By Aaron Stark
Recently, the News-Press’s very own copy editor, Ted White, released two books, “The Amazing Editorials” and “The Fantastic Editorials.” In each, White compiles all of his editorials from 1968-1978, during which he worked as the editor of Fantastic and Amazing, both science fiction magazines that published sci-fi stories.
Reflecting on his decision to publish the books, White maintains that it was made out of a passion for sci-fi and as a personal project.
“It wasn’t that hard to do because virtually all the issues of Amazing and Fantastic are now online. We were simply able to pull up each of those issues and essentially copy out the editorials from them,” White said. “It didn’t take very long. It only took a couple of months to put the books together. And frankly, I did it because, well, it’s a kind of a vanity project. I like having collections of my editorials.”
White originally didn’t come up with the idea of compiling his editorials as books.
“A British woman I know named Sandra Bond had made the suggestion on an e-list I’m on, and it got picked up by a couple of other people on the e-list, and they decided they wanted to do the collections and publish them,” White said.
White’s editorials were picked up by Ansible Editions, a British sci-fi book publisher. White gave his permission for the editorials to be published, corrected the text, and wrote the afterword. However, White doesn’t turn any profit from the sale of the editorials.
“Essentially, I don’t get any money from the publication of these books. Any income that comes from these books goes to something called TAFF,” White said. “TAFF is the Transatlantic Fan Fund, which is a science fiction fan thing that has existed since around 1953 or 1954, in which fans from this country are sent to British or European conventions, and fans from Britain or Europe are sent to American conventions. Essentially, it’s a charity, and the book’s income goes to that charity.”
White’s editorials represent a snapshot in the history of the ’60s and ’70s. His work often commented on the political scene at the time.
“My politics were largely reflected in swipes at Nixon. Nixon was president for the first half of my editorship of Amazing and Fantastic,” White said. “I started editing those magazines in October of 1968, and he was elected president in November of 1968. I had always held Nixon in significant disregard.”
Because of White’s tendency to occasionally incorporate politics into his editorials, he faced significant conflict with his publisher’s business partner, Arthur Bernhard.
“See, my publisher, Sol Cohen, he agreed with me. He had no problem with my politics. But Bernhard would read some of my editorials and call up Cohen and tell him, ‘You should fire him,’” White said. “Of course, Cohen never did. I mean, you know, if you read those editorials, most of them are not political per se, but there may be some political coloration. For example, when I was talking about Congress killing the hypersonic air transport program and other things like that.”
Despite this, White refused to hold back, realizing the value of the position lay in a passion for sci-fi rather than monetary benefit.
“No, no, I never [held back]. I mean, frankly, I was paid so little to edit those magazines. I was paid $200 a month to edit those magazines throughout the ‘70s,” White said. “I mean, it was a subsidized hobby as far as I was concerned. And if I couldn’t do it the way I wanted to do it, I wasn’t willing to do it at all.”
Unfortunately, Cohen later sold his half of the business to Bernhard, who withheld White’s payment and shut down White’s ideas for the magazines. In response, White resigned from the position in November of 1978.
Regardless, White is proud of his work over his decade-long run and asserts that he wouldn’t have done anything differently.
“I mean, I’m not given to a lot of second-guessing of what I’ve done. And where the editorials and the magazines are concerned, I have few or no regrets,” White said. “I did what I wanted to do, I did it the way I wanted to do it, and I was happy doing it.”
To purchase the books, visit tinyurl.com/FCNP0824tw.
