Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 52 — page 142: what you’re looking at

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

AUTHENTIC SCIENCE FICTION there. And LAST JOURNEY, though not much use, raises a point again—the question of fantasy. I have no objection to same—in fact I usually seem to prefer ite BUT— you keep on plugging the old story —‘‘Authentic has no place for fantasy.”” And the wandering Jew legend is fantasy, pure and simple. It makes no difference whatsoever, having him located on Mars. Authentic Clangers Dept.—the word ‘“Proteus.”” Spelt that way (usually with the capital P) it’s a NOUN, not an adjective. I suppose that if you’d taken the trouble to put in an extra O, making it “‘proteous,”’ it could be used as an adjective. But the accepted adjec- tival form is “protean.” You use “proteus” adjectivally on pages 105 AND, for good measure, 134. Archie Mercer, 434/4 Newark Road, North Hykeham, Lincoln. My, Archie, aren’t you erudite! Didn’t you hear what Humpty Dumpty had to say about this? But you're right of course—as you so often are. (Thanks for the praise.) RUINED I have intended to write to you since issue No. 39. Naturally, I like Authentic or I would not buy it. I was very pleased when you started ‘ to feature on your covers From Earth to the Stars. The first four issues were exceptional—so good that I spoiled my magazine to cut out the painting, as they look very realistic as a series in an album. I thought to myself: this is some- thing, good reading material and each issue with a brilliant scientific cover. Then came issue 39. You 141 ruined the cover by scrawling the lead story title over it. Why? Your regular readers will read the issue whether you wreck the cover(!) or not and new customers will look inside before they buy anyway. I expected you would have a fiood of letters as your correspondence re covers was large before the new style. Out of several recent issues I particularly liked these stories: Cuckoo by Jordan, Blemish by Christopher, and Home is To- morrow by Morgan, and agree with recent correspondents, plenty of short stories, as the basic idea of the story is not overworked, ana more space-travel—not Dan Dare style, but exploration and alien life and ways. I think there are far too many stories of post atomic war struggles. With all the atomic threats floating above us, we want stories to cheer us up! My neigh- bour, who wrote in issue No. 40 Revolt to Space-Flight (treason) has obviously been kept awake at night by aircraft at Swinderby and is therefore biased against flight. Finally, is it possible to buy the - cover paintings, as I presume these are originally painted and photo- graphed after, with the title additions. If you have a reader at Lincoln or near interested in flying saucers I would like to contact him. P. Hammerton, 20 Boultham Ave., Lincoln. Several other readers have men- tioned this point about lettering on the cover, Mr. Hammerton—and, as you will see, we have bowed to your wishes. Thanks for your praise and your analysis of story ratings. ' Sorry—fraid the covers are not for sale. conmcloooks.com