Weird Tales/Volume 42/Issue 4/The Eyrie
We are glad that so many readers seem glad to have the Eyrie back, and we'll try to print as many letters each issue as space will permit. But don't forget that even if we can't print them, we read them! We hadn't intended to bear too heavily on science fiction. In regard to the Wellman story, "Home to Mother" in March, for instance, it seemed to us more of a horror story than sf—but we could be wrong.
The Editor, WEIRD TALES
9 Rockefeller Plaza, New York 20, N. Y.
"The Shadow of Saturn." March issue. By E. Hoffmann Price.
I like it—a good yarn for a number of reasons—it's intriguing and it makes sense. "Wishing is an emotional muddle. Will is pure force." So much food for thought rests in the story. A whole way of life has been projected by Price.
It is the type of yarn from which the reader, each reader will experience in accordance with his capacity for penetration into his own personality and thought patterns. "One can't ever escape from oneself and from what one has made." How true. "You can't run away from what you've made for yourself." That is Wisdom.
I like what Price has to say about CHOICE. "The stars shape your personality and the pattern of your moods, your peaks of vitality and your depths of depression. But whether your mood will rule you, or you will rule it is a matter of choice."
In a way, this little yarn is a GREAT story.
(Mrs.) Ruth Dennis Pancera,
Susanville, California.
The Editor
WEIRD TALES
9 Rockefeller Plaza
New York 20, N. Y.
I've just finished reading the March issue, and don't know whether to kiss you or kick you. The stories were good, really enjoyable, but I want to scream and holler protests against the best ones. I mean, of course, Corn Dance, Two Face, and Home to Mother. They are three of the best science fiction stories I've read in a long time, but for Heaven's sake, what are they doing in WEIRD TALES? For 25 years, more or less, I've been reading WEIRD. I've rejoiced in the good years and been patient in the not-so-good ones, to the extent of a basement full of back numbers which I re-read from time to time. I know by now what I like and what I've enjoyed most from you in the past. Ghosties, ghoulies, unseen terrors, warlocks, witches, succubi, and baneful doom are all OK by me, but anti-gravs, blasters, and characters that have to learn all over again how to build a fire because they are so super-efficient they never knew how—Uh uh! Not for WEIRD TALES ... even when they're good I don't want them!
I'm very glad to see you reviving The Eyrie. I enjoy the comments of some of my fellow fen, that is, when they have something to say. I agree about these plus and minus lists, they make the fellows who submitted them sound so stuffed-shirty! Who gives a hoot anyway whether they think one story is an imaginary two points better than another! Either you like 'em or you don't. And I like 'em, especially The Tree's Wife, Shadow of Saturn, and Stay With Me.
Gertrude M. Carr,
3200 Harvard Avenue No.
Seattle 2, Wash.
The Editor
WEIRD TALES
9 Rockefeller Plaza
New York 20, N. Y.
WEIRD TALES for January, 1950 is generally poor. I liked "The Smiling Face" and "Dark Rosaleen" was fair (!); beyond that there wasn't much.
However there were two features which gave me some hope: "The Eyrie" and the Wellman. I've always regretted that you dropped "The Eyrie." Your reasons didn't seem worth much either. January, 1950, gives hopes of a possible return.
W. H. Baxter.
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The Editor
WEIRD TALES
9 Rockefeller Plaza
New York 20, N. Y.
Let me tell you frankly—I disagree with you. I've got enough letters published in other magazines so that I don't care too much whether this one is published—partially or wholly—in the "Eyrie," but I do disagree with you in regard to your admitted policy of omitting tabulated story preferences. For if it is the editor whom the author must please, and the readers be hanged; ultimately—it is the readers whom the editor must please.
I missed the last WT, it seems, but merely because I have to journey a couple of miles to get it. However, I was surprised at the March WT. Extremely surprised. I enjoyed all of the stories I read, which is all but one. Not one, astonishingly, bored me.
W. Paul Ganley,
North Tonawanda, N. Y.
(Naturally we don't favor hanging our readers; also we keep an eye on circulation figures.—Editor, WEIRD TALES.)
The Editor
WEIRD TALES
9 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, N. Y.
U. S. A.
In the latest issue of your excellent magazine (January 1950) to reach me, I was surprised and delighted to notice several letters in the "Eyrie." Does this mean, that you are restoring this excellent feature of your magazine, and will, in future, print readers' letters? I sincerely hope so. I don't think many of your readers would object if you were to publish one short story less each issue, in order to make space for readers' opinion.
I regard WT as the greatest publication of its kind in the world. Since the change of editorship, the greatest story you have published has been Robert Block's "The Cheaters" (Nov. 1947). Please keep on giving us plenty of Coye illustrations in WT, also some by Boris Dolgov, and Matt Fox's covers are swell too.
Roger Dard,
232 James Street,
Perth, Western Australia.
(We do not hold with omitting a story to make room for a reader's opinion of it. Perhaps this comment will also take care of one reader who hoped for "Irish myth."—Editor, WEIRD TALES.)
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The Editor
WEIRD TALES
9 Rockefeller Plaza
New York 20, N. Y.
Thanks for bawling me out about my mathematical non-weird scoreboard. Happy I am to see a revival of "The Eyrie." Especially in the case of your editorial comments and notes from the authors.
Now for the gripe department; Day Keene's story in March was a good story, but a good story that did not belong in WEIRD TALES. Yes, I know-variety's the spice and all that. How about more stories from the old-timers?
W. N. Austin,
Seattle, Washington.
Received for Weird Tales Bookshelf
The Throne of Saturn. S. Fowler Wright, Arkham House, $3.
S. Fowler Wright is widely acknowledged as one of the masters of the modern science-fiction story. This collection of his tales contains "The Rat," "Automata," "Barin" and "Original Sin" as well as other stories which appear as a collection in this country for the first time. His great science fiction novels, such as "Deluge" and "The World Below" are enjoying a new vogue in England, and this new collection from Arkham House ought to appeal to WEIRD TALES readers who always can be counted on to like stories in this genre—the inimitable "The Rat" appeared in our pages in 1929.
Pebble in the Sky. Isaac Asimov.
Doubleday, $2.50.
Here is a full-length science-fiction novel which has not appeared serially before book publication, though Dr. Asimov's name has meant a good deal to magazine readers. The story began when Joseph Schwartz was walking down a street in Chicago, past the Institute for Nuclear Research. Having raised one foot in the 20th century, he lowered it in Galactic Era 827. Any WEIRD TALES readers can take it on from there; it's a good one.
Please mention Newsstand Fiction Unit when answering advertisements.