Science Fantasy Correspondent

A fanzine with three issues published in 1936-1937 by Corwin F. Stickney and Willis Conover. It was then retitled Amateur Correspondent and edited by Corwin F. Stickney alone.

According to Sam Moskowitz in The Immortal Storm:

Cono­ver proved to be a nova in fandom, a go-getter who flared with unprecedented brilliance for a short time and then faded from sight, scarcely ever to be heard from again. Since interesting himself in fan activities, Conover had written dozens of leading fantasy authors, artists, editors and fans. His list of contacts was of extremely wide extent, and he was on good terms with both the second and third fandoms, as well as the older Fantasy Magazine group. The fifteen-year-old Stickney was apparently markedly above average in intelligence. He had struck up an association with Frank S. Bogert, an elderly printer in Belleville, New Jersey, and in exchange for setting type for the latter was permitted to print his  Sci­ence-Fantasy Correspondent for the cost of its paper. Bogert became interested in the sheet, and offered to help subsidize it if he were allowed to handle its advertising, a field in which he had had previous experience. The editors consenting, he took over this branch of the work----with surprising results. In the very first number the  Correspondent carried many well-paying advertisements of a general nature, and throughout its entire period of existence thus always manag­ed to stay out of the red, despite the fact that several thousand free copies of every number were mailed out regularly to build up circulation for the benefit of advertisers.

The first issue of the Correspondent was a revelation to the fan world. Almost overnight there had arisen the most serious competition  Fantasy Magazine had encountered since the advent of The Fantasy Fan. The ultra-neat format of the Correspondent, impeccably printed on fine quality paper by Stickney (who throughout the entire life of the magazine made only one typographical error, and that one in the first issue), coupled with excellent material by David H. Keller, H. P. Lovecraft, Jack Williamson, Henry Kuttner and others, ranked it second only to  Fantasy Magazine, whose background, acquired after many long years in sci­ence-fiction circles, was not easily equalled. This first issue sold out, and subscriptions continued to pour in. Subscribers then received an unexpected no­tice. The ten-cent, three for a quarter price was to be halved. Bogert had ordered this in an attempt to build up circulation, for the more subscribers, the more advertising. He planned to operate the magazine on the same principle as the slicks and the newspapers, garnering operating costs from subscriptions, and letting advertising pay for the other expenses. Intrinsically this was extreme­ly sound (as later events proved), though fans at that time loudly deplored the inclusion of non-fantasy advertising in a fan magazine.

Issue	Date	Pages	Notes
1	1936
2
3	March 1937	44
V2.1	May 1937	30	Now titled Amateur Correspondent, now edited by Corwin F. Stickney alone
V2.2	November 1937	30
V2.3	September 1937	30	Final issue

A detailed, retrospective review of Amateur Correspondent, Volume Two, Number One was published in the Summer, 2002, issue of Scientifiction: The First Fandom Report.

Willis Conover reprinted material from it in a fanzine in 1975.

• Science Fantasy Correspondent online at fanac.org

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Publication

1936—1937

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