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Fantascience Digest, v. 3, issue 1, whole no. 12, January-February 1940
Page 13
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FANTASCIENCE DIGEST Page 13 class. Thirdly, the author may have a unique style of writing, or an exquisite command of prose, that made anything he wrote enjoyable, if only for the composition. That would be another factor that would tend to elevate him to a position of prominence. David H. Keller, M.D., is a good example of this. Some authors there are that fill all three of my requirements; Stanley G. Weinbaum, A. Merritt, and John W. Campbell, to name a few. There's no doubt about it. As authors these fellows are tops. They hit the top because they had everything. But Edward E. Smith, Homer Eon Flint, Murray Leinster, George Allan England, Austin Hall, Garrett Smith, and numerous others, are certainly not the proud owners of all three of these traits. Most of them have but one, a few two, but none can say that they possess all three. Edward E. Smith's popularity is little more than good luck. I do not mean to criticise his writing ability when I say this. He is a damned good writer, but he would never have achieved his vaunted position of prominence if his "Skylark of Space" had appeared in 1933 instaed of in 1928. Smith's "Sktlark of Space" was the first science fiction of the super-super type. Smith wasn't afraid to let his imagination wander; he rreally let himself go and produced the first story of super-fleets and cosmic tremendousness. He reached out, far beyond the stifling confines of our solar system, out past the milky way, accomplishing incredible feats of science. "The Skylark of Space" is [underlined] not the best of its type. "Sktlark Three" was a superior story, and, although Dr. Smith may not know it, "Spacehounds of the IPC" is considered the best of his stories by many. Personally, I consider it so myself. However, this is slightly irrelevant to the article. -------------------------------------- Now that the introduction and various explanaion are done away with, I'll continuewith the subject of my article, "Uncrowned Masters." These authors I am about to present, for some reason or another, have never attained the recognition as Weinbaum, Merritt, etc., have. Some because they haven't written enough. Others because they are not versatile enough. Most because they fulfill only one of the three requirements listed at the beginning of this article. First of all, there is W.K. Sonneman. From the day I read his first story, "Masterminds of Venus", I knew that here was a writer among writes. A "master" of science fiction. I actually believe that Sonneman is every bit as good a writer as Weinbaum, with possibilities of becoming even better. One cannot express the delight at reading a story like "Greta, Queen of Queens" in a day when fans believe that no more great stories are to be had. Sonneman, to my knowledge, has written but three stories. The other was titled "The Council of Drones", and all three appeared in the Sloane-edited AMAZING STORIES. Weinbaum had everything and so has Sonneman. Sonneman has popular appeal, a beautiful--almost poetic--style, and his first story certainly did cause a minor sensation when it appeared in AMAZING in 1934. Had Teck Publications continued publishing AMAZING, Sonneman would have undoubtedly been recognized as the master-writer that he is. Sloane, in his blurb for the last Sonneman story that appeared, admitted that he could find no adjectives to describe the story other than that he was "deeply impressed". If you
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FANTASCIENCE DIGEST Page 13 class. Thirdly, the author may have a unique style of writing, or an exquisite command of prose, that made anything he wrote enjoyable, if only for the composition. That would be another factor that would tend to elevate him to a position of prominence. David H. Keller, M.D., is a good example of this. Some authors there are that fill all three of my requirements; Stanley G. Weinbaum, A. Merritt, and John W. Campbell, to name a few. There's no doubt about it. As authors these fellows are tops. They hit the top because they had everything. But Edward E. Smith, Homer Eon Flint, Murray Leinster, George Allan England, Austin Hall, Garrett Smith, and numerous others, are certainly not the proud owners of all three of these traits. Most of them have but one, a few two, but none can say that they possess all three. Edward E. Smith's popularity is little more than good luck. I do not mean to criticise his writing ability when I say this. He is a damned good writer, but he would never have achieved his vaunted position of prominence if his "Skylark of Space" had appeared in 1933 instaed of in 1928. Smith's "Sktlark of Space" was the first science fiction of the super-super type. Smith wasn't afraid to let his imagination wander; he rreally let himself go and produced the first story of super-fleets and cosmic tremendousness. He reached out, far beyond the stifling confines of our solar system, out past the milky way, accomplishing incredible feats of science. "The Skylark of Space" is [underlined] not the best of its type. "Sktlark Three" was a superior story, and, although Dr. Smith may not know it, "Spacehounds of the IPC" is considered the best of his stories by many. Personally, I consider it so myself. However, this is slightly irrelevant to the article. -------------------------------------- Now that the introduction and various explanaion are done away with, I'll continuewith the subject of my article, "Uncrowned Masters." These authors I am about to present, for some reason or another, have never attained the recognition as Weinbaum, Merritt, etc., have. Some because they haven't written enough. Others because they are not versatile enough. Most because they fulfill only one of the three requirements listed at the beginning of this article. First of all, there is W.K. Sonneman. From the day I read his first story, "Masterminds of Venus", I knew that here was a writer among writes. A "master" of science fiction. I actually believe that Sonneman is every bit as good a writer as Weinbaum, with possibilities of becoming even better. One cannot express the delight at reading a story like "Greta, Queen of Queens" in a day when fans believe that no more great stories are to be had. Sonneman, to my knowledge, has written but three stories. The other was titled "The Council of Drones", and all three appeared in the Sloane-edited AMAZING STORIES. Weinbaum had everything and so has Sonneman. Sonneman has popular appeal, a beautiful--almost poetic--style, and his first story certainly did cause a minor sensation when it appeared in AMAZING in 1934. Had Teck Publications continued publishing AMAZING, Sonneman would have undoubtedly been recognized as the master-writer that he is. Sloane, in his blurb for the last Sonneman story that appeared, admitted that he could find no adjectives to describe the story other than that he was "deeply impressed". If you
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