Sealed Fiction

"What's the use? If you don't have a big name, the editors won't even look at your manuscript. . . . Why, there's better stuff rejected every day, than what gets into print. . . ." As to every editor who ever bought a piece of fiction, that chronic complaint of obscure authors came again & again to Editor Sumner Newton Blossom of American Magazine. He knew it to be nonsense-- or nearly so. He knew that the 30,000 unsolicited stories that arrive annually at his offices were treated is fairly as possible. They went in turn to a bright young woman, to an elderly cultured man, to a youthful fiction editor, to Managing Editor Hugh Leamy, finally to Editor Blossom. The first four had authority only to reject. From the driblet of manuscripts that got safely by them, Editor Blossom bought 125 to 150 a year. Yet, sometimes Editor Blossom wondered if perhaps he and his staff were not unconsciously swayed in favor of authors with money-making names. Three months ago he started an experiment. In the magazine's mail room, as each unsolicited story was received, a clerk pasted a black strip over the author's name, started it on its route through the editors.

Last week Editor Blossom pronounced the experiment a success. In the first month the black seal of an accepted story was broken to admit Borden Chase, a hydraulic engineer. Soon others were unmasked: a Chicago newshawk using the name Kimball Herrick; a Montana professor named Brassil Fitzgerald; Allen Vaughan Elston, previously unknown outside of the pulp magazines. And more than one professional with a front cover name received a rejection slip, unaware that his story had been judged and discarded solely on merit.

Elated by the discovery of new talent, Editor Blossom decided to continue the "sealed fiction" process for short stories. But serials, as before, will be acquired only through advance order and negotiation.

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