Avon Fantasy Reader No. 6
Edited by Donald A. Wollheim
Avon Book Company
1948
1st Printing
Sporting one of the best covers of the entire run, issue 6 of the Reader features another interesting mix of authors and styles. It is not known if the cover was commissioned to tie into the Thorp McClusky story, but it is such a close match that it was probably the case. From this point on, the covers of the Reader tend to be based, or at least look like they were based, on one of the stories from each issue.
Thorp McClusky is another forgotten author who wrote mostly horror stories for Weird Tales. "The Crawling Horror" seems a bit dated in style, but is definitely a horror story (shape-shifter, succubus or vampire, you decide) along the lines of Campbell's "Who Goes There?". It was also McClusky's first published story. The rest of the issue runs the gamut of SF to horror and once again, features some stories that are hard to categorize.
Straight SF is found in Edmond Hamilton's Interstellar Patrol tale, "The Star Stealers". Jack Williamson's first published story, "The Metal Man", an SF/Fantasy hybrid is presented here, as is a horror tale with science fictional tendencies by Merritt. Lovecraft's "Beyond the Walls of Sleep" is SF leaning towards horror. Frank Stockton, a contemporary of H.G. Wells, has an early SF tale from 1893 reprinted and a horror/fantasy by Joseph E. Kelleam ("The Dark Waters") is the new story for the issue.
Rounding out the issue are 2 horror stories: "The Trap" by Henry S. Whitehead (a horror author who was also the Episcopal Archdeacon of the Virgin Islands) and David H. Keller's "The Thing in the Cellar", which gave me many a sleepless night at the age of 12 and still gives me the willies as an adult.*
*This story is now available for reading in The Library. Click here.