Avon Fantasy Reader No. 14
Edited by Donald A. Wollheim
Avon Novels Inc.
1950
1st Printing
A terrific cover graces this issue, which is the hardest of the set to find. Possibly this is due to the cover story, which has never been reprinted since its appearance here, or, at least, under this title. A little research reveals that Wollheim changed the title of Howard's story "The Voice of El-Lil", which originally appeared in Oriental Stories, to the one that appears on the cover.
Although this issue of the Reader is a bit light on the "off-trail" that were featured in the earlier numbers, it is still a great collection. For horror, there is James Francis Dwyer, Zealia Brown Bishop (in a collaboration with H.P. Lovecraft), Irvin Ashkenazy and a voodoo tale by Henry S. Whitehead. An early story by David H. Keller is here, as are offerings by Ray Cummings and Allison V. Harding. The new stories are the first (and possibly last) story by Clive G. B. Jackson, an Irish author and a short story that was newly written by Ray Bradbury for his, then, new collection, The Martian Chronicles.
As mentioned above, the "off-trail" stories that Wollheim had featured in the earlier numbers of the Reader had pretty much disappeared by this time. Most all the material was now pretty well divided straight down the middle between science fiction or horror, although little gems like the Jackson story just sneak up on you and then hit you over the head. Whether this was a decision motivated by sales, or a problem in securing rights to material is hard to determine. Records indicate that the production of The Reader was sporadic near the end suggesting that sales were not as strong as might have been hoped for by the publisher.