BURROUGHSIANA/FANTASTIC WORLDS

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Although I had first met Frank Westwood in 1969 (having being put in touch with him by Gordon Landsborough of Four Square Books, to whom I had written regarding their ERB titles), it was to be another five years before we attempted to undertake  a modest organisation of British fans. This was in the form of an informal get together at “The Three Pigeons” public house in Ealing, West London, on the 25th May 1974 which attracted a dozen people for an evening’s discussion, with drinks and sandwiches.

Following this meeting Frank and I decided to form The British Edgar Rice Burroughs Society and to commence publishing a Journal on a regular basis. The first issue appeared in the Spring of 1975 under the editorship of Dick Ellingsworth and was entitled BURROUGHSIANA, in an A4 format with a cover illustration of John Carter by Paul Privitera. Dick had inherited this title from Michael Moorcock, who had published 18 issues of the fanzine under the slightly different title of BURROUGHSANIA whilst preparing for his professional writing career, and he was happy to let us use it for the new publication. However a year later and after an unfortunate dispute, Dick left the Society and we had to rename the Journal. Issue number 2, already printed as BURROUGHSIANA, with some copies distributed and under the new editorship of Paul Norman, had to be reprinted and renamed and thus THE FANTASTIC WORLDS OF EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS First Edition appeared, dated Summer 1976.

Issue Number 2 of FANTASTIC WORLDS quickly followed in Autumn 1976 and Paul remained as editor until the sixth issue, also stepping in to edit issue number 9. Frank Westwood edited issue 7/8 and took over from issue 10, remaining in the post for the remainder of the run. After the double issue 52/53 in Spring of 2004 there was a seven year hiatus before the title was revived with issue number 54 dated Spring 2011 in the smaller A5 format, with Frank taking up the editorship again.

Bill Hillman has now kindly agreed to start reproducing back issues of THE FANTASTIC WORLDS OF EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS from the first number, on the ERBzine website. Details of subscriptions to the new and current issues can be obtained from Frank Westwood at francis_westwood@yahoo.com

Cheers
Rod Jackson