Comments on: Robert P. Mills

By: Bud Webster

Bud Webster — Sat, 30 May 2009 01:10:58 +0000

Fred, do you know if Mills did the actual editing on his 1963 Dial anthology, _The Worlds of Science Fiction_, or of it was “ghosted” by someone else? I assume from what you say that Other Hands did the F&SF collections under his name, but I’m really curious about the Dial title.

By: John DeChancie

John DeChancie — Mon, 11 May 2009 15:27:16 +0000

Bob Mills was my first agent. I was a young and excitable writer; sometimes I’d blurt for five minutes straight on the phone to Bob, at the end of which Bob would ask patiently, “Can I talk now?” He handled my first short story sale and my first novel. I’ll always remember his kindnesses to a callow kid who was a bundle of nervous energy, tramping around NYC loudly telling anybody who wanted to know and everybody else that I was now officially a genuine, no-fooling writer. I visited Bob once in his apartment–never made it to his office. He was always solicitous and soft-spoken, brimming with anecdotes about famous writers and famous people whom I admired. It was a brief association: in a few months he sold his business, moved to California, retired–and suddenly died, of a heart attack, I heard. But I’ll always fondly remember Bob Mills.

By: Todd Maosn

Todd Maosn — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 23:06:24 +0000

Mr. Pohl, you ascribe the same sentence to JWC, Jr. in the original edition of THE WAY THE FUTURE WAS. Not that I wouldn’t be convinced that both men might’ve felt the same way about their magazines.