SLOANE, T(homas) O'Conor

(1851-1940)

   US editor and author of popular scientific works. He was associate editor (designated managing editor for \#1) of AMAZING STORIES and of AMAZING STORIES QUARTERLY from the beginning, and carried much responsibility for the actual running of the magazines, although they were in the overall charge of, successively, Hugo GERNSBACK and Arthur Lynch. He succeeded to the editorship of both journals in 1929. Amazing StoriesQuarterly ceased publication in 1934, but he retained the editorship of AMZ until June 1938, when the ailing magazine was sold to the Chicago-based ZIFF-DAVIS. Nearing his 80th year when he finally succeeded to the editorship, TOS had a long white beard and an appropriately Rip Van Winkle-like approach to the job; though he worked for 12 years on SFMAGAZINES, he stated publicly (in a 1929 AMZ editorial) his belief that Man would never achieve space travel. AMZ nevertheless bought the first stories of such writers as E.E. SMITH, John W. CAMPBELL Jr and Jack WILLIAMSON; but the combination of poor payment and slack management madeit inevitable that writers of any calibre would soon move to more attractive markets. TOS actually lost the manuscript of Campbell's first story, and returned Clifford D. SIMAK's first submission after 4 years' silence, remarking that it was "a bit dated". He was more than once fooled into publishing plagiarisms. On one occasion (Feb 1933) he printed a story ("The Ho-Ming Gland" by Malcolm R. Afford) which had already appeared inWONDER STORIES (Jan 1931): the author had submitted the story to TOS 4 years earlier but, having heard nothing after a year, had sold it to the rival magazine.TOS, a PhD, had been an inventor, and his son married a daughter of a more celebrated inventor, Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931).

   MJE