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Fantasite, v. 2, issue 3, whole no. 9, August-September 1942

Page 14

14............THE FANTASITE
The Golden Dawn
BY LARRY FARSACI
BLACK CAT

FANTASY FICTION IN THE BLACK CAT MAGAZINE FOR THE YEARS 1903 AND 1904
(Explanatory Note: The following excerpt from the annotated stf bibliography was planned to have ben written in the misty future with the hoped-for revival of Golden Atom, for its department, "The Fantasy Record". However, I'm reasonably sure that I will be able to find the time to compose this article as one of a steady series, and I'm certainly being given a break by not having to stencil and mimeograph it as well! I hope you will find this a welcome feature.
--Larrty B. Farsaci)

The two years of The Black Cat magazine given in this article represent only a small fragment of its history,. But they give a good idea of the frequency with which it featured weird and fantasy fiction, and occasional science-fiction, in its career from October 1895 to the October 1920 issue, which is the last copy I have.
This magazine was one of the most noted and famous periodicls of the day and was often referred to as "The Cat That Captured the Country" and "The Story-Telling Hit of the Age". In fact, I was quite surprised last year to find an English teacher who often spoke of it with regard, and regretted that it no longer existed. ((In the June 20, 1942, issue of The Saturday Review of Literature the noted author William Rose Benet, in his column "The Phoenix Nest", asked for information about The Black Cat, which he remembered from his youth when it rejected his contributions; and in the issues for July 11 and August 8 he devoted nearly a whole page each time to the answers he received from various devotees of the magaine. SDR)) Herman D. Umbstaetter, the founder and for more than sixteen years the publisher, was as strict as the late Farnsworth Wright in his choice of stories and more so, since he chose them only on their own merit, and paid the highest prices for short stories of genuine strength, regardless of their authorship or their length. Among the many authors indebted to The Black Cat for first recognition of their talents are Jack London, O. Henry, Rupert Hughes, Ellis Parker Butler, James Francis Dwyer, Frank Eillie Pollock, Michael White, Frederick Van Renssalaer Dey, Harry Stephen Keeler, and Don Mark Lemon; and there was hardly one of them who did not write a science-fiction or fantastic story!
The two years given are dated from January, 1903, to December, 1904, and number from Volume 8, Number 4, Whole No. 88, to Volume 10, Number 3, Whole No. 111, twenty-four issues in all. At this time it was a small-sized magazine of 6 by 9 inches, selling for five cents, and carrying from five to six stories in forty-two pages packed between a score of pages devoted to the advertising of the day. Its cover was always a distinguishing feature, for it was never without the Cheshire face of a black cat, which varied in size but never in prominence, above a colored background, often in a monthly series depicting the change of seasons. In the summaries which follow I will, of course, concentrate on the imaginative stories, practically ignoring the others. However, all the prize-winning stories--fantasy or not--will be listed.
There is quite an interesting sidelight regarding my acquisition of these

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14............THE FANTASITE The Golden Dawn BY LARRY FARSACI BLACK CAT FANTASY FICTION IN THE BLACK CAT MAGAZINE FOR THE YEARS 1903 AND 1904 (Explanatory Note: The following excerpt from the annotated stf bibliography was planned to have ben written in the misty future with the hoped-for revival of Golden Atom, for its department, "The Fantasy Record". However, I'm reasonably sure that I will be able to find the time to compose this article as one of a steady series, and I'm certainly being given a break by not having to stencil and mimeograph it as well! I hope you will find this a welcome feature. --Larrty B. Farsaci) The two years of The Black Cat magazine given in this article represent only a small fragment of its history,. But they give a good idea of the frequency with which it featured weird and fantasy fiction, and occasional science-fiction, in its career from October 1895 to the October 1920 issue, which is the last copy I have. This magazine was one of the most noted and famous periodicls of the day and was often referred to as "The Cat That Captured the Country" and "The Story-Telling Hit of the Age". In fact, I was quite surprised last year to find an English teacher who often spoke of it with regard, and regretted that it no longer existed. ((In the June 20, 1942, issue of The Saturday Review of Literature the noted author William Rose Benet, in his column "The Phoenix Nest", asked for information about The Black Cat, which he remembered from his youth when it rejected his contributions; and in the issues for July 11 and August 8 he devoted nearly a whole page each time to the answers he received from various devotees of the magaine. SDR)) Herman D. Umbstaetter, the founder and for more than sixteen years the publisher, was as strict as the late Farnsworth Wright in his choice of stories and more so, since he chose them only on their own merit, and paid the highest prices for short stories of genuine strength, regardless of their authorship or their length. Among the many authors indebted to The Black Cat for first recognition of their talents are Jack London, O. Henry, Rupert Hughes, Ellis Parker Butler, James Francis Dwyer, Frank Eillie Pollock, Michael White, Frederick Van Renssalaer Dey, Harry Stephen Keeler, and Don Mark Lemon; and there was hardly one of them who did not write a science-fiction or fantastic story! The two years given are dated from January, 1903, to December, 1904, and number from Volume 8, Number 4, Whole No. 88, to Volume 10, Number 3, Whole No. 111, twenty-four issues in all. At this time it was a small-sized magazine of 6 by 9 inches, selling for five cents, and carrying from five to six stories in forty-two pages packed between a score of pages devoted to the advertising of the day. Its cover was always a distinguishing feature, for it was never without the Cheshire face of a black cat, which varied in size but never in prominence, above a colored background, often in a monthly series depicting the change of seasons. In the summaries which follow I will, of course, concentrate on the imaginative stories, practically ignoring the others. However, all the prize-winning stories--fantasy or not--will be listed. There is quite an interesting sidelight regarding my acquisition of these