The Phantagraph, Vol. 10, No. 1

This eighth anniversary issue of The Phantagraph (May 1942), a science fiction and fantasy fanzine edited by Donald A. Wollheim, contains three main pieces. "The Objective Approach" by Cecil Corwin is a dark fantasy tale narrated by a man who visits his old schoolmate John Ramsey, an amateur lepidopterist, at his New Jersey estate. Ramsey's collection of butterflies, each pinned with a gold needle bearing the Ramsey crest, becomes sinister when Ramsey reveals his misogynistic philosophy comparing wealthy women to butterflies—microscopic in intellect, ephemeral, and doomed. The final room contains a larger gold spike. A poem "Inscription Found on a Martian Obelisk" by Demon Knight depicts Mars mourning its civilization's rise and fall. Donald A. Wollheim's essay "Fascism and the Human Species" (written in 1938) argues that fascism represents civilization's retreat from reason and progress, claiming mankind survives through intellectual capability rather than physical strength, and that only democracies allow scientific and cultural advancement. A brief humorous poem "STF-Stuff" closes the issue.