DIY History | Transcribe | Hevelin Fanzines | Fantascience Digest, v. 3, issue 1, whole no. 12, January-February 1940

Transcribe
Translate

Fantascience Digest, v. 3, issue 1, whole no. 12, January-February 1940

Page 31

FANTASCIENCE DIGEST                            Page 31

TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS OF A SCIENCE FICTION COLLECTOR
  By Fred W. Fischer

   Collectors fall into two groups. Those who can go on a brief but costly spending spree and accumulate a large assortment of wanted items, and those who can acquire only a few selections after years of laborious effort. I, frankly, am most distinctly a member of this latter vast majority.

   Now in visualising a collector, most of us picture some paunchy, overstuffed old millionaire puttering about in a private museum full of old masters, scarabs, etchings or other objects. But not I. Instead I see an impecunious young fellow of about eighteen, who haunts the bookstoris and second-hand marts of the nation, and who ocassionally utters wild inward cries of ecstacy when he discovers something of extraordinary interest -- which item he almost invariably put in the lay-by until his finances have somewhat improved.

   A rather peculiar picture of a bona-fide collector, you might well say; but to me he is the authentic type. He is, in other words, the average science fiction collector. He is willing to give his finest shirt for a hard-to-get item, willing to miss a meal than the latest DYNASCIENCE, willing to stoop to the dreadful depth of library theft to acquire a certain volume unobtainable elsewhere.

   This last statement I make with deep, bitter personal animosity toward some local science fiction fan, identity unknown to me. He is a knave of the worst sort. I'll prove it! 

   For years there has reposed in the local library a book written by Ella Scrymsour entitled "The Perfect World" -- a book representing the tops in hodge-podge imaginative fiction. Its plot is comprehensive and all-inclusive, the author quite evidently attempting to cover all the glittering facets and angles of science and weird fiction in one fell swoop. The book begins asxalove story, diverts into a weird tale, switches from ghosts to goblins inhabiting the interior of the earth, and winds up as a saga of interplanetary travel after the world has been destroyed in a particularly titanic and complete catastrophe. The characters eventually reach Jupiter, as I remember, and from that point on the plot deals with Utopia.

   At any rate this book was never popular, evidently, with any person except myself, for the library card was inscribed front and back with my name and mine alone. I had been dickering with the head-libarian for the purchase of this volume, but had gotten nowhere. In desperation, I decided to sign up for the book and report it lost, being willing to pay the exorbitant price the library always charges for lost books. Determined to employ this deception I at once made my way to the "stacks" where "The Perfect World" had long been buried.

   The book was gone! This other fellow -- this devil in human form-- had chanced upon the treasure and his method of acquisition had been direct and forceful. Oh, yes, the card-file listed the volume as present and accounted for, but it didn't take any little bird to tell me

Saving...

FANTASCIENCE DIGEST Page 31 TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS OF A SCIENCE FICTION COLLECTOR By Fred W. Fischer Collectors fall into two groups. Those who can go on a brief but costly spending spree and accumulate a large assortment of wanted items, and those who can acquire only a few selections after years of laborious effort. I, frankly, am most distinctly a member of this latter vast majority. Now in visualising a collector, most of us picture some paunchy, overstuffed old millionaire puttering about in a private museum full of old masters, scarabs, etchings or other objects. But not I. Instead I see an impecunious young fellow of about eighteen, who haunts the bookstoris and second-hand marts of the nation, and who ocassionally utters wild inward cries of ecstacy when he discovers something of extraordinary interest -- which item he almost invariably put in the lay-by until his finances have somewhat improved. A rather peculiar picture of a bona-fide collector, you might well say; but to me he is the authentic type. He is, in other words, the average science fiction collector. He is willing to give his finest shirt for a hard-to-get item, willing to miss a meal than the latest DYNASCIENCE, willing to stoop to the dreadful depth of library theft to acquire a certain volume unobtainable elsewhere. This last statement I make with deep, bitter personal animosity toward some local science fiction fan, identity unknown to me. He is a knave of the worst sort. I'll prove it! For years there has reposed in the local library a book written by Ella Scrymsour entitled "The Perfect World" -- a book representing the tops in hodge-podge imaginative fiction. Its plot is comprehensive and all-inclusive, the author quite evidently attempting to cover all the glittering facets and angles of science and weird fiction in one fell swoop. The book begins asxalove story, diverts into a weird tale, switches from ghosts to goblins inhabiting the interior of the earth, and winds up as a saga of interplanetary travel after the world has been destroyed in a particularly titanic and complete catastrophe. The characters eventually reach Jupiter, as I remember, and from that point on the plot deals with Utopia. At any rate this book was never popular, evidently, with any person except myself, for the library card was inscribed front and back with my name and mine alone. I had been dickering with the head-libarian for the purchase of this volume, but had gotten nowhere. In desperation, I decided to sign up for the book and report it lost, being willing to pay the exorbitant price the library always charges for lost books. Determined to employ this deception I at once made my way to the "stacks" where "The Perfect World" had long been buried. The book was gone! This other fellow -- this devil in human form-- had chanced upon the treasure and his method of acquisition had been direct and forceful. Oh, yes, the card-file listed the volume as present and accounted for, but it didn't take any little bird to tell me