From der voodvork out

by Bob Silverberg

Publishers are busy people, and probably can't be bothered with such insignificant details as the names of the men who write their books. Now that science fiction is respectable, apparently Gnome Press feels that it is no different from any other outfit. I commend your careful study of Gnome's advertisement in the May aSF, which offers books by Greenberg, van Vogt, Arthur Clarke, Lewis Padgett, and Clifford D. Simak. Of all these people, the only ones whose names were spelled correctly were Greenberg and van Vogt (and perhaps we should exclude Greenberg, since he owns the company and might reasonably be expected to spell his name correctly. But -- "Pagett," "Clark," and--horror--"Siwack." Clarke, besides being deprived of his distinctive silent "e" had the name of his great novel garbled to "Prelude to Fame". I detect a trend.

* * *

Don't You Read Q Department: From Der Voodvork Out, Silverberg, g, 19, Apr 52: "I wonder if Philip Wylie will sue Keasler if OPUS survives to its 21st issue?"

Fantastuff, Terry Carr, Peen Nov 52: "Will Max Keasler be sued by Philip Wylie if his fanzine OPUS reaches to its 21st issue?"

* * *

Since I'm sore at Charles Wells for leaving me out of his excerpt from the 1950-2000edition of the "Immortal Storm" in his new fanzine, "Fiendetta," I'll be picayune and quote a glaring error from said excerpt: he claims Frieberg Weinhaufer was the first pro editor to publish a fanzine while editing a prozine. This is, of course, wrong, since Charles Hirnig published "The Fantasy Fan" for three years while editing Wonder Stories. And Robert Lowndes had his hands in numerous Futurian publications after becoming an editor. So there, Wells. And how is it your author completely forgot the contributions of Paul Janssen? Here is the man who aided Willis in his hour of greatest need, not to mention his four-term presidency of N3F --and you omit him completely! Her shame, Wells, for shame.

* * *

It's getting close to Christmas, so ... the first ten overseas fans who write Bob Silverberg, 760 Montgomery St., Brooklyn 13, N.Y., will receive samples of the current issue of SPACESHIP.

* * *

And isn't the stf field ridiculous now? SPACE SF, a newcomer with just three issues behind it and practically no regular following built up, has announced that it is going monthly. And before the next year is out, Imagination, If, Fantastic, and foo knows hew many others may be on the twelve-a-year-tag. During 1952, Startling, OW , F&SF, and Space all converted to monthly, to join aSF, Galaxy, AS, and PA. It's too much.

* * *

Thanks to Ziff-Davis for finally bringing the terrible twins to a timely end. The news that the March 1953 issues will be the last for FA sand the last crud issue of Amazing is the best I've heard yet. And with one fell swoop we loose two mere of the pulp-format mags, and also shed two monthlies. The new Amazing will be bi-monthly. I fear it isn't going to keep "The Club House" and this may be harmful to fandom. I suggest that fans bombard Z-D with requests to reinstate the valuable Phillips column, should it be dropped.

* * *

Reading I've liked: my pet stories of the year drawing to a close form quite a list. SS: "Journey To Barkut", "The Lovers", "Asylum Earth". ASF: Nearly every long story, but especially "Gunner Cade", "Dumb Waiter" and "Blood Bank". Galaxy: A good deal, chiefly "Gravy Planet". F&SF "Bring The Jubilee" may have been the best s-f magazine story in years. Everything else in F&SF this year was top drawer.

The pulps had a good year, with reasonably high quality; SS and TWS continued the peak set by Merwin, while aSF had a tremendous year, its best since before the war. Galaxy deteriorated considerably, with much of its fiction as slick and shiny as its Kromekote covers, but still ran good stuff. F&SF is completely indescribably, and, now that it's running novels, will someday be as good as Unknown was, and in much the same vein.

Writers of the year were Walter Miller and Jack Vance. Most promising new mag was Fantastic, with Space SF second. Short stories, novelets, and cover paintings were perhaps at an all-time high; the year was featured by the amazing turnabout in Bergey and the fine work of Schomburg and Emsh.

Predictions for 1953: Planet will
go quarterly once again; Sam Mines's
mags will break all s-f pulp circulation
records except those set by Shaver. Walter
Miller will be acclaimed as a new Heinlein,
selling a serial to aSF or Galaxy or both.
Earle Bergey will become one of the most
popular cover artists, and Ziff-Davis's
"Fantastic" will continue to improve.
(Who could dream, in 1949 that Bergey
or Ziff-Davis would be praised?)

1953 will see a trend back to the
pulp format from digest size, with several
pulp houses adding to their lists with s-f titles.

* * * *

Since writing the above, word has reached
me of the death last month of Earle Bergey.
It came as a complete shock, something which
is hard-to imagine. Bergey, hardly a person as
much as a symbol for all that was bad on stf
covers, dead! It is, perhaps, ironic, that after
drawing unabated abuse from the fans for
his never-ending bem-triangle covers of
1940-50 period, he would die just when
the fans were beginning to appreciate his artistry.

The "new" Bergey of the past year and a half was one of the top illustrators of pulp sf, and we regret his passing, not only because ho was a landmark in s-f but because he was a top flight cover artist when not hampered by editorial policy. Earle K. Bergey most abused of all cover artists, will no longer be the trademark of SS and TENS. It suns hard to believe.

* * * * * * *

The new crop of cover artists seems promising. I have nothing but loathing for the work of Walter Popp, who, so far, has shown a talent for producing Bergey-like scenes with none of Bergey's mechanical proficiency. Ed Emshwiller is one of the best prospects in years --he's yet to do a bad cover, and his interior work is fine. The army will shortly release Walter Miller (no relation to the author) who was number one artist at aSF until the draft cut short his career...

And Paul Calle, who had acquired a considerable reputation, should be out of the army shortly as well. As for the other new cover artists --I haven't been noticing who's done the 1952 Ziff-Davis covers, but they've been as uniform a collection of slop as I've ever seen. Why isn't Robert Gibson Jones, once so popular, used by ZD any more? A. Leslie Ross was introduced with mych fanfare, by Lowndes, but I can't seem to appreciate the unusual Ross style. aSF added one Pawelka to its stall this year but so far he has produced nothing outstanding. Jack Cogent, an old hand at illustrating but new to stf, has done four covers this year, two good, two poor. I still have yet to find anyone who can match Hubert Roger's prewar work for aSF.

* * *

No one seems to have noticed that James Blish's excellent "Surface Tension" (GSF Aug 52) which was acclaimed by many as the 'year's best novelet, is actually a rewrttten and vastly expanded version of "Sunken Universe" by the same author, which appeared in Super Science Stories for May 1942 and was subsequently reprinted in that mag after the war, under the byline of "Arthur Merlyn".

* * *

Moneysavers Department: the series of Cherry Tree Fantasy Books from England continues unabated, 21¢ pocket-book reprints of US hardcovers. Those pbs are high-quality in format, as opposed to most British pbs, and are top-drawer economizers. The third group of four has just been issued, featuring two magnificent buys, one so-so, and one dud. The four are "Typewriter in the Sky" and "Fear" in one volume (what a bargain! Two Hubbard novels from Unknown for a dime each!); "The Thing From Another World" (which is our old friend, "Who Goes There" masquerading under its more popular name. This is a collection of seven of the best s-f stories ever written, led off by the all-time tops in s-f chills.) The se-so is James Walsh's dreary "The Vanguard to Neptune," a story by a British author which appeared in Wonder Quarterly in 1932, and which has never appeared in US hardcovers. The dud is Theresa DuBois' "Solution T-25" which appeared here in 1950 as an original hardcover in the Doubleday line, and which drew deserved catcalls from reviewers.

This series is one of the best reprint strings of all--the other eight titles are "Sinister Barrier", "The Last Spaceship", "The Kid From Mars", "Flight into Space", "Ralph 124C41 Plus", "The Sunken World", "Gabriel Over The White House," and "John Carstair's" a half-and-half assortment of mediocre and great stories in neat format at 21¢ a throw. Interested fans can get any of the series from Ken Slater or toher British fans at face value. ((We suggest Ken at this address: Capt K. Slater 13 Gp RPC - BAOR 15 - c/o GPO England or Chuch Harris - "Carolin" - Lake Ave - Rainham - Essex, England.))

And that closes up shop for now.

---Bob Silverberg

Data entry by Judy Bemis

Updated May 20, 2003. If you have a comment about these web pages please send a note to the Fanac Webmaster. Thank you.