DIY History | Transcribe | Hevelin Fanzines | Last Testament, issue 18, December 1941

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Last Testament, issue 18, December 1941

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are among my choicest reading memories. But never a word of pulp science fiction. I didn't even know the stuff existed.

I didn't know it existed but on third thought it 'pears like I did read a little of it. Not by the name of "pulp Science-Fiction" though. I was in the 7th (?) grade and young and ignorant and oh, so naïve. My first pulp reading was in Adventure and so all the rest of my pulp reading was "adventure stories". The whole mess had been given to me by an ill-meaning friend; there were about 20 well-mixed magazines with Adventure predominating and though I read every one of them from cover to cover, it was the only one to make such an impression. The story that made the most powerful impression on me had to do with two men in some place in Arabia where they hadn't orter been. They found a gorgeous statue of a gorgeous woman in the hands of some natives and promptly swipe it. The natives resented this so they resourcefully made their escape in a boat on the Red Sea. They took the statue with them for the fun of it but it wasn't so much fun when they tried to decide which one it really belonged to. They fought most bitterly; a storm arose; the ship began to fill with water. When next they looked at the object of their mutual affections, it had dissolved to a fast crumbling shell. Salt is soluble in water. Do you remember Lot's wife. The author did.

I believe I was twelve years old at the time which would place it in the late fall of '34 but this may be a year or two off. There were a few SF mags but I remember them only very slightly and have no idea what their names were. Compared with the American Boy stories I was beginning to tire of, they were dull and without any imaginative appeal whatsoever. I soon switched to the history of warfare, a study that completely occupied my reading energies for about two years. After this, I took to reading light novels in the romantic vein and read from one to three a week for about a year. Then came chaos. I dabbled in various things but chiefly several (seven or eight) magazines of outdoor sports -- Field and Stream, Outdoor Life and so forth.

Comes the Dawn. Joe really went to work on me the summer after I finished HiSchool. I was on the loose -- not yet decided whether to go to college or not, but strongly disposed not to. Joe thot I was going to be a Fan and figured it was his divine mission to load me in. By the time he changed his mind, it was too late for him to back out gracefully and I was becoming somewhat interested.

He began by trying to teach me to "appreciate" Science Fiction. After the first two months of my rat year at College, I was ready for anything as a change and did read quite a bit of it. Being fundamentally an impetuous fool, I had signed up for an engineering course on an impulse and then felt obliged, for some strange reason, to finish at least one year of it. I listened to Joe with a mildly interested air for the rest of the year. That summer, I read more and more of his magazines and began to devour the fanzines. That was the summer of the Chicon. I wasn't much interested in it.

But the following winter I became interested in fan activities and read every fanzine I could get my hands on. I will always remember LeZombie for two things; as the first fanmag I ever read and as the best of the whole bunch in that early reading. These magazines caused my desire to become known as a Fan. I wanted to receive them and I also wanted to publish one.

Joe now decided to start me on fantasy. This was the natural approach to the problem since I had always had a decided flair for fantasy and

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are among my choicest reading memories. But never a word of pulp science fiction. I didn't even know the stuff existed. I didn't know it existed but on third thought it 'pears like I did read a little of it. Not by the name of "pulp Science-Fiction" though. I was in the 7th (?) grade and young and ignorant and oh, so naïve. My first pulp reading was in Adventure and so all the rest of my pulp reading was "adventure stories". The whole mess had been given to me by an ill-meaning friend; there were about 20 well-mixed magazines with Adventure predominating and though I read every one of them from cover to cover, it was the only one to make such an impression. The story that made the most powerful impression on me had to do with two men in some place in Arabia where they hadn't orter been. They found a gorgeous statue of a gorgeous woman in the hands of some natives and promptly swipe it. The natives resented this so they resourcefully made their escape in a boat on the Red Sea. They took the statue with them for the fun of it but it wasn't so much fun when they tried to decide which one it really belonged to. They fought most bitterly; a storm arose; the ship began to fill with water. When next they looked at the object of their mutual affections, it had dissolved to a fast crumbling shell. Salt is soluble in water. Do you remember Lot's wife. The author did. I believe I was twelve years old at the time which would place it in the late fall of '34 but this may be a year or two off. There were a few SF mags but I remember them only very slightly and have no idea what their names were. Compared with the American Boy stories I was beginning to tire of, they were dull and without any imaginative appeal whatsoever. I soon switched to the history of warfare, a study that completely occupied my reading energies for about two years. After this, I took to reading light novels in the romantic vein and read from one to three a week for about a year. Then came chaos. I dabbled in various things but chiefly several (seven or eight) magazines of outdoor sports -- Field and Stream, Outdoor Life and so forth. Comes the Dawn. Joe really went to work on me the summer after I finished HiSchool. I was on the loose -- not yet decided whether to go to college or not, but strongly disposed not to. Joe thot I was going to be a Fan and figured it was his divine mission to load me in. By the time he changed his mind, it was too late for him to back out gracefully and I was becoming somewhat interested. He began by trying to teach me to "appreciate" Science Fiction. After the first two months of my rat year at College, I was ready for anything as a change and did read quite a bit of it. Being fundamentally an impetuous fool, I had signed up for an engineering course on an impulse and then felt obliged, for some strange reason, to finish at least one year of it. I listened to Joe with a mildly interested air for the rest of the year. That summer, I read more and more of his magazines and began to devour the fanzines. That was the summer of the Chicon. I wasn't much interested in it. But the following winter I became interested in fan activities and read every fanzine I could get my hands on. I will always remember LeZombie for two things; as the first fanmag I ever read and as the best of the whole bunch in that early reading. These magazines caused my desire to become known as a Fan. I wanted to receive them and I also wanted to publish one. Joe now decided to start me on fantasy. This was the natural approach to the problem since I had always had a decided flair for fantasy and