Speaking of Science Fiction is a chunky collection of 31 interviews with primarily science fiction authors, and some interviewees were also known as editors and anthologists. The interviews were done by Paul Walker via letter and took place 1969-74, first appearing in print in the New Jersey journal Luna between 1972 and 1976 (or between 1970 and 1976, depending on source). The book was published in paperback by Luna in 1978 with illustrations of each author by Dave Ludwig, and there was also a hardback edition with dust-jacket.
For the sake of future searchers, here are the TOCs for the 425 pages, via a sales listing …
I looked into the book because a long-ago zine had mentioned a Frank Belknap Long interview and, as it also had portrait illustrations depicting each author, there was the double-promise of interesting Long/Lovecraft content. But the TOCs show no Long, only Bloch. And since there was never a reprint, additional interviews cannot have been added later.
The book is not currently on Archive.org and there are only a few Luna Monthly titles there. In which the only pulp-era writer interview is Edmond Hamilton, the resident rocketeer at Weird Tales. But there is also also “A Day with Ray Bradbury” by different interviewers, and the young Bradbury counts as a pulp writer. I assume that the interviews mostly appeared in the premium Luna Prime journal, of which Archive.org currently only has a 1970 edition with no interviews in it.
While looking for the title I found a similar title from the period, Speaking of the Fantastic, with interviews conducted by Darrell Schweitzer. This became a series of books, which can currently be had as affordable print-on-demand paperbacks via Amazon.
