oved.

Second: Holding the magazine together with two staples is a good
idea.

Third: The paper could be improved.

Fourth: The price is right.

Here I classify the stories. Excellent: "The Beetle Horde," and
"Tanks." Very Good: "Cave of Horror," "Invisible Death," and
"Phantoms of Reality." Medium: "Compensation." Poor: "Stolen Mind."

Please don't reprint any of Poe's, Wells', or Verne's works. My
prejudice to Verne, Wells and Poe is that I have read all their
works in other magazines.

However, with all my criticizing, I think that your magazine is a
good one.--James Nichols, 1509 19th Street, Bakersfield,
California.

_Thanks, Mr. Marks!_

Dear Editor:

I purchased a copy of "our" new magazine to-day and I think it
excellent. I am glad to see most of my old author friends
contributing for it, but how about looking up E. R. Burroughs,
David H. Keller, M. D., C. P. Wantenbacker and A. Merritt? They are
marvelous writers. I see Wesso did your cover and it is very good.
I have been a reader of four other Science Fiction monthly
magazines and two quarterlies, but I gladly take this one into my
fold and I think I speak for every other Science Fiction lover when
I say this. Which means, if true, that your publication will have
everlasting success. Here's hoping!--P. O. Marks, Jr., 893 York
Avenue, S. W., Atlanta, Ga.

_A Fine Letter_

Dear Editor:

Having read through the first number of Astounding Stories, my
enthusiasm has reached such a pitch that I find it difficult to
express myself adequately. A mere letter such as this can give
scarcely an inkling of the unbounded enjoyment I derive from the
pages of this unique magazine. To use a trite but appropriate
phrase, "It fills a long-felt need." True, there are other
magazines which specialize in Science Fiction; but, to my mind they
are not in a class with Astounding Stories. In most of them the
scientific element is so emphasized that it completely overshadows
all else. In this magazine, happily, such is not the case. Here we
find science subordinated to human interest, which is as it should
be. The love element, too, is present and by no means unwelcome.

As for the literary quality of the stories, it could not be
improved on. Such craftsmen as Cummings, Leinster and Rousseau
never fail to turn out a vivid, well-written tale. If the stories in
the succeeding i