The Digest Enthusiast book nine is now available in print and digital copies from amazon, Kindle, and Magzter. Cover by Ed Emshwiller, 160 pages, published by Larque Press. $8.99 print, $2.99 digital.
Filmmaker and author Susan Emshwiller reveals the inside story on her films, the work of her parents, Ed Emshwiller and Carol Emshwiller, along with nearly two dozen rare photographs of her famous family.
Excerpt from Joe Wehrle, Jr.’s article on “The Telzey Amberdon Stories of James H. Schmitz” in The Digest Enthusiast No. 7:
Undercurrents (Analog May and June 1964). Gonwil, Telzey’s best college friend, is being victimized by her guardians, in hopes of securing the financial holdings she is to inherit. Wellan Dasinger of the Kyth Agency works with Telzey’s psionic abilities to solve the problem, and we meet Chomir, Gonwil’s mighty guardian dog. Reprinted in The Universe Against Her. Ace, 1964.
Excerpt from Tom Brinkmann’s article on The Occult Digest from The Digest Enthusiast book seven:
“While the history of The Occult Digest is interesting and complex, it is also the history of Effa E. Roddel who was born to James and Catherine Roddel in Warrens, Wisconsin on June 1, 1869; strangely enough, sharing her birth month and day with Marilyn Monroe who would be born on that day in 1926. Unlike Monroe, Danelson came from a large family with seven brothers and three sisters. She became Effa E. Danelson on June 19, 1905 when she married Gustav E. Danelson, originally from Varnamo, Sweden. That same year, Mrs. Danelson was getting messages from a ‘spirit teacher’ and had become a lecturer and spirit medium by the time she and her husband had made their home in St. Louis, Missouri.”
Tom Brinkmann writes about unusual, off-the-beaten-path magazines, digests, and tabloids. His Bad Mags website was active from June 2004–July 2017. His books, Bad Mags Volume 1 (2008) and Volume 2 (2009) are available from secondary outlets, including amazon.com
Space Science Fiction Vol. 1 No. 3 November 1952
Contents
Lester del Ray: An Editorial on Space Suits
H.B. Fyfe “Moonwalk” art by Paul Orban
Michael Shaara “Be Fruitful and Multiply” art by Ed Emshwiller
Walt Sheldon “A Lack of Verisimilitude” art uncredited
Straight, Place and Show readers’ votes for stories that appeared in No. 1 May 1952
A.J. Budrys “Walk to the World” art by Alex Ebel
Larry Shaw “Saucers in the Belfry”
George O. Smith’s Book Reviews Science: Fact and Fiction
Lester del Rey: The Big Convention (World SF Con No. 10)
Judith Merril “Hero’s Way” art by Gari
Philip St. John “Unto Him that Hath” art by Alex Ebel
Take-Off (Letters of Comment)
Coming Events
Publisher: John Raymond
Editor: Lester del Rey
Assoc. Editors: Peter Leavy, John Vincent
Art Director: Milton Berwin
Cover: Earle Bergey
Read Vince Nowell, Sr.’s article “When Things Go Wrong—The Lester del Rey/John Raymond Fiasco” in The Digest Enthusiast book seven.
Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine Vol. 4 No. 3 March 1959
Alfred Hitchcock: Dear Readers
Contents
Henry Slesar “Not So Sudden Death”
Kris Giles “Double Entry”
Donald Honig “An Honest Man’s Legal Justice”
Helen Nielsen “Angry Weather”
Bryce Walton “Unidentified and Dead”
O.H. Leslie “It Started Most Innocently”
Donald Martin “Meditations Upon a Murder”
Fletcher Flora “Of the Five Who Came”
Robert Edmond Alter “An Accident has been Arranged”
Douglas Farr “Sam’s Conscience”
C.B. Gilford “The Coldbrook Crime”
Publisher: Richard E. Decker
Editorial Director: William Manners
Managing Editor: Marguerite Bostwick
Associate Editors: Pat O’Connell, Nadine King
Art Director: Meinrad Mayer
Excerpts from the interview with Rick Ollerman, editor of Down & Out: The Magazine, appearing in The Digest Enthusiast No. 7.
TDE: What are the core elements of The Magazine?
RO: I knew that I wanted to cross-pollinate fanbases as much as I could, and to promote the authors and their stories—especially when they write a story with their series’ characters—as much as their own fanbases would support the magazine.
Another was kind of the unspoken notion of size; we just sort of knew it should be a digest-sized magazine without ever really talking about it.
Another thing I want to do that many new magazines in the POD era don’t do is offer subscriptions, something we will definitely do, probably starting with the second issue.
We’ve also got a non-fiction column by J. Kingston Pierce, who used to write for Kirkus Reviews before they reshuffled.
Another hopefully unique feature answers that burning question you never knew you wanted to ask: what happened to short crime fiction after Hammett and Chandler left the pulps for the slicks and nov- els and Hollywood? Obviously, the pulps kept going, but who kept them going with the two big stars gone?
The page count is right around 170 for the first issue. I think we’ll wait on reader response to see if that moves, and by how much.
Opening line from “The Masochist’s Assistant” by Auston Habershaw Fantasy & Science Fiction Jul/Aug 2017:
“Each morning at precisely seven, Georges, famulus to Magus Hugarth Madsworm, stabbed his master in the heart.”
An excerpt from my review of BCMM No. 1 from The Digest Enthusiast No. 7:
Editors John Gregory Betancourt and Carla Coupe welcome their readers to the first edition of BCMM from their “The Cat’s Perch” introduction. “We won’t shy away from intense, dark fiction that makes the hair on the back of your neck stand on end. Just as we won’t turn down the next amateur detective in the finest Agatha Christie tradition. Storytelling matters most.”
Black Cat Mystery Magazine’s debut includes an impressive list of contributors, many that will be familiar to readers of those bimonthly digests from Penny Publications.
Writer Josh Pachter recalls the start-up of Espionage Magazine in “I Spy” from The Digest Enthusiast No. 7. Below is an excerpt from his article:
“Editor/Publisher Jackie Lewis and Associate Publisher Jeri Winston were already involved in the industry, putting out (so to speak) a number of magazines that, by comparison, made Penthouse look like Highlights for Children. If Playboy was soft-core porn and Penthouse was a little harder, Jackie and Jeri’s sex digests were fucking dirty. Perhaps in an attempt to redeem themselves in the eyes of the Lord, they famously asked their father, who had staked Bob [Guccione] to $5560 when Penthouse was in its infancy, to help them finance a non-porno publication that would feature spy stories and nonfiction articles about the world of espionage.”
