Avon Fantasy Reader No. 14 — page 97: what you’re looking at

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

he Headless Will, of Kobold Keep by Seven Ashhenazy This story appeared late in 1936 in Weird Tales under the by-line of G. Garnet. That author never appeared again . . . but his story did not read like the accidental single success of a tyro writer, but read like the work of an experienced hand. But whose, if G. Garnet was indeed a pen-name? Henry Kuttner's? Robert Bloch’s? It could have been either, for this strange story of horror and inbreeding could have come from expert word-weavera such as those authors. But the name that Miss MclIlwraith of Weird Tales answered our inguiry with was that of one I. Ashkenazy .. . with an address vacated a dozen years ago and no forwarding address! Then, two years after we had placed this title in our “All Hopes Abandoned” folder of our permissions file, a story was submitted free-lance to another Avon publt- cation, a story signed Irwin Ashkenazy. Our memory clicked like a Geiger counter meeting a stray atom and we wrote him. Yes, Irwin Ashkenazy, an expert radio writer, journalist, and Hollywood penman, was our man, and “G. Garnet” a pscudonym he had used once only, before going of ona journalistic assignment that took him away from fantasy markets for many years. But we know you'll agree the story was worth the delay. Myr. Abtathar Hall, Purchasing Director, Americana Antiques, Inc., New York, N.Y. Deac Mr. Hall: HEREWITH tender my resignation, effective immediately. Maybe what I have seen tonight is all in my mind. Maybe it never really happened and the events that | believe to have occuri.d are but morbid hal- lucinations. If so, then I am the victim of the maddest cacodemonia a man’s mind has ever been blasted with and all the more reason why I should resign this job and stop poking my nose into strange and unholy places. I’m through! In all fairness to you, I suppose, I should give an account of what has oc- curred to bring me to this decision. I find it difficult to do so. I am no occultist. I have always scoffed at tales of spirits, ghosts, devils, or other spiritual mani- festations. But tonight my faith in the fundamental reasonableness of God and Nature is shaken. Perhaps, as I've suggested already, I’m mad. After reading my account I suppose you will be sure of it! How you ever suspected the existence of Kobold’s Keep, even as only a 95 conmiclbooks. conn