Fred Woodworth's "The Mystery & Adventure Series Review"

He won't accept your check.

He was the victim of a Y2K error at his bank that moved a decimal point and made a $2,000.00 check into a $20.00 check. The mistake was so difficult to correct that he vowed to never touch a check again. "Checks will be silently ignored."

He doesn't have a computer.

He does the typesetting work for his magazine, The Mystery and Adventure Series Review, himself. "No computer equipment is ever used here for any purpose whatsoever."

You can't buy a subscription, anyway.

If you have a sincere interest in series books (Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, Rick Brant, Tom Quest, et al) he'll send you his magazine without charge, trusting that if you like it, you'll send him a contribution.

Can't find that Tom Quest you remember so fondly?

He'll loan you a copy from the magazine's own Tom Quest lending library.

On a tight budget?

The M&A bookstore has copies of series books they'll give away.

Have you sold series books to other collectors at inflated prices?

You can't ever get a copy of M&A Review. Ever. You're already banned for life.

"He" is Fred Woodworth, and the arrival of an issue of his irregularly published, gorgeous hand-produced magazine, is always an event.

Fred writes about his eclectic interests: series books, of course, but also typography. And in the current issue, perpetual calendars, libraries that discard old books, found photographs, and the Antikythera Mechanism. He is iconoclastic and inspirational. Here's a quote from the current issue:

I believe that the topics we concern ourselves with here, though usually ignored or at best smiled at by today's cultural arbiters, deserve no less than these high aims. While I have to admit that on top of declining interest in old series-type books, the internet is rapidly removing readers from the world of the small magazine (and postal policies seem deliberately aimed at stopping small publications), I myself remain committed to supplying - as long as there are any readers at all - a product that reaches for the highest possible level.

This past summer, on a recommendation from The M&A Review, I picked up The Rocket's Shadow, a Rick Brant Science-Adventure Story. I had more fun reading that old series book than I could ever have imagined.

If you have an interest in connecting or re-connecting with the world of series books, write a letter to Fred Woodworth, Post Office Box 3012, Tucson, Arizona 85702. He might just send you a copy of The Review, so if you want to send him some cash and/or stamps up front, do so.

Just don't send a check. You'll be silently ignored.