Emergency Flare
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| Title: | Emergency Flare |
| Creator: | Harry Warner, Jr. |
| Date(s): | April 1942 |
| Medium: | |
| Fandom: | Science Fiction |
| Topic: | Earl Singleton, the effects of WWII on fanzines, fandom feuds |
| External Links: | Hosted online by fanac.org. Spaceways #27 pp. 18-20. April 1942. |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Emergency Flare was an article written by Harry Warner, Jr. as a replacement for the regular Spaceways column Beacon Light, which had yet to arrive as he was dummying #27. He took the chance to share an incident from eight months ago where Earl Singleton had visited him under an assumed name after committing pseuicide earlier in 1941.
Warner had known beforehand that he would be a prime target if Singleton wanted to keep having fun with the hoax, since Warner was known as a recluse who did most of his fanac through the mail. The rest of the column covered the effects of WWII on printing fanzines; a feud between the editors of Nebula and Fantasy Fiction Field Weekly; pro science fiction releases; and official policy on reprints in prozines like Famous Fantastic Mysteries, Future Fiction and Startling Stories.
Excerpts
...I've wanted for some time to put into print the way I met Earl Singleton after his pseuicide. This account was originally planned for Le Zombie, where it would be peculiarly appropriate; but terrible rumors have been floating about, concerning the way Bob Tucker is editing huge gobs out of everything he prints, and this is the sure means of getting every word of the story into print, uncut!It was a rather warm evening in late August, and I was sweating at my desk, stapling together the loose pages of the then current issue of Horizons, my FAPA magazine. There was a knock at the door; someone answered, and a voice asked for me. I went to the door, or the voice with its body came in--I don't recall--and the voice and body introduced himself as R. M. Brown, from Washington, D. C. He was one of those side-line fans; had attended some meetings of the PSFS while living in Philadelphia for a while, and had seen some fan magazines there. Driving around, he found himself near Hagerstown, remembered who lives there, and decided to stop for an hour or so.
Now, in letters to two or three correspondents immediately after the truth of the pseuicide became known, I had speculated that Earl could have had some fun at my expense by visiting me under an assumed name and getting fandom's reaction to the great event. I had never met Earl, and seen only one picture of him. That picture was my downfall. It evidently was a poor one. Mr. R.M. Brown didn't look much like the Earl Singleton of that picture.
So we chatted for some time. I explained in full detail fandom, the FAPA, the Denvention, and such things. I was faintly suspicious. I sent up a test balloon by dwelling at great length on the way Earl Singleton had hoaxed fandom, and told of Liebscher's suggestion that a seance be held at some future convention at which Singleton should be brought back to life, and explained in some detail which fans had known all along and how others had learned. Mr. Brown was quite interested and amused by the silly antics of Singleton, but displayed no suspicious reactions. (And in case anyone in the audience thinks the possibility of my visitor's being Singleton dawned on me only weeks or months later: In practically all fan letters I wrote for the next week or ten days I mentioned my suspicions. I can refer you to any number of fans for verification of this.)
We even went up to my bedroom and looked over my collection. Brown was interested in fanzines, and decided to buy a lot of back issues of Spaceways. He did --a tremendous pile of them, the price of which half-financed the next issue--and I tossed in a copy of Horizons as bonus. I showed him the last FAPA mailing, along with other fanzines, and he made his only detectable slip by lingering over the page in Speer's Sustaining Program devoted to a discussion of Singleton's views on Housman. But that could have been a coincidence, I knew.
He said that he thought he might like to start a fanzine himself. "It is pretty warm up here," I said. "No, I feel quite all right," he replied; "I just wanted to see what your reaction would be." "Well," I said, "far be it from me to discourage anyone, but it all seems so pointless that sometimes I...." "But what does have a point in life?" he asked, thereby proving that great minds run in similar channels since Milty recently expressed the same unanswerable bit of logic. Looking over my books, he read with grest gusto some of "Jurgen", aloud.
So he left, promising to come back some time and, I believe, inviting me to drop around. He gave his address, since he had subscribed to Spaceways while buying the back issues. And that was that, until several months later I was writing to Jack Speer, and happened to remember my doubts. I gave Jack RMB's address, and told him to look him up; if it wasn't Singleton, Brown seemed like a very nice intelligent person who'd be good company for Speer, del Rey, and Rothman; and if it was Earl, all the loose ends of the pseuicide could be wound up. Speer investigated, found Earl (whom he'd met at the Chicon), and all parties concerned in the matter are at present living happily ever after.
The war hasn't done any damage thus far to fanzines, in quality or quantity, but just recently it really smacked home. Mimeographs are now being rationed; one must have a priority rating of A-9 or better in order to purchase a new one. As far as I know, there are no restrictions on the sale of used ones, so if you've been planning to buy and start a fanzine, better hunt one up quick. This state of affairs could produce some fandom-millionaires: presuming that quite a few fans are left to carry on in the years to come, and the war rolls along, mimeos will become scarcer and scarcer. Finally only a few fans will have them, and control the fan press, charging fabulous sums to duplicate magazines for those who wish to edit, and becoming bloated plutocrats off the profits.First concrete trend towards such a deplorable situation is a collaboration between Louis Russell Chauvenet and me. We have borrowed Widner's glorious motto, "Fanzines by the Ton", and shall proceed to attempt to live up to it. Russell will, in the future, be editor of Frontier, the organ of the Frontier Society, and is also going to issue a fanzine digest. (So is A. L. Schwartz, vulgarly known at times as Suddsy. A few more and we'll need a digest of fanzine digests.) Frontier will be bi-monthly and the digest quarterly, according to the present plans, and Chauvenet will continue to issue his FAPA publication, Sardonyx, quarterly. They should total about two hundred ten pages per year which is a right noble effort. These publications, of course, will be all Chauvenet's except for the actual crank-turning, which is where I fit into the picture. Then I myself emit some two hundred fifty pages of Spaceways and Horizons per annum, off the mimeo and hekto, although the latter may possibly go mimeoed soon, also.
A fine feud seems to be brewing between the editors of Nebula and Fantasy Fiction Field Weekly. Let's hope it doesn't develop any further, for its beginning was over a matter that won't change the course of events to come, and it seems rather silly to fight over it. After all, there's no reason why there should be blood-thirsty relations between news weeklies in the fan field. No one publication can hope to cover all the fan and pro news, no matter how much time and effort is spent on newsgathering. The contents of two weeklies will therefore vary to a certain extent, and if both are decent publications, most fans will buy both. Moreover, Nebula and FFF Weekly don't conflict so very much. Nebula is very definitely and avowedly intended to provide news of fandom, fans, and fanzines, and pays no great attention to the professional magazines. FFF Weekly publishes little fan news, and concentrates on the professional magazines and writers. The better appearance of Nebula is balanced by the photos which FFF Weekly uses in most issues. Either Lowndes or Unger was a bit scathing in his denunciation of an item plainly marked as "rumor" in Nebula, and Rustebar wasn't exactly prudent to publish a very unsubtle remark about "sloppily produced news magazines" in an unsigned column in Nebula. So--why not kiss and make up, before the thing develops any further?
Reactions
Emergency Flare far outshone Beacon Light; rating stands at 9; best in issue, easily. One statement you make I question; I am not aware that any fans with the single exception of the Swishers "knew all along" that Singleton's suicide was a fake. Explain, pretty please! (I should have been more clear; I mean those fans like you, Widner, Ackerman, Trudy Kuslan and me, who learned the truth long before all fandom as a whole did. HW.)Louis Russell Chauvenet: Letter printed in Spaceways #28 pg. 23. June 1942.
"Emergency Flare": cleverly titled, and on the whole better than Beacon Light, no kidding. In an unobtrusive way, Singleton seems to be repenting of his dastardly deed, doesn't he?Paul H. Spencer: Letter printed in Spaceways #28 pg. 24. June 1942.
I have gathered that Singleton is Yngvi's twin brother. Has anyone put E. S. through the grill as to why he hoaxed fandom the way he did? You know that he could have swung his suicide in an above-board manner, as a joke. He did not. It is regrettable that you are beginning to plug him.Edward C. Connor: Letter printed in Spaceways #28 pg. 24. June 1942.