Keith Grahams Wanderings: Science Fiction Review from Antiquarian Weird Tales

Chris Perridas has been scanning the front page of old Science Fiction Review newsletters and posting them to his blog. This was a very good zine of reviews, news and gossip that was produced in the 1960s and many of the early issues were typed by hand and copied or printed offset. Erica produced a newsletter around the same time for Sweepstakes, using the same technology.

Chris only does the first page, which is intriguing, as there are some great articles. One by Andre Norton explains the development of plot and characters in some of her novels, including Witch World.

The January 1965 has a review of Davy, by Edgar Pangborn - one of my favorite books by one of my favorite writers. It has a review of Heinlein's collection The Menace from Earth.

It has a horrible review of Herbert Kastle's The Reassembled Man.

Now The Reassembled Man is not literature. It is a novel that reflects its time, and I read it recently for the first time. It has aged fairly well. I gave it to a friend who writes screenplays and suggested that it would make a great movie. He read it and did not see it. I thought about writing the screenplay myself. In any case it does not deserve the review that Robert Franson gave it.

Chris Perridas: Antiquarian Weird Tales

3 Comments:

Chris Perridas said...: Thanks for mentioning my blog. To clarify, I only HAVE images of the front pages of fanzines I post. I'm a scavenger of that time machine, the ebayeum. When good images emerge, I extract them for exposure on the blog.

It's a hobby. IT keeps me home and safe at nights.

My true passion is posting items that illustrate H P Lovecraft's life and his legacy. Over 1500 of them posted so far! I also have a google group that discusses his history, and the sociology of those who admire or obsess on him.; 11:17 PM
Keith said...: I have a Lovecraft fanzine from the 40s that I picked up a few years ago. I should scan it and send it to you. I have literally thousands of books piled up so I am not sure that I could find it, though.

It has some anecdotes about HP. There was one about his friends slipping some alcohol in his drink and watching him get drunk.; 11:24 PM
Chris Perridas said...: It would be great to know the reference of it. I know the legend, that while he was at a blue pencil club meeting in New York, someone allegedly slipped alcohol in his drink. One version goes that he became inebriated and dozed off totally unaware of what happened.

I'll ask my HPL group. If you ever do see that copy, send me a message at chrisperridas @ yahoo . com (Or any of your readers if they want to discuss HPL).

Another anecdote sometimes related to E Hoffmann Price who supposedly took HPL to a brothel - but was more likely Seabury Quinn (if at all true??): Price is hosting Quinn, they go to a 'house' and allegedly the hostesses offer to give a free trick because he was so legendary.

In any event, Lovecraft was a tee-totaler, and abstained from anything morally improper. :)

HPL (who adored cats) would love your avatar.; 11:47 PM

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