A. Merritt's Fantasy Magazine, April 1950 — page 122: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

READERS’ COLUMN ERE, at last, are those letters we have been promising you. They ~ are, indeed, very encouraging. Your spontaneous response to this new fantasy venture only goes to prove that there. is an ever increasing demand for good fantasy literature. A. MERRITT’S FANTASY, as we have already told you, is designed not only to bring back those tales in the imaginative vein by Mr. Mer- ritt, but also those other classics of fan- . tasy that all of you want to see either for the first time or again. And that is where this Readers’ Column is going to be invaluable to both you and us. As you may have noted, there are some conflicting ideas about our magazine, the kind of stories that you want—and whose story it shall be. We will do our utmost to print as many of your requests as is possible. Please do not be dis- couraged if they don’t appear immediately ! We shall endeavor to cover the gamut of fantasy fiction. Your criticisms and suggestions are al- ways welcome. So make these pages your pages. Let’s hear from you—often. Short Classics Of Fantasy”. You have on tap many from the old Argosy, etc. You could launch a magazine consisting of nothing but “shorts”. Both Lawrence and Finlay were absent from the contents page. And frankly, I can’t tell whether the cover is by one or the other. I hope this will be included on future contents pages, and that you have “letters from the reader’s” section from now on. An occasional short story could be allowed to crowd letters out every other issue, though. Thank you for the new magazine, but I think the next issue will have to be very good as a whole to equal Robert Arthur’s terrific short- story! Sincerely, Bob Barnett Cartage, Mo. ED. The December issue cover was done by Peter Stevens. The Merritt illustrations were by Sterne Stevens. MORE MERRITT Dear Editor: In publishing Abraham Merritt’s writings in your A. Merritt’s Fantasy. Magazine, which has just hit the newsstands, is it possible, that besides his various volumes of fantasy and short stories, you might include his serious writings as well? That is, his material on witchcraft and archeology. The fiction has been done, in Sincerely, various formats, so many times that some of us —The Editor would like to get the remainder of the writings. Of course, I realize you’re dealing with a DELIGHTED majority who prefer the fiction but some of the < _ reading public might take a little bit. of the 4 Dear Editor : serious stuff in small doses. If you can possibly — Though many of the younger readers who squeeze it in I would appreciate it as it would -~ _ demanded reprints of a lot of the material al- ‘round out the complete works of this writer. ready printed in F.F.M. and F.N. will be de- ‘lighted and thrilled to at last see “Vol. 1 No. 1” of A. MERRITT’S FANTASY, none of them got more of a “kick” out of the complete issue - than I got out of the truly Spine-Chilling Short Story, ‘Footsteps Invisible” by Robert Arthur. This story, one of only a handful of its type which really scared me in the past ten years, was worth the price of the magazine. I actually began dreaming (I read it at night before going to bed), further episodes of narrow escapes of- Sir Andrew Carraden, only I seemed to be Sir _ Andrew! I woke up after the dream and: won- dered how a man harried for years could ever peacefully go-to, sleep at night, for any night might be the one when the spirit of Tut-Ankh- - Tothet would find him. I am glad that I asked so many times for a third companion to the other two magazines of this type that you edit. Try to include more . shorts with such a terrific punch as “Footsteps Invisible’ m F.N. now that you have more space. After you have printed all of Merritt’s novels, why not change the name to Famous 122 is Sincerely, W. J. Clark Los Angeles, Cal. ED. We cannot make any promises about = giving you any of Merritt’s more serious writ- ings. We'll do our best. = IDEAS FOR STORIES *, ca Dear Editor : Your néw magazine A. MERRITT’S FAN- TASY is just what I’ve been hoping for. Al- though I’ve read “everything by A. Merritt except “Fox Women,’ I want to read them again and add them to my collection. Your first cover was very good, also most of the inside illustrations. Keep up the good work and you're sure to be a big success. Some stories I would like to see in your new magazine are: “Drink We Deep” by Arthur Leo Zagot, “The Ninth Life” by Jack Mann, “Phantom In The Rainbow” by La Master, also the other La Master story, the name slips my oO Eomichooks.com