Page:Amazing Stories Volume 16 Number 12.djvu/6

Once in a while we get a fan letter that is so good it ought to draw down our regular word rate, instead of being printed in Discussions as an open letter from a reader. The letter which follows is being placed in our editorial column for one reason—to give a group of readers a break! That group is the one which remarks occasionally: "Don't you ever get any letters that do not praise? Or do you weed them out?" Well, we finally received such a letter, the neatest bit we've ever gotten! And to prove how much it tickled us to get it, we pass it on to you as proof that we can count among our readers, even the fellow who owns the original "needle"!

"Sirs: Having seen this mag on the stands, I decided to buy one. I didn’t realize what a foolish thing I did until I started to read it.

"I have read some lousy magazines, but this wreck is the corniest I have ever had the misfortune to buy. The stories that you have the gall to print are strictly crummy. They look like the kind that was turned down by every other magazine on the market and came to you as a last resort.

"The only thing that makes sense in your book is the page number.

"When I read those Discussions in the back, it looked like the only ones you printed were the ones that overflowed with praise; or do you make them up yourself just to show you got a so-called good magazine, you think?

"I double-dare you to print this letter, but you probably won't because the editors are undoubtedly chicken-hearted. Now, be honest for just once and print this."

There you are, readers! No use trying to beat that one. So you might as well go on praising us. The ultimate needle has been needled! We are not publishing the writer's name and address, because people in Royal Oak, Michigan, might go to 101 S Irving Street, and enter into a debate with Jack Ball. And after all, it's just a matter of opinion, and we've all got a right to that, eh?

All of which leads us up to the editorial "rave" over the piece de resistance of this ultra-excellent December issue. In these hallowed pages you will find the first instalment of Howard Browne's great novel of Cro-Magnon Man, "Warrior Of The Dawn". As Mr. Browne remarks, looking over our shoulder, we are sticking our neck out so far we look like a giraffe. But well risk it! After all, it's the story that's out on a limb—and that's where we believe you'll be . . . with sheer excitement!

To make this bragging business brief, we'll skim hurriedly over the rest of the swell stories in this issue: First, there's Robert Moore Williams' "Planet Of The Gods" which is certainly typical of Bob—which means it's a corker. Then there's Edmond Hamilton with "The World With a Thousand Moons", a unique sort of interplanetary story, you'll have to admit when you've read it. Clark South gives us "The Time Mirror", especially constructed of the finest time story materials to satisfy the thousands of you who love this type of story. Chester S. Geier, who is one of our earliest fans turned writer, by the way, presents a story of eerie terror called "The Sphere Of Sleep". Leroy Yerxa, newest addition to our regular writing family, presents "One Way Ticket To Nowhere", (incidently, he's just sold us a sequel to "Death Rides At Night" featuring those amazing super trucks of his!) and Dwight V. Swain, also a product of our own little genius school, returns with another Henry Horn story. To finish up the line-up, Gerald Vance's latest, "Monsoons Of Death" is probably one of his best. Off hand, we'd say it was a "magnificent" (who's got a better word?) issue!

J. Allen St. John painted the cover for Mr. Browne's story "very specially" he tells us. In fact, he believes that it is worthy of exhibition in a coming presentation of art work at the Art Institute in Chicago, and will hang it there during the exhibition. We know you'll like it, and we expect that Mr. Browne will spend many hours later on in life staring at it on his study wall—because that's where it's going.

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