Avon Fantasy Reader No. 10
Edited by Donald A. Wollheim
Avon Novels Inc.
1949
1^st Printing

     This issue almost seems like an experiment, since the mainstays that Wollheim had been reprinting up to this time (Lovecraft, Howard, Dunsany, Smith, etc.) are absent from this issue. This may have been a cost cutting measure, although I have no idea what the reprint rights would have been for a "name" author as opposed to a lesser known one. There are also fewer, but longer, stories in this issue.
     Seabury Quinn was no stranger to the audience of the time, since he was one of the most popular contributors to Weird Tales and was still very active in 1949. His story "Glamour", which originally saw print in Weird Tales in 1939, concerns a modern day witch and holds up well today.
     Another popular Weird Tales author, Frank Owen returns in this issue as well, with another oriental fantasy entitled, "The Golden Hour of Kwoh Fan". Owen's real name, by the way, was Roswell Williams.
     One recurring theme in the post-war era is the revolt of nature and Robert Lowndes, with John Michel, deal with this theme in "The Inheritors". Lowndes was an editor as well as an author and edited The Magazine of Horror from 1963-1971, a fact that is of interest only when you consider that the mix of authors Lowndes used is very similar to those in The Reader. Nelson Bond also contributes a post-war story in this issue.
     The rest of the issue is par for the course, with T.S. Stribling, Ray Bardbury, and Francis Flagg all contributing stories, and the stories are good, but the overall mix of this issue is not as strong as the previous numbers and, as mentioned above, it feels like an experiment.