Jim Causey and Bill Blackbeard-Part 4

Jim Causey's letter to Randal Everts concludes:

     Unfortunately, I have no old rejects from WT [Weird Tales], or from the pulps. Only a couple of stf rejects, because I sold most of my output in the fifties. Every few months I would tear up everything I had previously written, even if it had only been rejected once. I figured I'd improved. (I stopped this practice when Ray Bradbury once told me that his fine story The Swan had been rejected over 50 times before he finally sold it to the big slicks.)

     Digging through my archives, however, I found an old issue of Fantasy Times, with a picture of Bill on the cover, and also an article by him where he mentions the lamentable demise of WT and how "Dorothy McIlwraith steered the old magazine into uncharted reefs of the most unspeakable crud ever seen in print . . . ." [Causey's ellipses] I enclose copy of same for your interest.

     Sorry not to have had a more adventurous existence. Bottom line: For over 30 years have had the same wife, worked for the same company, and used the same golf putter. This should provide some clue to my massive and complex character.

All best

[Signed] Jim

Fantasy Times #254 (September 1956) with tellers of weird tales Bill Blackbeard and Forrest J Ackerman on the cover. In addition, John Giunta, pictured here, was an artist for "The Unique Magazine." Blackbeard's article, "SF and Fantasy, 1941-1956," appeared in this issue of Fantasy Times. It may be the same issue mentioned by Blackbeard's friend, Jim Causey, in Causey's letter to Randal Everts.

Thanks again to Randal A. Everts for providing the letter from his collection.

2011, 2023