Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 52 — page 141: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

AUTHENTIC SCIENCE FICTION knowing it by heart. The thought- fully simple drama of style is, I think, a triumph of enjoyablé achievement. Much more of this author, please! Zada M. James, 118 Fenside Avenue, Styvechale, Coventry. Your praise overwhelms us. We just don’t know what to say! By the way, we don’t mean to be personal, but are you named after a Martian aunt or something? = LIKE FATHER Just a line to say how much I enjoyed the covers on the series From Earth to the Stars and am looking forward to the new series Tour of the Solar System. I have made an album of the Earth to the Stars series and intend to do the same with the new series, as I want to pass them on to my young son when he is old enough. -Mr. R. Goldberg, 7 Windsor Avenue, Edgware, Middlesex. That’s the way to bring ’em up! Undoubtedly the little chap will have a fine start in life. Make sure he knows what they are all about, too. ERRORS Have just received Authentic No. 49, and as usual, am reading the articles first. Haven’t started the stories yet. You might like to know that yours is the only British SF mag to which I have subscribed regularly. The other is the American Astounding, and I find it difficult to choose between them—almost a photo finish. Have been reading SF since 1937 when I was 13, and still have some of the pre-war 140 Tales of Wonder. I have quite a sizeable stock now, and the problem of space arises. I often read stories over and over again, particularly those that give the reader some- thing deep to think about. There are three factual errors in Mr. Byford’s article. First, gravity varies in inverse proportion to the square of the distance (not to the distance). Secondly, the Earth’s diameter is roughly 8,000 (not 5,000) miles. Thirdly, whatever made him suggest that three million miles is half the distance to the moon? Any schoolboy knows that the moon is only a quarter of a million miles from the Earth— average 240,000 miles. Perhaps he comes from another Solar System! K. R. Green, 55 Crescent Lane, London, S.W.4. ' You’ve certainly caught us out here, Mr. Green. How all those elementary mistakes slipped through we just can’t imagine. We must have been very rushed at the time. Any- way, we apologise and hope it won't happen again. Forgive us ?(Of course, the calculations in the article were based on the inverse square law.) MERCER AGAIN You'll doubtless be pleased to hear that the cover picture on issue No. 48 is the most attractive cover picture I’ve ever seen on Authentic. You'll doubtless be further gratified to hear that the articles in the issue, taken as a whole, are considerably more. interesting than the articles of any other issue of the mag. so far. You'll naturally be positively overjoyed to hear this. The weak point in this issue is _ the stories. RECOIL had a point, only it took such a hell of a time getting comiclbooks.conrn