166, June 19 1945). Tigrina rejected the proposal in equal measure in the same publication (FANews, n170, July 3 1945). Despite this very public and embarrassing exchange, Forry and Tigrina remained friends. For Ackerman, it seems perhaps there was still hope. One key reason for Tigrina’s rejection became clear in 1947 when she began publishing the first Lesbian magazine in the country, Vice-Versa.

Aspirations Were Put Forth, But Not Achieved

Fandom Remembered

Well-regarded Los Angeles fan Paul Freehafer joined the Science Fiction League in 1937. He published the fanzine Polaris and served as Treasurer for the Pacificon. Freehafer passed away from a heart condition in 1947 at age 27. By tradition, the LASFS Clubhouse is known as “Freehafer Hall.”

One Ad Was the Coolest

…though it’s not entirely clear what this group was advertising.

What can we learn from the 1946 Pacificon Program Book? Please drop us a note with your thoughts:

info@firstfandomexperience.org

The next in our series of posts in support of the 1946 Project at Chicon 8.

As part of the 1946 Project, we’ll focus on the work of Alfred Elton “A.E.” van Vogt and his fellow author (also spouse) Edna Mayne Hull. Why so?

van Vogt is recognized as a Grand Master, having received the fourteenth instance of the Damon Knight Memorial award in 1996. He’s also regarded as something of an odd-duck, his work drawing a wide range of reactions.

Phillip K. Dick and Harlan Ellison credited van Vogt’s The World of Null-A as an early inspiration. In contrast, Damon Knight tore all aspects of that same novel to shreds, writing, “[van Vogt] is no giant; he is a pygmy who has learned to operate an overgrown typewriter.” (From the fanzine Destiny’s Child, November 1945).

In van Vogt’s 1975 autobiography (assembled from interviews he gave in the 1960s), he wrote: But then again, Knight later wrote: “Other writers may be able to work on intuition, but I can’t. In other words, here I am living on things. One is that there are methods for doing things and the other is that I dream my story ideas in my sleep.”

Responding to this revelation, Knight reconsidered his perspective on the author, writing: “van Vogt has just revealed, for the first time as far as I know, that he made a practice of dreaming about his stories and waking himself up every ninety minutes to take notes. This explains a good deal about his stories, and suggests that it is really useless to attack them by conventional standards. If the stories have a dream consistency which affects readers powerfully, it is probably irrelevant that they lack ordinary consistency.” (Science-Fiction Studies, v1n3, Spring 1974)

We submit that 1946 was a capstone year for the authors, where their prominence and influence on the genre and fandom may have been at its peak. What supports this assertion?

• van Vogt’s prominence had been growing since he captured the front cover of Astounding with his first published science fiction story, “Black Destroyer” in July 1939. John W. Campbell, Jr. chose to lead with this tale over Isaac Asimov’s first Astounding appearance in that same issue.

• The novel Slan, first serialized in Astounding beginning in September 1940, made a major impression on fans of the day. The sympathetic portrayal of a persecuted race of human mutants with extraordinary powers caused fans to ask the question, “Are fans Slans?” In the post-war publishing science fiction boom that began in 1946, van Vogt’s Slan was issued in book form by Arkham House. The novel was rated third in Joe Kennedy’s fan poll from January 1947.

• van Vogt’s second novel, The Weapon Makers, was widely praised by fans after its serialization in Astounding in 1943. That same year, the author ventured into the fantasy genre with The Book of Ptath, appearing in Unknown Worlds in October. Plans were announced in 1946 for the publication of The Book of Ptath by Fantasy Press (1947) and The Weapon Makers by the Hadley Publishing Company (1947).

• Kennedy’s 1946 fan poll rated van Vogt second among favorite authors, following only Henry Kuttner in popularity. “The Chronicler” (Astounding, October 1946) was ranked ninth among stories published in magazines.

• Hull had appeared regularly in Astounding under her own name (“E.M. Hull”) beginning in December 1942 (“The Flight That Failed”). She captured her first cover in the December 1943 issue with “The Debt,” part of a series featuring rapacious future businessman Artur Blord. Her work also appeared in Campbell’s Unknown Worlds, sometimes alongside that of her husband.

• van Vogt’s The World of Null-A appeared in Astounding beginning in August 1945. The controversial novel was much-discussed among fans for its embrace of “non-aristotalian philosophy,” sometimes described as “fuzzy logic.” It was ranked first in Kennedy’s fan poll for 1945.

• Following their move to Hollywood in November 1944, van Vogt and Hull became involved with the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society (LASFS). van Vogt regularly attended meetings of the group and spoke at several events in 1946.

• van Vogt was a Guest Speaker at the January 10 1946 “Atomicon,” a gathering of the LASFS to discuss the beginning of the “Atomic Age.” He offered a novel idea regarding the potential benefits of atomic energy.

• van Vogt and Hull appeared at the 1946 World Science Fiction Convention in Los Angeles (the first Pacificon) as the Guests of Honor.

What works of van Vogt or Hull stand out for you? Which have best stood the test of time? How have these writings influenced the genre? Please drop us a note with your thoughts:

info@firstfandomexperience.org

(The title of this post is informed by the best analysis we’ve seen of the proper pronunciation of “van Vogt.”)

The next in our series of posts in support of the 1946 Project at Chicon 8.

What was it like to be a science fiction fan in 1946?

There was a lot of new material to read. With the end of the war, Science fiction and fantasy pulps had proliferated. Classics genre novels from pulps of prior years were issued in book form. Just keeping up was a challenge.

Fan activity was also resurgent. The club scene remained most active in Los Angeles and New York, but fans from other corners also made their voices heard. Several clubs formed prior to the war resumed meeting in 1946, often attracting a mix of old and new members.

The timeline presented here is drawn from a variety of sources. Primary among them is Joe Kennedy’s 1946-1947 Fantasy Review, the second in his series of yearbooks covering the field. Eleven pages were dedicated to the doings of fans.

Date	Fan event
Jan 1	Ten fans gather at Sam Moskowitz’s house in New Jersey, dub themselves the “Null-A Men” and begin planning what would become the First Post-War Eastern Science Fiction Convention.
Jan 10	The “Atomic Conference” convenes, sponsored by the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society (LASFS) and attended by 35 local fans and authors. A.E. van Vogt speaks on the application of atomic power.
Jan	Russ Hodgkins is elected as the new Director of the LASFS.
Jan	The article “Ten Cent Ivory Tower” appears in Esquire, a detailed account of the early history of publishing the stories of H.P. Lovecraft.
Jan	The National Fantasy Fan reports that the National Fantasy Fan Federation (NFFF or N3F) has 184 members. Walter Dunkelberger is the new President.
Jan 26	Leading fan Sgt. Forrest J Ackerman leaves the Army for civilian life.
Jan 26	Philip Wylie’s atomic-Armageddon story “Blunder: A Story of the End of the World” appears in Collier’s.
Feb	Jack Speer’s poll in Stefnews reveals that the average fan among his readers reads two pro genre magazines per month, receives ten fanzines per month and writes forty-three letters per month.
Feb	Leading Philadelphia fan Milton A. Rothman is released from military service. Captain David A. Kyle is discharged from the Air Force.
Feb	Long-standing UK fan Walter Gillings issues Strange Tales, a short-lived pulp.
Mar 3	The First Post-War Science Fiction Convention convenes in Newark, attended by as many as 100 fans and pros. The theme: “Is science catching up to science fiction?” A. Langley Searles, L. Sprague de Camp and Sam Merwin, Jr. speak.
Mar 31	Sam Moskowitz reads the first two chapters of “The Immortal Storm” at a meeting of the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society (PSFS). Chapters of this detailed history of early fandom would continue to appear in Fantasy Commentator over the next five years.
Apr	Turmoil at the LASFS leads to factions and a new constitution.
Apr 6	Sixteen mid-west fans attend the First Post-Radar-Contact-With-the-Moon Conference in Chicago.
Apr 21	Los Angeles fan Abby Lu Ashley wins on the “Carnival of Cash” radio program and promotes the upcoming World Science Fiction Convention — the “Pacificon” — on the air.
Apr 28	Organization meeting of the Eastern Science Fiction Association (ESFA), led by Moskowitz..
May	Edward J. “Ted” Carnell launches the pro pulp New Worlds in the UK.
May	Gerry de la Ree’s poll on the future of space flight reveals that 66 of the 67 respondents believe that interplanetary travel will eventually happen. The lone skeptic: Raymond A. Palmer. The average estimated date for the first moon rocket is August 18 1976 — but guesses range from 1948 to 2145.
May 17	Prolific early science fiction author Francis Flagg dies.
May 30	Los Angeles fan Tigrina (Edythe Eyde) promotes the Pacificon on the national “Queen for a Day” radio broadcast.
Jun 16	Quoting Ackerman who cites a letter from William L. Hamling, Jack Speer announces in Stefnews that Raymond A. Palmer is confined to the Dunning Asylum in Chicago due to “a mental crack-up.”
Jun	The PSFS establishes a new clubroom at the southeast corner of 56th and Pine Streets, Philadelphia.
Jul 4-7	The Fourth World Science Fiction Convention — the Pacificon — convenes in Los Angeles. Kennedy writes: “Consensus of opinion was that the affair as a whole was enjoyable if somewhat slowly-paced. It did serve, at any rate, to show that enough cooperation could be obtained for many more Worldcons in the future.”
Jul 27	Jack Speer hosts the “Third Seattle Confabulation” at his home. Four fans attend.
Aug	The Fantasy Amateur Press Association (FAPA) elects Milton A. Rothman as President, Norman F. Stanley as Vice-President, Art Widner as Secretary-Treasurer and Elmer Perdue as Editor.
Aug 11	The Golden Gate Fantasy Society meets at the San Francisco home of Aubrey McDermott, (arguably) founder of the first-ever science fiction fan club in 1929.
Aug 13	Seminal science fiction master H.G. Wells dies at his home in London.
Aug	Gerry de la Ree’s fourth “Beowulf” poll reveals that respondent’s favorite authors are A. Merritt (still), H.P. Lovecraft, A.E. van Vogt, John W. Campbell, Jr., L. Sprague de Camp and John Taine. Top fans are Kennedy, Ackerman, Tucker, Speer, Laney, Moskowitz, de la Ree, Dunkleberger, E.E. Evans and Searles.
Sep 8	First meeting of the “New Queens Science Fiction League” takes place at the home of William S. Sykora.
Sep	Harper’s Magazine publishes “Little Superman, What Now?” by William S. Baring-Gould — a revelatory article about science fiction focused on fandom.
Sep	The PSFS begins planning for the 1947 Worldcon in Philadelphia, with Milton A, Rothman and Oswald Train leading the effort.
Oct 6	The Strangers Club of Boston holds its first post-war meeting.
Oct 17	R.W. MacCarthy, secretary of the Pacific Rocket Society, addresses 34 members attending a meeting of the LASFS.
Oct 20	William S. Baring-Gould and 28 others attend the October meeting of the Queens SFL. The groups votes to oppose the publication of works by Richard Shaver in Amazing Stories as fact rather than fiction.
Oct 24	Prominent science fiction author Otis Adelbert Kline dies at age 55.
Oct 27	About 70 fans attend the Philadelphia Conference, revived after a six-year lapse. Attendees include delegations from the ESFA and the Queens Science Fiction League.
Nov	In Amazing Stories, Raymond A. Palmer denies that he’s ever been mentally ill. Hamling writes to Fantasy Times describing the Palmer mental breakdown as a hoax. Some remain skeptical. Palmer is promoted to Editor of all Ziff-Davis pulps.
Nov 9	About 25 fans and pros gather at “Centracon” in Chicago, including Robert Bloch, E.E. Smith and Cyril Kornbluth. Attendees spend the night at the home of Erle Korshak.
Nov 10	The monthly meeting of the PSFS draws 29 fans to hear L. Sprague de Camp’s address on “extra dimensions and various concepts of time travel.”
Dec 1	At their meeting, members of the Eastern Science Fiction Association join the protest against Amazing Stories representation of the Shaver stories as fact.
Dec 12	The Colorado Science-Fantasy Society re-forms at the home of Roy Hunt in Denver. Thirteen fans attend.
Dec	The National Fantasy Fan Federation elects Art Widner as President and Walter A. Coslet as Vice President.
Dec	The Minneapolis Fantasy Society re-forms under the leadership of Clifford D. Simak.
Dec 26	The LASFS elects E. Everett Evans as Director at their annual Christmas party.
Dec 31	Leigh Brackett and Edmond Hamilton are married in Los Angeles. Ray Bradbury serves as “First Man.”

One event to which fans ascribed importance bears further exposition: the September 1946 article in Harper’s Magazine by William S. Baring-Gould titled “Little Superman, What Now?” Baring Gould had been corresponding with fans for some time, reading fanzines, and attending gatherings. Most importantly, he joined the First Post-War Eastern Science Fiction Convention in March as part of his research, and commented on the meeting in his article. This was the most accurate and deep portrayal of organized fandom to have appeared in the mainstream press to that point. We provide the full piece here.

Fans published extensively in 1946. Core members of the community returned from service to find a wide range of fanzines, many with heightened standards for prose, fiction and art. We’ve tabulated the most notable titles, omitting some one-shots and likely missing a number of more obscure publications (especially from VAPA). For these 69 fanzines, we count approximately 316 total issues for the year.

(Titles in bold italic debuted in 1946. Titles followed by Roman numerals provide disambiguation per the Pavlat-Evans Fanzine Index.)

Title	Editor(s)	Issues in 1946
a	Swisher	2
The Acolyte	Laney, Rimel	2
The Alchemist	Hansen, Martin	1
Atres Artes	Cheney	3
Black Flames	V. Daugherty	1
Bloomington News Letter	Tucker	3
B.T. – His Mag	Tucker	1
Bulletin of the British Interplanetary Society		unknown
Canadian Fandom	Taylor	3
Chanticleer	Liebscher	1
Cosmic Cuts	British; Tucker	2
Ember	Brazier	20
En Garde	Ashley	3
Falling Petals	Farsaci	1
Fan	W. Daugherty	3
Fan-Dango	Laney	4
FANewscard / FANews	Dunkelberger	60
Fantasy Advertiser	Willmorth, Squires	5
Fantasy Commentator	Searles	4
Fantasy Review	Kennedy	1
Fantasy Times (II)	Taurasi	20
Fan-Tods	Stanley	3
Full-Length Articles	Speer	1
Glom	Ackerman	3
The Grotesque (IV)	Christensen	4
Grulzak	Kennedy	1
Guteto	Morojo	2
Horizons	Warner	4
“I Bequeath”	Ackerman	1
In Memorian, H.G. Wells	Ackerman	1
Inspiration	Bridges	2
Joe’s Jottings	Kennedy	3
The Kay-Mar Trader	Carlson	1
Le Zombie	Tucker	1
Lethe	Smith, Riggs	3
The Life of the Fan	Rothman	1
Light	Croutch	4
Milty’s Mag	Rothman	1
Moonshine	Moffatt	2
National Fantasy Fan	several	10
The Phantagraph	Wollheim	2
Plenum	Rothman	4
PSFS News	Train	5
Matters of Opinion	Speer	2
The Reader and Collector	Koenig	3
Renascence	Blish	2
The Rider	Hevelin	9
Science*Fiction	Zissman (Merril)	1
The Science Fiction Savant	Washington	2
The Science Fiction World (II)	Tarr	2
The Scientifictionist	Elsner	5
Shangri-L’Affaires	Joquel, Burbee	9
Space Flight… When?	de la Ree	1
Sparx	Spelman	2
The Star Rover	Splawn	2
StefNews	Speer, Hevelin	46
Sun Spots	de la Ree	2
Sustaining Program	Speer	4
A Tale of the ‘Evans	Evans	3
Temper	Merrill	1
The Time Binder	Evans	4
Tomorrow in the March	Evans	1
Vadjong (II)	Sykora	2
Vampire	Kennedy	4
Venal	Lowndes	2
The Voice	Crouch	2
Voice of the Imagi-Nation	Ackerman	2
Without Glee	Moro, Rehm	4

Stay tuned for more highlights from our exploration of science fiction and fandom in the very busy year of 1946.

The next in a series of posts in support of the 1946 Project at Chicon 8.

The “experience” component of “First Fandom Experience” conveys our desire to capture what it was like to be an early fan. To date we’ve dedicated the most space to fannish interactions — clubs, correspondence, conventions, conflicts. But fans spent most of their time at home. Those fortunate enough to have even a semi-permanent residence literally papered their walls with the accumulated evidence of their devotion to science fiction.

A few prominent fans allowed us to peek into their sanctum sanctori. The earliest narrative tour we’ve found came from Wilson “Bob” Tucker in his fanzine Le Zombie from June 1940.

Tucker aspired to create a décor in which one could “picture yourself out in space.” Other inspirational adornments were more terrestrial. Common to all the accounts we’ve encountered, he cites “the ever-present desk, bookcase, table, mimeograph…”

As to the mimeograph: most fans that published had one, or access to one. By 1940, the arcane and messy chemistry-project of hectography had generally given way to the more-predictable and mostly-monochrome stencil-and-crank world of the mimeo.

Tucker’s essay inevitably sparked responses. Joe Gilbert of Columbia, South Carolina shared his “proletarian” retreat in the September-October 1940 issue of Le Zombie.

In the May 1941 issue of The Science Fiction Fan, prolific fan publisher Harry Warner, Jr. provided a detailed inventory of the “business part” of his workshop.

Then and now, fans have surrounded themselves with their closest “friends” — the books and magazines that offer escape from the confines of their room, their house and their planet.

In stylish contrast, British fan Ron Holmes presented the astonishing notion that a collection isn’t something a true fan actually requires.

What would you have expected to see if you’d visited the home of a fan in 1946? What adorns your fannish shrine? Please drop us a note with your thoughts:

info@firstfandomexperience.org

Continuing our series of posts in preparation for the 1946 Project at Chicon 8.

In the aftermath of the war, an explosion of genre book publishing brought science fiction and fantasy closer to the mainstream. However, new novel-length fiction was scarce, so the vast majority of titles issued in 1946 looked back, republishing material from prior years.

Thanks to one prolific fan, we have a contemporaneous view of fandom’s favorites from this period. In January 1947, New Jersey’s Joseph Charles (“Joe”) Kennedy published the 1946-1947 Fantasy Review, the second in his series of yearbooks covering the field. Along with his own perspective, Kennedy presented the results of a survey that captured the opinions of 78 fans of the day. Caveats apply; e.g. the sample appears to be entirely from the United States and Canada — but the poll offers at least one window into sentiments at the time.

(Joe Kennedy went on to a notable career as an author and poet, writing under the name X.J. Kennedy.)

The scoring system for fans’ favorites weighted the results based on respondent’s rank-ordered choices.

The results are presented below. From Kennedy’s notes, those marked with (*) weren’t actually published in 1946 but are included to reflect the fans’ full responses.

The runaway first and second place finishers were representative of the dominant trend in genre books issued in 1946 — they’re anthologies of short stories. Adventures in Time and Space received more first-place votes (39) than all of the other titles combined.

From Crown Publishers came The Best of Science Fiction, with a preface by John W. Campbell, Jr. This 785-page tome included “40 wonderful stories, unlike any other kind of stories you have ever read.” Did established fans take offense at the implication that nobody knew of science fiction prior to this book? Were they prepared to welcome novice readers into the sanctum of their speculative refuge? It’s easy to imagine both reactions.

The Crown title presented a wider historical sampling of the field than the Random House anthology, including stories by Edgar Allan Poe, H.G. Wells and John Taine, as well as then-recent works by Robert Heinlein and Isaac Asimov.

Established fantasy publisher Arkham House scored three titles in the top ten in Kennedy’s poll. Two were anthologies: the first collection of Robert E. Howard’s fantasy stories, Skull-Face and Others, and The House on the Borderland and Other Novels, the first American book publication of William Hope Hodgson’s imaginative fantasy. Both volumes featured striking covers by Hannes Bok.

Arkham House had a busy 1946, also releasing The Hounds of Tindalos, an anthology of Frank Belknap Long’s stories from Weird Tales; The Doll and One Other by Algernon Blackwood; Fearful Pleasures by A.E. Coppard; and West India Lights by Henry S. Whitehead.

Arkham’s third top-ten book represented another category with multiple examples in 1946. Slan by A.E. van Vogt was a re-publication of the author’s novel originally serialized in Astounding Science-Fiction beginning in December 1939. The tale of a superior mutant sub-species of humans, hunted for their difference — the “X-Men” of its day — spurred the meme “Are fans Slans?” that has persisted in fandom to present times. Van Vogt was particularly visible to the fan community in 1946 as the Guest of Honor at the first Pacificon held that year.

Similarly, the newly-formed Buffalo Book Company’s The Skylark of Space presented the epic E.E. “Doc” Smith space opera from 1928, updated by Smith from its premier run in Amazing Stories. The same publisher also issued the collected installments of John Taine’s 1931 Wonder Stories serial The Time Stream.

Reprints of “classic” genre novels also gained attention from the fans who responded to Kennedy’s poll. Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World reached a new audience through a 1946 edition from Harper & Row. Abraham Merritt’s The Ship of Ishtar made the list based on a 1945 Avon Book Company digest of the 1924 fantasy novel.

Some classics reappeared in paperback, reflecting the rapid expansion of that format. A new edition of James Branch Cabell’s Jurgen, A Comedy of Justice from 1919 appeared as a paperback from Penguin Books. Abraham Merritt’s epic 1920 fantasy The Metal Monster received a reboot as a title in the “Murder Mystery Monthly” series from the Avon Book Company.

Wholly new novel-length genre titles were scarce in 1946. A notable exception was The Murder of the USA by Murray Leinster, writing as Will F. Jenkins. Published in book form by Crown Publishers with a preface by John W. Campbell, Jr., the tale also appeared in the June 1946 issue of Argosy as Atoms Over America.

Prominent science fiction fan Wilson “Bob” Tucker’s debut as a novelist appeared in 1946 — but not as a genre title. The Chinese Doll was the first of Tucker’s mystery novels. Despite the departure in subject matter, his fellow fans recognized his success with two first-place votes.

Peabody’s Mermaid by Guy and Constance Jones (Random House) merits a mention as the basis for the 1948 film “Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid,” starring William Powell and Ann Blyth.

Notably absent from Kennedy’s poll results are two important fantasy works issued in 1946. Mervyn Peake’s Titus Groan, first of the Gormenghast series, has since been recognized as a highlight of the genre. Fans in North America may not have seen this work due to its initial publication in the UK by Eyre and Spottiswoode. The allegorical Mistress Masham’s Repose by T.H. White (Putnams) examines authoritarianism through the tale of a girl’s encounter with Lilliputians.

Not widely available to fans in North America were two paperbacks from London’s Pendulum Publications LTD, issued as entries in their “Popular Spacetime Series.” Wings Across Time by Frank Edward Arnold was a reprint of a story that originally appeared in Science Fiction Quarterly in 1942. Other Eyes Watching by John Russell Fearn (writing as Polton Cross) was new in 1946.

Also below fans’ radar was the Junior Literary Guild’s publication of The Angry Planet by John Keir Cross. “Living creatures — individuals — Martians!” Blatant indoctrination of youth into fanciful speculation!

Which science fiction and fantasy books from 1946 have you encountered? Which left an impression? Please send your thoughts to:
info@firstfandomexperience.org

As part of the program for Chicon 8, FFE is orchestrating the “1946 Project” to recall and highlight science fiction and fandom from that important just-post-War year.

Presented here for your perusal and possible amusement is a fiction bibliography for science fiction and fantasy pulps issued in 1946. The list includes magazines that primarily published new works. Excluded are reprints of works published in prior years (most of Famous Fantastic Mysteries, all of Strange Tales). Non-fiction articles and editorials are also omitted. For brevity, we didn’t cite specific issue dates. For richness, we’ve transcribed the introductory blurbs that appeared in the Table of Contents or masthead for each story.

We’d love to hear your reflections on works from 1946 that you might have had occasion to read. Which stories were notable to you, and why? Which have stood the test of time? Which are ‘undiscovered gems?’ Which stories reflected the times in particularly compelling or unique ways?

Please drop us a note with your thoughts at:
info@firstfandomexperience.org

Isaac Asimov chose sixteen of these tales for inclusion in his anthology, “The Great SF Stories 8: 1946” (edited by Asimov and Martin H. Greenberg, DAW Books, Inc., 1982). We offer this list as his point-of-view, possibly influenced by copyright restrictions, and without endorsement or dismissal:

“A Logic Named Joe” by Will F. Jenkins (Murray Leinster)
“Memorial” by Theodore Sturgeon
“Loophole” by Arthur C. Clarke
“The Nightmare” by Chan Davis
“Rescue Party” by Arthur C. Clarke
“Placet is a Crazy Place” by Fredric Brown
“Conqueror’s Isle” by Nelson S. Bond
“Lorelei of the Mist” by Ray Bradbury and Leigh Brackett
“The Million Year Picnic” by Ray Bradbury
“The Last Objective” by Paul A. Carter
“Meihem in ce Klasrum” by Dolton Edwards
“Vintage Season” by Lawrence O’Donnell (C.L. Moore)
“Evidence” by Isaac Asimov
“Absalom” by Henry Kuttner
“Mewhu’s Jet” by Theodore Sturgeon
“Technical Error” by Arthur C. Clarke

A contemporaneous view of fan favorites from the year was compiled by Joe Kennedy in his the 1946-1947 Fantasy Review, the second in his series of yearbooks covering the field. Kennedy’s survey captured the opinions of 78 fans of the day. (For details on the poll participants and methods, see this post: Science Fiction and Fantasy in Books: 1946.) Here are the top 25:

Science Fiction and Fantasy in the Pulps: 1946

Amazing Stories (Raymond A. Palmer)

Invasion of the Micro-Men	Richard S. Shaver	A terrible plague came to Nor, and Elder Goddess Vanue lost her crown. A story of Mutan Mion.
“Anything You Say, Dear”	Leroy Yerxa	He was just a mouse of a man until he got the hypnotic tube–then he became master in his home.
The Huntress of Akkan	Robert Moore Williams	She was lovely beyond all compare, but she was a huntress–and a huntress to chill one’s blood!
Final Victim	Henry Hasse & Ray Bradbury	Who was it that lost out in the end? Pursued, or pursuer, on this hideous little rock in space?
Little Drops of Water	Frances M. Deegan	Almost anything might be expected to show up in a microscope–except the experimenter himself!
Four Who Returned	Chester S. Geier	The world waited breathlessly for the return of the four survivors of the first voyage to Mars…
The Masked World	Richard S. Shaver	Under New York lies the cavern city, Ontal, ruled by the most murderous cutthroat gang of all time.
Atom War	Rog Philips	Years in the future Chicago had become the World Capital, and it was first target for atomic bombs.
Bridge of Life	Robert Moore Williams	Maybe a walkie-talkie isn’t the thing to put in a call to a dead man, but at least you can try
The Affair of Matthew Eldon	Millen Cooke	When we get to monkeying around in the electronic bands, there is no telling what we’ll discover!
A Room with a View	David Wright O’Brien	The things one says in this room! Characters from a masque ball who claimed they weren’t from one.
Don’t Mention It!	John & Dorothy de Courcy	The invention was vital–and there was opposition from another dimension. Then came a “Helper”…
The Perfect Imitation	H. B. Hickey	Don’t go around aping people, even if they are good examples; maybe you’ll imitate them too well!
Agharti	Heinrich Hauser	A super atomic bomb, carried by rocket, launched itself from the Harz Mountains–and Satan died!
The Brothers Shenanigan	David V. Reed	When these brothers go into business on the Moon, the looney Luna business really begins to boom!
Luder Valley	Richard S. Shaver	If any man saw it fall, he called it another meteor; but it wasn’t a meteor that crashed to earth…
To Whome It May Concern	Millicent Holmberg	People with strange new senses, and with strange plans for the future, lived in this western town.
Cult of the Witch Queen	Richard S. Shaver & Bob McKenna	Hecate was her name, an immortal goddess–but her subjects called her the Limping Hag
The Mutants	Rog Phillips	Arny wasn’t like other boys–he was the result of the Atom War, a mutant human…
Chrysalis	Ray Bradbury	Smith was dead–or was he? Maybe he was only dead as a butterfly larvae is dead!
The Man with Two Minds	Leroy Yerxa	One way to discover the workings of the mind of a murderer is to be in his mind…
Heart of Light	Gardner F. Fox	The diamond had a heart–of light. And the light was also the light of life…
Scar Tissue	Henry S. Whitehead	Thousands of years in the Past he died, but the scars remained even in a new life.
The Man Next Door	Robert Moore Williams	What about the man next door? Do you know anything about him, really? Do you?
The Sea People	Richard S. Shaver	The Limping Hag, having been beaten on Venus, fled to Earth to set up her empire on the sea bottom.
March of the Mercury Men	Don Wilcox	Death and destruction loomed as the Mercury Men set out on their monstrous steeds to do battle…
The Gift	Berkeley Livingston	Precious indeed was the gift from the world’s greatest artist–but a curse went with its misuse.
Some Are Not Men	John & Dorothy de Courcy	You see them on the street every day, but do not recognize them–these creates who are not men.
Bothon	Henry S. Whitehead	Of what importance was one wronged man in a world rent apart by the dying convulsion of a continent?
Earth Slaves to Space	Richard S. Shaver	The Darkspear came to Earth and picked up a load of slaves–but Earther’s other people never knew it!
The Cosmic Sisters	Leroy Yerxa	Women tall as trees, female counterparts of the legendary giant man, Paul Bunyan–and very lovely.
Battle of the Gods	Rog Phillips	The final showdown between the rival mutant humans who were born of the atom war; what would happen?
Morton’s Fork	Jack & Dorothy de Courcy	So there are no such things as demons? Of course not, if you’re looking for horns and a tail!
The Green Man	Harold M. Sherman	He came from the planet Talamaya bearing a vitally important message for the inhabitants of Earth!
The Caduceus of Hermes	George Tashman	There it was: the caduceus used by Hemes himself. And it turned out to be a powerful gadget!
Getaway	Chester S. Geier	It was a way of escape never used before–to elude capture by police by taking off in a spaceship!
M-M-M-M-M-M!	Millen Cooke	She came through a Time Warp, from a world where kisses were unknown–and became an atavist!
The Return of Sathanas	Richard S. Shaver & Bob McKenna	Mankind has long abhorred the devil, but regard him as a myth. Mutan Mion met him and fought him!
Haunted Metropolis	Chester S. Geier	Far away on a planet unknown a city became haunted–and terror stalked its darkened streets!
The Secret of Lord Fennel	Frank G. Heiner	What was going on in Lord Fennel’s castle? Who–what–was his lovely oriental wife and he slave?
The Man Who Went Nowhere	John & Dorothy de Courcy	So you don’t think it’s possible to keep on the move and not go anywhere? Well, for instance…
Side Street	Leroy Yerxa	Side streets have a peculiar fascination for some people, and they can’t resist exploring them!
Atala Rim	J. S. Harrison	There in the old Mexican church he stood, a man named Atala Rim… and there was the unknown in him!
Command Performance	Berkeley Livingston	What if there was a gadget that could really “command” a performance? You’d be its utter slave!
The Land of Kui	Richard S. Shaver	Deep beneath Kui was a machine that ate rock–and it left Kui perched on a precarious pillar.
Death Sentence	Chester S. Geier	What out of the ordinary could there possibly be concerning the death sentence of two rabbits?
Giant of Ganymede	Ross Rocklynne	The most peaceful, gentle business of all seems to be that of a florist–but not on Ganymede!
Great Gods and Little Termites	Don Wilcox	Down into the tiny world of the Termites they went–or was it really a giant world of Termites?
Double for Destiny	Leroy Yerxa	Destiny played a dual role, a sort of Jekyll and Hyde split personality–and Fate went hog-wild
Sentimental Monster	Lee Francis	Sentiment in a machine–don’t be ridiculous; or perhaps it’s just in the way you look at things…

Astounding Science-Fiction (John W. Campbell, Jr.)

The Fairy Chessmen	Lewis Padgett (Kuttner / Moore)	The weirdest weapon ever conceived attacked not the mighty defensive screens, but the defending technical minds. It was a simple idea–but simply devastating. All it did was deny the basis of the scientific method!
Veiled Island	Emmett McDowell	A new author presents a tale of a new kind of superman, a cannibalistic, savage, dirty barbarian. But it isn’t what a race knows that counts; it’s what that race is.
Fine Feathers	George O. Smith	It’s an old, old, human urge to join the “get-rich-quick” boys. But with the educator machine that one man had invented, another man decided it was even better to join the “get-smart-quick” bandwagon. But as no man is ever quite rich enough, no man ever feels he’s quite smart enough–and both lead to trouble.
N Day	Philip Latham (R.S. Richardson)	There have been many tales of the terror and riots that precede the end of the Earth, when some scientist accurately predicts its doom. But now let’s see–would men react quite that way…
A Matter of Length	Ross Rocklynne	“How long is a minute?” doesn’t ordinarily make much sense–but on that strange planet, a minute was the wrong length. The oxygen in the air was the wrong length, too–but they were the right length to take the measure of Joe Henderson’s deadly little problem!
The Plants	Murray Leinster	It should be axiomatic that the dominant life-form on any planet is a dangerous, powerful species–or it wouldn’t be dominant. But of course, no one will be much bothered by a pretty little flower, even if it is dominant–
Special Knowledge	A. Bertram Chandler	A good officer on a modern merchant marine ship has a great deal of highly specialized knowledge. But if that man somehow found himself an officer on a merchant spaceship, his special knowledge would seem pretty useless–ordinarily. But not that trip!
This is the House	Lawrence O’Donnell (C.L. Moore)	A house, it has been said, is a machine for living. The house they bought from its previous occupant had, very definitely, been made just that. But–not for human living!
The Fairy Chessmen	Lewis Padgett (Kuttner / Moore)	Concluding Padgett’s novel of a strange but very terrible sort of weapon–the concept that truth, like all other things, might be variable, and our most basic laws but one of many possible aspects.
Pattern for Conquest	George O. Smith	First of three parts. The Earth has been menaced by galactic conquerors before, in science-fiction. But not quite this way–and not with quite these results. For instance, consider: What is the purpose of war? How determine the winner?
We Kill People	Lewis Padgett (Kuttner / Moore)	It was quite a business, too… and it wasn’t anything you could prove murder. Murder, after all, is strictly a human affair; this was, on the contrary, an inhuman sort of business!
Lady Dog	A. Bertram Chandler	The more complex, sensitive, and responsive a machine becomes, the more closely it approaches a living organism. Fine — but what if the darned thing begins to believe it is a living organism…?
Depth	G. N. Howard	A new author presents a new picture of a ship of–not space, yet space for all that. But the space hundreds of miles within the Earth!
Adapter	Murray Leinster	The Ethical Equation were a curious sort of business. For instance, the only ethical thing to do might turn out to be insubordination!
Guest in the House	Frank Belknap Long	The guest wasn’t invited, but then, the house was really a guest–in the time era of the intruder. The guest’s great trouble was he didn’t know the difference between knowledge and mental agility–
A Logic Named Joe	Will F. Jenkins (Murray Leinster)	Joe was a machine, and Joe wanted to be helpful. Joe was immensely helpful. So horribly helpful he very nearly destroyed civilization with his accurate answers!
Pattern for Conquest	George O. Smith	Second of Three Parts. With the aid of the Little People, Earth had developed new and mighty powers–but Earth remained one planet, and one people, opposing a quarter of a galaxy. The end was foredoomed–but the meaning was not so clear!
Swamper	Jerry Shelton	The peasant type clings to old ways in the face of any new advance–and, in time, there will be the dull, unchanging peasant type even on other worlds. Like the Swamper–
Black Market	Raymond F. Jones	An O.P.A agent’s job is to stop black market operations–but the job that faced him was something no ordinary measure could handle. Targ advertised his Black Market Emporium–but not the source of his strange and wonderfully efficient goods!
Loophole	Arthur C. Clarke	The Martians knew when Man developed the atomic bomb–and they knew Man’s warring character. So they took steps to see that Man stayed on his own home planet. That was a serious error–
Memorial	Theodore Sturgeon	His plan was to create a crater than would warn all men to avoid atomic war for five thousand years to come, memorial that would spit lava and deadly rays for five millenniums. Part of his plan was fulfilled–the wrong part.
The Nightmare	Chan Davis	This is a story of the immediate tomorrow–and of civilization headed down the inescapable road to destruction–down the road that we have, already, selected–and its nightmare end.
Rescue Party	Arthur C. Clarke	The mission was to rescue a fraction of a population–because the Galactic Union hadn’t known that the Earth’s Sun had inhabited planets until too late. But they did know it was going Nova!
The Cure	Lewis Padgett (Kuttner / Moore)	The simplest way to drive a sane man mad is to face him with an absolutely insolvable dilemma. There are more complex ways, of course–but the cure gets complicated, too, and sometimes fails–
A Son Is Born	A. E. van Vogt	Van Vogt starts a new series, of a world where atomic energy is old–and science forgotten, debased to ritual. A world into which a child touched by atomic rays is born–
Alexander the Bait	William Tenn	A new author presents an ingenious new idea on how to get interplanetary travel started. It’s done with a Moon-radar system. But not quite as the world thought–
Placet is a Crazy Place	Frederic Brown	It wasn’t that Placet itself was so crazy; it was just that the things Placet’s gravitic situation did to human sensory organs was really remarkable. You could even solve impossible problems quite unintentionally–
Pattern for Conquest	George O. Smith	Conclusion. The true nature of conquest isn’t always easy to determine–as a completely overwhelmed and conquered Earth had to demonstrate. It’s so impractical to enslave a man brighter than you are–
Forecast	Raymond F. Jones	Even if you can control the weather–the weather won’t satisfy everyone. And if someone’s dissatisfied, that means a fight–
The Bottled Men	Ross Rocklynne	Two men–hunter and hunted–were trapped in that natural battle. One started digging his way out, but it was a trickier problem than he guessed–
The Chromium Helmet	Theodor Sturgeon	This isn’t the best of all possible worlds–but it was no help to five reasonably comfortable people to encounter the strange effects of the “cromium hemlet[sic].”
Paradise	Clifford D. Simak	The Mutants had solved the secret of the philosophy that would give men peace–but the man who returned from Jupiter offered Paradise with a price tag; the oblivion of mankind.
The Chronokinesis of Jonathan Hull	Anthony Boucher	Time travel might make murder easy–but time travel itself, even though accomplished, might not be any easy thing to bear–
Cold Front	Hal Clement	The Master Salesman’s job was to find out what the people of that new world wanted and needed, and how best to supply it. What they needed was easy; decent weather. But supplying it–even though Earth knew how to control weather–wasn’t so easy!
Trouble	George O. Smith	“It takes two to make a quarrel” doesn’t mean two different people, really–just two different viewpoints!
The Blindness	Philip Latham (R.S. Richardson)	If, by some miracle, the full light of the Day Star could shine on man and his works–
Rain Check	Lewis Padgett (Kuttner / Moore)	It wasn’t human, or even remotely human. The race that created it had given it great powers. But one power it desperately wanted was denied it–
Stability	A. Bertram Chandler	Balance is important in modern planes–but a serious misbalance in something trying to balance on a jet of flaming gas could be more than merely annoying!
Film Library	A. E. van Vogt	Their novelty films were remarkable–but no novelties. Not, that is, at the time they were filmed–
Slaves of the Lamp	Arthur Leo Zagot	If greed were the only feature of human psychology men had to fear, we might cure the problem. But sometimes even worse is a man’s determination to improve his fellow man…
The Last Objective	Paul Carter	The only way to avoid atomic bombs is to be where they ain’t–and for an army, that meant tunneling underground in a really all-out way!
Bankruptcy Proceedings	E. Mayne Hull	Artur Blord had been in trouble–of his own doing–before. He knew how to protect himself against enemies. But it was his friends who were really dangerous!
Child of the Gods	A. E. van Vogt	In a world of war, assassination, and violence there seemed no place for the psychopathically shy and timid Clane. He could never appear in public, or rule as was his right–it seemed.
The Cat and the King	Raymond F. Jones	A cat can, of course, look. But this was a remarkable cat: it didn’t look. It watched. There’s a rather important difference–
The Toymaker	Raymond F. Jones	The Imaginos were silly, lumpy little dolls–but the kids were crazy about them. In fact–they were so crazy about them that the destiny of the planet hung on them!
Vintage Season	Lawrence O’Donnell (C.L. Moore)	Everybody seemed to want the old house during May–and seemed willing to pay fantastic prices for the privilege. Strange tourists they were, too. The Cafe Society of another time.
Blind Time	George O. Smith	The real problem of the missing link–missing because displaced a few hours in time–was how to prevent an accident that had already happened!
Evidence	Isaac Asimov	You know, it would be mighty hard to get evidence that a robot claiming it was a man, was not. As a man, he’d have rights of privacy, and until you proved otherwise–
Slaves of the Lamp	Arthur Leo Zagot	Sometimes the finest motives are the deadliest, the kindliest acts, the stupidest–and an idealist can kill a city!
The Chronicler	A. E. van Vogt	There was a third eye in his skull–but it was more than a third path for vision. It was the key to a new, and terror-ridden world. A world of savages in a city, and philosophers in caves–and of a spaceship. First of two parts.
Chaos, Co-Ordinated	John MacDougal (James Blish, R.W. Lowndes)	Earth didn’t stand much chance of winning against a galaxy, when the multitude of races was co-ordinated by a perfect thinking machine/ But machines have their limitations. No imagination–no soul, no poetry in ’em!
Assumption Unjustified	Hal Clement	It was an easy error to make. To an alien being, a man is a man is a human being. Even human beings have trouble, sometimes, telling one man from another. The alien’s assumption–
False Dawn	A. Bertram Chandler	A tale of very long ago, before man had descended (sic) from the “apes,” and a time when the Moon was not an airless, scarred glove in the night skies.
Alien	George O. Smith	This is not a logical, probably, or scientific story. It’s a bit of insanity about a barroom brawl over a man with feathers where his hair should have been–
To Still the Drums	Chan Davis	Some men ask only peace, and a chance to do their work; to some, a mighty weapon is an irresistible temptation to power, with or without the consent of a nation. And such must be watched.
Mewhu’s Jet	Theodore Sturgeon	Mewhu came from–somewhere. He wrecked his spaceship on landing, but the “parachute” he had was something decidedly super–an atomic jet job! The problem was to get into communication–they thought.
Hobbies	Clifford D. Simak	The cities were deserted, save for one. The men and women of that city had hobbies–but no accomplishments. The robots they had left behind were doing better…
The Unforeseen	Mark Champion	A prison break is successful only when it employs some factor which neither foresight nor past experience has called to the attention of the guards. They key to freedom is–the unforeseen.
Tower of Darkness	A. Bertram Chandler	The planet was a deadly place–deadly not to men, but to their ambition. It seemed to be cursed by the Tower, and against the Tower neither strong will, courage, not the flame of human ambition succeeded. It took something quite different–and unanswerable.
The Chronicler	A. E. van Vogt	Concluding the story of a man thrown into a strange world of highly civilized barbarians, and a decaying city–
Metamorphosite	Eric Frank Russell	Building a galactic empire takes time–a very long time. And it may not be the same people who started the job when they finish–
For the Public	Bernard I. Kahn	The story of a doctor of the Lunar Quarantine Station and his routine job. And the routine was death–
Hand of the Gods	A. E. van Vogt	Clane, the Child of the Gods, might be loved by the Atom Gods, but not by the sharp-minded old woman who ruled the Empire–and that was a very practical and dangerous matter indeed!
The Impossible Pirate	George O. Smith	Precisely so–impossible. Which was what made it so hard to catch him! There wasn’t any possible way he could escape–
Time Enough	Lewis Padgett (Kuttner / Moore)	The Old ‘Uns lived in secret–not quite immortal, but for five hundred years or more they’d lived. But nevertheless they’d all died at about one century!

Famous Fantastic Mysteries (Mary Gnaedinger)

While Famous Fantastic Mysteries generally ran reprints, there were two notable exceptions in 1946.

Daemon	C. L. Moore	For such as Luiz o Bob the powers of ancient earth will gather when his cry for help is heard… but only for such as he, who have no souls–who can see the dainty hoofs of Pan and can hear the strange and terrible music of his pipes…
And Not in Peace	George Whitley (A. Bertram Chandler)	He laughed at devils and vampires and wasn’t afraid, because they belonged to the world of fantasy–forgetting that it is sometimes the realest world of all…

Fantastic Adventures (Raymond A. Palmer)

Moon Slave	Leroy Yerxa	Many things happen under the moon, and because of the moon; was that why these graves were opened?
Vacation in Shasta	Rog Phillips	Mt. Shasta is supposed to be the home of weird underground dwellers. What is its deep-hidden secret?
The Life Symbol	Richard Casey	Noah, a modern one, boards an ark of space, and the old story takes on a few new, and funny, angles!
Siren Song	Lester Barclay	Modern soldiers and sailors engaged in a war can’t expect sirens to sing to them–or can they?
Toka and the Man Bats	J. W. Pelkie	Out of the sky came the greatest of all dangers for Sandcliff–and Toka took his axe into the air.
The Land of Big Blue Apples	Don Wilcox	In this country you ate apples–and you caught them on your horns. Saved trouble picking them up.
Christopher Crissom’s Cravat	David Wright O’Brien	It was a lovely tie–if you had an eye for color. And this one demanded that it be noticed…
An Adam From the Sixth	Richard S. Shaver	Adam hung himself in despair; then he got another chance to live, all memory of the past erased.
A Crystal and a Spell	Chester S. Geier	There was magic in the crystal; it could cast spells. But a piece of gas pipe complicated things.
The Sword and the Pool	Berkeley Livingston	Out of the pool came a pair of hands bearing aloft a shining beauty of a sword dedicated to freedom.
Finished by Hand	H. B. Hickey	Never throw stones if you live in a glass house; and also, never yell thief if you are one too!
To Watch by Night	Robert Moore Williams	Eyes that watch in the night sometimes see things that are not suspected during the daylight…
Tree’s a Crowd	Robert Bloch	Lefty Feep found himself unpopular in ordinary company–his bark was worse than his bite…
He Who Saw Tomorrow	Thomas P. Kelley	Ordinarily no man can see the future, lease of all his own. But tomorrow he would live again!
Jimmy Takes a Trip	William Lawrence Hamling	Jimmy liked trains, especially this one that he saw at the station where nobody else saw trains.
The Softly Silken Wallet	David Wright O’Brien	A wallet is for one purpose only, to carry money–but it can be made of a variety of materials…
The Tale of the Last Man	Richard S. Shaver	Only one man left on earth; the whole world was his, to do with as he liked. What would he do?
Cult of the Eagle	Berkeley Livingston	They were the most fearsome creatures on the planet–eagles as big as men, and as dangerous!
Minions of the Tiger	Chester S. Geier	His eyes had one peculiarity when they looked at you: They were the eyes of a tiger…
The Mirror	William Lawrence Hamling	It was just a plain mirror, and an old one. But it showed you the strangest things…
A Voice From Beyond	John P. Lenahan	When he walked over the X-ray cables, something happened to him. A voice called out…
I’ll Take the Subway	Berkeley Livingston	If you owned a subway system you’d be a rich man. But can a dead man spend his money?
Taming of the Tyrant	Leroy Yerxa	It was a world where women were forgotten. Teena set out to make the tyrants remember
Dual Personality	Rog Phillips	He was perfectly content to stay single. But then somebody doubled up inside him…
Shadow of the Sphinx	William Lawrence Hamling	The sphinx stands patiently in the sands of Egypt–waiting–for someone…
Rocket to Limbo	Margaret St. Clair	Millie wanted to get rid of her husband, so she bought him a one-way ticket to limbo…
The Counterfeiter	Robert Moore Williams	The little man didn’t want to be a counterfeiter–it was the machine he built…
The Moving Finger	Berkeley Livingston	When the old man pointed his finger and prophesied death, people laughed–and died…
Happiness is Nowhere	Chester S. Geier	Man’s quest for happiness in this world is futile–but there are other worlds…
The Smiling Wife	H. B. Hickey	The Norsemen have many strange legends. One of them concerns a smiling woman…
The Red Door	Don Wilcox	There were many doors in Askandia, and all of them had been opened–except one…

Fantasy (UK) (Walter Gillings)

Last Conflict	John Russel Fearn	To men to ruthless ambition, Science can be a very powerful ally. But too much power is dangerous for those who can’t control it…
Supernova	P. E. Cleator	All the evidence pointed to a sudden, catastrophic end for Man and his planet. But only one man knew, and denied the world the knowledge. Fortunately…
The Worlds of If	Stanley G. Weinbaum	To travel into the future or the past? Pfui! But to explore the might-have-beens — that was easy to a genius like van Manderpoots.
Technical Error	Arthur C. Clarke	The Chief Physicist has a problem… How to keep a starving man alive when it would cost two millions a year to feed him?
The Pain Machine	L. V. Heald	Turning pain into pleasure seemed a good idea — and the machine did just that. But sometimes machines can work too well…
A Matter of Size	Norman Lazenby	Bigness isn’t everything… And a man deprived of his sense of proportion is apt to overlook the compensations of smallness — even when he wants to hide.

Futuristic Stories (UK) (Dennis H. Pratt)

The Lords of Zorm	N. Wesley Firth	(no blurb)
Laughter of the Gods	Earl Ellison	Mister Seedly’s Impulsator
The Timeless Dimension	Rice Ackman	Mike Owens stepped into trouble when he stepped into the Vanishing Cabinet of Calgary. Through a timeless dimension to a dying, twilight world, alien and deserted, except for two beautiful girls — and the CRAKES!

New Worlds (UK) (Edward John Carnell)

The Mill of the Gods	Maurice G. Hugi	World markets were being flooded with cheap merchandise, but nobody knew where the goods were manufactured. Until Intelligence officers stumbled upon the fantastic answer…
The Three Pylons	William F. Temple	A fantasy of long ago. King Fero left his son a hard task — the riddle of the three pylons. When Rodan solved the problem it altered history.
Solar Assignment	Mark Denholm	Two news reporters tangle with a mystery on Pluto–and find the answer to an age-old Earth mystery.
Knowledge Without Learning	K. Thomas (R.W. Fearn)	A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. A lot, when stolen from other people, can be more than dangerous–for some.
Sweet Mystery of Life	John Russel Fearn	A strange plant grew from a rose cutting–and Man learned the secret of space travel. There was a snag, however
White Mouse	Thornton Ayre (J.R. Fearn)	If an Earthman married a girl from another planet an brought her to earth, how would she fit into her new environment?
The Living Lies	John Beynon	Venus, as a colony of Earth, had a highly specialised system for keeping the balance of power in the White’s hands. It was a problem of racial colour–but not to the Venusians
Lunar Concession	Thornton Ayre (J.R. Fearn)	Mining on the Moon might be fun–for some–if the stakes were not so high.
Space Ship 13	Patrick S. Selby	With all interplanetary space to travel in, the Rapier had to be on another spaceship’s course.
Vicious Circle	Polton Cross	Time runs in a straight line=–but what if one man’s Time Line is circular? He’d see the Past, the Present and the Future
Foreign Body	John Brody	If, long years ago, a visitor from space crashed on Earth–where would be the logical place to find traces?
The Micro Man	Alden Lorraine	A fantasy of a little man who visited the Gods–but the Gods were not amused–only careless
Green Spheres	W. P. Cockcroft	If Earth is ever invaded from Outer Space, the first arrivals might not be the invaders–but merely their softening-up process.

Outlands (UK) (Leslie J. Johnson)

Pre-Natal	John Russel Fearn	The “searchlights” from Outer Space were in search of something — someone — on the Earth. When they found what they sought, one man “died” — only to live again…
Strange Portrait	Sydney J. Bounds	(no blurb)
Bird of Time	John Gabriel	The Bird of Time has but a little way To fly — and Lo! The Bird is on the Wing. Omar Khayyam
Undying Faith	Charnock Walsby	Dowater was a confirmed Atheist, but he was not without Faith — in his own disbeliefs!
Rival Creators	George G. Wallis	A story of the Ages after the Earth’s End.
The Opaque Word	Anthony Cotrion	Septimus Hudd had not been invited to attend at the Brain’s Trust, but he turned up just the same — and made “light” of some of the questions…

Planet Stories (Chester Whitehorn, Paul L. Payne)

Engines of the Gods	Gardner F. Fox	The engines were the wealth of Mars–but they could not be used until their secret was solved. Kortha and the evil Guantra fought and schemed for the knowledge–and the planet lay on the bring of destruction.
The Blue Venus	Emmett McDowell	The Renegade’s men swept through the valleys of Venus, seeking a greed-maddened slaver who planned an experiment so cruel and barbaric it would crumble the very foundation of mankind.
What Hath Me?	Henry Kuttner	The thousand tiny eyes raced past him, glittering with alien ecstasy, shining bright, ever brighter as they fed. He felt the life blood being sucked out of him.
Survival	Basil Wells	Men found themselves suddenly in the swampy hell of Venus, fighting a weird battle for existence.
Defense Mech	Ray Bradbury	Man, man, how’d you get in a mess like this, in a rocket a million miles past the moon, shooting for Mars and danger and terror and maybe death.
Electron Eat Electron	Noel Loomis	(Editor’s note: When we had read through this in-a-class-by-itself story, we exclaimed “Here’s PLANET’S scoop on the world!”)
Crisis on Titan	James R. Adams	Here they were, about to be blasted out of existence by strange inhabitants of a weird planet–and Staley was making like a baseball player!
Lorelei of the Red Mist	Leigh Brackett, Ray Bradbury	He died–and then awakened in a new body. It was a good body, and he took pleasure in it… until he discovered that it was hated by all on Venus–and that his soul was owned by Rann, devil-goddess of Falga.
Captives of the Weir-Wind	Ross Rocklynne	Their objective–if they lived to reach it–was a world beyond all worlds… a planet where howling winds could kill and lakes of radium acted as graves.
The Shadow-Gods	Vaseleos Garson	Curt watched them die, crushed and seared by the spreading blue flower, and he cursed himself. With all his knowledge and strength he could not save his people.
The Pumpkin Eater	Carlton Smith	Ed shook the kid’s hand and smiled–and said to himself: “I got to kill this guy! Before he gets inside me! Before he finds out what I am!”
Space-Lane of No-Return	George A. Whittington	It came suddenly–the excitement you yearned for–and you found yourself being blasted out of the void…
Prisoner of the Brain-Mistress	Bryce Walton	“I became part of it, part of the heat and brightness and whirling, and I could feel myself melting away–until I became nothing…”
The Million Year Picnic	Ray Bradbury	Just behind the veil of the vacation–instead of the soft face of laughter–there was something hard and bony and terrifying…
Dread-Flame of M’Tonak	Henry Hasse	Grimly the outlaw Ketrik slogged toward the proud Martian city… behind him the gibbering mindless wrecks of Terra’s shrewdest intelligence men… ahead a ghastly green glow in the sky that waited for him as it had for them–hungrily!
The Creatures That Time Forgot	Ray Bradbury	Mad, impossible world! Sun-blasted by day, cold-wracked by night–and life condensed by radiation into eight days! Sim eyed the ship–if he only dared reach it and escape! … But it was more than half an hour distant–the limit of life itself!
Enter the Nebula	Carl Jacobi	The greatest cracksman of the Galaxy–the Nebula… mocked by a gay voice that called herself Andromeda, who led him into danger–into the hands of his enemy!
The Derelict	William J. Matthews	Dying, castaway Jeff Thorne stumbled across the pitiless desert… was Death awaiting him in this sudden vision of the crumbling towers–the dry-rotted hulks of an ancient Martian seaport?
Total Recall	Larry Sternig	The armada from outer space was attacking–Roger Kay had thirty minutes to wrench the secret of victory from the old scientist’s brain where it lay buried in horror!
Through the Asteroids–To Hell!	Leroy Yerxa	Blair Freedman had torn that tunnel through the grinding asteroid wall–with the might Cutter… he’d die now to keep it open–but not with the girl he loved!
Six Tuesdays	Ross Rocklynne	Not six Tuesdays in as many weeks, but the same Tuesday, over and over! Ivan wondered what he’d gotten the universe into–with this crazy time-machine of his!
The Man the Sun-Gods Made	Gardner F. Fox	The Tryllans worshipped him as god. Yet grief bowed those superbly-muscled shoulders, for Tyr knew he was no more divine than the lowest ray-gunner of the invader hordes.
The Sven Jewels of Chamar	Raymond F. Jones	Scattered, the jewels were maddening. Held in a grasping palm they bestowed power enough to rile the System. But space-roving Nathan and the deadly Firebird learned the terrible price of that power.
Love Among the Robots	Emmett McDowell	Henry Ohm found his robots hard to control–with that girl around. There was something about her–ah–personality!
Tepondicon	Carl Jacobi	There was treasure beyond price in those plague-darkened cities of Ganymede, provided the seeker, too, had no price.
Space Bat	Carl Selwyn	Out of the caves of space it flew–huge, rapacious, terrifying. But Lou Flint wanted it more than he wanted the luscious Karen.
Fog of the Forgotten	Basil Wells	Rebelling against science, his people had thrust themselves down into the ancient mists. Now Ho Dyak wanted light.
Example	Tom Pace	Frantically, the space-liner called Commander Gray: “Disaster ahead–you can save us!” He smiled grimly; he knew the only way.
Breath of Beelzebub	Larry Sternig	Only half an ounce of the liquor from Planetoid Y-145 had been distilled. But that was enough to drive the universe mad!

Startling Stories (Sam Merwin, Jr.)

Outlaw World	Edmond Hamilton	On the trail of malevolent space pirates, Curt Newton and the Futuremen combat the evil machinations of the Uranian Ru Ghur, who plans the total destruction of the Universe!
The Forgotton Man of Space	P. Schuyler Miller	A Hall of Fame Classic reprinted by popular demand
The Jimson Island Giant	Sam Merwin, Jr.	Duplex had a formula–but could not foresee its consequences
Valley of the Flame	Keith Hammond	Far from civilization, Brian Raft and Parror, the cat-man, grapple in a fight to the finish–while a breathless girl looks on and the destiny of a race totters in the balance!
Shadow Over Venus	Frank Belknap Long	Command James Elwood battles against the Venusian gules
Twelve Hours to Live!	Jack Williamson	A Hall of Fame Classic reprinted by popular demand
The Dark Angel	Henry Kuttner	Tim Hathaway sensed that his wife was growing different, but–
The Dark World	Henry Kuttner	Edward Bond enters a twin universe of black sorcery, where his evil replica, Ganelon, fights for a kingdom of slaves, infinite power, and two alluring women–Arles and Medea!
The Man With X-Ray Eyes	Edmond Hamilton	A Hall of Fame Classic reprinted by popular demand
Planet of the Black Dust	Jack Vance	The pirates held all the cards but one–a man’s soul
The Vicious Circle	Polton Cross	Dick Mills oscillates back and forth from past to future
Extra Earth	Ross Rocklynne	President Woodward and his cabinet wage war on six evil men
The Solar Invasion	Manly Wade Wellman	Curt Newton, Joan Randall and the Futuremen cruise into a strange world peopled with weird, pallid inhabitants, on the quest of a lost satellite which was mysteriously plucked from the sky!
After Armageddon	Francis Flagg	A Hall of Fame Classic reprinted by popular demand
Afraid	W. E. Thiessen	Earth’s messenger, Norman Kane, braves the terrors of the Moon
Absalom	Henry Kuttner	The prodigy son of a future father presents a difficult problem

Strange Adventures (UK) (Dennis H. Pratt)

Fugitive on Venus	Leslie Halward	Bourbon, a homicidal maniac, made a break from Grunton Pen., and in his madness he hurled himself through space to Venus, taking with him Professor Systrom’s beautiful daughter, Lana…
Mary Had a Little… ?	N. Wesley Firth	A riotously funny story about the thing that followed Mary about, a thing from another dimension. A story with an unusual ending… by the author of “Lords of Zorm”.
Space Hobo’s Diary	Rice Ackman	The space hobo had some strange stories to tell. And this is one of his strangest…

Thrilling Wonder Stories (Sam Merwin, Jr,)

Forgotten World	Edmond Hamilton	Star-sick Laird Carlin is ordered back to Earth for a rest cure–and there on the ancient, ancestral planet, his love for a girl lures him into the toils of a weird conspiracy!
The Disciplinary Circuit	Murray Leinster	Fleeing from the fury of despots through parsecs of space, Kim Rendell and Dona Brett dodge ghastly dangers!
Siren Satellite	Arthur K. Barnes	A daring crew of spaceteers faces a grim prospect–unless Gerry Carlyle wins a devouring monster as her ally!
Information Please	Stanley Whiteside	A mechanical super-brain possesses a one-track mind
Atomic Station	Frank Belknap Long	Roger Sheldon puts up a battle when energy runs amuck
Clutch of Morpheus	Larry Sternig	Rackam’s comet induces a fatal sleeping sickness
Battle of the Brains	Jerry Shelton	Immortal powers were conferred upon men when the colossus Klarth implanted their brain cases into invincible super-bodies–but Mason knew it meant humanity’s enslavement!
Indestructible Man	Edmond Hamilton	Death holds no threat for Phil Ryan as he dares bullets, floods and other lethal threats while battling to protect the world’s greatest secret!
Undermost	Manly Wade Wellman	Enter the Dakar-Natal Transatlantic Tunnel, situation eight miles below sea-level, where brave men struggle mightily for glory, fame and love!
Rocket Pants	Noel Loomis	Determined to save a friend from ruin, Arne Pearce and Hugo Drake race through space, facing the sinister menace of treacherous Marcus Barr!
Find the Sculptor	Samuel Mines	There was a maddening riddle in the epochal time-travelling machine
Jones’ Physique	Wilm Carver	The odd case of J. Maurice Jones was only a scientific problem, until–
Rocket Skin	Ray Bradbury	Hitch-hiking through space, George Vanning meets up with murder
Like Dups	Murray Leinster	Greedy Earthman “Slug” Breen gambles against time for limitless wealth
Tital of the Jungle	Stanton A. Coblentz	A mysterious fluid of enlightenment reverses the order of the world–and only Mark Haverside and the Pembrooks, armed with slingshots and courage, can set things right!
Dead City	Murray Leinster	Out of the misty past come weird creatures to prey upon mankind–but Pete Marshall and his aides meet the menace with scientific weapons!
The Ice World	Ross Rocklynne	When reptiles rule in a dying world, brace Starnik and his friend Caset become leaders in a struggle to restore the heritage of humanity!
Twilight Planet	Polton Cross	A young scientist shatters the atom–and destroys his planet
Zero	Noel Loomis	Space flier Bob Parker risks the peril of banishment to the Moon
Forever is Today	Charles F. Ksanda	Edmund Carsten, scientist, seems to bend eternity to his wishes
The Multillionth Chance	John Russell Fearn	Physicist Grant Mayson re-creates Iana, the wonder girl of long ago, out of scattered atoms–but between them stands the memory of Anrax, long-dead master of science!
Call Him Demon	Keith Hammond	Deep in his fourth dimensional lair crouches the hungry monster, while only a band of children guards helpless adult victims!
Pocket Universes	Murray Leinster	When a Latin-American tyrant visits New York, Luis Santos perfects a machine that can eliminate space–and exacts vengeance!
The Good Egg	Ross Rocklynne	Square Root, the little imp from space, does some fast figuring
Never the Twain Shall Meet	Brett Sterling	John Farrel keeps his Tryst with Ylleen, whose love means death
The Little Things	Henry Kuttner	Dave Tenning, a born rebel, felt he did not belong in this Futureworld
Tubby–Master of the Atom	Ray Cummings	An atomic beauty of a distant era gives Tubby the eye
I Am Eden	Henry Kuttner	In a fabulous Brazilian Valley, Jim Ferguson and Dr. Cairns battle against walking rocks and cannibal plants in their strange quest of a mysterious and fascinating girl goddess!
The End	Murray Leinster	When universal disaster threatens, Ron Hort and Sart Voorn fight ruthless pirates while striving to find the answer to an ancient enigma!
Phalid’s Fate	Jack Vance	His brain encased in the body of a giant insect on an alien planet, Ryan Wratch struggles against big odds to defeat the enemies of all Earthmen!
Grim Rendezvous	Arthur Leo Zagat	Johnny Rober, discredited physicist, stages a desperate sky venture
The Ghosts of Melvin Pye	L. Sprague de Camp	Landlord Conroy’s property is besieged by frolicsome “ha’nts”
Pardon My Mistake	Fletcher Pratt	A future kidnaper tries to make his getaway in a fast space ship
Life on the Moon	Alexander Samolman	Jay Revere explores the unknown in a rocket trip to Earth’s satellite

Weird Tales (Dorothy S. McIlwraith)

Kurban	Seabury Quinn	Like Pharoh’s necromancers, he could cast his rod upon the earth and it became a live, hissing serpent
Chariots of San Fernando	Malcolm Jameson	There are many unsolved mysteries in this strange world of ours–like the bizarre adventures at the Amazon’s headwaters!
Sin’s Doorway	Manly Wade Wellman	A soul is free to enter heaven if its burden of sin is borne by a living person
Seed	Jack Snow	How thin is the veneer of modern learning. And how little it takes to shake one’s faith!
Mr. Bauer and the Atoms	Fritz Leiber	If a person suddenly became radio active, with all that atomic energy inside his body…
Satan’s Phonograph	Robert Bloch	Have you ever heard of a recording machine so damnably delicate that it captures the human soul?
Pikeman	August Derleth	The tombstone warned “Prepare for death and follow me!”
The Diversions of MME. Gamorra	Harold Lawlor	What, pray, would people be like if they were reduced to their least common denominator!
All the Time in the World	Charles King	The mass of bloated flesh that could be formed into different shapes by kneading with the fingers–was me!
Twice Cursed	Manly Wade Wellman	Do you know of those who are afraid of memory shadows and others who never fear the devil except on a dark night?
The Man in the Crescent Terrace	Seabury Quinn	The thing used its spear like a woman testing cake with a broomstraw–on the “cake” was a human!
The Bogey Man Will Get You	Robert Bloch	That was what was nice about him — the mystery, the not-knowing…
Dead Man’s Shoes	Stephen Grendon	Those who are stricken with that curious and terrible hallucination should be thankful — for it warns of something far more terrible
Chanu	Jim Kjelgaard	Look closely at his cultured face and you will discern to your amazement a snarling mouth and great fangs
The Jonah	Emil Petaja	Remember the “Marie Celeste”? Here’s an explanation for that and other sea mysteries that could not be explained!
Tunnel Terror	Allison V. Harding	Strong things can happen in a vehicular tube — especially when the tunnel goes places it isn’t supposed to!
The Traveller	Ray Bradbury	A strange family, with no real life to any of them!
The Valley of the Gods	Edmond Hamilton	Guarding this fabulous, legendary valley is a sinister night-shrouded place of the dead
Three in Chains	Seabury Quinn	Whoever it was–or whatever–watched us gloatingly
Midnight	Jack Snow	There was scarcely a forbidden book of shocking ceremonies and nameless teachings that he had not consulted
The Man in Purple	Dorothy Quick	This accursed room had an aura of immeasurable menace–a ghost come true
The Smiling People	Ray Bradbury	Nothing is quite so horrible, so final as complete utter silence
Once There Was an Elephant	R. H. Phelps	You’ve heard of the old triangle–but suppose one of the trio is an elephant!
Rain, Rain, Go Away!	Gardner F. Fox	His obsession sat like an evil witch astride his thin shoulders, haunting him
The Silver Highway	Harold Lawlor	There was a strange story connected with the Pope-Hartford runabout and the exquisite girl who sat in it
Frozen Fear	Robert Bloch	A deep-freeze unit is like some monstrous beast that has just dined well
Shonokin Town	Manly Wade Wellman	The Shonokins are real — real almost-men with peculiar knowledges and sciences, fearing only their own dead
Catspaws	Seabury Quinn	A girl attacked at night by some creature; not human, not animal, but monster
The Night	Ray Bradbury	This was a summer night that waded deep in time and stars and warm eternity–a night when reason ended and universal evil took over
The Wings	Allison V. Harding	One never knows what incredible forces are ready to loose themselves upon the world at any moment
The Man Who Told the Truth	Jim Kjelgaard	“From this night on everything you say will come true, so watch your language!”
I’ll Be Glad When I’m Dead	Charles King	It’s written that pint-sized demons can only give out with vest pocket spells!
The Cinnabar Redhead	Harold Lawlor	Life is full of problems and in the lonely hush of a foggy night ghosts become one of them
The Shingler	E. L. Wright	Next time you have work done on your house be sure you don’t get the Singler!
For Love of a Phantom	Stanton Coblentz	The room was a musty six-by-eight where unearthly shadows seemed to dance in the gas-light
Ghost	P. Schuyler Miller	It is a pleasure to remember sometimes how certain people died
Lotte	Seabury Quinn	When a mystery presents itself it gnaws like a magot at the brain, nor can it be dislodged till the solution is found
Day of Judgement	Edmond Hamilton	Someday, some eternity away, there will be a last man and a last woman. And who will be their judgers?
Enoch	Robert Bloch	Have you ever felt the tread of little feet walking across the top of your skull?
Alice and the Allergy	Fritz Leiber	It’s only common sense to be scared of a killer–sometimes even after he has been apprehended and executed!
Not Human	Bert David Ross	A tulka does not really live — therefore a tulka is indestructible. It cannot die
The Horn	Charles King	A goat’s horn, marvelously endowed with strange virtues and an unforgivable future
The Machine	Allison V. Harding	A machine, so sensitive as to be human, was the scientist’s goal. What he got was as utterly unexpected as it was horrific!
Six Flights to Terror	Manly Banister	The building’s bizarre architecture was as though it had been lifted bodily and transported here from some haunted place deep in a mysterious Europe
Polar Vortex	Malcolm Ferguson	All alone on the night side of the world time moves at a snail’s pace
Threshold of Endurance	Betsy Emmons	What is, can be — what happens, can happen again
Xerxes’ Hut	Harold Lawlor	A small unpretentious hut, with an eternity of history and an unguessable secret within four walls of horror
Spawn of the Green Abyss	C. Hall Thompson	There are events that transpire in this world that you will not believe–that you will not want to believe!
Eyes in the Dark	Seabury Quinn	Some will not live to grow old — for a variety of outre reasons
Shipmate	Allison V. Harding	Your shipmates are picked by chance or fate — to sail with you toward some shrouded doom beyond the farthest horizon!
Mayaya’s Little Green Men	Harold Lawlor	Things happen in rambling, reconverted farmhouses, things that make you wish you weren’t twenty miles from the nearest neighbor
Let’s Play “Poison”	Ray Bradbury	Children — little monsters thrust out of hell because the devil could no longer cope with them
A Collector of Stones	August Derleth	You don’t always worry about ethics if you’re a fanatical collector. But you should worry about the dead!
Lizzie Bordon Took an Axe	Robert Bloch	A locked room, mouldering books, muttered curses, in a rotting hulk of a house — add up to tragedy
Frogfather	Manly Wade Wellman	The oldest ones say Khomgabassi dug the waterways, planted the trees and fathered the frogs

This recently encountered work of art has spurred a new adventure in the archeology of early fandom.

Here’s what we know:

• The work is in ink, pencil and colored pencil on board. The board has pin-holes indicating that it was mounted at some point. It’s fairly large — 18″ x 13″.
• There’s no signature, date or annotation on the piece, front or back
• It appeared on eBay some time ago. The person who acquired it from there doesn’t recall from whom it was bought. So, no provenance is available.

Who did it, and when? For what purpose, if not for its own sake?

To attempt to date the piece, we observe the following clues:

• “Trainor’s Tower” is a reference to “The Prince of Space” by Jack Williamson, first published in the January 1931 issue of Amazing Stories
• “Septama” refers to Aladra Septama, a pseudonym of Judson W. Reeves. Stories under this moniker appeared in Amazing Stories in 1929 and 1930.
• “Flagg” evokes Francis Flagg, a name used by author Henry George Weiss. Stories with this attribution were published primarily from 1928 – 1934, mostly in Amazing Stories.
• “LESTONE” seems to point to the author Leslie F. Stone (legal name Leslie Francis Silberberg). Stories by Stone appeared in the early- to mid-1930s, mainly in Amazing Stories.
• The designations on the airships (“G-6,” “S-6,” “II-0”) could be significant, but we haven’t been able to track down a specific origin.

Regarding the style of the piece, we believe it’s directly inspired by the work of Frank R. Paul — most specifically, this piece from Amazing Stories Quarterly, v1n1, Winter 1928, illustrating “The Moon of Doom” by Earl L. Bell.

The FFE team has kicked this around and we’re stumped.

If we take the content as dating the piece to the early 1930s (reasonable but not definitive), here are the possibilities that seem most credible:

• It’s fan art by the only fan artist prior to 1935 who demonstrated the level of skill necessary to create such a detailed piece — Clay Ferguson, Jr. That said, we haven’t seen other examples of Ferguson’s work that are similar in style.
• It’s a preliminary or test piece by Frank R. Paul. However, we feel the variable quality of the rendering doesn’t seem consistent with Paul, even his preliminaries.

If we’re willing to allow that the piece is from the late 1930s, another candidate fan artist comes into focus — John V. Baltadonis. Born in 1921, it doesn’t seem credible that he could have produced this prior to the age of 16. His skill increased rapidly in the late 1930s and 1940s.

For example, we have this cover from The Science Fiction Collector, v4n3, August 1938. Notable here is the flyer designation, “K-24.” Same origin as the similar insignias on our mystery art?

We also have this oil-on-canvas work from 1939, with another similar flyer designation, “D-7.”

We ran this puzzle by Baltadonis’ son, Steven. Could this be by his father? His take:

“I would say yes. Paul style and my father thought he was the greatest. Probable area of initials missing in lower left. I had a similar black and white from Paul that I unfortunately sold prior to my reading of father’s admiration for his style and work. But, I believe you are on target with this. It has his hand in it. Not just the detail, but the unnoticed to most pencil line up top.”

All of our guesses may be wrong. We’ll continue to dig for answers. Any insight from our readers would be greatly appreciated!