<THIb PHAHTA&EAPH 

“Published, Monthly for the Phantasy Enthusiast” 


Vol. 4 JULY, 1936 No. 4 


“NOSTALGIA " 

by 

H. P. Lovecraft 


Once every year, in autumn’s wistful glow, 

The birds fly out over an ocean waste, 

Calling and chattering in a joyous haste 
To reach some land their inner memories know. 
Great terraced gardens where bright blossoms blow, 
And lines of mangoes luscious to the taste, 

And temple groves with branches overlaced 
Over cool paths—all these their vague dreams show. 

They search the sea for marks of their old shore— 
For the tall city, white and turreted— 

But only empty waters stretch ahead, 

So that at last they turn away once more. 

Yet, sunken deep where alien polyps throng, 

The old towers miss their lost, remembered song. 


Page 2 


The PHANTAGRAPH 


LOST EXCERPTS 

By Robert Nelson 
III. THE FLINGING OF THE ROCKS 

He stood upon the precipice of the world, laughing 
wildly and flinging golden rocks of happiness upon the 
mountains, valleys, and seas below. The hoary mount¬ 
ains were crowned with gold and quaked in glee; the 
manifold valleys shook their bosoms and babbled in 
joyousness; the heaving seas shone with the golden 
blood of the bursting rocks. 

The laughing winds screamed about him and perished 
in the golden mist far beneath. He stood on golden 
feet; and golden blood sped through his veins. In end¬ 
less perpetuation he hurled the rocks of golden 
happiness until they all flowed in one mighty stream, 
and men knew not where it began nor where it ceased. 
And he defied both heaven and hell to halt him. His 
words were almighty cannons of universe-splitting 
bombardment, crashing levin-flashes that turned the 
eye to stone, the soul to everlasting darkness. His curses 
mingled with the golden torrent, and the rocks became 
happier. 

They made the sun to dribble hot tears of golden gladness, and spattered upon 
the sullen moon a flushed gold, so that it turned more swiftly, letting men see its 
other side for the first time. Then they slew each other in city and on plain in 
mad jubilation. And the dead rose to die again with grim laughter stamped on 
their skulls. Blue flowers were sprinkle with the powder of the dead, and drank 
the blood of the dying and turned golden. On and on came the rocks. They 
whirled in the cosmic dust and burned in a million worlds. 


The PHANTAGRAPH Page 3 

SUN — SPOTS 

by Donald A, Wollheim 

It is our sad duty to announce that David R. Daniels, 
promising yong author, committed suicide two months 
ago...The first fan magazine from the Southern 
Hemisphere is the “Science Fiction Bulletin” from New 
Zealand...Bob Tucker married Mary Jane Joesting on 
March 16 th. And Virginia Parks Parker married John 
Harakus at about the same time. Congratulations to all 
of you...A special I.S.A. printed Rocket Bulletin is being 
projected...Since my last column I have heard that Jack 
Darrow, O. A. Kline and Weird Tales itself have com¬ 
plete files of that magazine...Robert Bloch is finishing 
his first book “In Bed We Laugh”- a Thorne Smithian 
burlesque. Weird Tales has taken his “Creeper in the 
Crypt,” “Not Always Blind,” and “The Dark Demon” 
...J. Thos. Wood, former editor of “Underworld” may 
launch a new stf. magazine this year...The British stf. 
mag. has been put off...The new English fan mag. will 
be called “British Phantasy Review.” It will be edited 
by Gllings and Carnell...Duane W. Rimel has had his 

first acceptance from WT with “The Disinterment”...In the 1936 Writer’s 
Year Book appear photos of Otto Binder, Allen Kline, Howard Wandrei, Mort 
Weisinger, Leo Margulies, A. J. Burks, and Henry Kostkos...Claire P. Beck 
has dropped out of stf...Donald Wollheim now owns the “Science Fiction 
Review”...If you would like mention in this column let us know what you are 
doing in phantasy. 


The PHANTAGRAPH 


Page 3 


SUN — SPOTS 

by Donald AiJSfo llheim 


SUN-SPOTS 

PCJT/CCIPT 

The Phantagraph, July 1936 

1i The next issue of Marvel Tales 
will definitely appear on the news¬ 
stands. Wm.Crawford has com¬ 
pleted arra g nxents for its printing 
and distrieu ion. It will be large 
size and regul r polo make-up. 

Cover in col >ur y Per guson. It 11 
reprint “Challenge From beyond” 

II: Still another fan magazine! 

This time “The Science Fiction 
Fan” '— 


| that David R. Daniels, 
bd suicide two months 
from the Southern 
Dn Bulletin” from New 
!ary Jane Joesting on 
Parker married John 
| Congratulations to all 
tocket Bulletin is being 
t have heard that Jack 
?ales itself have corn¬ 
et Bloch is finishing 
a Thorne Smithian 
his “Creeper in the 
“The Dark Demon” 
f “Underworld” may 
?ar...The British stf. 
English fan mag. will 
w.” It will be edited 
i Rimel has had his 

jient”...In the 1936 Writer’s 
jjline, Howard Wandrei, Mort 
l*y Kostkos...Claire P. Beck 
! owns the “Science Fiction 
ban let us know what you are 


r m pirnntasy. 


Page 2 


The PHANTAGRAPH 


LOST EXCERPTS 

By Robert Nelson 

III THE FLf M<r,,KTr5! rvtr 'TPUr D AOLT O 


He stood upon the 
wildly and flinging go 
mountains, valleys, ai 
ains were crowned wit 
manifold valleys shoo 
joyousness; the heav 
blood of the bursting 

The laughing winds 
in the golden mist h 
feet; and golden blooc 
less perpetuation h 
happiness until they $ 
and men knew not wfc 
And he defied both h< 
words were almight] 
bombardment, crash! 
eye to stone, the soul 
mingled with the gold 
happier. 

They made the sun to dribbl 
the sullen moon a flushed gold, 
other side for the ^rst time. Thi 
mad jubilation. And the dead rc 
their dkulls. Blue flowers were sj 
the blood of the dying and turn! 
■whirled in the cosmic dust and 


Harold Hersey will bring out 
a new novel-a-month pseudo-stf. 
magazine called ‘Flash Gordon’' 
It probably won’t last long. 

Subscribe to The Phantagraph 
“The only mn magazine worth a 
nickel/’ NOW MONTHLY! 

Cvinmg: 

® BASQUE • 

the third S.& W. publication. 

Watch iQr further notices. 


Page 4 


The PHANTAGRAFE 


THE PHANTAGRAPH 

EDITOR__DONALD A. WOLLHEIM. 

ASSOCIATE EDITOR _ WILSON SHEPHERD 

THE PHANTAGRAPH is published monthly by Shepherd & Wollheim. 
Individual subscription: 50fi a year (12 issues), or 5^ a copy. Address ALL 
communications, Business and Editorial, to Donald A. Wollheim, 801 West End 
Ave., New York, N. Y. 

Member: UAPAA, NAPA, TFG, etc. 

Metamorphosis 

A word from the Editor 

This issue marks still another change in the formal of 
The Phantagraph. And we feel certain the final one. 
From this date on, this publication will come out every 
month promptly. And with this issue, we definitely take 
the lead for monthly phantasy fan magazines. 

Published as we shall be every month, 8 pages full of 
phantasy verse, prose, articles and news, we feel certain 
that we can hold our own with the best of them. Our 
circulation jumps greatly with this issue. From now on, 
we can state truthfully that we have over 450 copy 
circulation a month! 250 more than any other amateur 
phantasy publication! Thus your writings appearing 
here, your trials at phantasy, scientifiction or weird 
fiction, will cover a wider and more appreciative group 
than was.formerly to be had. May we look forward to 
seeing your phantastic works in our mail? Short poems, 


fhe PHANTAGRAPH 


Page 5 


sketches, prose, or anything else having a phantastic 
»r highly imaginative content will be appreciated. 


A “Dream” 

by William Lumley 

Lo! I stood within a hallway 

Measureless to mortal man 

Whose great walls were dark, and shiny 

While a golden river ran 

Oer the floor, which leaped and rippled 

Like the rays of noon-day sun. 

In its midst there stood a tripod 
And an image sat thereon, 

This was veiled in mist and dimness 
Like the falling waters’ spray 
And above the silent river 
Rose and melted fast away. 

Though it was unknown unto me 
Something told me oer and oer 
Countless years it had awaited 
For my coming to that shore. 

Oer the tide strange shapes of evil 
Flit, and whispered each to each 
Words that fell like distant thunder 
On my earsin unknown speech 
Though twas speech it bore no semblanc 
To the tongue of any race 
But some lost, and forgotten! 

Echo from oblivious space. 

Oer the walls the golden waters 
Leaped as though to beat them through 
While the image seemed to beckon 
And the veil was rent in two. 

I therein saw this inscription 
Graven there in snowy white 
In unknown gigantic letters 
On a tablet black as night. 

“Know ye everything that liveth 
Hath known death to purify 
Life within yet thing or creature 
That is dead can never die 
In the circle of the spirit 
All things shall endure for aye 
Though they sleep and are forgotten 
They shall never pass away.” 


Page 6 


The PHANTAGBAPH 


WEIRD MUSIC 

By Duane W. Rimel -and- Emil Petaja 

Since the dawn of civilization and probably long 
before, the soul of man has thrilled and trembled to 
strange music of one type or another. The savage 
voodoo drums of Africa; the harsh strains of Oriental 
rhythms; the tango of South America; the classics, and 
even much modern jazz—are filled in varying degrees 
with an unmistakable weirdness. There is something 
about a melody or succession of harmonic changes 
portraying intense fear, sorrow, remorse, or other gloomy 
moods of human nature that is easily recognizable, yet 
quite undefinable. They awaken queer thoughts and 
emotions which no mere language or tongue can 
interpret. 

One of the most fantastic compositions is Danse 
Macabre , the ghostly Dance of Death by Saint-Saens, 
Music such as Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Scheherexade” 
Suite which is filled with glamour and exotic charm of 
the Arabian Nights> and his fairy tale operas, is 
repleat with fantastic atmosphere. The Gounod Faust 
ballet music conjures up a strange scene in a dark castle 
high in the mountains of Germany on Walpurgis night. 

Mephistopheles causes all the dead beauties—Helen of Troy, Cleopatra, etc.—to 
appear and dance before Faust, who may take his choice from among them. Such 
music evokes a weird and wonderful panorama. Edvard Greig's 
Peer Gynt Suite is a masterpiece of fanciful, sensuous and sinister rhythm-patterns. 


The PHANTAGRAPH 


Page 7 


Tschaikowsky is the God of sad and sombre themes, often heart-rending in 
their pathos—sometimes welling up in sudden intense orchestral sobs—some¬ 
times low andvpassionate in exquisite depths of sorrow; while Rachmaninoff’s 
compsitions like Isle of the Dead are spine-chilling in their vividness. There are 
countless other weird compositions in the classics, and even such modern songs 
as George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and Ferde Grofe’s Grand Canyon Suite possess 
more than than a touch of fancy, and it would take many volumes to cover and 
adequately describe all of the music of this type. 

In literature we find that many masterpieces have been inspired by or written 
about weird music. Poe’s great poem “The Bells” catches some of the elusive 
charm that only eery sounds can evoke. Some of the best stories in Weird Tales 
have dealt with the subject: H. P. Lovecraft’s “The Music of Erich Zann” ably 
portrays a genuine mood of outre terror by the wild suggestive notes of a bass 
viol. “Bells of Oceana” by Arthur J. Burks brings to the reader a sense of the 
unknown horror inspired by unearthly music. The rites of Pan are climaxed to 
the accompaniment of weird, piping strains, and we have all read stories in 
which the Pipes of Pan are heard, reminding one of the drowsy Aoelian measures 
of Debussy’s Afternoon of a Faun. Much weird verse is closely akin to music of the 
same nature--and the two are very often combined with marvelous results. As an 
example, two of H. P. Lovecraft’s verses “Fungi from Yuggoth” were set to music 
by a composer of Los Angeles, Harold S. Farnese. Readers of Weird Tales will 
remember “Sable Reverie” by Robert Nelson, for which music had been 
written. 

Certainly when great masters like Richard Wagner, Felix Mendelssohn and 
Jan Sibelius and others have expressed themselves through the medium of 
weird, haunting music, it is at once raised to immortal levels. 


Printed by Irwin O. Brandt, Greenville, Ohio. 


Page 8 


THE PRANTAGRAPH 


Announcing 

FANCIFUL TALES 

A new printed quarterly of phantastic fiction. Fine 
stories of weird fiction, science fiction, or phantasy by 
some of the best writers in the field. In the first issue 
we will feature “THE NAMELESS CITY,” an hitherto 
unpublished story by that master of masters H. P. 
LOVECRAFT. A gripping story of the accursed ruins 
in Arabia Deserta and of the eldritch wind that blew 
from a cliff door. Reminiscent of his “At the Mountains 
of Madness” and of the Elder Gods tales. Also in 
Fanciful Tales will appear stories by August W. 
Derleth, Dr. David H. Keller, J. Harvey Haggard, 
Ralph Milne Farley, Robert Bloch, L. A. Eshbach, and 
others. Illustrated by Clay Ferguson and Duane Rimel. 

20a copy, 75^ a year (4 issues). 

Shepherd & Wollheim, Publishers, Oakman, Ala. 


Coming In The Phantagraph 

Robert E. Howard’s “The Hyborian Age” will be continued bi-monthly in 
a special supplement. In next issue will appear R. H. Barlow’s “Annals of the 
Jinns.” Don’t miss our forthcoming issues!