What Made Them "Good"?
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| Title: | What Made Them "Good"? |
| Creator: | Harry Warner, Jr. |
| Date(s): | Printed Jan. 1940 |
| Medium: | |
| Fandom: | Science Fiction |
| Topic: | Science fiction in the mid-1930s |
| External Links: | Hosted online by the Iowa Digital Library; The Comet Vol. 1 #1, pp. 5-6. Jan.-Feb. 1940. |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
What Made Them "Good"? was a 1940 essay by science fiction fan Harry Warner, Jr., that addressed the recent fan sentiment that science fiction was at its best around 1935.
Excerpts
Lately there seems to be another "good old days" epidemic. Of course that isn't anything new; fans have been doing it ever since the first issuesof Amazing were two or three years old.
Warner explains that many fans currently agree that 1934 and 1935 were the best years for science fiction. Some current fans won't know what the magazines were like back then--fans who were in high school five or six years ago are mostly married by now, and current high school fans were interested in jigsaw puzzles and Tom Mix back then. To help, Warner goes through some promags from July 1935, pointing out any active fans from the time who were still around by 1940.
First, Astounding. 160 pages, just like now, and still under Tremaine. Pre-Science Discussions and smooth edges, too. The editorial said the same thing for the umpteenth time, and nearly half the letters were still arguinng over "The Irrelevant". Of the fans still active today, only Ackerman, Darrow, Rothman, Wollheim, and Bott were represented in the letter section, out of nearly thirty missives. Skylark Smith and Goudket were there, though. [Wollheim] was still friends with Sykora, and got a plug for the TFG and the ICSC...."The Son of Old Faithful" was Gallun's contribution. You all remember that, and the letdown it gave. Warner Van Lorne still was the first true stf. hack author, with "Liquid Power", and Kurse's yarn was just "one of those things".... Hamilton, for once, didn't save the world, and for that reason turned out one of his better epics. John Tain's story bored me at the time; I've still not finished it. I suppose I'd enjoy it more now, though.
The illustrations were excellent, especially those by Dold. Marchioni and Schneeman also appeared... A fair cover by Brown.
Then Amazing. Already settling down into its rut, it was still the "aristocrat"--and, for this particular issue, much better than Astounding or Wonder. Sloane still had charge, of course. Morey monopolized the illustrations, doing a rather careless job, and the letters section was just about perfection to real fans.... Several were from out of the U.S; as far away as Japan. The only familiar names were Widner and P. Schuyler Miller....
Warner said that P. Schuyler Miller, Harl Vincent, and N.R. James were the only authors printed in Amazing that were still active by 1940. The two serials printed were excellent, by John Russel Fearn and A. Hyatt Verrill, but a few short stories by other authors were less good.
Finally, Wonder Stories.... The contest was about Paul's cover for that issue; a story was to be written around it.... The letter section was perfect. Twenty three of the blasted things, and everyone good. Darrow, Rothman, Rothman again, Darrow once more, and Ackerman were the only names active today, but many of that day's luminaries like Pritchard and Kidd were blooming forth. The SPWSSTFM was mentioned. In the Science Fiction League, most of the space was taken up by a quiz.
Warner named Festus Pragnell's "Green Man of Graypec" as the best story in the issue, and noted that Pragnell hadn't been paid for this printing of his first installment. None of the other stories were outstanding. He said that no author in the Wonder Stories issue had had a science fiction story printed in an American magazine for years.
Well, draw your own conclusions!