A. Merritt's Fantasy Magazine [Complete Run in Five Vols.]

Kokomo, IN: Recreational Reading, 1950. Very Good. Kokomo, IN: Recreational Reading, 1949-1950. Five octavo volumes (9.25" x 7"); 130pp each. Pulp magazines. Illustrated paper wraps. Each volume with shallow chips and tears along edges, with a few larger chips to rear of Feb. issue (no loss of text), and some general light creasing and smudging to surfaces. October issue shows a long clean tear running down all but the last 3" of the front spine, and another running 3" up along spine at bottom back, a rubberstamped date and faded number in pen on front panel, and a bit more general surface wear. Spines variously creased and faded, with a few chipped (truncated) away at edges. Three issues with tape reinforcement to cover interiors along edges. Pages toned (Feb. and Apr. more lightly so) but unmarked. Bindings are sound.

Complete run of the short-lived pulp named to surf the popularity of the six-years-deceased Merritt. The magazine reprinted three works by Merritt -- Creep, Shadow! (novel), "Three Lines of Old French" (short story), and The Faced in the Abyss (novella) -- as well as a biographical portrait in the final October issue. The run also included Max Brand's (as George Challis) The Smoking Land, Jack Mann's The Ninth Life, George Allan England's The Elixir of Hate, Jack Williamson's "Racketeers in the Sky," art by Virgil Finlay, Paul Calle, H.R. Van Dongen, and a letter to the editor by an opinionated and question-brimming 15-year-old Robert Silverberg, among others. The magazine folded before a planned sixth issue was finished. (Inventory #: 28032)