AVON FANTASY READER

   US DIGEST-size magazine published by Avon Books, ed Donald A.WOLLHEIM, who considered it an anthology series, although it resembled a magazine. Magazine bibliographers consider it a magazine; book bibliographers think of it as a series of books. The Avon Fantasy Reader sequence was primarily devoted to reprints, although it contained also 11 original stories. With WEIRD TALES as its chief source, it presented work by such authors as Robert E.HOWARD, H.P.LOVECRAFT, C.L.MOORE and Clark Ashton SMITH. It was numbered rather than dated, and appeared irregularly: 5 in 1947; 3 per year 1948-51; 1 in 1952. It was partnered by the Avon Science Fiction Reader sequence. When Wollheim left Avon in 1952, both runs were terminated. Nearly two decades later, with George Ernsberger, Wollheim briefly attempted a kind of successor series, the titles in which can be treated as anthologies: The Avon Fantasy Reader (anth 1969) and The 2nd Avon Fantasy Reader (anth 1969).