AMERICAN FICTION

   UK numbered pocketbook series which could be regarded (being numbered) as either an anthology series or a magazine. 12 issues known, most 36pp, numbered only from 2. Published by Utopian Publications, London; ed Benson HERBERT and Walter GILLINGS (who jointly owned the company). Irregular, Sep 1944-Jan 1946. AF was a reprint publication. All issues featured quasi-erotic covers, with the title story often being an already known sf or fantasy work under a racy new name. Thus S.P.MEEK's Gates of Light became Arctic Bride (1944 chap), Edmond HAMILTON's Six Sleepers (1935) became Tiger Girl (c1945 chap), John Beynon Harris's (John WYNDHAM) The Wanderers of Time (1933) became Love in Time (1945 chap), Jack WILLIAMSON's Wizard's Isle (1934) became Lady in Danger (c1945 chap) and Stanton A.COBLENTZ's Planet of Youth (1932) became Youth Madness (1945 chap). Other featured authors were Ralph Milne FARLEY and Robert BLOCH. All but 1 and 6 in the series contained short stories as well as the featured novella, hence their usual listing in indexes as if they constituted separate book publication of a single novella is technically incorrect. The emphasis was on weird fiction rather than sf, though stories from other genres were also used.