[Manuscript]: Sun Tempest

GALLUN, Raymond Z.

Published by Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, 1936

About this Item

Typed Manuscript. 12pp. Quarto sheets. Stapled at the top margin. Printed rectos only. Horizontal creases from being folded, a few small stains and short tears on first page with an inked notation ("submitted to Marvel Tales"), and a couple handwritten corrections, very good. A short science-fiction story about Sam Frost, an "adventurer of the Void", aboard the space ship "The Dark Comet" with other scientists and their mascot Almarlu, a leathery little Callistan from the planet Callisto. The scientists are studying solar phenomena and searching for rare elements when they encounter flaming storm clouds known as solar prominences being ejected from the sun. Gallun submitted the story to the semi-professional science-fiction magazine *Marvel Tales* published by William L. Crawford, however the issue was never published. Crawford had announced in a 1936 issue of *Fantasy Magazine* that *Marvel Tales* was going to convert to a professional magazine and would soon appear on newsstands. The next issue was supposed to be 64 pages and contain stories by H. P. Lovecraft, E. E. Smith, Donald Wandrei, Murray Leinster, and others. Proofs were prepared but due to "insurmountable obstacles" in the form of financial difficulties the issue never materialized. According to the proofs, they were going to switch from digest-size to pulp and feature Gallun's "Sun Tempest" (which Crawford called "an example of courage on the spaceways") along with the fourth installment of P. Schuyler Miller's "Titan", Lovecraft's "The Shadow Over Innsmouth," "The Sixth Sense" by Stanton A. Coblentz, "The Ghost Mother" by Francis Flagg, and several other short stories with artwork by Clay Ferguson and Frank Utpatel. Gallun was part of a group of science-fiction pulp writers who helped popularize the genre, and published over 120 short stories in pulp magazines beginning with "The Space Dwellers" and "The Crystal Ray" in 1929 when he was just 18 years old. Isaac Asimov mentioned Gallun's "Old Faithful", a story about sympathetic Martians, in his book *Before the Golden Age* writing: "More important [than getting a sequel] was the fact that sympathetic portraits of extraterrestrials became common after "Old Faithful," particularly among the more sophisticated writers. The old picture of extraterrestrial as mindless villain receded into the more primitive byways." At the 1985 convention, I-CON IV, Gallun was awarded the I-CON Lifetime Achievement Award which was later renamed The Raymond Z. Gallun Award. An unpublished manuscript from an often forgotten pioneer of the early years of science-fiction. Seller Inventory # 587335

Bibliographic Details

Title: [Manuscript]: Sun Tempest

Publisher: Beaver Dam, Wisconsin

Publication Date: 1936

Binding: Softcover

Condition: Very Good