Van Thal remarks on the decline...

[noose]

From a letter to a Pan Horror author dated 17.5.79

Dear _________

Thank you for your kind letter. I am glad you are enjoying the Horror Anthologies. I am sorry that I cannot include a finer quality of stories, but all the classic stories have been used so often.

By all means submit one of your stories and if your standard is as good as Roald Dahl or Ray Bradbury you are in! For they are actually two of the best contemporary writers. I also recommend Patricia Highsmith.

Yours sincerely,

Herbert van Thal.


From a letter to a Pan Horror author dated 24.1.80.

Dear _______, I have behaved very badly to you. I am glad you enjoyed the 20th Horror Volume, personally I have felt that the stories have declined in quality and have been holding up the choice of stories for 22,... (illegible word)...but I had ear-marked to include ******** but I would much like to read your latest and then I will definitely decide what to include.

Your criticism is very apt. I quite agree that the Francis King story has the least (illegible word). Harry Turner has not improved of late. Indeed it is becoming hard to find really good quality tales. Let us hope your latest is a find! I will then immediately make a decision. With renewed apologies for keeping you waiting. So long. From H Van Thal.

[noose]

[thasaidon]

Thanks for posting these letters. I'm working my way through the Pan Horror books at the moment, and it's a pity that van Thal was unable to find works of high enough quality. Considering that the Pan series became all original works at around book 9, it seems that after another ten years, there are a lot fewer authors writing or willing to write Pan Horror style stories. Disappointing considering that by this point the series had been going for twenty years and there must have been a lot of young writers who had grown up reading the Pans.

I think that the first illegible word is "though" (notice how the "th" of "then" in "I will then immediately make a decision" looks similar), and the second illegible word is "contribution" (and the word you have as "has" just before it should be "is".