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"Well I'll Be Hexed!"

Peter Phillips

First published 1950
Type Short Fiction
Length Novelette

Notes

According to Peter Phillips's 1978-07-30 letter to {{A|Mike Ashley}}, which was published in issue 18 of the fanzine ''Relapse'' (Autumn 2010) (page 15): "I have never written under a pseudonym. I was mildly amused when {{A|Howard Browne}} claimed 'Peter Phillips' was a Ziff-Davis house name; but I didn't correct him because (a) I couldn't be bothered, and (b) I wasn't particularly fond of the yarn. Too youthfully self-indulgent." (Howard Browne was the editor of Fantastic Adventures in 1950; Ziff-Davis was the company that published it.) It's currently unknown where Howard Browne claimed that 'Peter Phillips' was a Ziff-Davis house name. Apparently, the claim was made between 1950 and 1952 since {{A|Bradford M. Day}} ''A Checklist of Fantastic Magazines'' (1952) stated that "Peter Phillips" may have been a Ziff-Davis pseudonym. This led to various later misattributions such as:

  • {{A|James A. Rock}}'s ''Who Goes There: A Bibliographic Dictionary'' (1979) listed 13 (!) Peter Phillips stories as actually written by Howard Browne.
  • {{A|Donald H. Tuck}}'s ''The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy Through 1968, Volume 3: Miscellaneous'' (1982) listed "Peter Phillips" as a Browne pseudonym in the "Pseudonyms" section.
  • As of 2009, The FictionMags Index attributed "She Didn't Bounce", a vignette in Suspense Magazine Spring 1951, to Howard Browne (later corrected).

Publications (3)

Date Publication Publisher Type Page
1950 Fantastic Adventures Quarterly, Winter 1950 Ziff-Davis Publishing Company MAGAZINE 90|1090
August 1950 Fantastic Adventures, August 1950 Ziff-Davis Publishing Company MAGAZINE 90
March 1951 Fantastic Adventures, No. 6 Thorpe & Porter MAGAZINE 90