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THE BLIND SPOT
By Austin Hall And Homer Eon Flint
Introduction By Forrest J Ackerman
INTRODUCTION
THE LURE AND LORE OF "THE BLIND SPOT"
BY FORREST J ACKERMAN
The Blind Spot opens with the words: "Perhaps it were just as well tostart at the beginning. A mere matter of news." Suppose I use them inthe same sense:
A mere matter of news: The first instalment of this fabulous novel wasfeatured in Argosy-All-Story-Weekly for May 14, 1921. Described as a"different" serial, it was introduced by a cover by Modest Stein. Inthe foreground was the profile of a girl of another dimension--ethereal,sensuous, the eternal feminine--the Nervina of the story. Filmycrystalline earrings swept back over her bare shoulders. Dominating thebackground was a huge flaming yellow ball, like our Sun as seen from thehypothetical Vulcan--splotched with murky, mysterious globii vitonae.There was an ancient quay, and emerging from the ultramarine watersabout it a silhouetted metropolis of spires, domes, and minarets. It was1921, and that generation thus received its first glimpse of the alienlandscape of The Blind Spot and the baroque beauty of an immortal womanof fantasy fiction.
The authors? Homer Eon Flint was already a reigning favourite withpost-World-War-I enthusiasts of imaginative literature, who had eagerlydevoured his QUEEN OF LIFE and LORD OF DEATH, his KING OF CONSERVEISLAND and THE PLANETEER. Austin Hall was well known and popular for hisALMOST IMMORTAL, REBEL SOUL, and INTO THE INFINITE.
Then came this epoch-making collaboration. When Mary Gnaedinger launchedFamous Fantastic Mysteries magazine she early presented THE BLIND SPOT,and printed it again in that magazine's companion Fantastic Novels.These reprints are now collectors' items, almost unobtainable,and otherwise the story has long been out of print. Rumour says anunauthorised German version of THE BLIND SPOT, has been published inbook form. There is another book called THE BLIND SPOT, and also amagazine story, and a major movie studio was to produce a film of thesame title. However, here is presented the only hard-cover version ofthe only BLIND SPOT of consequence to lovers of fantasy.
Who wrote the story? When I first looked into the question, as a 15 yearold boy, Homer Eon Flint (he originally spelled his name with a "d")was already dead of a fall into a canyon. In 1949 his widow told me: "Ithink Homer's father contributed that middle name"--the same name (withslightly different spelling) that the Irish poet George Russell tookas his pen-name, which became known by its abbreviation AE. Mrs. Flindtsaid of Flint's father: "He was a very deep thinker, and enjoyed readingheavy material." Like father, like son. "Homer always talked over hisideas with me, and although I couldn't always follow his thoughts itseemed to help him to express them to another--it made some things comemore clearly to him."
Flint was a great admirer of H. G. Wells (this littlegrandmother-schoolteacher told me) and had probably read all his worksup to the time when he (Flint) died in 1924. He had read Doyle andHaggard, but: "Wells was his favourite--the real thinker."
Flint found a fellow-thinker in Austin Hall, whom he met in SanJose, California, while working at a shop where shoes were repairedelectrically--"a rather new concept at the time." Hall, learning thatFlint lived in the same city, sought him out, and they became fastfriends. Each stimulated the other. As Hall told me twenty years ago ofthe origin of THE BLIND SPOT:
"One day after we had lunched together, I held my finger up in front ofone of my eyes and said: 'Homer, couldn't a story be written about thatblind spot in the eye?' Not much was said about it at the time, but fourdays later, again at lunch, I outlined the whole story to him. I wrotethe first eighteen chapters; Homer took up the tale as 'Hobart Fenton'and wrote the chapters about the house of miracles, the living death,the rousing of Aradna's mind, and so forth, up to 'The Man from Space,'where once again I took over."
To THE BLIND SPOT Hall contributed a great knowledge of history andanthropology, while Flint's fortes were physics and medicine. Both had agreat fund of philosophy at their command.
When I met Hall (about four years older than Flint) he was in hisfifties: a devil-may-care old codger (old to a fifteen-year-old, thatis) full of good humour and indulgence for a youthful admirer who hadjourneyed far to meet him. He casually referred to his 600 publishedstories, and I carried away the impression of one who resembled bothin output and in looks that other fiction-factory of the time, EdgarWallace.
Finally: Several years ago, before I knew anything about the presentvolume, I had an unusual experience. (At that time I had no reason tothink THE BLIND SPOT would ever become available as a book, for thelocation of the heirs proved a Herculean task by itself; publishers hadlong wanted to present this amazing novel but could not do so until Ilocated Mrs. Mae Hall and Mrs. Mabel Flindt.) While, unfortunately, Idid not take careful notes at the time, the gist of the occurrence wasthis:
I visited a friend whose hobby (besides reading fantasy) was theoccult, who volunteered to entertain me with automatic writing andthe ouija-board. Now, I share Lovecraft's scepticism towards thesupernatural, regarding it as at best a means of amusement. When thequestion arose of what spirits we should try to lure to our planchette,the names of Lovecraft, Merritt, Hall, and Flint popped into mypixilated mind. So I set my fingers on the wooden heart and, since myhost was also a Flint admirer, we asked about Flint's fatal accident.The ouija spelled out:
N-O A-C-C-I-D-E-N-T--R-O-B-B-E-R-Y
There followed something about being held up by a hitch-hiker. Then Hall(or at least some energy-source other than my own conscious mind) camethrough too, and when I asked if he had left any work behind he replied:
Y-E-S--T-H-E L-A-S-T G-O-D-L-I-N-G
Later I asked his son about this (without revealing the title) and JavenHall told me of the story his father had been plotting when he died: THEHIDDEN EMPIRE, or THE CHILD OF THE SOUTHWIND. Whatever was pushing theplanchette failed to inform me that when I found Austin Hall's son andwidow, they would put into my hands an unknown, unpublished fantasynovel by Hall: THE HOUSE OF DAWN! Some day it may appear in print.
Meanwhile you are getting understandably impatient to explore thatunknown realm of the Blind Spot. Be on your way, and bon voyage!
FORREST J ACKERMAN, Beverley Hills, Calif.