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The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Fall 1950
CONTENTS:
The Silly Season - C.M. Kornbluth
The Traitor - James S. Hart
Top Secret - David Grinnell [Donald A. Wollheim]
Built Up Logically - Howard Shoenfeld
A Room in the House - August Derleth
The Poetry Machine - H. Nearing Jr.
Pamela Pays the Piper - Phyllis Lee Peterson
Just a Matter of Time - Roger Angell
Second Meeting - George Whitley [A. Bertram Chandler]
Heritage - Charles L. Harness
The Star Ducks - Bill Brown
Cover art credited to George Salter (isfdb.org).
The Silly Season - C.M. Kornbluth
The Traitor - James S. Hart
Top Secret - David Grinnell [Donald A. Wollheim]
Built Up Logically - Howard Shoenfeld
A Room in the House - August Derleth
The Poetry Machine - H. Nearing Jr.
Pamela Pays the Piper - Phyllis Lee Peterson
Just a Matter of Time - Roger Angell
Second Meeting - George Whitley [A. Bertram Chandler]
Heritage - Charles L. Harness
The Star Ducks - Bill Brown
Cover art credited to George Salter (isfdb.org).
132 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1950
11 people want to read
About the author
Anthony Boucher
645 books43 followersWilliam Anthony Parker White, better known by his pen name Anthony Boucher, was an American author, critic, and editor who wrote several classic mystery novels, short stories, science fiction, and radio dramas. Between 1942 and 1947, he acted as reviewer of mostly mystery fiction for the San Francisco Chronicle. In addition to "Anthony Boucher", White also employed the pseudonym "H. H. Holmes", which was the pseudonym of a late-19th-century American serial killer; Boucher would also write light verse and sign it " Herman W. Mudgett" (the murderer's real name).
In a 1981 poll of 17 detective story writers and reviewers, his novel Nine Times Nine was voted as the ninth best locked room mystery of all time.
In a 1981 poll of 17 detective story writers and reviewers, his novel Nine Times Nine was voted as the ninth best locked room mystery of all time.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 11, 2022
3 • The Silly Season • 14 pages by C. M. Kornbluth
OK+. Sam Williams has to fill news stories. On a slow news day there are domes in Arkansas and it’s headlines for a while. A year passes and there are black spheres, but interest in that type of story is fading.
17 • The Traitor • 14 pages by James S. Hart
Fair/poor. Lorenz is at a party and he knows people’s thoughts, I somehow missed a segue, he was with a group of Things like himself. He left that group, found Casanova and killed him, becoming a traitor.
31 • Top Secret • 2 pages by David Grinnell (Donald A. Wollheim)
OK/Fair. Narrator visiting DC walks into a government building sees three men that on second view don't really appear to be human, backed up by a coin he picked up.
33 • Built Up Logically • 11 pages by Howard Schoenfeld
Good. Aspasia is an author who has written himself into his own work. Frank is a character who aspires to be more. The humor still works seventy years later.
44 • A Room in a House • 9 pages by August Derleth
OK. When bad Sheldon and Abner were sent to the room at the head of the stair to contemplate their misdeeds, but ended up creating Genie who would take out their frustrations on those responsible for their punishment.
53 • The Poetry Machine • 7 pages by H. Nearing jr.
OK. Ransom is in charge of a powerful computer. Rather than use it for calculations, he's going to have it write poetry. MacTate, as always, is skeptical of Ransom's idea, throws in some sarcastic remarks that Ransom takes as advice.
60 • Pamela Pays the Piper • 13 pages by Phyllis Lee Peterson
Good. Steenie is killed and vows to haunt that family. He becomes a ghost and ends up liking the family. Generations later the family has died off and all that is left is Pamela who moved to Canada.
73 • Just a Matter of Time • 8 pages by Roger Angell
Fair/OK. Elliott strikes up a conversation with Cromartie, reminiscing about the old days, and gets a recommendation for a restaurant, but when he goes to the address it isn’t there. Readable, but Elliott seemed a bit full of himself.
84 • Second Meeting • 9 pages by George Whitley (A. Bertram Chandler)
OK. Trant mentions a ghost, kind of bragging. Langley and Fido call him on it and ask to meet up where the ghost is expected. Fido flings a rock at the old man, who then starts to chase after them and yell, while the boys run away. Ten years latter Fido finds himself in the same place.
93 • Heritage • 28 pages by Charles L. Harness
OK+. Captain Lurain is dreading the end of the voyage and his ship being refitted, but that turns out to be the least of his worries. He sees a man who doesn’t look uman. When she, as it turns out, confronts him she brings to his attention that he’s not uman either. Now they’re both in trouble. There must be other humans, but they don’t go looking for them, we’re just lead to believe two of them are going to start a (possibly last) branch of humanity. Romantic, but the genetic diversity isn’t going to work.
121 • The Star Ducks • 9 pages by Bill Brown
OK. A reporter goes to check on an airplane crash. It turns out to be aliens. The no phone, no camera, dates the story.
OK+. Sam Williams has to fill news stories. On a slow news day there are domes in Arkansas and it’s headlines for a while. A year passes and there are black spheres, but interest in that type of story is fading.
17 • The Traitor • 14 pages by James S. Hart
Fair/poor. Lorenz is at a party and he knows people’s thoughts, I somehow missed a segue, he was with a group of Things like himself. He left that group, found Casanova and killed him, becoming a traitor.
31 • Top Secret • 2 pages by David Grinnell (Donald A. Wollheim)
OK/Fair. Narrator visiting DC walks into a government building sees three men that on second view don't really appear to be human, backed up by a coin he picked up.
33 • Built Up Logically • 11 pages by Howard Schoenfeld
Good. Aspasia is an author who has written himself into his own work. Frank is a character who aspires to be more. The humor still works seventy years later.
44 • A Room in a House • 9 pages by August Derleth
OK. When bad Sheldon and Abner were sent to the room at the head of the stair to contemplate their misdeeds, but ended up creating Genie who would take out their frustrations on those responsible for their punishment.
53 • The Poetry Machine • 7 pages by H. Nearing jr.
OK. Ransom is in charge of a powerful computer. Rather than use it for calculations, he's going to have it write poetry. MacTate, as always, is skeptical of Ransom's idea, throws in some sarcastic remarks that Ransom takes as advice.
60 • Pamela Pays the Piper • 13 pages by Phyllis Lee Peterson
Good. Steenie is killed and vows to haunt that family. He becomes a ghost and ends up liking the family. Generations later the family has died off and all that is left is Pamela who moved to Canada.
73 • Just a Matter of Time • 8 pages by Roger Angell
Fair/OK. Elliott strikes up a conversation with Cromartie, reminiscing about the old days, and gets a recommendation for a restaurant, but when he goes to the address it isn’t there. Readable, but Elliott seemed a bit full of himself.
84 • Second Meeting • 9 pages by George Whitley (A. Bertram Chandler)
OK. Trant mentions a ghost, kind of bragging. Langley and Fido call him on it and ask to meet up where the ghost is expected. Fido flings a rock at the old man, who then starts to chase after them and yell, while the boys run away. Ten years latter Fido finds himself in the same place.
93 • Heritage • 28 pages by Charles L. Harness
OK+. Captain Lurain is dreading the end of the voyage and his ship being refitted, but that turns out to be the least of his worries. He sees a man who doesn’t look uman. When she, as it turns out, confronts him she brings to his attention that he’s not uman either. Now they’re both in trouble. There must be other humans, but they don’t go looking for them, we’re just lead to believe two of them are going to start a (possibly last) branch of humanity. Romantic, but the genetic diversity isn’t going to work.
121 • The Star Ducks • 9 pages by Bill Brown
OK. A reporter goes to check on an airplane crash. It turns out to be aliens. The no phone, no camera, dates the story.
August 28, 2017
A pretty good issue.
Five of the stories are reprints. They are the ones by Angell, Peterson, Schoenfeld, Whitley, and Grinnell. These are all rather good.
I don't know anything about Phyllis Lee Peterson. Her story "Pamela Pays the Piper" is about a ghost in Scotland coming to America. He "haunts the castle...in the eighteenth century. To find rest, he must get a descendant of the enemy Clan...to admit that one [member of the ghost's clan] is worthy fifty [members of the other clan]."
Oh, wait. I'm sorry, that's the Wikipedia summary of the 1935 movie The Ghost Goes West. No matter; that's pretty much the plot of the story as well.
Actually, the story and the movie are very different, but there is more than a slight resemblance between the two. I do think "Pamela Pays the Piper" is a good story.
"Top Secret" by David Grinnell (a pseudonym for Donald Wollheim) is a very short, quite funny story. Are there aliens among us?
The introduction to Howard Schoenfeld's "Built Up Logically" calls the story a "joyous record of a world where life goes off at a tangent." Characters taking over a story is a familiar plot device but seldom is it as witty as in this story.
"Just a Matter of Time" by Roger Angell is a sort-of time travel story about a man who wants to go back to an earlier time. This was originally published in The New Yorker in 1948. As I write this in 2017, Angell is still living and is in his late 90's.
"Second Meeting" by George Whitley (another pseudonym, this time for A. Bertram Chandler) is another ghost story...maybe. Is the old man just what he appears to be or is he a ghost? This is totally unlike what I think of as being typical of Chandler's writing, but I really haven't read that much of his work. I think this is a fine story.
As for the stories original in this issue, most of them are good as well. "The Silly Season" by C. M. Kornbluth has become something of a classic in this field. "Silly season" is a newspaper term for summer doldrums when there typically are fewer newsworthy stories:
During the dog days, politicians are in the Maine woods fishing and boozing, burglars are too tired to burgle and wives think it over and decide not to decapitate their husbands.
James Hart's story "The Traitor" is about a vampire. It isn't a horror story; Lorenz, the main character, is surprisingly sympathetic.
August Derleth's "A Room in a House" is a horror story. Two young boys are repeatedly punished by being sent to a room. They dream up a being they call "Genie" who they imagine will get revenge for them against people who oppose them.
"The Poetry Machine" by H. Nearing, Jr. is the first of a series of comic stories about two college professors, one teaching mathematics and the other philosophy. The later stories in the series are much better than this one.
Bill Brown's "Star Ducks" is a much more successful comic story about a newspaper reporter trying to track down a story about an airplane that came down on a farm. But it isn't an airplane and the passengers aren't human.
I found the remaining story disappointing. I think Charles Harness is generally an excellent writer. However, "Heritage," from early in Harness's writing career, seemed too long, rather boring, and not particularly well written. Here is the beginnning of ths story:
Through the porthole the planet mocked him with her crescented grin, and the uman found no word to utter his gloom.
Terraport in twenty-four hours.
The book review column, "Recommended Reading," is signed just "The Editors." This issue's column discusses books in a number of categories, giving most praise to Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles.
The cover is by George Salter. I frequently like his work. Not this time, though.
I wonder if the people who published and edited science fiction magazines envisioned that people would be reading these issues 60, 70, 80 years later. Many of them are still very much worth reading.
Five of the stories are reprints. They are the ones by Angell, Peterson, Schoenfeld, Whitley, and Grinnell. These are all rather good.
I don't know anything about Phyllis Lee Peterson. Her story "Pamela Pays the Piper" is about a ghost in Scotland coming to America. He "haunts the castle...in the eighteenth century. To find rest, he must get a descendant of the enemy Clan...to admit that one [member of the ghost's clan] is worthy fifty [members of the other clan]."
Oh, wait. I'm sorry, that's the Wikipedia summary of the 1935 movie The Ghost Goes West. No matter; that's pretty much the plot of the story as well.
Actually, the story and the movie are very different, but there is more than a slight resemblance between the two. I do think "Pamela Pays the Piper" is a good story.
"Top Secret" by David Grinnell (a pseudonym for Donald Wollheim) is a very short, quite funny story. Are there aliens among us?
The introduction to Howard Schoenfeld's "Built Up Logically" calls the story a "joyous record of a world where life goes off at a tangent." Characters taking over a story is a familiar plot device but seldom is it as witty as in this story.
"Just a Matter of Time" by Roger Angell is a sort-of time travel story about a man who wants to go back to an earlier time. This was originally published in The New Yorker in 1948. As I write this in 2017, Angell is still living and is in his late 90's.
"Second Meeting" by George Whitley (another pseudonym, this time for A. Bertram Chandler) is another ghost story...maybe. Is the old man just what he appears to be or is he a ghost? This is totally unlike what I think of as being typical of Chandler's writing, but I really haven't read that much of his work. I think this is a fine story.
As for the stories original in this issue, most of them are good as well. "The Silly Season" by C. M. Kornbluth has become something of a classic in this field. "Silly season" is a newspaper term for summer doldrums when there typically are fewer newsworthy stories:
During the dog days, politicians are in the Maine woods fishing and boozing, burglars are too tired to burgle and wives think it over and decide not to decapitate their husbands.
James Hart's story "The Traitor" is about a vampire. It isn't a horror story; Lorenz, the main character, is surprisingly sympathetic.
August Derleth's "A Room in a House" is a horror story. Two young boys are repeatedly punished by being sent to a room. They dream up a being they call "Genie" who they imagine will get revenge for them against people who oppose them.
"The Poetry Machine" by H. Nearing, Jr. is the first of a series of comic stories about two college professors, one teaching mathematics and the other philosophy. The later stories in the series are much better than this one.
Bill Brown's "Star Ducks" is a much more successful comic story about a newspaper reporter trying to track down a story about an airplane that came down on a farm. But it isn't an airplane and the passengers aren't human.
I found the remaining story disappointing. I think Charles Harness is generally an excellent writer. However, "Heritage," from early in Harness's writing career, seemed too long, rather boring, and not particularly well written. Here is the beginnning of ths story:
Through the porthole the planet mocked him with her crescented grin, and the uman found no word to utter his gloom.
Terraport in twenty-four hours.
The book review column, "Recommended Reading," is signed just "The Editors." This issue's column discusses books in a number of categories, giving most praise to Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles.
The cover is by George Salter. I frequently like his work. Not this time, though.
I wonder if the people who published and edited science fiction magazines envisioned that people would be reading these issues 60, 70, 80 years later. Many of them are still very much worth reading.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews