Weird Tales is an American fantasy magazine and horror fiction magazine founded by JC Henneberger and JM Lansinger in March 1923. The first editor, Edwin Baird, printed an early work by HP Lovecraft, Seabury Quinn, and Clark Ashton Smith, will all become popular writers, but within a year the magazine was in financial trouble. Henneberger sold his interest to publishers, Rural Publishing Corporation, to Lansinger and refinanced Weird Tales, with Farnsworth Wright as the new editor. The first problem under Wright's control was dated November 1924. The magazine was more successful under Wright, and despite the financial downturn that sometimes prospered over the next fifteen years. Under Wright's control, the magazine filled its sub-titles, "The Unique Magazine", and published a variety of unusual fiction.
The mythical story of Cthulhu Lovecraft first appeared in Weird Tales, beginning with "The Call of Cthulhu" in 1928. It was well received, and a group of writers associated with Lovecraft wrote another story made in an environment that same.. Robert E. Howard is a regular contributor, and publishes several of his Conan the Barbarians in magazines, and the Seabury Quinn series of Jules de Grandin, a detective specializing in cases involving the supernatural, is popular among readers. Other well-known authors include Nictzin Dyalhis, E. Hoffman Price, Robert Bloch, and H. Warner Munn. Wright published some science fiction, along with fantasy and horror, in part because when Weird Tales was launched there were no magazines specializing in science fiction, but he continued this policy even after the launch of magazines such as Amazing Stories in 1926. Edmond Hamilton wrote many science fiction for Weird Tales, though after several years he used the magazine for his more fantastic stories, and gave up his space. opera elsewhere.
In 1938, the magazine was sold to William Delaney, publisher of the Short Story, and within two years, the ill-treated Wright was replaced by Dorothy McIlwraith as editor. Although several successful writers and new artists, such as Ray Bradbury and Hannes Bok, continue to appear, this magazine is considered by critics to have dropped below McIlwraith since its heyday in the 1930s. Weird Tales stopped publishing in 1954, but since then much effort has been made to relaunch the magazine, starting in 1973. The longest version started in 1988 and runs with occasional absences for over 20 years under a variety of publishers. In the mid-1990s, the title was changed to Worlds of Fantasy & amp; Horror due to licensing issues, with the original title back in 1998. In 2018, the latest issue is published Spring 2014 date.
The magazine is considered by fantasy historians and science fiction as a legend in the field, with Robert Weinberg, the magazine's history writer, taking it as "the most important and influential of all the fantasy magazines". The Weinberg fellow historian Mike Ashley, more cautious, described it as "second only to Unknown in meaning and influence", adding that "somewhere in the imaginary reservoir of all US (and many non- US) genre-fantasy and horror writers are part of the spirit of Weird Tales.
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At the end of the 19th century, popular magazines usually did not print fiction by overriding other content; they will include non-fiction articles and poetry as well. In October 1896, Frank A. Munsey magazine Argosy was the first to turn to fictional printing only, and in December of that year it changed to using cheap paper pulp. This is now considered by magazine historians as the beginning of the era of pulp magazines. Over the years the pulp magazine succeeded without restricting their fictional content to a particular genre, but in 1906 Munsey launched Railroad Man's Magazine, the first title focusing on a particular niche. Other titles specializing in certain fiction genres followed, beginning in 1915 with the following Detective Story Magazine with Western Story Magazine following 1919. Strange fiction, science fiction, and fantasy all appearing frequently in the pulp days, but by the early 1920s there was still no single magazine focusing on any of these genres, even though The Thrill Book , launched in 1919 by Street & amp; Smith with the intention of printing "different", or unusual, stories is almost.
In 1922, J. C. Henneberger, a journalist and magazine editor who has published College Humor and Magazine of Fun, formed the Rural Publishing Corporation of Chicago, in partnership with J. M. Lansinger. Their first attempt was Detective Tales, a pulp magazine that appeared twice a month, beginning with the October 1, 1922 edition. Initially unsuccessful, and as part of a refinancing plan, Henneberger decided to publish another magazine that enabled it dividing some of the cost between two titles. Henneberger has long been an admirer of Edgar Allan Poe, so he created a fiction magazine that will focus on horror, and titled Weird Tales.
Maps Weird Tales
Publishing history
Rural Publishing Corporation
Henneberger chose Edwin Baird, editor of Detective Tales for editing Weird Tales; Farnsworth Wright was the first reader, and Otis Adelbert Kline also worked on magazines, helping Baird. The payment rate is low, usually between a quarter to a half cents per word; the budget rises to one cent per word for the most popular authors. Sales were initially poor, and Henneberger soon decided to change the format from a standard pulp size to a large porridge, to make magazines more visible. It has little long-term effect on sales, although the first issue on the new measure, dated May 1923, is the only one that sold out the first year - probably because it contains the first installment of the popular series, The Moon Terror , by AG Birch.
The magazine lost a huge amount of money under editor Baird: after thirteen problems, the total debt was over $ 40,000. In the meantime, Detective Tales have been titled Real Detective Stories and make a profit, as well as University Humor . Henneberger decided to sell both magazines to Lansinger and invest his money in Weird Tales. It does not handle the $ 40,000 debt, which is mostly owned by the magazine's printers. The printing company was owned by B. Cornelius, who approved Henneberger's suggestion that debt should be converted into a majority interest in a new company, Popular Fiction Publishing. This does not eliminate all magazine debt, but that means that Weird Tales can continue to be published, and may return to profitability. Cornelius agrees that if the magazine becomes profitable enough to pay him the $ 40,000 he has owed, he will surrender his stake in the company. Cornelius became corporate treasurer; Business manager is William (Bill) Sprenger, who has worked for Rural Publishing. Henneberger had hopes to finally refinance his debt with the help of another printer, Hall Printing Company, owned by Robert Eastman.
Baird lives with Lansinger, so Henneberger writes to H. P. Lovecraft, who has sold several stories to Weird Tales, to see if he is interested in taking the job. Henneberger offered ten-week advances, but made it a condition that Lovecraft moved to Chicago, where the magazine had its headquarters. Lovecraft describes Henneberger's plan in a letter to Frank Belknap Long as "a new magazine to cover the destruction of Poe-Machen". Lovecraft did not want to leave New York, where he had just moved in with his new bride; his dislike of cold weather is another deterrent. He spent several months considering his bid in mid-1924 without making a final decision, with Henneberger visiting him in Brooklyn more than once, but eventually he refused or Henneberger simply gave up. By the end of the year, Wright had been hired as the new editor of Weird Tales. The last issue under the name Baird is the combined May/June/July edition, with 192 pages - a magazine much thicker than the previous edition. It's assembled by Wright and Kline, rather than Baird.
Popular Fiction Publishing
Henneberger gave Wright full control of Weird Tales , and was not involved with story selection. In about 1921, Wright began to develop Parkinson's disease, and during his edition, his symptoms worsened. By the end of 1920 he could not sign his name, and in the late 1930s Bill Sprenger helped him to work and return home. The first problem with Wright as an editor dated November 1924, and the magazine immediately resumed a regular monthly schedule, with the format changing back to a pulp again. The initial payment rate was low, with a limit of half a cent per word until 1926, when the top rate was raised to one cent per word. Some of the debt of Popular Fiction Publishing pays off over time, and the highest payment rate eventually rises to one and a half cents per word. High magazine cover price for the time. Robert Bloch recalled that "in the late 20th and 30th centuries of this century... at a time when most pulp magazines sold for one cent, it cost a quarter." Although the Popular Fiction Publishers remained based in Chicago, the editorial office was in Indianapolis for a while, on two separate addresses, but moved to Chicago in late 1926. After a brief period on North Broadway, the office moved to 840 North Michigan Avenue, remained until 1938.
In 1927, the Popular Fiction Publishers issued Birch The Moon Terror , one of the more popular 'Weird Tales' ' series, as hardcover books, including the other three stories from the first year of the magazine. One of the stories, "Adventure in the Fourth Dimension", is by Wright himself. The book was sold badly, and it was still offered on Weird Tales pages, at a lower price, for twenty years. That at one point is given as a bonus to the subscribed reader. In 1930 Cornelius launched a companion magazine, Oriental Stories, but the magazine did not work, although it survived for more than three years before Cornelius surrendered. Another financial blow occurred in the late 1930s when bank failures froze most of the magazine's cash. Henneberger changed the schedule to two months, beginning with February/March 1931; six months later, with the August issue of 1931, the monthly schedule back. Two years later the Weird Tales bank is still in financial trouble, and payments to the authors are being delayed substantially.
Depression also hit the Hall Printing Company, which Henneberger hopes will take over debt from Cornelius; Robert Eastman, the owner of Hall, at one point can not meet the salary. Eastman died in 1934, and with him went to Henneberger's plan to restore control of Weird Tales. Magazines advertised in early science fiction pulp, usually highlight one of the science-fiction stories. Often the advertised story is by Edmond Hamilton, which is popular in sf magazines. Wright also sells book hardcovers by some of his more popular authors, such as Kline, on the Weird Tales page. Although the magazine was never very profitable, Wright paid well. Robert Weinberg, author of Weird Tales, notes rumors that Wright is not paid for most of his work in magazines, but according to E. Hoffman Price, Wright's close friend who occasionally reads a manuscript for him, Weird Tales paid Wright about $ 600 a month in 1927.
Delaney
Cornelius retired in 1938, and the Popular Fiction Publication was sold to William J. Delaney, who is a publisher of Short Story , a popular New York-based public fiction pulp magazine. Sprenger and Wright both received a share of Cornelius; Sprenger did not live in the company but Wright moved to New York and stayed as an editor. The Henneberger section of Popular Fiction Publishing was transformed into a small interest in the new company, Weird Tales, Inc., a subsidiary of Short Stories Delaney, Inc. Dorothy McIlwraith, editor of Short Stories, became Wright's assistant, and over the next two years Delaney tried to increase earnings by adjusting the number and price of the page. The increase from 144 pages to 160 pages began with the February 1939 edition, along with cheaper (and therefore thicker) paper usage, made the magazine thicker, but this failed to increase sales. In September 1939, the number of pages fell to 128, and the price was cut from 25 cents to 15 cents. From January 1940 the frequency was reduced to two months, a change that remained in effect until the end of the magazine went fourteen years later. None of these changes have the desired effect, and sales continue to languish. In March 1940, Wright left and was replaced by McIlwraith as editor; the history of different magazines whether he was fired for bad sales, or quit because of his health - he is now suffering from Parkinson's so badly that he has trouble walking unaided. Wright then underwent surgery to reduce the pain he suffered, but never fully recovered. He died in June of that year.
The first edition of McIlwraith was dated April 1940. He was assisted by Lamont Buchanan, who worked for him as associate editor and art editor for both Weird Tales and Short Stories. August Derleth also provided help and advice, although he did not have a formal relationship with the magazine. Most of McIlwraith's budget goes to Short Story , because it is a more successful magazine; the rate of payment for fiction in Weird Tales in 1953 was one cent per word, well below the highest level of science fiction and other fantasy magazines of the day. The lack of war also caused problems, and the number of pages was reduced, first to 112 pages in 1943, and then to 96 pages the following year.
The price was increased to 20 cents in 1947, and again to 25 cents in 1949, but not just the Weird Tales suffering - the whole pulp industry was declining. Delaney replaced the format for digestion with the September 1953 edition, but there was no penalties. In 1954, Weird Tales and Short Stories stopped publishing; in both cases the last problem was September 1954.
1970s and early 1980s
In the mid-1950s, Leo Margulies, a world-renowned publishing magazine, launched a new company, Renown Publications, with plans to publish several titles. He earned the rights to both Weird Tales and Short Stories, and hopes to bring both magazines back. He abandoned the plan to restart Weird Tales in 1962, using reprints from his original magazine, after being advised by Sam Moskowitz that there was little market for freak and horror fiction at the time. Instead, Margulies mine the Weird Tales backfile for four anthologies that emerged in the early 1960s: The Unexpected , The Ghoul-Keepers , > Weird Tales , and Worlds of Weird . The last two are ghost-edited by Moskowitz, who proposes to Margulies that when it is appropriate to start a magazine again, it must include reprints of the obscure source that Moscowitz has invented, not just stories reprinted from the first incarnation of Weird Tales . These stories will be as good as most readers, and saved money can be used for occasional new stories.
The new version of Weird Tales finally emerged from Renown Publications, in April 1973, edited by Moskowitz. That distribution is weak and sales are too low for sustainability; According to Moskowitz, the average sale is 18,000 copies per issue, well below the 23,000 that will be required for the magazine to survive. The fourth issue, dated Summer 1974, was the last, because Margulies shut down all his magazines except for Mike Myerson's Mysterious Magazine, which was the only one that made a profit. Mike Ashley, a historian of science fiction magazines, noted that Moskowitz did not want to continue in any case, because he was troubled by Margulies's detailed involvement in everyday editorial tasks such as editing scripts and writing introductions.
Margulies died the following year, and his widow, Cylvia Margulies, decided to sell the title right. Forrest Ackerman, a science fiction fan and editor, was one of the interested parties, but he chose to sell it to Victor Dricks and Robert Weinberg. Weinberg in turn granted title licenses to Lin Carter, who was interested in the publisher, Zebra Books, on the project. The result was a series of four paper antologies, edited by Lin Carter, appearing between 1981 and 1983; this was originally planned for quarterly, but in reality the first two appeared in December 1980 and both were dated to the Spring of 1981. The next date was Autumn 1981; Carter's title in the title was terminated by Weinberg in 1982 for not paying, but the fourth issue was in progress and finally came with the 1983 Summer date.
In 1982, Sheldon Jaffery and Roy Torgeson met with Weinberg to propose taking over as licensees, but Weinberg decided not to pursue the offer. The following year, Brian Forbes approached Weinberg with another offer. The Forbes, Bellerophon Network, is a Los Angeles company brand called The Wizard. Ashley reports that Weinberg can only contact Forbes by phone, and even that is not always reliable, so negotiations are slow. The editor director of Forbes is Gordon Garb and his fictional editor is Gil Lamont; Forrest Ackerman also helps, especially with getting material to include. There's a lot of confusion between the various participants in the project: according to Locus , the science fiction trade journal, "Ackerman says he has no contact with Forbes publishers, does not know what will happen to the material he collects, in the dark like everyone else, Lamont said that he is still renegotiating his contract and not sure where he stands. " The original plan was for the first issue to appear in August 1984, dated July/August, but before that came a decision was made to change its contents, and the new problem, which was completely reset finally appeared at the end of the year, the date of Autumn 1984. Even with this delay, the final agreement has not been reached with Weinberg regarding licensing. Only 12,500 copies are printed; this was sent to two distributors who both went bankrupt. As a result, several copies were sold, and Forbes was not paid by the distributors. Despite the financial decline, Forbes strives to continue, and a second problem finally emerges. The coverage is Winter 1985 but not published until June 1986. Several copies are printed; reports vary between 1,500 and 2,300 total. Mark Monsolo is a fictional editor, but Garb continues as an editorial director; Lamont is no longer involved with the magazine.
Terminus and router
Weird Tales was finally revived in the late 1980s by George H. Scithers, John Gregory Betancourt and Darrell Schweitzer, who formed Terminus Publishing, based in Philadelphia, and licensed the rights of Weinberg. Rather than focus on the distribution of newspaper kiosks, which were expensive and less effective in the 1980s, they plan to build a direct customer base and distribute magazines for sale through specialty stores. The first problem had a spring cover date of 1988, but was produced early enough to be available at the 1987 Fantasy World Convention in Nashville, Tennessee. The size is the same as the original pulp version, although it is printed on better paper. There is also a limited edition hardcover edition for each issue, signed by the contributors. The Special Fantasy World Award Weird Tales received in 1992 made it clear that the magazine was successful in quality, but sales were not enough to cover costs. To save money, the format changed to a larger flat size, starting with the 1992/1993 Winter problem, but the magazine remained in financial trouble, with problems becoming disorganized over the next few years. The 1993 Summer Edition is the latest edition for the hardcover edition; it was also the last, for a while, to bear the name of Weird Tales, as Weinberg did not renew the license. The magazine was titled Worlds of Fantasy & amp; Horror , and volume numbering resumes in volume 1 of number 1, but in every other way the magazine does not change, and four issues under this title, issued between 1994 and 1996, are considered by the bibliographers as part of the whole < i> Weird Tales is executed.
In April 1995, HBO announced that it had plans to turn Weird Tales into a three-episode anthology similar to the Tales from the Crypt series. The deal for rights was facilitated by screenwriters Mark Patrick Carducci and Peter Atkins. The Directors of Tim Burton, Francis Ford Coppola, and Oliver Stone are executive producers, with each expected to direct an episode. Stone will become the director of the pilot, but the series never works.
No problems arose in 1997, but in 1998 Scithers and Schweitzer negotiated an agreement with Warren Lupine of the DNA Publication that enabled them to start publishing Weird Tales under license once again. The first problem is the date of Summer 1998, and, in addition to the removal of the Winter 1998 issue, the quarterly schedules are maintained for the next four and a half years. Sales were weak, never rose above 6,000 copies, and DNA began to experience financial difficulties. The Wildside Press, owned by John Betancourt, joined DNA and Terminus Publishing as co-publisher, starting with July/August 2003 edition, and Weird Tales returned to the most regular schedule for several months. Long hiatus ends with a December 2004 issue, which appeared in early 2005; this is the last problem under the arrangement with DNA. Wildside Press later bought Weird Tales, and Betancourt rejoined Scithers and Schweitzer as co-editors.
Wildside Edition The first press appeared in September 2005, and beginning with the next edition, dated February 2006, the magazine can remain on schedule a little or more every two months for some time. In early 2007, Wildside announced the Weird Tales reshuffle, naming Stephen H. Segal as editorial and creative director and then recruiting Ann VanderMeer as the new fiction editor. In January 2010, the magazine announced Segal left the top editorial post to become editor at Quirk Books. VanderMeer was appointed editor-in-chief, Mary Robinette Kowal joined staff as art director and Segal became a contributing senior editor.
On August 23, 2011, John Betancourt announced that Wildside Press will sell Weird Tales to Marvin Kaye and John Harlacher from Nth Dimension Media. Marvin Kaye took over the job of the editorial chief. The first edition of 359, under a new publisher, was published in late February 2012. A few months prior to the publication of the 359th edition, a special preview issue of the World Fantasy Convention was provided free of charge to interested participants. Starting April 2018, the latest issue that arises is Spring 2014. Nevertheless, Harlacher continues to sell 4 subscription editions to Weird Tales without any updates provided on the magazine's website about future developments. magazine issues.
Content and acceptance
Henneberger gave Weird Tales subtitles "The Unique Magazine" from the first edition. Henneberger had hoped for an "off-trail" delivery, or unusual material. He later recalled speaking with three famous Chicago authors Hamlin Garland, Emerson Hough and Ben Hecht, who each said they avoided writing stories about "fantasy, freaks, and blur" because of possible rejection by the existing market. He added, "I have to admit that the primary motive for building Weird Tales is to give authors the freedom of restraint to express their deepest feelings in a manner consistent with the great literature."
Edwin Baird
Edwin Baird, the first editor of Weird Tales, is not an ideal choice for the job because he does not like horror stories; his expertise in criminal fiction, and most of the material he obtained was bland and unoriginal. The authors Henneberger had hoped to publish, such as Garland and Hough, failed to send anything to Baird, and magazines published mostly traditional ghost fiction, with many stories told by characters in mental hospitals, or told in diary formats. The cover story for the first edition is "Ooze", by Anthony M. Rud; there is also the first installment of the series, "The Thing of A Thousand Shapes", by Otis Adelbert Kline, and 22 other stories. Ashley suggests that better pulp writers than whom Baird managed to acquire material, such as Francis Stevens and Austin Hall, sent the story of Baird who had been rejected elsewhere.
In the middle of the year Baird received five stories delivered by H. P. Lovecraft; Baird bought the five of them. Lovecraft, who had been persuaded by friends to send stories, included a very negative letter about the quality of manuscripts published by Baird in the September 1923 edition, with the added note saying that he had bought the stories "even though they were mentioned earlier, or because that ". However, Baird insisted that his stories were resubmitted as double-marked manuscripts; Lovecraft did not like typing, and initially decided to resend only one story, "Dagon". It appeared in the October 1923 issue, which is the most important of Baird's positions, as it includes stories by three authors who will be frequent contributors to Weird Tales: as well as Lovecraft, it marks the first appearance in Frank Owen magazine and Seabury Quinn.
Robert Weinberg, in his Wey Tales history, agrees with Ashley that the quality of the Baird problem is bad, but comments that some good stories are published: "it's just that the percentage of such stories is a little disappointing." Weinberg single out "A Square of Canvas" by Rud, and "Beyond the Door" by Paul Suter as "extraordinary"; both appearing in the April 1923 issue. Weinberg also considers "The Floor Above" by ML Humphries and "Penelope" by Vincent Starrett, both from the May 1923 edition, and "Lucifer" by John Swain, from the November 1923 edition, as memories, and commented that "The Rats in The Walls", in the March 1924 edition, is one of Lovecraft's best stories. It is unclear whether Baird or Henneberger was responsible for buying Lovecraft's story; in one of Lovecraft's letters he explained that Baird wanted to get his story, but Henneberger said that he ruled out Baird and that Baird did not like Lovecraft's writing. It was Henneberger who came up with another idea involving Lovecraft: Henneberger contacted Harry Houdini and made arrangements for Lovecraft to be a ghost-writing stories for him using a plot provided by Houdini. The story, "Jailed with Pharaoh", appears under the name Houdini in the May/June/July 1924 edition, though almost disappeared - Lovecraft left a typed script on the train he brought to New York to marry, and as a result spent most of his wedding day by retyping the manuscript from a handwritten copy he still has.
The May/June/July 1924 issue includes another story by Lovecraft under another name: "The Loved Dead", a story by C. M. Eddy Jr. which includes the mention of necrophilia. According to Eddy, this caused magazines to be ejected from newsstands in several cities, and publicity was profitable for magazines, aiding sales, but in its history Weird Tales Robert Weinberg reported that he found no evidence. of magazines are prohibited, and the financial circumstances of the magazine imply no benefit to the sale. However, S. T. Joshi said that the magazine was indeed removed from newsstands in Indiana.
The art of cover during Baird's time is boring; Ashley called it "unattractive," and Weinberg described the first edition cover scheme as "less inspired," although he considered the cover of the next month to be an improvement. He added that from the May issue of 1923 "the blanket fell into a mediocre hole". In Weinberg's opinion, a poor cover cover, often by R. M. Mally, may be partly to blame for the lack of magazine success under Baird. Weinberg also considered interior art during the first year of the magazine to be very weak; most of the interior pictures are small, and with a bit of atmosphere expected from a horror magazine. All his illustrations are written by Heitman, which Weinberg describes as "... notorious for lack of imagination." Heitman's skill is to take a scene in a scary story that does not display anything frightening or weird and illustrates it.
Farnsworth Wright
The new editor, Farnsworth Wright, is much more willing than Baird to publish stories that are inconsistent with the existing pulp category. Ashley describes Wright as "erratic" in his choice, but under his guidance the magazine continues to increase in quality. His first problem, November 1924, was slightly better than that edited by Baird, although it included two stories by the new author Frank Belknap Long and Greye La Spina, who became a popular contributor. Over the next year, Wright formed a group of writers as a regular, including Long and La Spina, and published many stories by writers who will be closely tied to the magazine for the next decade and more. In April 1925, the first story of Nictzin Dyalhis, "When the Green Star Died", appeared; Although Weinberg regarded it as very dated, it was highly regarded at the time, with Wright putting it in 1933 as the most popular story to appear in Weird Tales. The issue also contained the first installment of La Spina novel Invaders from the Dark, which Baird rejected as "too ordinary". It proved very popular among readers, and Weinberg commented that Baird's rejection was "just one of the many mistakes made by previous editors".
Arthur J. Burks, who will become a highly successful pulp writer, appears under his real name and under a pseudonym, used for his first sale, in January 1925. The first story of Robert Spencer Carr appeared in March 1925; H. Warner Munn "The Werewolf of Ponkert" appeared in July 1925, and in the same edition Wright scored "Spear and Fang", the first professional sale of Robert E. Howard, who would become famous as the creator of Conan the Barbarian. At the end of 1925, Wright added the department " Weird Tales reprint", which showcased old bizarre stories, usually a classic horror. Often this is a translation, and in some cases the appearance in Weird Tales is the first appearance of a story in English.
Wright originally rejected Lovecraft's "Call Cthulhu" but eventually bought it, and printed it in the February 1928 issue. This is the first story of Cthulhu Mythos, a fictional world where Lovecraft made several stories. Over time other authors began contributing their own stories to the same shared background, including Frank Belknap Long, Derleth August, E. Hoffman Price, and Donald Wandrei. Robert E. Howard and Clark Ashton Smith were friends of Lovecraft, but did not contribute the story of Cthulhu; Howard instead writes fictional swords and magic, and Smith produces a series of high fantasy stories, many of which are part of his Hyperborean cycle. Robert Bloch, later to become a film writer of Psycho, began publishing stories at Weird Tales in 1935; he is a fan of Lovecraft's work, and asks Lovecraft's permission to include Lovecraft as a character in one of his stories, and to kill his character. Lovecraft gave him permission, and retaliated by killing Bloch's version disguised in one of his own stories shortly thereafter. Edmond Hamilton, the early writer of leading opera space, became a commoner, and Wright also published science fiction stories by J. Schlossel and Otis Adelbert Kline. Tennessee Williams's first sale is Weird Tales , with a short story titled "The Vengeance of Nitocris". It was published in the August 1928 issue under the original name of the author, Thomas Lanier Williams.
Weird Tales 'subtitle is "The Unique Magazine", and the choice of Wright's story is as varied as the promised subtitle; he is willing to print strange or weird stories with no fantastic signs if they are amazing enough to fit in a magazine. Although Wright's editorial standards are broad, and although he personally dislikes the constraints set by the convention on what he can publish, he is cautious when presented with material that might offend readers. E. Hoffman Price notes that his story "Stranger from Kurdistan" was held after a purchase for six months before Wright printed it in the July 1925 edition; his story includes a scene in which Christ and Satan met, and Wright worried about the possible reaction of the reader. The story continues to prove very popular, and Wright publishes it in the December 1929 edition. He also publishes "The Infidel's Daughter" by Price, a satyr of the Ku Klux Klan, which draws irritated letters and subscriptions from a Klansman. Price then remembers Wright's response: "a story that evokes controversy both for circulation... and anyway it would be worth a reasonable loss for the bigots rap of that caliber". Wright also scored George Fielding Eliot's "The Copper Bowl", a story about a young woman being tortured; he died when his tormentor forced a mouse to eat through his body. Weinberg points out that his story was so horrible that it was difficult to be placed in a magazine even fifty years later.
On several occasions, Wright rejects the story of Lovecraft just to reconsider it later; de Camp indicates that Wright's refusal at the end of 1925 Lovecraft's "In the Vault", a tale of mutilated corpses that took revenge on the responsible party, was "too terrible," but Wright changed his mind a few years later. , and the story finally surfaced in April 1932. Wright also rejected Lovecraft's work "Through the Gate of the Silver Key" in mid-1933. Price had revised the story before handing it to Wright, and after Wright and Price discussed his story, Wright bought it in November that. Wright rejected the Lovecraft novel In the Mountains of Madness in 1935, although in this case it may be because of the length of the story - running the series needed to pay a writer for material that would not appear until two or more three issues later, and Weird Tales often have less money. In this case he did not change his mind.
Quinn is the most prolific author of the author Weird Tales, in the sequence of the story of a detective, Jules de Grandin, who investigates supernatural events, and for the time being he is the most popular writer in magazines.. Other regular contributors include Paul Ernst, David H. Keller, Greye La Spina, Hugh B. Cave, and Frank Owen, who wrote fantasies made in an imaginary version of the Far East. C.L. The story of Moore "Shambleau", his first sale, appeared in Weird Tales in November 1933; Price visited the Weird Tales office shortly after Wright read the script for it, and recalled that Wright was very enthusiastic about the story that he closed the office, stating it "C.L. Moore day". The story is well received by readers, and Moore's work, including his story of Jirel from Joiry and Northwest Smith, appears almost exclusively in Weird Tales over the next three years.
As well as fiction, Wright scored a large number of poems, with at least one poem included in most of the problems. Initially this often includes reprints of poems such as Edgar Allan Poe's "El Dorado", but soon most of the poems were original, with contributions derived from Lovecraft, Howard, and Clark Ashton Smith, among many others. Lovecraft's contribution includes ten poems "Fungi from Yuggoth", a series of sonnets on the strange theme he wrote in 1930.
Artwork is an essential element of the magazine's personality, with Margaret Brundage, who paints many covers featuring nudity for Weird Tales, perhaps the most famous artist. Many of the Brundage's covers were for the story by Seabury Quinn, and Brundage later commented that once Quinn realizes that Wright always commissioned blankets from the naked Brundage, "he ensures that each de Grandin story has at least one sequence in which the hero spills all his clothes". For more than three years in the early 1930s, from June 1933 to August/September 1936, Brundage was the only cover artist of Weird Tales used. Another famous cover artist is J. Allen St. John, whose cover is more action-oriented, and who designed the title tags used from 1933 to 2007. Hannes Bok's first professional sale was Weird Tales for the cover of December 1939; he became a frequent contributor over the next few years.
Virgil Finlay, one of the most important figures in the history of science fiction and fantasy art, made his first sale to Wright in 1935; Wright bought only one interior illustration from Finlay at the time because he worried Finlay's fine technique would not breed well on paper paper. After the print test on the slurry supply showed that reproduction was more than enough, Wright began buying regularly from Finlay, which became the usual cover artist for Weird Tales beginning with the December 1935 edition. Request from readers for Finlay's artwork so high that in 1938, Wright commissioned a series of illustrations from Finlay for sentences drawn from famous poems, such as "sweet and distant O, of the cliffs and scars/Elfland Horns vaguely blowing", from Tennyson "The Princess". Not all artists are as successful as Brundage and Finlay: Price suggests that Curtis Senf, who painted 45 times earlier in Wright's term, "is one of Sprenger's offers," which means that he produces bad artwork, but works fast for pricing low.
During the 1930s, Brundage's level for cover painting was $ 90. Finlay received $ 100 for his first cover, which appeared in 1937, more than a year after his first interior illustration was used; Weinberg points out that the higher cost is partly to cover postage, since Brundage lives in Chicago and sends his artwork personally, but that is also because Brundage's popularity is beginning to decline. When Delaney acquired the magazine at the end of 1938, the cost for painting the cover was cut to $ 50, and according to Weinberg, the quality of the artwork declined immediately. Nudes no longer appears, although it is not known whether this is a deliberate policy in the Delaney section. In 1939 the campaign by Fiorello LaGuardia, the mayor of New York, to remove sex from the pulp led to a lighter cover, and this may also have an effect.
In 1936, Howard committed suicide, and the following year Lovecraft died. There are so many unpublished works by Lovecraft that Wright can use that he scored more material under Lovecraft's lifeline after his death than ever before. In Howard's case, no such stories are available, but other authors such as Henry Kuttner provide the same material. At the end of Wright's term as editor, many writers who became closely associated with the magazine had left; Kuttner, and others like Price and Moore, are still writing, but Weird Tales is too low to pull their shipment. Clark Ashton Smith has stopped writing, and two other highly favored authors, G.G. Pendarves and Henry Whitehead, have died.
Except for some short magazines like Strings Tales and Tales of Magic and Mystery, and the weak challenge of Ghost Stories, all between the late 1920s and the early 1930s, Weird Tales had little competition for most of Wright's sixteen years as an editor. In the early 1930s, a series of pulp magazines began to emerge which became known as "weird threat" magazines. This lasts until the end of the decade, but despite the name there is little overlap in the material between them and Weird Tales: the stories in the magazine the weird threat seem to be based on occult or supernatural occasions, but at the end of the story, the mystery is always expressed to have a logical explanation. In 1935 Wright began running a strange detective story to try to draw some readers of this magazine to Weird Tales, and asked readers to write with comments. The reaction of the reader was uniformly negative, and after a year he announced that there would be no more of them.
In 1939, two more serious threats appeared, both launched to compete directly with readers of Weird Tales. The strange story came in February 1939 and lasted for more than two years; Weinberg describes it as "high quality", though Ashley lacks independence, describing it as largely unoriginal and imitating. Next month the first issue Unknown appears from Street & amp; Smith. Fritz Leiber submitted some of his "Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser" stories to Wright, but Wright rejected them all (as McIlwraith did when he took over the editor). Leiber then sells everything to John W. Campbell for Unknown; Campbell commented each time to Leiber that "it will get better at Weird Tales." The stories grew into a series of highly popular swords and magic, but none of them has ever appeared in Weird Tales. Leiber eventually sold some of the stories to Weird Tales, beginning with "The Automatic Pistol", which appeared in May 1940.
Weird Tales includes a column of letters, titled "The Eyrie", for most of its existence, and during Wright's time as an editor is usually filled with long, detailed letters. When the bare cover of the Brundage emerges, a long debate about whether they fit for the magazine was championed on Eyrie, with the two sides being divided about the same. Over the years it is the most talked about topic in the magazine letter column. Many authors published by Wright also wrote letters, including Lovecraft, Howard, Kuttner, Bloch, Smith, Quinn, Wellman, Price, and Wandrei. In many cases these letters praise magazines, but occasionally critical comments are raised, as when Bloch repeatedly expressed his dislike for Howard's story of Conan the Barbarian, referring to him as "Conan the Cimmerian Chipmunk". Another debate broadcast in the letter column is the question of how much science fiction the magazine should include. Until Amazing Stories was launched in April 1926, science fiction was popular with Weird Tales readers, but subsequently letters began to appear asking Wright to exclude science fiction, and only publish strange fantasies and horror. Readers of pro-scientific fiction are in the majority, and when Wright agrees with them, he continues to include science fiction within Weird Tales. Hugh B. Cave, who sold half a dozen stories to Wright in the early 1930s, commented on "The Eyrie" in a letter to a co-author: "No other magazine made the point of discussing the story of the past, and letting the writer know how stuff - they are accepted ".
Dorothy McIlwraith
McIlwraith is an experienced magazine editor, but he knows little about strange fiction, and unlike Wright, he also has to face real competition from other magazines for Weird Tales core readers. Although Unknown folded in 1943, within four years of its existence changed the field of fantasy and horror, and Weird Tales is no longer considered a leader in its field. Unknown publishes many successful funny fantasy stories, and McIlwraith responds by including some funny material, but Weird Tales ' is less than Unknown 's , with predictable effects on quality. In 1940 the strange horror and classic reprinting policy stopped, and Weird Tales began using the slogan "All Stories New - No Reprints". Weinberg points out that this is a mistake, because the Weird Tales Readers ' appreciate gaining access to the "often mentioned but rare" classic story. Without reprint, Weird Tales is allowed to survive from being rejected from Unknown , with the same author selling to both markets. In Weinberg's words, "only the quality of stories [separated] their work between two pulps".
Delaney's personal taste also reduced McIlwraith's latitude. In an interview with Robert A. Lowndes in early 1940, Delaney spoke of his plans for Weird Tales. Having said that the magazine would still publish "all kinds of weird fiction and fantasy", Lowndes reported that Delaney did not want "stories centered on mere pretensions, stories that leave the impression not to be described by any other word than" evil "span> '". Lowndes later added that Delaney had told him that he found some Clark Ashton Smith stories on "the disgusting side".
McIlwraith continues to publish many of the most popular authors of Weird Tales, including Quinn, Derleth, Hamilton, Bloch, and Manly Wade Wellman. He also added new contributors; and publishes many of Ray Bradbury's early stories, Weird Tales regularly featuring Frederick Brown, Mary Elizabeth Counselman, Fritz Leiber and Theodore Sturgeon. As Wright had done, McIlwraith continued to buy Lovecraft stories sent by August Derleth, although he summed up some longer pieces, such as "The shadow over Innsmouth." The story of the sword and the magic, the genre that Howard made much more popular with his story of Conan, Solomon Kane, and Bran Mak Morn in Weird Tales in the early 1930s, continues to appear under Farnsworth Wright; they all but disappeared during McIlwraith's term. McIlwraith is also more focused on short fiction, and serials and long stories are rare.
In May 1951 Weird Tales once again began to include reprints, in an effort to reduce costs, but at that time the previous issues of Weird Tales had been mined for reprint by the publishing company August Derleth, Arkham House, and as a result McIlwraith often reprinted less well-known stories. They are not advertised as reprints, which causes some cases to be letters from readers asking more stories from H. P. Lovecraft, whom they believe to be new writers.
In Weinberg's opinion, the magazine loses variety under the editor of McIlwraith, and "much of the magazine's uniqueness is gone". In Ashley's view, magazines become more consistent in quality, not worse; Ashley commented that although the issues edited by McIlwraith "rarely reach [ed] Wright's peak points, they also eliminate the lowest position". L. Sprague de Camp, nearing the end of Mcllwraith's term as editor, agreed that the 1930s was the magazine's heyday, citing Wright's death and departure for other markets that paid better than some of his contributors as a factor in the magazine's decline.
The quality of the Weird Tales ' artwork suffered while Delaney cut the tariff. Bok, whose first cover had appeared in December 1939, moved to New York and joined the arts office staff for a while; he finally left because his pay was low. Boris Dolgov began to contribute in the 1940s; he is a friend of Bok and both occasionally collaborate, signed the results of "Dolbokgov". Weinberg considers Dolgov's illustration for Robert Bloch's "Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper" as one of his best works. Weird Tales ' The paper is of very poor quality, which means that its reproduction is poor, and along with the low level of payment for art, this means many artists treating Weird Tales as a last resort for their work. Damon Knight, who sold some interior artwork to Weird Tales in the early 1940s, recalls later that he was paid $ 5 for a one-page picture, and $ 10 for a two-page spread; he works slowly and low pay means that Weird Tales is not a market worthy of him.
The art editor, Lamont Buchanan, was able to establish five artists as fixed in the mid-1940s; they remained regular contributors until 1954, when the magazine's first incarnation ceased publication. The five are Dolgov, John Giunta, Fred Humiston, Vincent Napoli, and Lee Brown Coye. In Weinberg's review of Interior Weird Tales , he describes Humiston's work as "from bad to horrible", but he is more positive about the others. Napoli had worked for Weird Tales from 1932 until the mid-1930s, when he began selling to science fiction pulp, but his work for Short Story brought it back to Weird Tales in the 1940s. Weinberg highly praised Napoli and Coye, who Weinberg described as "the master of strange and weird illustrations". Coye undertook a series of full-page illustrations for Weird Tales called Weirdisms, which ran intermittently from November 1948 to July 1951.
The letter column, "The Eyrie", is considerably reduced in size during McIlwraith's term, but as a gesture for readers, the Weird Tales Club begins. Joining the Club means writing to receive a free membership card; the only other benefit is that the magazine lists all the names and addresses of members, so members can contact each other. Among the names listed in the January 1943 issue is the name Hugh Hefner, who later became famous as the founder of Playboy.
Toward the end of McIlwraith's time as an editor, several new writers appeared, including Richard Matheson and Joseph Payne Brennan. Brennan had sold more than a dozen stories to another pulp when he eventually made sales to McIlwraith, but he always wanted to sell to Weird Tales, and three years after the magazine folded he launched a horror magazine press called Macabre , which he published for several years, in imitation of Weird Tales.
Moskowitz, Carter, and Bellerophon
Four issues edited by Sam Moskowitz in the early 1970s are largely renowned for William William Hodgson's detailed biography, serialized on three issues, along with some of the rare stories of Hodgson that Moscowitz has unveiled. Many other stories are reprinted, either from Weird Tales or from other early pulp such as The Black Cat or Blue Book . According to Ashley's opinion, the magazine "has the feel of a piece of museum without something new or progressive", though Weinberg describes the magazine as having "a heap of interesting content". The next paperback series edited by Lin Carter is criticized in the same terms: Weinberg thinks of it as having "too much dependence... on old names like Lovecraft, Howard and Smith by reprinting mediocre material... The new author does not quite encouraged, "although Weinberg added that Ramsey Campbell, Tanith Lee and Steve Rasnic Tem were among the new authors who contributed great material. Ashley's opinion about two Bellerophon problems is low: he describes them as lacking "clear editorial or sharp direction".
Wildside Press and after
The April/May 2007 edition features the all-new magazine design in nearly seventy-five years. Over the next few years, Weird Tales was published by fictional-fiction writers including Michael Moorcock and Tanith Lee, as well as new writers like Jay Lake, Cat Rambo, and Rachel Swirsky. This period also saw the addition of wider content, from narrative essays to comics to features about strange cultures. The magazine won its first Hugo Award in August 2009, in the semiprozine category, two Hugo Award nominations in subsequent years, and the first World Fantasy Award nomination, for Segal and Vandermeer editors, in over seventeen years.
In August 2012, Weird Tales became involved in media squabbling after the editor announced the magazine would publish excerpts from the controversial novel Victoria Foyt Save the Pearls , which many critics have accused of featuring racist stereotypes. The decision was made despite protests from VanderMeer, and prompted him to end his relationship with the magazine. The publisher then dismisses the editor, and announces that Weird Tales no longer has a plan to run a quote.
Legacy
Weird Tales is one of the most important magazines in the field of fantasy; in Ashley's view, it is "second only to unknown in meaning and influence". Weinberg goes further, calling it "the most important and influential of all the fantasy magazines". Weinberg argues that much of the published Weird Tales material will never appear if the magazine does not exist. Through Weird Tales that Lovecraft, Howard, and Clark Ashton Smith became widely known, and it is the first and one of the most important markets for the strange fantasy artwork and science. Many horror stories adapted for early radio shows such as Stay Tuned for Terror originally appeared in Weird Tales . The "Golden Age" magazine is under Wright, and de Camp argues that one of Wright's achievements is to create a school writing "Weird Tales". Justin Everett and Jeffrey H. Shanks, editors of the recently magazine-focused literary collection critics, argue that "Weird Tales" serves as a nexus point in the development of speculative fiction from which modern fantasy and horror genres ".
The magazine, remarkable for porridge, is included by the editor of the Year of the Year in Fiction anthology, and is generally regarded with more respect than most pulp. This remained true long after the magazine's first event ended, as this became the main source of fantasy short stories for anthologists for decades. Weinberg argues that the fantasy pulp, which, in his opinion, Weird Tales is the most influential, helps shape the modern fantasy genre, and Wright, "if he is not the perfect editor... is an extraordinary one , and one of the most influential figures in modern American fantasy fiction ", adds that Weird Tales and its competitors" serve as the foundation on which many modern fantasies lean. " Everett and Shanks agree, and consider Weird Tales as the place where the author, editor and reader involved "elevate speculation speculation to new heights" with an influence that "resonates through modern popular culture". In Ashley's words, "somewhere in the imaginary reservoir all American and (many non-US) fantasy and horror writers are part of the spirit of Strange Stories."
bibliographic Details
Editorial success in Weird Tales is as follows:
Issuers for the first year are Rural Publishing Corporation; this turned into the Popular Fiction Publisher with the November 1924 edition, and to Weird Tales, Inc. with the December 1938 edition. Four problems in the early 1970s came from Renown Publications, and four novels in the early 1980s were published by Zebra Books. The next two problems came from Bellerophon, and then from the Spring of 1988 until the 1996 Winter publisher was Terminus. From summer 1998 to July/August 2003 the publisher is a DNA and Terminus Publication, which is listed either as a DNA/Terminus Publication or just as a DNA Publication. The September/October 2003 edition lists publishers as DNA/Wildside Press/Terminus Publications, and until 2004 this persists, with one problem dropping the Terminus from the masthead. After that Wildside Press is a publisher, sometimes with Terminus listed as well, until the September/October 2007 edition, after which only Wildside Press is registered. Issues published from 2012 to 2014 are from Nth Dimension Media.
Weird Tales is in a slurry format for all his first run except for the problem from May 1923 to April 1924, when it was a large porridge, and last year, from September 1953 to September 1954, when it was the essence. Four 1970s editions in slurry format. Both Bellerophon problems are quarto. The Terminus problem returned to the slurry format until the 1992/1993 Winter problem, which was a large porridge. The problem of a single pulp appeared in the fall of 1998, and then the format returned to massive slurry until the Fall 2000 issue, which was quarto. The format varies between large and quarto slurry up to January 2006, which is a big porridge, as are all the issues after that date until Fall 2009, except for the November 2008 quarto size. From Summer 2010 the format is quarto.
The magazine's first release was priced 25 cents over the first fifteen years of its life except for the great May/June/July 1924 edition, which was 50 cents. In September 1939, the price was reduced to 15 cents, where it survived until the September 1947 edition of 20 cents. The price rose again to 25 cents in May 1949; the problem of digest size from September 1953 to September 1954 was 35 cents. The first three novels were edited by Lin Carter for $ 2.50; the fourth is $ 2.95. Both Bellerophon problems are $ 2.50 and $ 2.95. The Terminus Weird Tales began in the spring of 1988 for $ 3.50; this rose to $ 4.00 with the Fall 1988 edition, and became $ 4.95 with the Summer 1990 edition. The next price increase was $ 5.95, in Spring 2003, and then to $ 6.99 with the January 2008 issue. the first issue of Nth Dimension Media was priced at $ 7.95 and $ 6.99; the last two are $ 9.99 each.
Some early Terminus editions of Weird Tales are also printed in hardcover format, in limited editions of 200 copies. These are signed by contributors, and are available at $ 40 as part of subscription offer. Problems generated in this format include Summer 1988, Spring/Fall 1989, Winter 1989/1990, Spring 1991, and Winter 1991/1992.
Antologi
Beginning in 1925, Christine Campbell Thomson edited a series of horror anthologies, published by Selwyn and Blount, entitled Not at Night . It is considered the official edition of U.K. magazine, with stories that sometimes appear in anthologies before the US version of the magazine appears. What draws most of its content from Weird Tales is:
There is also a 1937 anthology titled Not at Night Omnibus , which selects 35 stories from the series Not Night , where 20 originally appeared in Weird Tales. In the US, an anthology titled Not at Night! , edited by Herbert Asbury, appeared from Macy-Macius in 1928; this selected 25 stories from the series, with 24 of them taken from Weird Tales.
Many other story anthologies from Weird Tales have been published, including:
Canadian and English edition
The Canadian edition of Weird Tales appeared from June 1935 to July 1936; all fourteen issues are deemed identical to US issues on that date, although "Printed in Canada" appears on the cover, and at least one textbox
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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