Page:Weird Tales Volume 36 Number 11 (1943-05).djvu/110

 readers asking just how and where Mr. Owen digs up so much on the "Celestial scene."

Here is that author's answer:

The manner in which I began to write Chinese stories had nothing whatever to do with China. I wanted to write a story in yellow with no other color mentioned therein. I called it The Yellow Pool. It took place in the Canal Zone during the time they were building the Panama Canal. I wanted a yellow girl to be the heroine. Tire story was published in "Brief Stories." The magazine received a number of letters praising it. A few of the letters were published. Later used it as a reprint. Still later it was reprinted again in "Tales of Magic and Mystery."

My next Chinese story was, published in in 1924 and reprinted in 1929. In 1929 it was used as the title of a collection of Chinese stories published in book form. After that I began studying the lore of China in all its amazing aspects. So far I have only scratched the surface, but nevertheless I have read many hundreds of volumes. I like to use real Chinese material in writing my stories. The descriptions of the drug-shop, the drugs, and the philosophy of Doctor Shen Fu are accurate. So, too, is much of the incidental material in Quest of a Noble Tiger. There is an obscure legend that Red Haired People lived in a mountain. The remarks on amber were the result of research. I had the idea for writing a story of this sort for about three years before I began it. Then suddenly I decided to write it and finished it quickly.

The main reason that I write Chinese stories is that the Chinese is the oldest existing civilization in the world. They gave us an idea for almost everything we treasure today. More than fifteen hundred years ago they were trying to make flying machines; three hundred years before Galileo invented the telescope, telescopes were in use in China; the Chinese performed the first plastic surgery operation a thousand years before it was used in this country; they invented paper, ink, block printing and manufactured the first printed book  World's Greatest Collection of Strange & Secret Photographs NOW you can travel round the world with the most daring adventurers. You can see with your own eyes, the weirdest peoples on earth. You witness the strangest customs of the red, white, brown, black and yellow races. You attend üieir start ing 600 LARGE PAGES Here 1» the world's Greatest Collection of Strange and Secret Photographs. Here are Exotic Photos from Europe, Primitive Photos from Africa, Torture Photos from Asia, Female Photos from Oceania and America, and hundreds of others. There are almost 600 LARGE PAGES of Strange & Secret Photographs, each page 57 square inches in size. 1,000 PHOTOS You EW actual courtship practiced in every quarter of the world. You see magic and mystery in queer lands where the foot of a white man has rarely trod. You see Oriental modes of marriage and female slavery in China, Japan, India, etc. Through the intimacy of the cameras you witness the exotic habits of every continent and the strangest customs of lite and love in America, Europe, etc. You are bewildered by these large pages of ONE THOUSAND PHOTOGRAPHS, including 130 full-page photos, and thrilled by the hundreds of short stories that describe them. Contents of 5-Vclume Set VOLUME I The Secret Album of Africa VOLUME 2 The Secret Album of Europe VOLUME 3 Tho Secret Album of Asia VOLUME 4 The Secret Album of America . VOLUMES The Secret Album of Oceania 5 PICTURE-PflCKED VOLUMES [Specimen Photos] Dress & Undress Bound the World Various Secret Societies Civilized Love vb. Savage Strange Crimes, Criminals Omens, Totems & Taboos Mysterious Customs 1,0(H) Strange & Secret Photo» „ The SECRET MUSEUM OF MANKIND consists of five picture-packed volumes (solidly bound together for convenient reading-). Dip into any one of these volumes, and as you turn its pages, you find it difficult to tear yourself away. Here, in story and unusual photo, is the WORLD'S GREATEST COLLECTION OF STRANGE AND SECRET PHOTOGRAPHS, containing everything from Female Beauty Round the World to the most Mysterious Cults and Customs Thpse hundreds and hundreds of large pages will give you day« and nights of thrilling instruction* SEND NO MONEY Simply sign & mall the coupon. Remember, each of the 5 Volume» is 914 inches high, and, opened, over a foot wider Remember also that this 5-Volume Set formerly sold for $10. And it is bound in expensive "life-time" cloth. Don't put this off. Fill out the coupon, drop it in the next mail, and receive this huge work at once« VOLUME VOLUMES BOUND TOGETHER ALL FIVE w FORMERLY >10 NOW ONLY $ 1 98 For the complete V METRO PUBLICATIONS, 50 W. 17th St., Dept. 1904, New York Send me "The Secret Museum of Mankind" (5 great volumes bound together). I will pay postman $1.98, plus postage on arrival. If not delighted, I will return book in 5 days for full refund of $1.98. f 8 8 I Name8 I Address ? City..State

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