Written by Fred Patten, and published on the LASFS Rex Rotary, March 23, 1966. Intended for Apa L, Seventy-Fifth Distribution, LASFS Meeting no. 1493, March 24, 1966. Address: 1825 Greenfield Avenue, Los Angeles, California, 90025. Phone: GRanite 3-6321.

PUBLISHERS' WEEKLY, March 14, 1966

"THE TOLKIEN READER", a collection of works by the popular English author, J.R.R. Tolkien, is scheduled for paperback publication in September by Ballantine Books. The reader will contain the complete text of three published books by Professor Tolkien, "Tree and Leaf," "Farmer Giles of Ham" and "The Adventures of Tom Bombadil," as well as other works.

PW also has a column on the recent Ace-Tolkien agreement, giving a bit more information than was contained in the Ace press release reprinted in several fanzines during the past few weeks:

... By arrangement with Houghton Mifflin, original U.S. hardcover publisher of the books, Ballantine Books last year issued a three-volume paperback edition which it claimed was "official" and "authorized" (PW, August 2, 1965). Following announcement of Ace's agreement with Dr. Tolkien, Ballantine Books stated, "According to Tolkien's British hardcover publisher, Allen and Unwin, Ace's agreement with Professor Tolkien provides that when the present stock of the Ace edition is exhausted, Ace will not be permitted to reprint without the consent of the author and that Ballantine Books will remain the authorized paperback publisher."

A spokesman for Ace Books substantially confirmed the Ballantine statement, saying the option was with Dr. Tolkien as to whether or not Ace could reprint. Ace has no immediate plans to reprint the books, he said, as it presently has ample stocks on hand. He added that Ace has been dealing directly with Dr. Tolkien and not with Allen and Unwin.

Okay, gang, so continue to patronize Ballantine and keep your eyes peeled along towards September. Next year, we give the "Hugo" to Tree & Leaf, Farmer Giles, and Tom Bombadil, all in one swell foop, right?

Various other news notes of stfnal interest about forthcoming paperbacks, but not anything worth reprinting here; RR seems to be becoming enough of a PW reprint vehicle as it is, between last week & this. The current TIME has a review of Asimov's Fantastic Voyage, which obviously presented the reviewer with a real dilemma: he apparently couldn't find anything bad to say about it, but he'd be darned if he'd ever say a good word about science-fiction! We come out of it as "the s-f nuts".

Bĵo Trimble & Don Simpson -- If that cover doesn't have a story around it, it should.

Bruce Pelz -- Just because someone can't do something, shouldn't prevent him from having and expressing opinions about it, assuming he has a reasonable knowledge of it. I don't know much at all about the art of cooking, but I can usually tell whether a dish has been well or badly prepared; and in any case, I'd feel that I have the right to express my personal taste toward the dish. I can't draw, either, but I don't feel that this precludes my right to say, "I like this", or, "I like that." (As opposed to, "This is a good painting", or , "That is a bad painting"; I don't pretend to understand much of modern art, and personally consider most Picasso work to be utterly without merit, so I don't pretend to be qualified to pass judgment on art according to society's current standard of values.) On the other hand, since I can't draw, I don't draw. ## Nero Wolfe's favorite drink is some kind of imported beer and Colin Glencannon's some "highland dew" variety of whiskey, as I recall; I'm not interested enough to look up references. They've both expressed difficulties in maintaining their respective stocks of it, I believe -- in fact wasn't one of the Glencannon stories worked around his attempts to smuggle a whole case of his favorite whiskey off a shipwreck before the salvage party could arrive? Gad, it's been years since I read the things, along with Tugboat Annie and Mr. Tutt. As to Sebastian Tombs, I might ask which one you had in mind? Ever since Simon Templar created it, it's been a favorite with fictional soldiers-of-fortune whose authors like working ingroup mystery references into their stories. If you mean the Sebastian Tombs in the current ANALOG, he prefers martinis, but also likes beer.

Ted White -- The play-actors -- Coventranians, ITR, or whatever -- seem to run to one small sub-group of local fandom, which is not held in very high regard by the rest of the fandom. The ITR, if anyone's printed a list of its active participants for study, is in fact the same basic group that created the Coventranian problem, minus Bruce Pelz, who's wised up, and plus Barry Gold, who wasn't around during the Coventranian period. The ITR group is again the same bunch of people who go about in THRUSH outfits, "convincing" mundanes that THRUSH is a real secret organization after all. (Ted, the most sensible of the lot, has turned this fantasizing into a means of profit for himself, thus providing the only logical justification -- as far as he's concerned -- for the schtick so far.) Between this group and the "normal" fans are those who like to wear costumes, but simply because they like costumes, and with no pretence of "becoming" a mythical character or of seriously trying to confound the mundane public. I suspect that part of all this may have some part in L.A.'s position as the motion picture center of America; the hotbed of fantasizing and acting-out for young and old, as it were. ## Joyce McDaniel decided, presumably in the interests of trying to share her husband's hobbies, to become Lyn Johnstone, and she answers to either Joyce or Lyn.. (As we already have Lyn Stier as a part of the same Labyrinthine clone, this occasionally gets confusing.) ## "Howard L. Cory" I don't know about; maybe Jack's afraid that, if he signs his real name to anything, the police might see it and remember to start chasing after him on one of those pornography charges he always seems to have floating around him. ## I just wish Stranger had more of a science-fantasy element than it actually did. Magic, Inc. has long been one of my favorite fantasies, and I wish Heinlein'd write another. ## The tv Batmobile is a custom-designed but ordinary-powered Ford; the "nuclear-powered" noise heard on the screen is a dubbed-in sound-track of one of Chrysler's experimental Turbine Cars -- see Klassen's inclusion of a Dist'n or two ago. That seems to me one of the biggest drawbacks to putting 'em on the mass market right now; would you care to have Batmobile-sounding cars roaring by your house all the time? A jet engine is a jet engine, and they haven't licked the sound problem yet. Also, the Turbine Car only gets 10-15 miles per gallon, according to the Chrysler executive who demonstrated it on the USC campus. A price breakthrough (or lack of same) may also have something to do with it, of course. But I doubt we'll be seeing the Turbine Car soon.

Gregg Wolford -- In the category of never-ending serials, how about "Brothers of the Spear" in TARZAN comics, which started in Oct. '51, I believe, and continued until just last year. Of course, no unending serial can beat the newspaper comic strips, which go on and on and on. How many of you remember back so far that Mommy Warbucks was in "Orphan Annie"? (I hadn't been born yet, but I've seen some of the early strips.) ## Sorry, the Little Fuzzies aren't eligible for the Best Series "Hugo". Check the rules again -- "consisting of at least three hard or soft cover books". So unless the manuscript of Fuzzies and Other People is located and published between now and the final balloting, the series is one short of the minimum quota. Unless -- Piper's works are all considered as part of the same series. He wrote most of his material against the same carefully worked-out background, you know, just as most of Murray Leinster's books, be they Med Service or Exploration Team stories or one-shot novels, can be called part of his "Landing Grid" universe. Or how about good old Edgar Rice Burroughs? There's the Tarzan series -- and Tarzan went to Pellucidar, tying those two together -- and an event from that O-220 trip leads into the Venus series, tying that in, too -- and The Outlaw of Torn, The Mad King, and others can be worked in as well. All that's needed is for someone to tie this in with the Mars-Moon Maid series, and ERB will be able to stand in line with just about the One Greatest Series of 'em all. ## A high llama of Tibet?

Bill Glass -- Richard Paulsson's reviews get better and better; any chance you could get him into Apa L as a regular contributor?

Andy Porter -- Heck, I got a big kick out of "The Girl in The Moon". The scene in which the rocket blasts off from Earth could stand some cutting, true, but I wouldn't change a bit of the rest of it. Particularly delightful were the scenes where the boy stowaway on the rocket hauls out a handful of German science-fiction pulps to prove what a serious student of "the Lunar problem" he is; and when, after the landing on the Moon, the Professor produces a dowsing rod and trots off to look for water so they can make camp. (Yes, they did make a bit of camp there.) ## The map of Germany today is the same as it was in 1937; it's just divided into three colors: one for Germany, one for the "So-Called German Democratic Republic", and one for "at the time under Polish [or Soviet] administration". That's the official West German maps; the East Germans, naturally, recognize the current Polish-German borders drawn up by their helpful Soviet buddies, and they have other views as to which part of Germany should be called "so-called". [Hmm, somewhere along the line here I got off of DEGLER! And onto APTERIX. That's okay; I'm sure you're interested in the current German political situation, too, aren't you, Andy?]

Helen Smith -- See above.

Dave Van Arnam -- Yecch! I haven't read Marion Breen's Gothick Novel, and I haven't read Kate Wilhelm's Gothick Novel, and I ain't a-gonna read yours, neither. I did read the Countess LaSpina's, though -- there oughtta be more Gothick werewolf novels; that's one of the most incredible books I've ever read. Very funny, like. ## Lightening?

Johnny Chambers -- This is without doubt the most humorous page in the Dist'n, and I hope you can get another 125 copies out of the master (minus the colophon) and send it down here for the next BEST FROM APA L. ## I missed the Stuart Little thing on tv. I enjoyed the book, but I think Charlotte's Web is far superior. For one thing, I just don't consider Stuart a very likable character. For another, I thought White's sense of fantasy was a little confused. Here you've got this guy who's only as big as a mouse, and has a mouse's head, and this is all very strange and startling, and it's his adventures in our normal world that make the book. Only, when he ventures out into the normal world, nobody seems the least surprised to see a little mouse-sized fellow with a mouse's head wandering around. White seems to've gotten stuck halfway between a mundane and a fantasy setting, and I found this jarring.

Len Bailes -- By all means, continue "The Man from H.A.S.I."!