Remembrance of Great Book Hauls Past? I hope no one would job at that.
Remembrance of Great Magazine Hauls Past, then?
I found a couple of things I posted three years ago, in early May 2010, to the Classic Sci-Fi list at Yahoo.
8 May
The library at my small university will undergo renovations this summer.It's a peculiar feature of these renovations, which I gather were imposed upon the library staff, that--in contrast to what one would expect--the library will lose shelf space and even its restrooms.It will, however, get new carpet.
Anyway, the serials department is undergoing a crash elimination of its paper archives.I have rescued approximately 30 years' worth of (London) Times Literary Supplement issues.The earliest issue I have seen is date 1 Jan. 1970, and the latest was from 1998.
I began to read the TLS in the early 1970s as an undergrad, being impressed by its hospitality to authors, artists and topics that interested me--such as Mervyn Peake.I have just begun to browse my TLS archive and have noted such items as a feature article on Olaf Stapledon by Brian Aldiss,two issues with Evelyn Waugh on the cover, a critique of Lovecraft, a full-page article on John Dickson Carr by Kingsley Amis,a review (favorable) of Le Guin's A Wizard of Earthsea, the commemorative "advertisement" placed by Tolkien's publishers, Allen and Unwin, in the 14 Sept. 1973 issue (Tolkien had died a week and a half before), something about John Buchan, and a cover with a Peake drawing. "As good as a fanzine," I find I'm saying to myself.
"Here's richness!" as Wackford Squeers said in a different context.
15 May
A week ago I wrote about rescuing a batch of Times Literary Supplement issues from recycling, as the university library purges its serials.Since then they have, I believe, pretty much finished the job, but I saved some nice items.I would enjoy reading others' accounts of such incidents, so I'm hoping that, if I write about my own gleanings, no one will feel this message is simply unseemly gloating.
So then:Saturday Evening Post issues with C. S. Lewis's "We Have No 'Right to Happiness'" and "Screwtape Proposes a Toast"; issue with notable J. R. R. Tolkien profile based on the interview with Henry Resnick; issues with stories by Robert Heinlein ("The Black Pits of Luna," etc.) and Ray Bradbury ("The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms," etc.); complete serial of No Blade of Grass by John Christopher; issues with stories by William Sambrot, including "Island of Fear," which I have suggested provided the plot for the posthumously published story attributed, probably correctly, to C. S. Lewis, "Forms of Things Unknown."
Life magazine from 1947 with several-page feature illustrated by the great Chesley Bonestell, on manned travel to the moon; issue with lavishly illustrated feature on 2001: A Space Odyssey; some other issues of interest.
New York Times Magazine with profile of Tolkien.
Time issues with CSL material, including the 8 Sept. 1947 one with CSL on the cover (picture by Boris Artzybasheff).
New York Times Book Review and New York Herald Tribune Book Review issues with reviews of Lord of the Rings on publication of its three volumes.Other serials with Tolkien reviews.
New Statesman (English mag) issues with material on Tolkien, Mervyn Peake, CSL, etc.
American Scholar issues with lots of interesting stuff including John Wain's memoir of C. S. Lewis in Oxford .
Most of these things are certainly not in "highly collectible condition."
More: Life issues with Bonestell space art (but I was sorry to find that a 1944 issue that should have had the wonderful Saturn-as-seen-from-Titan image had been gutted!) and art from Zallinger's prehistoric animals mural at the Peabody Museum in Harvard.The dinosaur pictures probably changed my life when, as a young boy, I saw this work in one of those Golden books.Really captivating stuff at that age!
I've been troubled by the thought of so many vintage magazines going to the recycler.I'm not convinced that financial realities dictate the destruction, not just by this library but by others, of so many tangible artefacts of the past.I realize that hardly one student in a thousand cares to poke around in the stacks when (s)he can access the text of an article on a computer.But I don't think what I feel is nothing but silly nostalgia.To mention only one thing, when, earlier this week, I reread No Blade of Grass in its Saturday Evening Post form, the context of this serial, with the advertisements and accompanying articles, added something to the experience.It is certainly impressed upon one, how the novel was published during a time of anxieties about the prospect for civilization and decency given the possibility of nuclear war.I also have concerns about the susceptibility of digitized texts to manipulation by those who would edit our sense of the past.
If I'd had more time and had thought of it soon enough, I should've checked volumes of the Shot Story Index, to see if (as I think there may be) there was a heading for "science fiction," and looked to see if there were items from the Saturday Evening Post that I missed -- I'm sure there were.Incidentally, I forgot to mention catching two issues of Look magazine with Asimov's Fantastic Voyage novelization.Not that that is a great story!
That's how I get most of the books on my wish list these days.
