Amateur Correspondent

Amateur Correspondent Issue One Cover Portrait of H.P. Lovecraft by Virgil Finlay 1937

Amateur Correspondent is a science fiction and fantasy fanzine edited by Corwin F. Stickney.

Amateur Correspondent was published in the 1930s in Belleville, New Jersey, U.S.A. It had evolved from Science-Fantasy Correspondent, edited by Willis Conover, who ceased publishing after the death of H. P. Lovecraft, with whom he has been corresponding. He gave the material he had collected for his fanzine to Stickney for Amateur Correspondent, including the portrait of Lovecraft he had commissioned from Virgil Finlay.

The first issue was published in May-June 1937. Contributors included Willis Conover, Robert F. Ennis, Jack E. Fry, H. P. Lovecraft, E. Hoffman Price, and John C. Sidenius.

This issue features the first publication of the essay, "Notes On Writing Weird Fiction", by H. P. Lovecraft, and an essay on Lovecraft by Price ("The Sage of College Street").

Issue two appeared in September October 1937. Contributors included Sidney Birchby, Earl and Otto Binder, Robert Bloch, Burton C. Blanchard, Jack E. Fry, J. Francis Hatch, Catherine L. Moore, Seabury Quinn, Sam Moskowitz (Helios), R.W. Sherman, and Richard Wilson.

Letters came from Claire Beck (The Science Fiction Critic), Robert Madle (Fantascience Digest), Catherine L. Moore, Seabury Quinn, and Robert Wilson.

Cover art was by Burton C. Blanchard and Virgil Finlay.