DIY History | Transcribe | Hevelin Fanzines | Fantasy Commentator, v. 1, issue 9, Winter 1945-1946

Transcribe
Translate

Fantasy Commentator, v. 1, issue 9, Winter 1945-1946

Page 202

202     FANTASY COMMENTATOR
This-'n'-That
Without pause or preamble, we proceed at once to listing those fantasy books which appeared in 1945 since our last issue. Hugh Barbaree by Charles B. Nordhoff and J. N. Hall (Little-Brown, $2) is a tale of imaginary dream-worlds conjured up in the mind of a dying man, and is written with the usual incisive vigor that has always characterized novels by these authors of adventure on the high seas. A brief and amusing work is Elwyn Brooks White's Stuart Little (Harper, $2), which tells of the doings of a Tom Thumb-sized son born into a normal American family; the illustrations by Garth Williams are as delightful as the context. The Maze by Maurice Sandoz (Doubleday-Doran, $2 1/2) is a rather grim---if conventional---tale about a nameless "thing" which haunts an old English castle; Salvatore Dali's illustrations match its mood well, and are, in fact better than the material depicted. Satire dilutes the escapism of Arthur Koestler's Twilight Bar (Macmillan, $2), a play set on a mythical island republic at an indefinite future date; this is warmly recommended, even to those readers who consider themselves allergic to fiction that aims to do more than relate a story. A partly pleasant, partly dull melange of surrealism is A Night with Jupiter and other Fantastic Stories edited by Charles H. Ford (Vanguard, $3); you might like it, you might not: look it over carefully before parting with your currency. An unusual novel is Robert Hichens' Woman in the House (MacCrae-Smith, $2 1/2), which skirts the fashionably occult in dealing with thought-images, extra-sensory perception, and similar topics. The Oboler Omnibus (Duell, Sloane and Pierce, $2 1/2) is a collection of fourteen radio plays by Arch Oboler, that staunch advocate of propaganda well larded with the fantastic; such items as Hats," "Holidy 194x," "The Immortal Gentleman" and "The Visitor from Hades" are included here. Finally there is Mister Pimney (Ackerman, $1), a brief ghost story by Justus E. Wyman.
Wavering on the borderline between themes of fantasy and the mundane are several volumes. One of these is The Night Has a Thousand Eyes by George Hopley (Farrar and Rinehart, $2 1/2); though mainly a mystery story with a weird atmosphere, this book warrants mention because of occasional intrusion of future foretelling episodes and the like. Howard Maier's Undertow (Doubleday-Doran, $2 1/2) is a morbid and depressing tale of develping insanity, is is Victor Wolfson's Lonely Steeple (Simon and Schuster, $2 1/2).
William Oliver Stevens' Unbidden Guests: a Book of Real Ghosts (Dodd-Mead, $3) is supposedly composed of factual supernatural accounts. A handsome volume indeed (glance at the price; it should be!) is the Ship of Flame: a Saga of the South Seas, by William S. Stone (Knopf, $7 1/2); it is the first time that this Polynesian legend has been committed to print, and the author has done his work well. The book is beautifully illustrated by Nicolas Mordvinoff. Did you think you had seen the last of the WPA? Look again: its Writers' Project is back once more with Gumbo Ya-Ya; a Collection of Louisiana Fairy Tales (Houghton-Mifflin, $5); the compilers are Lyle Saxon, Edward Dreyer and Robert Tallent. This volume too is illustrated.
Britain, meanwhile, furnishes us with two new fantasy items, both of which deal frankly with the supernatural: Charles Williams' AllHallows' Eve (Faber and Faber, 8/6), a novel; and Best Ghost Stories compiled by A. B. Ridler (Faber and Faber, 9/6), a collection of short stories. (Four other new English books are described in "Open House," on page 233 of this issue.) In the realm of British reprints,the most important are two authored by M. R. Hames: Collected Ghost Stories (Arnold, 6/6) and a paper-bound reissue of Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (Lothian, 1/3), both enormous bargains. The former is available in this country, too, at a price of$2 1/2 (Longmans-Green); it is unquestionably a volume no respectable fantasy collector's library lacks.

Saving...

202 FANTASY COMMENTATOR This-'n'-That Without pause or preamble, we proceed at once to listing those fantasy books which appeared in 1945 since our last issue. Hugh Barbaree by Charles B. Nordhoff and J. N. Hall (Little-Brown, $2) is a tale of imaginary dream-worlds conjured up in the mind of a dying man, and is written with the usual incisive vigor that has always characterized novels by these authors of adventure on the high seas. A brief and amusing work is Elwyn Brooks White's Stuart Little (Harper, $2), which tells of the doings of a Tom Thumb-sized son born into a normal American family; the illustrations by Garth Williams are as delightful as the context. The Maze by Maurice Sandoz (Doubleday-Doran, $2 1/2) is a rather grim---if conventional---tale about a nameless "thing" which haunts an old English castle; Salvatore Dali's illustrations match its mood well, and are, in fact better than the material depicted. Satire dilutes the escapism of Arthur Koestler's Twilight Bar (Macmillan, $2), a play set on a mythical island republic at an indefinite future date; this is warmly recommended, even to those readers who consider themselves allergic to fiction that aims to do more than relate a story. A partly pleasant, partly dull melange of surrealism is A Night with Jupiter and other Fantastic Stories edited by Charles H. Ford (Vanguard, $3); you might like it, you might not: look it over carefully before parting with your currency. An unusual novel is Robert Hichens' Woman in the House (MacCrae-Smith, $2 1/2), which skirts the fashionably occult in dealing with thought-images, extra-sensory perception, and similar topics. The Oboler Omnibus (Duell, Sloane and Pierce, $2 1/2) is a collection of fourteen radio plays by Arch Oboler, that staunch advocate of propaganda well larded with the fantastic; such items as Hats," "Holidy 194x," "The Immortal Gentleman" and "The Visitor from Hades" are included here. Finally there is Mister Pimney (Ackerman, $1), a brief ghost story by Justus E. Wyman. Wavering on the borderline between themes of fantasy and the mundane are several volumes. One of these is The Night Has a Thousand Eyes by George Hopley (Farrar and Rinehart, $2 1/2); though mainly a mystery story with a weird atmosphere, this book warrants mention because of occasional intrusion of future foretelling episodes and the like. Howard Maier's Undertow (Doubleday-Doran, $2 1/2) is a morbid and depressing tale of develping insanity, is is Victor Wolfson's Lonely Steeple (Simon and Schuster, $2 1/2). William Oliver Stevens' Unbidden Guests: a Book of Real Ghosts (Dodd-Mead, $3) is supposedly composed of factual supernatural accounts. A handsome volume indeed (glance at the price; it should be!) is the Ship of Flame: a Saga of the South Seas, by William S. Stone (Knopf, $7 1/2); it is the first time that this Polynesian legend has been committed to print, and the author has done his work well. The book is beautifully illustrated by Nicolas Mordvinoff. Did you think you had seen the last of the WPA? Look again: its Writers' Project is back once more with Gumbo Ya-Ya; a Collection of Louisiana Fairy Tales (Houghton-Mifflin, $5); the compilers are Lyle Saxon, Edward Dreyer and Robert Tallent. This volume too is illustrated. Britain, meanwhile, furnishes us with two new fantasy items, both of which deal frankly with the supernatural: Charles Williams' AllHallows' Eve (Faber and Faber, 8/6), a novel; and Best Ghost Stories compiled by A. B. Ridler (Faber and Faber, 9/6), a collection of short stories. (Four other new English books are described in "Open House," on page 233 of this issue.) In the realm of British reprints,the most important are two authored by M. R. Hames: Collected Ghost Stories (Arnold, 6/6) and a paper-bound reissue of Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (Lothian, 1/3), both enormous bargains. The former is available in this country, too, at a price of$2 1/2 (Longmans-Green); it is unquestionably a volume no respectable fantasy collector's library lacks.