Avon Fantasy Reader No. 9
Edited by Donald A. Wollheim
Avon Publishing Company, Inc.
1949
1st Printing
As you peruse these covers, keep in mind that The Reader was not the only anthology series published by Avon, although it lasted the longest. Other titles included Avon Western Reader, Avon Science Fiction Reader, and Avon Mystery Reader, although the last title looked more like a book that the others.
This issue cover featured Clarke Ashton Smith, although I can't imagine why, except he would have name recongnition. I've always found the majority of his work indecipherable and this story is no exception. The rest of the issue, however, has some wonderful stories that make it one of the stronger issues.
The story by Otis Adelbert Kline, "The Man from the Moon," is the tale of an interplanetary war. Many think of Kline as "Burrough-lite", but he stands well on his own. Of the others, Robert Bloch contributes a new story (horror, of course), a surprising Fritz Leiber, Jr. story (horror?), William Hope Hodgson, Lord Dunsany and Schuyler Miller provide enjoyable reads, and there is a short short story by H. F. Arnold, an author with whom I am not familiar, but wish I could find more by him. Rounding out the issue are Alice-Mary Schnirring and Donald Wandrei.
As I mentioned above, one of the stronger issues, even though the line between genres is more clear cut than in some of the previous issues.