Category Archives: 40s Fanhistory

FANAC Fan History Project Update 4

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From the press release by Joe Siclari

“Keeping You Abreast of the Past”

November 20, 2017

Here are some highlights of the last 6 months:

Fan History Spotlight: Nearly everyone has heard of the Cosmic Circle and Claude Degler’s notorious fannish exploits in the ‘40s. If you haven’t, check the article at Fancyclopedia.org. However, few people have ever read the original “writings” by him, or the reports that fans wrote about him. This last summer, we added a section with over 40 of his original pubs and the investigations by T. Bruce Yerke and Jack Speer. (See http://fanac.org/fanzines/Cosmic_Circle_Pubs/)

Access: We’re trying some new ways to keep you aware of what we have online. Providing a bit more quick information has been a priority. On our Fanzine Index pages, you can now find the number of issues that we have online for that title. The last column will tell whether it is New, Complete or Updated. Another item is our Newszine Directory started last year. It’s a chronological list of all the Newszines (2,338) we have so far on FANAC.org. If you want to know the S-F and fan news of any given period, you can navigate directly to that month. The first ones are from way back in 1938 and the last in 2011. Finally, at the end of this FANAC Update, we provide direct online links to everything mentioned.

FANAC Fan History Project website: We keep adding more Newszines as we acquire them. In the last month, thanks to Richard Lynch, we’ve added a run of Chat, the Tennessee newsletter edited by Nicki & Dick Lynch in the early 1990s. We have been continually uploading issues of Mike Glyer’s File 770. Mark Olson has scanned dozens of them.

Since our last Update, we have added about 250 other pubs with “news from the past”. These issues come from 19 different titles. We are doing a lot to fill-in the runs of different zines. Unfortunately there are some issues I just can’t find or don’t have. Here’s where I need your help. If you can provide missing issues (zines, scans, even photocopies), please let me know. In particular, right now, I’m looking for:

Jack Speer’s Stefnews #58 (1946)
Merv Binns’ Australian SF News #1, 2 (1978), 47 & 48 (c1989)
Taurasi’s Fantasy Times #3 (1941)

Laney: We’ve added multitudes of material. Francis Towner Laney’s notorious memoir, Ah! Sweet Idiocy!, is the most requested item and it’s now online, plus lots of material about FTL in FanHistorica.

FAPA: So is Dick Eney’s A Sense of FAPA, a huge sensational historical anthology of fannish writings (nearly 400 pages), with contributors such as James Blish, Redd Boggs, Charles Burbee, Joe Kennedy, F. Towner Laney, John Michel, P. Schuyler Miller, Milt Rothman, Bill Rotsler, Jack Speer, Harry Warner, Jr., Donald A. Wollheim, C. S. Youd (John Christopher) and many others from the Fantasy Amateur Press Association.

LASFS:  The Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society has given us permission to put their primary publications Shangri-LA and both runs of Shangri-L’Affaires online. So far, we have added 20 issues from the 40s and 50s, with many more to come.

Mirage: We’ve also been given permission to put Jack Chalker’s Hugo nominated fanzine, Mirage online. Mirage was one of the best sercon zines of its time.

FANAC Fan History YouTube Channel: We have over 50 videos/audios online at YouTube! In the last week or so, we put up a Harry Harrison talk (1971 Eastercon) on “Stonehenge and Sex”. It includes a roaringly funny discourse on the introduction of sex into science fiction stories in the 60s, with anecdotes about well-loved authors and editors including Brian Aldiss, Mack Reynolds, Ted Carnell and George O. Smith.  He also talks about the filming of an editorial lunch with John Campbell, and just how much of the iconic fiction of the classic Astounding Magazine was intimately shaped by John.

We keep adding great recordings and subscribers get first notice. We’re over 180 subscribers and nearly 18,000 views, with 3 pieces having over 1000 views. It’s heartening that even for the less viewed videos, many get an intense response from their audience. As always, if you have audio or video material that we might use, please let us know.

FANCYCLOPEDIA 3: This is our encyclopedia (yours and ours), so we hope you are using it (and adding to it!). Going to a convention this year? Read about the “first conventions”. Want to know more about famous fans, infamous fans (see Degler above), convention facts, clubs in your area, or fanspeak (the jargon of our people)? It’s all there. But is your local club or convention listed? If not, contribute an article (or the beginnings of an article). It’s easy. Just follow the instructions on Fancyclopedia.org.

Outreach for Fan History: FANAC has a Fan History Project Table at conventions whenever we can. In February, we will be at Boskone 55 in Boston and we will be at Worldcon 76 in San Jose.

FANAC was at Balticon earlier this year. The Fan Lounge Discussions we helped organize were well attended and great fun. You can listen to the Steven Brust/Geri Sullivan discussion on the raucous history of Minneapolis fandom on our YouTube channel (link below). Most recently, we were at Philcon this month. In addition to showcasing our history project websites, we have been showing selected fannish artifacts, including fanzines, original art, convention publications, and video and audio recordings from as far back as the 1940s.

When you next see our table, come say hello and help us preserve and promote our fan history. Take a sticker for your badge and/or your contributor ribbon. Bookmark http://fanac.org and click on What’s New every week to find our most recent additions.

As we keep saying, this is a community effort and we can only say “Thanks” to those of you who have helped us make our Fan History websites successful over the years. We’re continually adding to our contributors list. We have 248 of you listed so far and adding more as we update our older files. If you DO want to let people know you are a contributor, ask for our “I Help Save Fan History” ribbon. And don’t forget to follow us on Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/fanacproject/

We’ve added more: Photos, fanzines, and convention publications, video and audio recordings, and Fancyclopedia entries.  We provide information for fans, academic researchers, fan writers, and film documentaries. We’ve made some changes to the website to make it easier to use, with more to come.

Those who don’t know fan history may not be condemned to repeat it, but those that do know that Carl Brandon is not dead! Thanks for your interest our mutual fan history.

Regards…Joe Siclari

Dave Kyle (1919-2016)

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David A. Kyle at Chicon 7. Photo by John L. Coker III.

David A. Kyle at Chicon 7. Photo by John L. Coker III.

David A. Kyle, who chaired the 1956 Worldcon (NyCon II) and was fan Guest of Honor at the 1983 Worldcon (ConStellation), died September 18 at 4:30 p.m. EDT “of complication from an endoscopy” reports his daughter Kerry.

Just yesterday Kyle had been shown on Facebook enjoying New York fandom’s “End of Summer” party.

Kerry Kyle wrote:

I know he was 97 and frail, but his spirit was strong, his heart was huge, and I’m still in shock. I’m still surprised. I expected him to last a few more years. I expected to be making him dinner tonight. And I’m bereft. And at the moment I don’t really want to type much.

I know many in the Fannish community loved Dad as well and are equally as bereft reading this. I hope it …makes you feel better to know that, as always, Dad chatted about science fiction with the EMT who brought him to the hospital and with the nurses who made him comfortable. He chatted about the love of his life–science fiction–genuinely interested in hearing what they read and watched. Always spreading the word and wishing to instill within them the flame he had within himself. And, yes, he made constant jokes and terrible puns that charmed everyone in the hospital….

Dave’s wife, Ruth, predeceased him in 2011. They met at a convention in 1955. The next year she served as Secretary of the Worldcon in New York, which Dave chaired, and the year after that they married, trufannishly honeymooning at the 1957 Worldcon in England, traveling there with 53 friends and in-laws on a specially chartered flight.

Dave and Ruth had two children, Arthur and Kerry.

Kyle was one of the most active fans from sf fandom’s earliest days. He attended the 1936 meeting of New York and Philly fans which decided to dub itself the first science fiction convention in advance of the Leeds event announced for 1937. He wrote the “Yellow Pamphlet” that helped inspire the “The Great Exclusion Act of 1939” but, unlike his fellow Futurians, was not kicked out of the First Worldcon. In later years he was made a Knight of The Order of Saint Fantony, won the Big Heart Award, and in 1988 received the First Fandom Hall of Fame Award.

Kyle also had a notable professional sf career. Dave Kyle and Martin Greenberg made history by co-founding Gnome Press in 1948. Together they published dozens of volumes of classic sf in hardcover for the first time. Gnome Press went under in 1962.

Kyle’s 1956 NyCon II is particularly remembered for producing the year’s Hugo Awards by affixing Oldsmobile rockets to a decorative wooden backing. The L-shaped base displayed the rocket standing upright while concealing its hollow underside.

A list of Kyle’s autobiographical fanhistory articles for Mimosa can be found here.

Arthur C. Clarke receives Hugo Award from chairman Dave Kyle at the 1956 Worldcon, NyCon II.

Arthur C. Clarke receives Hugo Award from chairman Dave Kyle at the 1956 Worldcon, NyCon II.

Just A Few More Hours To Vote on Hugos

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Time is running out to vote online or make last-minute changes to your Hugo ballot.

Hugo Voting Closes Sunday July 31 at 11:59 PM PDT

You will need your membership number and PIN.

The Hugo Administrators warn that the website will be quite busy as the deadline approaches. They plead, “Don’t wait until the very end or you may encounter delays that could keep some or all of your choices from being properly recorded.”

They also say that the system will automatically send voters an email confirmation of your ballot. However: “When many people are voting at the same time these email confirmations get backed up and may arrive delayed, out of order, or not at all. But don’t worry – your votes have been recorded.”

The Hugo Voter Packets for both the 2016 Hugo  and 1941 Retro Hugo works will remain accessible by Worldcon members until voting closes.

1941 Retro Hugo Voter Packet Available

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MidAmeriCon II has posted the voter packet containing works by some of the nominees for the 1941 Retro Hugos.

Heinlein’s greatest year as a short fiction writer is on display. Otherwise, the voters don’t seem to have picked a lot of work in the public domain, or that the rights holders wanted to release for use in the packet. Here’s what I received in the download:

Best Novel

Contains a one-page notice where you can buy Slan.

Lydia van Vogt and the Ashley Grayson Agency are thrilled that Slan is being considered for the 1940 Retro Hugo and are happy to provide this summary of where MidAmerican [sic] members can find the book to enjoy for the first time or again a voting gets underway.

Best Novella

  • Coventry by Robert A. Heinlein
  • If This Goes On by Robert A. Heinlein
  • Magic, Inc. by Robert A. Heinlein

Best Novelette

  • “The Roads Must Roll,” by Robert A. Heinlein
  • “Blowups Happen,” by Robert A. Heinlein
  • “Darker Than You Think,” by Jack Williamson

Best Short Story

  • “Martian Quest,” by Leigh Brackett – a link to the story on the Baen website
  • “Requiem,” by Robert A. Heinlein
  • “Strange Playfellow” (A.K.A. Robbie) by Isaac Asimov
  • “The Stellar Legion,” by Leigh Brackett – a link to the story on the Baen website

Best Professional Artist

Hubert Rogers is represented by four pieces of cover art, three that appear to be the original art and one copy of a magazine cover.

Best Fanzine

  • Futuria Fantasia (Sept. 1940), edited by Ray Bradbury

A statement directs voters to examples of Futuria Fantasia, Le Zombie, Spaceways, and Voice of the Imagi-Nation at www.fanac.org/fanzines/Retro_Hugos.html

Best Fan Writer

Contains another copy of Futuria Fantasia (Sept. 1940)

A statement explains the Ray Bradbury sample for the Best Fan Writer category is “Gorgono and Slith,” found in that issue. Also, that samples by fan writer nominees Forrest J. Ackerman, Ray Bradbury, Bob Tucker, and Harry Warner can be found at www.fanac.org/fanzines/Retro_Hugos.html

[Thanks to Hampus Eckerman for the story.]

Free Volume of Novelettes Eligible for the 1941 Retro-Hugos

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Novelettes Eligible for the 1941 Retro-Hugos contains 70 science fiction and fantasy novelettes (between 7,500 and 17,500 words long) that were published in 1940.

Editor von Dimpleheimer comments on the latest volume in his series of public domain reprints:

The final volume, with all the novelettes from Volumes 1-7 and six new ones, is done.

Any Helvetica fans who have been forced to read in Caecilla will be happy to know that readers of the Kindle version can now choose their own font.

These books are created to help MidAmeriCon II members who will vote next year on the Retro Hugos (along with the regular Hugos).

The links lead to a Google storage drive.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

  • Nelson S. Bond “Beyond Light” Planet Stories, Winter 1940
  • Nelson S. Bond “Dictator of Time” Planet Stories, Spring 1940
  • Nelson S. Bond “The Judging of the Priestess” Fantastic Adventures, April 1940
  • John Broome “Land of Wooden Men” Fantastic Adventures, April 1940
  • Sam Carson “Sphere of the Never-Dead” Planet Stories, Summer 1940
  • George E. Clark “The Test-Tube Monster” Marvel Tales, May 1940
  • Ray Cummings “The Girl from Infinite Smallness” Planet Stories, Spring 1940
  • Ray Cummings “Ice over America” Thrilling Wonder Stories, August 1940
  • Ray Cummings “Perfume of Dark Desire” by Horror Stories, May 1940
  • Ray Cummings “Phantom of the Seven Stars” Planet Stories, Winter 1940
  • Ray Cummings “Priestess of the Moon” Amazing Stories, December 1940
  • Ray Cummings “Revolt the Ice Empire” Planet Stories, Fall 1940
  • Maurice Duclos “Sabotage on Mars” Fantastic Adventures, June 1940
  • Nictzin Dyalhis “Heart of Atlantan” Weird Tales, September 1940
  • Raymond Z. Gallun “Terror Out of the Past” Amazing Stories, March 1940
  • Edmond Hamilton “City from the Sea” Weird Tales, May 1940
  • Edmond Hamilton “Revolt on the Tenth World” Amazing Stories, November 1940
  • Edmond Hamilton “Sea Born” Weird Tales, September 1940
  • Edmond Hamilton (as Robert O. Wentworth) “World Without Sex” Marvel Tales, May 1940
  • Malcolm Jameson “Admiral’s Inspection” Astounding Science-Fiction, April 1940
  • Malcolm Jameson “Murder the Time World” Amazing Stories, August 1940
  • Malcolm Jameson “White Mutiny” Astounding Science-Fiction, October 1940
  • Frederic Arnold Kummer, Jr. “Hell Ship of Space” Amazing Stories, November 1940
  • Frederic Arnold Kummer, Jr. “Princess of Power” Marvel Tales, May 1940
  • Frederic Arnold Kummer, Jr. “Star Pirate” Planet Stories, Summer 1940
  • Henry Kuttner (as Peter Horn) “50 Miles Down” Fantastic Adventures, May 1940
  • Henry Kuttner “Dr. Cyclops” Thrilling Wonder Stories, June 1940
  • Henry Kuttner “The Elixir of Invisibility” by Fantastic Adventures, October 1940
  • Henry Kuttner (as Paul Edmonds) “The Lifestone” Astonishing Stories, February 1940
  • Henry Kuttner (as Noel Gardner) “The Shining Man” Fantastic Adventures, May 1940
  • Robert H. Leitfred “Seven Seconds of Eternity” Weird Tales, September 1940
  • Richard O. Lewis “Hell in Eden” Fantastic Adventures, January 1940
  • James Norman “Blue Tropics” Fantastic Adventures, April 1940
  • James Norman “Oscar, Detective of Mars” Fantastic Adventures, October 1940
  • David Wright O’Brien “Fish Men of Venus” Amazing Stories, April 1940
  • David Wright O’Brien “The Strange Voyage of Hector Squinch” Fantastic Adventures, August 1940
  • David Wright O’Brien “Suicide Squadrons of Space” Amazing Stories, August 1940
  • David Wright O’Brien “Trapped on Titan” Amazing Stories, June 1940
  • David Wright O’Brien “Treasure Trove in Time” Amazing Stories, November 1940
  • Frederick C. Painton “The Golden Empress” Argosy, October 5, 1940
  • Frederick C. Painton “The World That Drowned” Argosy, May 4, 1940
  • Jep Powell “The Synthetic Woman” Amazing Stories, September 1940
  • Dorothy Quick “Transparent Stuff” Unknown, June 1940
  • Dorothy Quick “Two for a Bargain” Unknown, December 1940
  • David V. Reed (as Peter Horn) “Vagabonds of the Void” Amazing Stories, March 1940
  • Ed Earl Repp “Buccaneer of the Star Seas” Planet Stories, Fall 1940
  • Ed Earl Repp “The Invisible World” Amazing Stories, October 1940
  • Ed Earl Repp “Martian Terror” Planet Stories, Spring 1940
  • Ed Earl Repp “The World in the Atom” Fantastic Adventures, June 1940
  • Ed Earl Repp “Worlds at War” Fantastic Adventures, May 1940
  • Wayne Rogers “Satan’s Seamstress” Horror Stories, May 1940
  • Nat Schachner “Cold” Astounding Science-Fiction, March 1940
  • Nat Schachner “Runaway Cargo” Astounding Science-Fiction, October 1940
  • Nat Schachner “Space Double” Astounding Science-Fiction, May 1940
  • Carl Selwyn “Exiles of the Three Red Moons” Planet Stories, Summer 1940
  • Carl Selwyn “Revolt on the Earth-star” Planet Stories, Spring 1940
  • D. Sharp “The Lodestone Core” Astonishing Stories, August 1940
  • Bertrand L. Shurtleff “New York Fights the Termanites” Fantastic Adventures, February 1940
  • Howard Wandrei (as H. W. Guernsey) “The Black Farm” Unknown, March 1940
  • Manly Wade Wellman “Bratton’s Idea” Comet, December 1940
  • Jack West “Revolt on Io” Amazing Stories, October 1940
  • Jack West “When the Ice Terror Came” Amazing Stories, April 1940
  • Don Wilcox (as Miles Shelton) “The Gift of Magic” Fantastic Adventures, January 1940
  • Don Wilcox “Let War Gods Clash!” Fantastic Adventures, February 1940
  • Don Wilcox “Mystery of “The Mind Machine” Amazing Stories, August 1940
  • Robert Moore Williams “Death Over Chicago” Fantastic Adventures, January 1940
  • Robert Moore Williams “Dr. Destiny, Master of the Dead” Fantastic Adventures, June 1940
  • Robert Moore Williams “Lord of the Silent Death” Comet, December 1940
  • Robert Moore Williams “Raiders Out of Space” Amazing Stories, October 1940
  • Robert Moore Williams (as Russell Storm) “Thunor Flees the Devils” Fantastic Adventures, February 1940

Free Volume of Stories Eligible for the 1941 Retro-Hugos

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Editor von Dimpleheimer explains his latest volume:

All of the short stories from Short Fiction Eligible for the 1941 Retro-Hugos Vols 1-7 are included here, along with five new stories.

At the end of the book, I listed all the short fiction from these volumes by magazine and editor. I thought that may help people nominate for Best Editor.

I’ll have an all novelette volume, with a few new novelettes, ready in a week or two.

These books are created to help MidAmeriCon II members who will vote next year on the Retro Hugos (along with the regular Hugos).

The links lead to a Google storage drive.

This ebook contains 88 science fiction and fantasy short stories published in 1940 that have fallen into the public domain and may be eligible for the 1941 Retro-Hugo Awards.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

  • H. Bedford-Jones “The Angry Amethyst” Argosy, November 30, 1940
  • H. Bedford-Jones “The Blind Farmer and the Strip Dancer” Weird Tales, September 1940
  • H. Bedford-Jones “Dance of Life” The Blue Book Magazine, June 1940
  • H. Bedford-Jones “Emerald of Isis” Argosy, September 21, 1940
  • H. Bedford-Jones (as Gordon Keyne) “The Kings Do Battle Again” Weird Tales, September 1940
  • H. Bedford-Jones “Outlawed” The Blue Book Magazine, July 1940
  • H. Bedford-Jones “Ruby of France” Argosy, November 9, 1940
  • H. Bedford-Jones “The Wife of the Humorous Gangster” Weird Tales, November 1940
  • Albert Bernstein (as Donald Bern) “The Man Who Knew All the Answers” Amazing Stories, August 1940
  • Albert Bernstein (as Donald Bern) “The Ray that Failed” Fantastic Adventures, August 1940
  • Robert Bloch “Queen of the Metal Men” Fantastic Adventures, April 1940
  • Hannes Bok “The Symphonic Abduction” Futuria Fantasia, Winter 1940
  • Hannes Bok (as H. V. B.) “The Voice of Scariliop” Futuria Fantasia, Winter 1940
  • Nelson S. Bond “The Fertility of Dalrymple Todd” Fantastic Adventures, August 1940
  • Nelson S. Bond “The Scientific Pioneer” Amazing Stories, March 1940
  • Nelson S. Bond “The Unusual Romance of Ferdinand Pratt” Weird Tales, September 1940
  • Laurence Bour, Jr. “Black Was the Night” Weird Tales, May 1940
  • H. T. W. Bousfield “The Impossible Adventure” Weird Tales, November 1940
  • Leigh Brackett “The Stellar Legion” Planet Stories, Winter 1940
  • Ray Bradbury “The Flight of the Good Ship Clarissa” Futuria Fantasia, Spring 1940
  • Ray Bradbury (as Ron Reynolds) “The Piper” Futuria Fantasia, Spring 1940
  • Miles J. Breuer “The Oversight” Comet, December 1940
  • John L. Chapman “In the Earth’s Shadow” Comet, December 1940
  • Robert Clancy “The Reward” Weird Tales, September 1940
  • Ray Cummings “Arton’s Metal” Super Science Stories, May 1940
  • Ray Cummings & Gabrielle Cummings (as Gabriel Wilson) “Corpses from Canvas” Horror Stories, May 1940
  • Ray Cummings (as Ray King) “The Man Who Killed the World” Planet Stories, Spring 1940
  • Ray Cummings “Personality Plus” Astonishing Stories, October 1940
  • Ray Cummings “The Thought-Woman” Super Science Stories, July 1940
  • Ray Cummings “The Vanishing Men” Thrilling Wonder Stories, September 1940
  • Ray Cummings “When the Werewolf Howls” Horror Stories, May 1940
  • Ray Cummings “World Upside Down” Thrilling Wonder Stories, December 1940
  • Ralph Milne Farley “Rescue Into the Past” Amazing Stories, October 1940
  • Ralph Milne Farley “The Time Wise-Guy” Amazing Stories, May 1940
  • Oscar J. Friend (as Frank Johnson) “Colossus from Space” Thrilling Wonder Stories, October 1940
  • Oscar J. Friend “Glamour Girl—2040” Startling Stories, May 1940
  • Oscar J. Friend “Mind Over Matter” Startling Stories, January 1940
  • Oscar J. Friend “The Stolen Spectrum” Thrilling Wonder Stories, September 1940
  • Raymond Z. Gallun “The Achilles Heel” Amazing Stories, November 1940
  • Raymond Z. Gallun “Eyes That Watch” Comet, December 1940
  • Edmond Hamilton “Lost Treasure of Mars” Amazing Stories, August 1940
  • Robert Heinlein (as Lyle Monroe) “HEIL!” Futuria Fantasia, Spring 1940
  • D.L. James “Exit from Asteroid 60” Planet Stories, Winter 1940
  • D.L. James “Tickets to Paradise” Comet, December 1940
  • Malcolm Jameson “Joshua’s Battering Ram” Astonishing Stories, June 1940
  • Malcolm Jameson “Philtered Power” Unknown, March 1940
  • Malcolm Jameson “Prospectors of Space” Thrilling Wonder Stories, September 1940
  • Milton Kaletsky “The Wizard of Baseball” Fantastic Adventures, May 1940
  • Milton Kaletsky “Revolt of the Ants” Amazing Stories, April 1940
  • Liam Kennedy “The Mirror” Weird Tales, November 1940
  • Damon Knight “The Itching Hour Futuria Fantasia, Spring 1940
  • Frederic Arnold Kummer, Jr. “The Time Merchant” Fantastic Adventures, January 1940
  • Henry Kuttner (as Kelvin Kent) “Beauty and the Beast” Thrilling Wonder Stories, April 1940
  • Henry Kuttner “A Comedy of Eras” Thrilling Wonder Stories, September 1940
  • Henry Kuttner (as Paul Edmonds) “Improbability” Astonishing Stories, June 1940
  • Henry Kuttner (as Kelvin Kent) “Man About Time” Thrilling Wonder Stories, October 1940
  • Henry Kuttner “No Man’s World” Thrilling Wonder Stories, August 1940
  • Henry Kuttner “Pegasus” Famous Fantastic Mysteries, May-June 1940
  • Henry Kuttner “Reverse Atom” Thrilling Wonder Stories, November 1940
  • Henry Kuttner “Threshold” Unknown, December 1940
  • Henry Kuttner “The Uncanny Power of Edwin Cobalt” (as Noel Gardner) Fantastic Adventures, October 1940
  • Henry Kuttner “World without Air” Fantastic Adventures, August 1940
  • Richard O. Lewis “The Man Who Came Back” Fantastic Adventures, June August 1940
  • P. Schuyler Miller “The Ultimate Image” Comet, December 1940
  • C. L. Moore “Song a Minor Key” Scienti-Snaps, February 1940
  • David Wright O’Brien (as John York Cabot) “The Man the World Forgot” Fantastic Adventures, April 1940
  • Emil Petaja “The Intruder” Futuria Fantasia, Winter 1940
  • Alexander M. Phillips “The Space Flame” Planet Stories, Spring 1940
  • Denis Plimmer “The Green Invasion” Weird Tales, November 1940
  • E. Hoffman Price “Khosru’s Garden” Weird Tales, May 1940
  • Dorothy Quick “Turn Over” Weird Tales, November 1940
  • Seabury Quinn “The Last Waltz” Weird Tales, November 1940
  • Ed Earl Repp “Norris Tapley’s Sixth Sense” Fantastic Adventures, April 1940
  • John Murray Reynolds “Soul of Ra-Moses” Weird Tales, May 1940
  • Ross Rocklynne “The Tantalus Death” Planet Stories, Spring 1940
  • Gretchen Ruediger “Wind the Moonlight” Weird Tales, May 1940
  • Ivan Sandrof “The Scientific Miler of Bowler U.” Fantastic Adventures, October 1940
  • Carl Selwyn “Venus Has Green Eyes” Planet Stories, Fall 1940
  • Harry Sivia “Past Tense” Weird Tales, September 1940
  • Harry Walton “Asteroid H277—Plus” Planet Stories, Summer 1940
  • Howard Wandrei (as H. W. Guernsey) “The African Trick” Unknown, April 1940
  • Helen Weinbaum “The Valley of the Undead” Weird Tales, September 1940
  • Don Wilcox “The Girl the Whirlpool” Fantastic Adventures, August 1940
  • Robert Moore Williams “Quest on Io” Planet Stories, Fall 1940
  • Robert Moore Williams (as Russell Storm) “Trouble in Avalon” Fantastic Adventures, June 1940
  • R. R. Winterbotham “Equation for Time” Comet, December 1940
  • R. R. Winterbotham “Captives of the Void” Fantastic Adventures, January 1940
  • Donald A. Wollheim “The Planet That Time Forgot” Planet Stories, Fall 1940

Seventh Volume of Free Stories Eligible for 1941 Retro Hugos

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Short Fiction Eligible for the 1941 Retro-Hugos Vol. 7 is now available, a collection of 33 public domain short stories published in 1940 assembled by File 770 commenter von Dimpleheimer. (Earlier posts contain links to Volume One, Volume Two, Volume Three, Volume Four, Volume Five.and Volume Six.)

These books are created to help MidAmeriCon II members who will vote next year on the Retro Hugos (along with the regular Hugos).

The links lead to a Google storage drive.

Fantastic-Adventures-January-1940-600x802

Here is the Table of Contents for Volume Seven.

  • Albert Bernstein (as Donald Bern) “The Man Who Knew All the Answers” Amazing Stories, August 1940
  • Laurence Bour, Jr. “Black Was the Night” Weird Tales, May 1940
  • H.T.W. Bousfield “The Impossible Adventure” Weird Tales, November 1940
  • Sam Carson “Sphere of the Never-Dead” Planet Stories, Summer 1940
  • Robert Clancy “The Reward” Weird Tales, September 1940
  • George E. Clark “The Test-Tube Monster” Marvel Tales, May 1940
  • Raymond Z. Gallun “The Achilles Heel” Amazing Stories, November 1940
  • Raymond Z. Gallun “Terror out of the Past” Amazing Stories, March 1940
  • D.L. James “Exit from Asteroid 60” Planet Stories, Winter 1940
  • Milton Kaletsky “Revolt of the Ants” Amazing Stories, April 1940
  • Liam Kennedy “The Mirror” Weird Tales, November 1940
  • Robert H. Leitfred “Seven Seconds of Eternity” Weird Tales, September 1940
  • Richard O. Lewis “The Man Who Came Back” Fantastic Adventures, June 1940
  • Frederick C. Painton “The Golden Empress” Argosy, October 5, 1940
  • Frederick C. Painton “The World That Drowned” Argosy, May 4, 1940
  • Denis Plimmer “The Green Invasion” Weird Tales, November 1940
  • Jep Powell “The Synthetic Woman” Amazing Stories, September 1940
  • E. Hoffman Price “Khosru’s Garden” Weird Tales, May 1940
  • Seabury Quinn “The Last Waltz” Weird Tales, November 1940
  • David V. Reed (as Peter Horn) “Vagabonds of the Void” Amazing Stories, March 1940
  • John Murray Reynolds “Soul of Ra-Moses” Weird Tales, May 1940
  • Wayne Rogers “Satan’s Seamstress” Horror Stories, May 1940
  • Carl Selwyn “Exiles of the Three Red Moons” Planet Stories, Summer 1940
  • Carl Selwyn “Venus Has Green Eyes” Planet Stories, Fall 1940
  • Harry Sivia “Past Tense” Weird Tales, September 1940
  • Harry Walton “Asteroid H277—Plus” Planet Stories, Summer 1940
  • Howard Wandrei (as H. W. Guernsey) “The African Trick” Unknown, April 1940
  • Howard Wandrei (as H. W. Guernsey) “The Black Farm” Unknown, March 1940
  • Jack West “Revolt on Io” Amazing Stories, October 1940
  • Jack West “When the Ice Terror Came” Amazing Stories, April 1940
  • Don Wilcox “Mystery of “The Mind Machine” Amazing Stories, August 1940
  • Don Wilcox (as Miles Shelton) “The Gift of Magic” Fantastic Adventures, January 1940
  • Donald A. Wollheim “The Planet That Time Forgot” Planet Stories, Fall 1940

Von Dimpleheimer says it will take one more volume with 10 stories to wrap up the project.

Sixth Volume of Free Stories Eligible for 1941 Retro Hugos

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Short Fiction Eligible for the 1941 Retro-Hugos Vol. 6, a collection of 30 public domain short stories published in 1940 assembled by File 770 commenter von Dimpleheimer. (Earlier posts contain links to Volume One, Volume Two, Volume Three, Volume Four and Volume Five.)

These books are created to help MidAmeriCon II members who will vote next year on the Retro Hugos (along with the regular Hugos).

The links lead to a Google storage drive.

Von Dimpleheimer, in his capacity as a book designer, facetiously apologizes —

Apparently I failed to learn one of the important lessons of 2015. The cover images of these volumes do not squarely and literally represent the contents. If anyone downloaded these ebooks based on the covers and was disappointed by the lack of stories of robot detectives, of father-daughter trips to the moon for target practice, or of children befriending decommissioned kill-bots now working as short order cooks, I apologize. To prevent any further misunderstandings, I should state that Volume Six, despite it cover, is not guaranteed to contain a story about how two lads, unjustly thrown out of the Jupiter Scouts for accusing Professor McEvil-Foolja of violating the ban on time travel research, manage to save a futuristic city from rampaging dinosaurs.

 

ASF_0112Here is the Table of Contents for Volume Six.

  • H. Bedford-Jones “The Angry Amethyst” Argosy, November 30, 1940
  • H. Bedford-Jones “The Blind Farmer and the Strip Dancer” Weird Tales, September 1940
  • H. Bedford-Jones “Dance of Life” The Blue Book Magazine, June 1940
  • H. Bedford-Jones “Emerald of Isis” Argosy, September 21, 1940
  • H. Bedford-Jones “The Wife of the Humorous Gangster” Weird Tales, November 1940
  • H. Bedford-Jones (as Gordon Keyne) “The Kings Do Battle Again” Weird Tales, September 1940
  • H. Bedford-Jones “Outlawed” The Blue Book Magazine, July 1940
  • H. Bedford-Jones “Ruby of France” Argosy, November 9, 1940
  • Edmond Hamilton “City from the Sea” , 1940
  • Edmond Hamilton “Lost Treasure of Mars” Amazing Stories, August 1940
  • Edmond Hamilton “Revolt on the Tenth World” Amazing Stories, November 1940
  • Edmond Hamilton “Sea Born” Weird Tales, September 1940
  • Edmond Hamilton (as Robert O. Wentworth) “World Without Sex” Marvel Tales, May 1940
  • David Wright O’Brien (as John York Cabot) “The Man the World Forgot” Fantastic Adventures, April 1940
  • David Wright O’Brien “Fish Men of Venus” Amazing Stories, April 1940
  • David Wright O’Brien “The Strange Voyage of Hector Squinch” Fantastic Adventures, August 1940
  • David Wright O’Brien “Suicide Squadrons of Space” Amazing Stories, August 1940
  • David Wright O’Brien “Trapped on Titan” Amazing Stories, June 1940
  • David Wright O’Brien “Treasure Trove in Time” Amazing Stories, November 1940
  • David Wright O’Brien “Truth Is a Plague” Amazing Stories, February 1940
  • Nat Schachner “Cold” Astounding Science-Fiction, March 1940
  • Nat Schachner “Runaway Cargo” Astounding Science-Fiction, October 1940
  • Nat Schachner “Space Double” Astounding Science-Fiction, May 1940
  • Robert Moore Williams “Death Over Chicago” Fantastic Adventures, January 1940
  • Robert Moore Williams “Dr. Destiny, Master of the Dead” Fantastic Adventures, June 1940
  • Robert Moore Williams “Lord of the Silent Death” Comet, December 1940
  • Robert Moore Williams “Quest on Io” Planet Stories, Fall 1940
  • Robert Moore Williams “Raiders Out of Space” Amazing Stories, October 1940
  • Robert Moore Williams (as Russell Storm) “Thunor Flees the Devils” Fantastic Adventures, February 1940
  • Robert Moore Williams (as Russell Storm) “Trouble in Avalon” Fantastic Adventures, June 1940

Von Dimpleheimer says in the introduction:

The first two Bedford-Jones stories were not listed on ISFDB, but when I stumbled upon them, I thought they might involve time travel. They don’t. I wouldn’t classify them as SF, but you can decide for yourself if you are inclined to read them. I enjoyed “Outlawed” even if it is just historical fiction about Christopher Marlowe.

Update 12/26/2015: Removed “Artificial Honeymoon” from list of contents and corrected number of stories to 30.

Fifth Volume of Free Stories Eligible for 1941 Retro Hugos

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Short Fiction Eligible for the 1941 Retro-Hugos Vol. 5, a collection of 20 public domain short stories published in 1940 assembled by File 770 commenter von Dimpleheimer. (Earlier posts contain links to Volume One, Volume Two, Volume Three and Volume Four.)

These books are created to help MidAmeriCon II members who will vote next year on the Retro Hugos (along with the regular Hugos).

The links lead to a Google storage drive.

Here is the table of contents of Volume Five:

  • Nelson S. Bond “Beyond Light” Planet Stories, Winter 1940
  • Nelson S. Bond “Dictator of Time” Planet Stories, Spring 1940
  • Nelson S. Bond “The Fertility of Dalrymple Todd” Fantastic Adventures, August 1940
  • Nelson S. Bond “The Judging of the Priestess” Fantastic Adventures, April 1940
  • Nelson S. Bond “The Scientific Pioneer” Amazing Stories, March 1940
  • Nelson S. Bond “The Ultimate Salient” Planet Stories, Fall 1940
  • Nelson S. Bond “The Unusual Romance of Ferdinand Pratt” Weird Tales, September 1940
  • Leigh Brackett “The Stellar Legion” in Planet Stories, Winter 1940.
  • Malcolm Jameson “Admiral’s Inspection” Astounding Science-Fiction, April 1940
  • Malcolm Jameson “Joshua’s Battering Ram” Astonishing Stories, June 1940
  • Malcolm Jameson “Murder in the Time World” Amazing Stories, August 1940
  • Malcolm Jameson “Philtered Power” Unknown, March 1940
  • Malcolm Jameson “Prospectors of Space” Thrilling Wonder Stories, September 1940
  • Malcolm Jameson “White Mutiny” Astounding Science-Fiction, October 1940
  • C. L. Moore “Song in a Minor Key” in Scienti-Snaps, February 1940.
  • Dorothy Quick “Transparent Stuff” Unknown, June 1940
  • Dorothy Quick “Turn Over” Weird Tales, November 1940
  • Dorothy Quick “Two for a Bargain” Unknown, December 1940
  • Gretchen Ruediger “Wind in the Moonlight” Weird Tales, May 1940
  • Helen Weinbaum “The Valley of the Undead” Weird Tales, September 1940

Eight stories in this volume are part of various series.

Bond’s “The Scientific Pioneer” is a Horse-Sense Hank story and “The Judging of the Priestess” is a Meg story.

Jameson’s Bullard stories, “Admiral’s Inspection” and “White Mutiny” and Quick’s Patchwork Quilt stories, “Transparent Stuff” and “Two for a Bargain” are presented in chronological order.

Brackett’s “The Stellar Legion” is the first of her Venus stories and Moore’s “Song in a Minor Key” is the last of her Northwest Smith stories.

Fourth Volume of Free Stories Eligible for 1941 Retro Hugos

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Short Fiction Eligible for the 1941 Retro-Hugos Vol. 4, a collection of 13 12 public domain novellas published in 1940, is the latest collection from File 770 commenter von Dimpleheimer. (Earlier posts contain links to Volume One, Volume Two, and Volume Three.)

Volume Four is the all novella volume, with nine eight new novellas and four others repeated from previous volumes.

These books are created to help MidAmeriCon II members who will vote next year on the Retro Hugos (along with the regular Hugos).

The links lead to a Google storage drive.

Von Dimpleheimer’s introduction explains the limits of his own collection, and drops loud hints where to find the others, at least some of which are still be under copyright.

The 13 novellas included here constitute 20% of the approximately 62 novellas published in 1940. So if you dust off your copy of The Complete Compleat Enchanter, rummage though your stack of Heinlein paperbacks, and shell out a few bucks for a collection or two, you will not only become an authority on the novellas of 1940 and be invited to speak at conferences around the world, you will be able to nominate with a confidence unobtainable in the short story category.

And he obligingly includes a list of 49 other 1940 novellas that are not in the collection.

Meanwhile, here is the table of contents of Volume Four.

  • Nelson S. Bond “The Ultimate Salient” Planet Stories, Fall 1940
  • Ray Cummings “Space-Liner X-87” Planet Stories, Summer 1940
  • Oscar J. Friend “Roar of the Rocket” Thrilling Wonder Stories, April 1940
  • André Maurois “Fatapoufs and Thinifers” Fatapoufs and Thinifers French 1930. Translated from French by Rosemary Benét. Fattypuffs and Thinifiers, English, 1940
  • Phil Nowlan “Space Guards” Astounding Science-Fiction, May 1940
  • Norvell W. Page “But Without Horns” Unknown, June 1940
  • Ray Palmer “Black World” Amazing Stories, March 1940 and April 1940
  • John Murray Reynolds “Goddess of the Moon” Planet Stories, Spring 1940
  • Nat Schachner “Master Gerald of Cambray” Unknown, June 1940
  • Don Wilcox “The Robot Peril” Fantastic Adventures, January 1940
  • Don Wilcox “The Whispering Gorilla” Fantastic Adventures, May 1940
  • Robert Moore Williams “The Golden Princess” Fantastic Adventures, August 1940
  • Robert Moore Williams “Jongor of Lost Land” Fantastic Adventures, October 1940

A fifth volume is in the works, and he says, “Barring the unforeseen inheritance of a literary estate or a pile of 75 year-old magazines, all new stories in Volumes Five and up will be less than 17,500 words long.”

Update 12/07/2015: Von Dimpleheimer has removed “Fattypuffs and Thinifiers” from Volume Four and uploaded a new file without the story. He says: “Someone pointed out they had a version that has a copyright renewal date of 2006. After doing some more research, I don’t know if it is protected by copyright or not, so I have to assume it is.”