“Clark Ashton Smith’s story ‘The Ghoul’ is fascinating all the way
through and the plot one that fits in with the treatment. I am
anxiously waiting for more poems by him.
“‘Supernatural Horror in Literature’ grows even more absorbing with the
dawn of the Horror Tale. It is certainly something to tuck away and
think over. Especially interesting is how the germ started and gained
force in our own country from the European elements and the fact that
superstition is more prevalent in northern blood than in southern,
speaking racially—Latin and the like.
“The ‘Annals of the Jinns’ continues well and R. H. Barlow can get
quite a story in so few words.”
—Duane W. Rimel
You will notice an excellent long poem by Clark Ashton Smith in this
issue. We intend to lengthen the installments of Lovecraft’s article in
future issues—the next part will take over two full pages. Barlow’s
sixth “Annals” will probably appear next month.
“Very glad to see the new issue. Smith’s article is extremely apt and
timely. I find that James tends to be popularly under-appreciated.
Barlow’s tale is the best yet—he seems to improve constantly. The
verses of Messrs. Lumley and Searight are haunting and excellent. It’s
a good idea to substitute a department of general discussion for ‘The
Boiling Point’.”
—H. P.
“I enjoyed the January issue of THE FANTASY FAN. Barlow’s little tales
are certainly clever, and I hope you will print many of them. I second
the wish that you express in your note at the end of the current
‘Boiling Point’ column.”
—Clark Ashton Smith
“I just got the February issue of THE FANTASY FAN and I find that it’s
o.k., as usual. Marianne Ferguson’s article was great!”
—Ted. H. Lutwin
“Just finished the February issue of THE FANTASY FAN, and in common
words, it’s a honey! Marianne Ferguson’s article about her visit to
Jules de Grandin was superb! I want to cast my vote right now for
another article by Miss Ferguson real soon!
“THE FANTASY FAN is now six months old and should celebrate! ‘The
Dweller’ by William Lumley was a masterpiece, and Richard F. Searight’s
poem takes high honors in this issue.
“All in all; I think this semi-birthday issue is fine. But there are a
few things I would like to make comments about. ‘The Boiling Point’
should be eliminated, but the readers’ column should not be shortened!
I agree with Mrs. Wooley—you should not insert a contents page, and
thus cut out some interesting feature that could occupy the space. THE
FANTASY FAN is going places!”
—Bob Tucker
As this is only our seventh issue, we don’t believe it’s quite time to
celebrate our success(?)—however, we will be one year old in September
and might be better off by then and feel justified in whooping it up.
We take great pleasure in presenting the following letter from H.
Koenig. His letters are always thoroughly interesting and instructive
and we value them as much as some of our articles:
“The February issue of THE FANTASY FAN was splendid and a marked
improvement over the previous issue. It is rather difficult to pick out
any high spot; but the articles and stories by Lovecraft, Barlow,
Smith, and Petaja were all fine, to say nothing of the column, ‘Howl
from the Ether.’
“I particularly enjoyed Clark Ashton Smith’s article on M. R. James. It
was an admirable essay on an author who is far too little known and
appreciated on this side of the water, and I dare say, on the other
side also. Dr. James, who apparently has a tremendous amount of
antiquarian and archeological information at his fingertips, is also,
in my humble opinion, the greatest modern exponent of the ghost story.
I heartily second Smith’s recommendation that all lovers of the weird
and supernatural procure a copy of the Longman’s Green and Company
volume. They will not be disappointed. Incidentally, for the
information of readers who are perhaps interested in the separate
volumes of James’ work rather than in the complete collection, the
individual titles of his books (not mentioned in Smith’s article) are
as follows:
1. Ghost Stories of an Antiquary
2. More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary
3. A Thin Ghost and Others
4. A Warning to the Curious
“By the way, M. R. James should not be confused with G. P. R. James who
wrote that interesting romance, ‘The Castle of Ehrenstein, Its Lords
Spiritual and Temporal; Its Inhabitants Earthly and Unearthly.’ This is
a book, which, while probably somewhat tiresome to the general reader,
should prove of considerable interest to the student of the ghost story
(I am fortunate to have a first edition of this book in three volumes
published in 1847).
“Emil Petaja’s article on ‘Famous Fantasy Fiction’ was also fine but to
me far too short. I could add dozens of other interesting anthologies
to his list but a few of the more important ones will suffice. Mr.
Petaja called attention to Dorothy Sayers’ ‘Omnibus of Crime.’ It
should be noted that Miss Sayers edited a second series of stories
entitled, ‘Detection, Mystery, and Horror.’ Another worth-while group
of stories has been collected and edited by Montague Summers under the
title, ‘The Supernatural Omnibus.’ This volume has a splendid
introduction by the Rev. Summers and contains, among other stories,
‘The Upper Berth’ by Crawford, and ‘The Damned Thing’ by Bierce.
Another well-rounded collection was gotten together by Colin de la Mare
under the title, ‘They Walk Again.’ This book contains ‘The Voice of
the Night’ by Hodgson and ‘The Beckoning Fair One’ by Oliver Onions.
“Perhaps at times I have been somewhat harsh in my criticisms, but I am
glad that you have taken them in the right spirit.”
We know that you will be pleased to note that we are lengthening the
installments of Lovecraft’s article hereafter.
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