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Originally published in
Amazing Stories, February 1941
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- Meet the Author... Charles R. Tanner
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Back about 1905, a
little chap about nine was browsing among a pile of books and magazines
which had been left by his recently deceased grandfather. There were
Strand Magazines, and Cosmopolitans, and Argosies, and every one had
some sort of science-fiction story in it. There was “The First Men on
the Moon,” by H. G. Wells; “A Round Trip to the Year 2000,” by William
Wallace Cook; and I don’t know how many others.
All day long, that
little chap lay on his belly, surrounded by magazines, and read, and
marveled, and wondered. The next day, little Charley Tanner went to the
library and looked and looked, and went home with a book called Starland
by Robert Ball. Another science fiction fan was born.
From that day to this,
I’ve read science-fiction wherever and whenever I’ve found it. First, I
found it only in the old Munsey publications; then one day, in a drug
store, I picked up a magazine called The Electric Experimenter in which
there was a story called “The New Adventures of B a r o n Munchausen.”
From then on, I was sold on that magazine. I started reading All-Story
because it printed a story named “Under the Moons of Mars” by Norman
Bean. Norman Bean is Edgar Rice Burroughs now, but I still read his
Martian stories with interest, in fact, I just laid one down to write
this article.
I started reading
Cavalier when it published “The Second Deluge” by Garrett P. Serviss.
And I remember sitting on a dock in New York, waiting with my company to
go to, France, and reading the second part of “Palos of ‘Dog Star Pack,”
by J. U. Giesy.
Having made the world
safe for, I returned home to find, during the next years, that
science-fiction was all too scarce. And then came the day when I saw,
with a delight that I can hardly express, that a new magazine was about
to appear, a magazine devoted entirely to science-fiction. Only those
old fans who have followed the course of this magazine from the be
ginning can imagine the impatience with which I awaited, and the thrill
with which I read, that first copy, that April, 1926, edition of Amazing
Stories.
In a few years there
were two magazines — then three. And one day one of the magazines
offered a prize contest, and I won first prize! I was an author! I
could write! I sat down and began to write anything and everything, in
the firm belief that I was going to be rich in about three months. But
alas, it didn’t work out quite that way. I had concentrated so much on
the reading of science-fiction that the only thing I could write really
well was that form of story. So I began to specialize.
Thus it came about that
I wrote my most successful stories to date — “Tumithak of the
Corridors” and its sequel. I’m still proud of that story and of the
fact that after eight years, the old readers of AMAZING Stories still
remember it and occasionally mention it in their letters.
But, beginning in 1933,
a series of misfortunes too long to be recounted here made me abandon
writing for several years. Just when I believed that I was done for
good, a letter came from Amazing Stories requesting a story for their
first issue under the banner of Ziff Davis. Dubiously, and yet with hope
in my heart, I wrote “The Vanishing Diamonds,” in which I introduced a
character which I still think is the best I’ve conceived, to
date — Professor Isaac N. Stillwell.
Even the thrill
of selling my first story was nothing to the thrill of the Chicago
Convention. For the first time, I met fans that I had known of for
years; for the first time, I met authors whom I had admired for ages;
for the first time, I talked with the editor of my favorite magazine — and
sold him a story!
And when it was all
over, I went back to my home in Cincinnati, and sat down at my
typewriter - and I've practically been there ever since. I hope this
enthusiasm keeps up, for if it does; you’ll be hearing from me again, I
assure you. - Charles R. Tanner. |