What those tales inevitably brought him (quite in addition to ham and eggs for an ungrateful guest) is precisely the opposite of what that guest suggests with his talk of “dogeared magazines, each one forgotten the instant it is replaced on the stands by the next number.” Indeed, explains speculative fiction master, Frederik Pohl, “the instant Ron’s stories appeared on the newsstands, they became part of every fan’s cultural heritage.” Moreover, the fact those fans included “vapid stenogs, garbage collectors and housemaids” —to cite another stock gibe – is very much to the point of all L. Ron Hubbard represented as of 1936, and, for that matter, what the pulps in general represented as a literary force.
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LRH letters to editors and fellow authors generally bore this adventurous imprint of a charging cavalry officer. Finally, we might also consider this: when Ron speaks of an invitation to lecture on “the writing and marketing of short stories,” he is referencing his eventual talks at Harvard University; while to appreciate his search for a central truth with which to explain the whole of this writing business “in one grand sweep,” one need only turn to the pages of Art.
