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of our Readers in that 1% will gladly admit it
And how about our authors? Contrary to the old-fashioned opinion, authors must eat—and how will they eat, and lead respectable lives, and keep out of jail, if we keep reprinting their old stories and turning down their new ones? After all, eating is very important; those who wouldn't simply refrain from eating would have to get jobs as messengers, and errand boys, etc.—with the result that much of our fascinating modern Science Fiction would never be written!
It would be much cheaper for us to buy once-used material. It would greatly reduce our task of carefully reading every story that conies to our office, in hopes to finding a fine, new story, or a potentially good author. But it would be very unwise, and very unfair, as you have seen.
Many more reasons could be given, but these few are the more important ones back of our policy of avoiding reprints. Enough said!—The Editor.
Wants Reprints
Dear Editor:
In your April lane, in answer to a correspondent, you stated that you were avoiding reprints. Now, that's too bad. Some of the best Science-Fiction tales are reprints. Witness:
"The Blind Spot," by Homer Eon Flint and Austin Hall; "The War In the Air," by H. G. Wells; "The Purple Sapphire," by John Faire; "The Conquest of Mars," by Garrett P. Serviss; "Darkness and Dawn," and "Into the Great Oblivion," and "The After-Glow," and "The Air-Trust"—all by George Allan England.
You are proud—and rightfully so—of your great author, Ray Cummings. Why not give us several stories which helped to build his glory? Here are several:
"Tarranto the Conqueror," "The Man on the Meteor," "The Girl in the Golden Atom," "The Man Who Mastered Time," "The Fire People."
Guess I'll sign off now and give the other fellows a chance.—Isidore Manyon, 544 Myrtle Ave., Brooklyn, N. Y.
What Think You All?
Dear Editor:
There is one question I would like to ask. Perhaps some of the other readers of Astounding Stories can answer it.
Could a person remember his own death in a former incarnation? Some say "no," and some say "yes." If it is true that you can't, the whole fabric of the wonderful story, one of the most beautiful, if not the most beautiful I have ever read, "The Moon Maid," by Edgar Rice Burroughs, is built on a fallacy. You see, I am a believer in reincarnation and I would surely like to correspond with others who are also! Would not that also disprove the whole theory of reincarnation if it is true? I think it is not true, but I may be wrong. Is reincarnation a proven theory, or unproven?
You say you are going to avoid reprints. Now that is a mistake. Of course, some you might avoid, such as those of Wells, Verne, etc., though I would like you to publish Wells' short stories. There are many that have not been published in any magazine for a long time, or at all.
But please, oh please, do publish A. Merrill's "Through the Dragon Glass," and give it a cover illustration. It is the only one, I think, that I want particularly, but I do want it! If you publish any of H. G. Wells' works, give them cover illustrations, too.
And publish a lot by Merritt, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and authors like that; you haven't as yet printed a story or the type that A. Merritt writes, and that is one thing this magazine needs, and lots of them, as they are the cream of Science Fiction, and the more of them you have, the better! They are my favorites, and near come those that Edgar Rice Burroughs writes; also John Taine.—Worth K. Bryant, 406 No. Third St, Yakima, Wash.
The S. Lynn Rhorer Society
Dear Editor:
This is to inform yon that we have organised a society known as the S. Lynn Rhorer Society of Greater Atlanta, a branch of the Science Correspondence Club.
This Society's purpose is to first assist the Science Correspondence Club and its affiliated branches in the promotion of science and Scientific Fiction. Second, to create a greater interest in science and Science Fiction among the laymen who are already interested, and to create an interest among those who are not at the present interested, and to hold their interest.
At the present time we have in our library over three hundred scientific books; a large collection of ores and rocks from different states and countries, classified; a large collection of fossilised bones; a three-inch refracting telescope, and a ten-inch one in the course of construction; and a large club-house.
Any information regarding this society can be obtained by addressing R. A. Marks, Jr., 893 York Ave., S. W., Atlanta, Georgia, or the undersigned.—F. B. Eason, 400 Jefferson Avenue, E. Point, Ga.
Unused to the Smaller Size
Dear Editor:
I have but one comment on your magazine and that is: Having complete sets of other