Mr. Joseph R. Barnes--whose letter I enjoyed immensely, incidentally--will be interested in knowing that "The Mascot Deep" is already in book form and that "The Disintegration Machine" and "When the World Screamed," all by the same author, are under the same covers. He also will be interested in learning that Ray Cummings' fine story, "Sea Girl," is also between hard covers. The idea of putting out a quarterly is a dandy. The other science fiction quarterlies are mere text-books; there are, occasionally, of course, a few exceptions. The thought of the sort of fantastic action stories Astounding Stories publishes, put together in a magazine doubly thick, is a pleasing one to contemplate. Reading a story the length of "Brigands of the Moon" and of such literary merit, complete in one issue, is a thrill to be looked forward to. By all means put out such a magazine and have stories by Jack Williamson, R. F. Starzl and Edmond Hamilton, three of your best writers, in the first issue. I'm glad to see that Starzl is coming back with the next issue. More from him, please. And Hamilton and Williamson should appear more frequently, too. A question, Mr. Cummings: Shades of Polter and Tugh!--why must you always have a deformed character in your stories? Do they appeal to your dramatic sense? The news that we're going to have a story from Francis Flagg brings raptures of delight to my homely face. If it's a dimensional story, I'll cheer twice. When it comes to writing that kind of a story, Flagg's the king of them all. For sheer interest and originality, he's got his contemporaries in that field outdistanced with a distance that can only be counted by light-years. A pat on the back for Booth Cody and Sears Langwell, two staunch supporters. All our magazine needs is a story about time crusaders, or a planet of mechanical men. Omitting the authors already mentioned, I considered my favorites to be Rousseau, Eshbach, Diffin, Ernst, and Hal K. Wells. The best story you ever published? Who am I to answer? Why not put it up to the Readers for popular vote?--Jerome Siegel, 10522 Kimberley Ave., Cleveland, Ohio. _Explanation Wanted_ Dear Editor: