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Here is yet another issue of Crypt of Cthulhu in
whose case one cannot answer the question, "What is it about?" Some
readers prefer our grab-bag issues to those centering about a
particular theme. And if the present issue is a fair example, such readers
cannot easily be blamed. For we offer original fiction from the pens of Lin
Carter, Gary Myers, and Robert E. Howard. About the REH piece a special word
should be said. "The Fear-Master", though structurally rounded off, is
almost certainly a fragment, since various characters, once introduced, are not
developed or never show up again. But it is a substantial bit of Howard prose,
and we are pleased to present it, despite having to wince at its characteristic
racism.
Passing on now to articles and analyses, there is no
dearth of them. Almost any of them might be singled out for special attention,
but we will arbitrarily choose three. We should note that Sam Moskowitz's piece
first appeared in the Spring 1948 issue of Fantasy Commentator, which had
a circulation of about 150, so we doubt too many of you will have seen it! Or,
Mary Eileen McNamara's article, too, has been rescued from early oblivion in the
pages of a local college publication where it first appeared. By the way, she is
a psychiatrist working in New Haven, Connecticut. Finally, Brian Lumley has
consented to respond to our recent review essay "Brian Lumley ---
Reanimator" in order to mediate a reader controversy, only the iceberg's
tip of which has surfaced in "Mail-Call of Cthulhu".
Robert M. Price, Editor
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