Science Fiction Digest, Volume 1, Number 6

Science Fiction Digest (Combined with The Time Traveller) This pulp combines reprinted fiction with critical editorial columns. The featured story is A. Merritt's "The Woman of the Wood," a two-part novelette beginning here. McKay, a war-damaged veteran recovering at a lake-shore inn in the Vosges, becomes attuned to the forest's sentience and grows aware of conflict between the woods and an isolated lodge where Polleau and his sons clear and burn timber. McKay witnesses Polleau's son hatchet a silver birch; as it falls, a protective fir tree strikes the man down with apparent deliberation. The forest's "whispering" becomes increasingly urgent, drawing McKay across the lake toward a coppice of birches and firs. His crossing becomes surreal—mists form fantastical shapes, voices emerge singing in alternating joy and sorrow. The story concludes as McKay reaches shore and enters the mysterious wood. Accompanying the fiction are editorial columns: "Titans of Science Fiction" profiles Harry Bates; other regular features include criticism, book advertising, and the Jules Verne Prize Club membership solicitation.