WEIRD TALES

   1) US magazine, small PULP-MAGAZINE-size (9in x 6in [23cm x 15cm]) Mar-Apr 1923, BEDSHEET-size May 1923-May/July 1924, pulp-size Nov 1924-July 1953, DIGEST-size Sep 1953-Sep 1954. 279 issues Mar 1923-Sep 1954. Published by Rural Publishing Corp. Mar 1923-May/July 1924, Popular Fiction Co. Nov 1924-Oct 1938, Short Stories Inc. Nov 1938-Sep 1954; ed Edwin Baird Mar 1923-Apr 1924, Otis Adelbert KLINE May/July 1924, Farnsworth WRIGHT Nov 1924-Dec 1939, Dorothy McIlwraith Jan 1940-Sep 1954. WT was founded in 1923 by J.C. Henneberger and J.M. Lansinger; the former retained an interest in the magazine throughout its existence. Its early issues were undistinguished (despite the presence of writers who later became regular contributors, such as H.P. LOVECRAFT, Seabury Quinn and Clark Ashton SMITH) and the bumper Anniversary issue, May/July 1924, wasto have been the last. But it reappeared in Nov 1924 with a new publisher (actually still Henneberger, but now without Lansinger) and a new editor.It has been suggested that the controversy caused by a necrophiliac horror story ("The Loved Dead" by C.M. Eddy [1896-1967] with H.P. Lovecraft) in the May/July issue - attempts were made to have it removed from the news-stands - gave WT the publicity boost it needed to survive.Under the editorship of Wright WT developed into the "Unique Magazine" its subtitle promised. Its stories were a mixture of sf - including some by Ray CUMMINGS in the 1920s and a lot by Edmond HAMILTON throughout - HORRORstories, SWORD AND SORCERY, exotic adventure, and anything else which its title might embrace. The early issues were generally crude in appearance, but the look of the magazine improved greatly in 1932 with the introduction of the artists Margaret BRUNDAGE and J. Allen ST JOHN. Brundage's covers - pastel chalks depicting women in degrees of undressbeing menaced in various ways - alienated some readers, but promised a sensuous blend of the exotic and the erotic which typified the magazine's appeal. The 1930s were WT's heyday; in addition to Lovecraft and Smith, it regularly featured August DERLETH, Robert E. HOWARD (including his Conan series), David H. KELLER, Otis Adelbert KLINE, Frank Belknap LONG, C.L. MOORE (especially with her Northwest Smith series), Jack WILLIAMSON andothers - although the most popular contributor was Seabury Quinn (1889-1969), with an interminable series featuring the psychic detectiveJules de Grandin. Although WT printed its share of dreadful pulp fiction, in the early 1930s it was, at its best, much superior to the largely primitive sf pulps. However, Wright's WT never really recovered from the almost simultaneous loss of 3 of its key contributors with the deaths of Howard (1936) and Lovecraft (1937) and the virtual retirement of Smith.New contributors in the late 1930s included Henry KUTTNER and artists Hannes BOK and Virgil FINLAY.At the end of 1939 Wright, in poor health, was replaced by Dorothy McIlwraith. The magazine continued steadily through the 1940s - although after being monthly Nov 1924-Jan 1940, with very few exceptions, it was now bimonthly (and would remain so) - and featured such authors as Robert BLOCH, Ray BRADBURY, Fritz LEIBER and Manly Wade WELLMAN with his John Thunstone stories. However, the editorialpolicy was more restrictive and WT was no longer a unique magazine: other fantasy magazines had appeared and, in the case of UNKNOWN, overshadowed it. Nevertheless, it continued to be the only regular magazine outlet for supernatural fiction until its death in 1954, when its publisher went bankrupt. It would be difficult to overestimate the influence of WT in the genres of weird fiction and Sword and Sorcery; though the emphasis was always on fantasy and the supernatural, it published a surprising amount of influential sf, and many sf writers published their early work in its pages. WT is perhaps rivalled only by ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION in terms of the number of stories of lasting interest which it produced.

   2) Subsequent series. Various nostalgic attempts, mostly unsuccessful, havebeen made to revive WT-or at least its title. The first was in 1973, with 4 pulp-size issues, Summer 1973-Summer 1974, ed Sam MOSKOWITZ, publishedby Weird Tales, Los Angeles (Leo MARGULIES), and continuing the original WT numeration (Vol 47, \#1-\#4).The rights to WT were bought by Robert E.WEINBERG, who eventually formed Weird Tales Limited to protect and license the name. He published a nostalgic anthology in homage to WT, WT50 (anth 1974), ed Weinberg, some of whose contents re-appeared in The Weird TalesStory (anth 1977), which he ed and partly wrote.The 3rd WT series was published as a paperback quarterly ed Lin CARTER, published by Zebra Books, who leased the rights from Weinberg. There were 4 issues: WeirdTales 1 (anth 1980), \#2 (anth 1980), \#3 (anth 1981) and \#4 (anth 1983). Then came the 4th, confusing, series from a small press, the Bellerophon Network, owned by Californian publisher Brian Forbes. Advance publicity suggested alternately that the editor would be Gil Lamont or Forrest J. ACKERMAN, but in the event there were only 2, not very remarkable issues,both ed Gordon M.D. Garb, these being marked Fall 1984 (appeared 1985) and Winter 1985 (appeared 1986); they were vol 49, \#1 and \#2. The superior \#1included fiction by Harlan ELLISON, Stephen KING and R.A. LAFFERTY.The 5th series, ed George H. SCITHERS, Darrell SCHWEITZER and John Gregory BETANCOURT, published by another small press, the Terminus Publishing Co.,Philadelphia, has been by far the most successful relaunch. Its numeration began with \#290 (which counted in the 10 abortive relaunch issues which had preceded it); the pulp format neatly duplicated the two-column appearance of the original WT. It contains weird fiction and sword-and-sorcery, but little if any sf. From \#300 (1991) it has been ed Schweitzer alone. It changed to a more conventional small-bedsheet formatand design with the Winter 1992/93 issue, \#305. There were only two copies a year for each of 1992, 1993 and 1994, the second of 1994 being retitled to Worlds of Fantasy and Horror, vol 1, no 1, Summer 1994, when the license to the WT title expired. The latter - effectively a new magazine despite the very similar content - was announced as quarterly, and \#2, Spring 1995, has appeared. It is still ed Schweitzer. The last WT properwas \#308, Spring 1994. 3. Reprint editions and anthologies. 3 UK edns were published at various times. In the first half of 1942 Swan Publishers produced 3 unnumbered issues. 1 more came in Nov 1946 from Merritt. Finally, Thorpe \& Porter published 28 issues, numbered \#1-\#23, and thenvol 1 \#1-\#5 Nov 1949-July 1954. There were 2 Canadian reprint editions: 1935-6 (vol 25 \#6-vol 28 \#1), 14 issues, and 1942-51, 58 issues.WT hasbeen exhaustively mined for anthologies, and many of its contributors from the 1930s have gone on to new heights of popularity with paperback reprints of their stories. The long-running Not at Night series of horror anthologies (1925-34) ed Christine Campbell Thomson (1897-1985) drew largely on WT stories, sometimes publishing them even before they appeared in the magazine. Weird Tales (anth 1976) ed Peter Haining (1940-) reprints a selection in facsimile. Other reprint anthologies were Peter Haining's Weird Tales: A Facsimile of the World's Most Famous FantasyMagazine (anth 1976), Mike ASHLEY's Weird Legacies (anth 1977 UK) , Marvin KAYE's Weird Tales: The Magazine That Never Dies (anth 1988); and 4 anthologies ed Leo Margulies: The Unexpected (anth 1961), The Ghoul Keepers (anth 1961), Weird Tales (anth 1964) and Worlds of Weird (anth1965), the latter 2 being ghost-edited by Sam Moskowitz. Many other anthologies drew a large part of their content from WT, notably The Other Worlds (anth 1941) ed Phil STONG, 11 of its 25 stories being from WT.Majorindex sources are Index to the Weird Fiction Magazines: Index by Title (1962 NZ) and Index to the Weird Fiction Magazines: Index by Author (1964NZ) by T.G.L. Cockcroft, and Monthly Terrors: An Index to the Weird Fantasy Magazines Published in the United States and Great Britain (1985) by Frank H. Parnell with Mike ASHLEY.

   MJE/PN

   See also: GOTHIC SF; SF MAGAZINES.