Authentic Science Fiction Monthly, No. 56 — page 142: what you’re looking at

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

AUTHENTIC SCIENCE FICTION Many thanks for the appraisal, Peter. We tend to agree with you about The Envied and The Mutil- ants. You must have a great mind! Allergies, we hope, will no longer bother humanity at that date. SWAPS I would like to offer through your columns to swap Nos. 35-48 inclusive of Authentic for a similar number of paper-covered Panthers (Jon J. Deegan especially). They are, for the most part, in good condition with only one or two slightly battered. I enjoy your magazine very much. In fact, at the moment I have only one small grumble. This is that so many of the stories are treated with a psychological slant. While I do like this sort of story, I feel that the saying ‘‘variety is the spice of life” is very true, and would like to see some action stories a bit more often. I am keen on your non- fiction section. I like especially the articles on logic. J. A. van Dongen, St. Vincent’s Hospital, Eastcote, Pinner, Middlesex. No doubt some of our readers will be pleased to make the swaps. Thanks for the praise—and the grumble—both help. PEN PAL VAL? This month’s Authentic has both delighted and annoyed me. First of all, Authentic arrived about a week earlier than usual. All very nice you may say, but you don’t know our postman. For some reason, known only to himself, he insists on pushing my favourite magazine through our letter box— two sizes too small for it. Now, I usually lie in wait for him and 141 catch him before he does this, but today I was caught unawares. Result—a badlv battered Authen- tic. When I finally got the wrappings off I find you’ve turned out another very nice cover. Full marks for that. Eagerly I look inside for the long awaited supplement. But I’m disappointed. Maybe I expected too much, but I definitely dislike this new feature. You see, I think the high quality paper makes the rest of Authentic look common—which it isn’t. Sorry if I’ve hurt your feelings, but there it is. Now Ill make a practical suggestion. Once upon a time I worshipped Authentic because not only did it contain very good stories and articles, but it was the only magazine of my experience which didn’t contain any of those infuriating, inane adverts. on how to stop smoking, gain personality, lose ‘‘that frustrated feeling,” etc., etc. When, just recently, you blotted your copybook I was disappointed. However, I realised that adverts. mean money, and I forgave you. Now that you have money to throw around won’t you please get rid of those terrible adverts? If you still have any spare cash then concentrate on improving the whole appearance of Authentic. Let’s have a slightly better quality of paper throughout, not just a few pages of top quality and the rest of very much inferior standard. You can’t improve the reading matter, but you can improve Authentic’s looks. And when you get letters from anyone who rates Authentic as anything but the best S.F. magazine going, just send him away with a flea in his ear, will you? By the way, if any part of this letter is lucky enough to get printed Id like to say that I very much want a pen comiclbooks.corn