The "Weird Tales" Group....

[j. d. worthington]

And similar topics....

Essentially, the idea here is a hybrid thread; what I'd like to know is: is anyone interested in discussing the writers who have become known (rather loosely) as "the Weird Tales group", or the various other pulp writers of the 1930s-1940s who contributed to this aspect of American horror and fantasy? Such authors, of course, include Lovecraft, Howard, Smith, Bloch, Derleth, Whitehead, Price, Moore, Kuttner, Quinn, Munn, Wellman, and so on... but I'm also looking for any thoughts on any of the writers who became recognizable names of the period with the weird fiction/horror/fantasy pulps... especially, of course, WT itself, but also all those known as the "rivals" of WT.

So... is there interest enough from people here to get such a discussion rolling, or is this something to simply consign to the dustbin of popular literature history....?

[brsrkrkomdy]

Sure. I'd be interested in discussing that topic. There's lots of stuff about Weird Tales that are not exactly known to everyone. There are those not mentioned in your post, for example: Joseph Payne Brennan, and Ray Bradbury.

Also, there are some writers that are very popular in Weird Tales during its heyday yet they disappeared when it folded like Seabury Quinn. Lovecraft was virtually unknown though he's been printed in Weird Tales. After his death, he became a big name in the later years thanks largely to August Derleth. Same for Robert E. Howard, wasn't until L. Sprague DeCamp and Lin Carter got on the roll, along with the Frank Frazetta book covers of Conan. Clark Ashton Smith was strange. I don't think he's terribly popular except to those familiar with science fiction and fantasy and horror. Ray Bradbury went way beyond popularity and Weird Tales. He was a genre all his own IMO.

Other writers like Henry Kuttner and Robert Bloch and Frank Belknap Long started out in the Lovecraft Circle. After Lovecraft's passing, they cut their teeth and went their own direction. Kuttner went into science fiction and Bloch went into crime fiction and "psychological suspense" as he called it. Kuttner kinda went into obscurity after his own passing. An underappreciated master. Bloch became known later as an author of "Psycho" thanks to Alfred Hitchcock. Long went into science fiction and fantasy. (Didn't he go into mystery/suspense?) Same goes for Brennan and Wellman, and Leiber (I think.) They published their stuff with Weird Tales and did more outside the magazine.

Derleth went into science fiction, fantasy, horror, and mystery/suspense, and mainstream fiction, and other nonfiction. He also went into small press, along with his friend, Donald Wandrei at the time. Established Arkham House with the intention of keeping in print, the works of H.P. Lovecraft. Then they printed other books and short story collections of other writers. They went beyond Weird Tales.

I know that Lin Carter tried to revive Weird Tales with a series of paperback books but couldn't go any further than number four.

That's about it as far as I know.

[brsrkrkomdy]

I almost forgot that Whitehead, Moore, Munn, and Price became very obscure after Weird Tales folded. Either because of their lack of enthusiasm, their early untimely passing, or went into other fields we didn't know about. (Just guessing.)

[j. d. worthington]

There were others, too, of course, such as Carl Jacobi, Arthur J. Burks, Allison V. Harding (especially her "Damp Man" stories), G. G. Pendarves, etc....

Here's one: How many knew that Robert A. Heinlein had been published in WT? Or Isaac Asimov (collaborating with Fred Pohl)? So, for that matter, was Fred Brown's "Come and Go Mad"....

Here's a listing of WT's for 1949, for instance:

Weird Tales - 1949

Or, if you prefer, the whole run:

Miskatonic University library Periodical Reading Room - Weird Tales

That might help to open some discussion there....

Smith has had periods of popularity, and of late his work is not only becoming more popular, but garnering some critical acclaim. He's another writer who is being reexamined now that we're beginning to shed the shadow of Hemingway & Co. as the way to write....

[D_Davis]

Clark Ashton Smith has a lot of fiction available on line:

Clark Ashton Smith - The Eldritch Dark

I haven't read a lot of it, but what I have is quite good.

[andrew.v.spencer]

I'd love to, but I don't know enough about it. Hence I'll be in read only mode. I've read Clark Ashton Smith but if I've read the others I couldn't associate the names.

Any ideas for best of, or an anthology I could buy?

[j. d. worthington]

Oh, and D.D.... as you're interested in Ted Sturgeon's work, I assume you'd also be interested (if you don't know it already) that he, too, was represented in the pages of WT....

[D_Davis]

Originally Posted by j. d. worthington

Oh, and D.D.... as you're interested in Ted Sturgeon's work, I assume you'd also be interested (if you don't know it already) that he, too, was represented in the pages of WT....

Yes, I was aware of this, but I don't know if I've read any of his WT stuff, yet. I'll need to review the list and see what I have in my Sturgeon collections.

[D_Davis]

Originally Posted by j. d. worthington

Or, if you prefer, the whole run:

Miskatonic University library Periodical Reading Room - Weird Tales

That might help to open some discussion there....

Damn, what a killer web site!

I've already found a Smith story reprinted in its entirety.

Very cool.

[j. d. worthington]

Originally Posted by andrew.v.spencer

I'd love to, but I don't know enough about it. Hence I'll be in read only mode. I've read Clark Ashton Smith but if I've read the others I couldn't associate the names.

Any ideas for best of, or an anthology I could buy?

There are numerous anthologies taken from the pages of the magazine:

Leo Margulies' Weird Tales and Worlds of Weird; a two-volume (pb) selection edited by Peter Haining (one volume in hb, as I recall), Weird Tales and More Weird Tales; a rather sizeable volume of selections edited by Marvin Kaye (though this also takes the reader into the 1980s incarnation of the magazine); Weird Tales: 32 Unearthed Terrors, ed. by Stefan Dziemainowicz, Robert Weinberg, and Martin H. Greenberg; Weird Vampire Tales (taken largely, though not exclusively iirc, from WT), and so on:

Weird Tales by Leo Margulies

Worlds of Weird: Horror-adventure-enchantment from the pages of Weird Tales by Leo Margulies

Amazon.com: Weird Tales: Books: Marvin Kaye

Peter Haining - Weird Tales « Sordid Spheres!

British Horror Anthology Hell - Peter Haining: Weird Tales

British Horror Anthology Hell - Weird Tales: 32 Unearthed Terrors

Amazon.com: Weird Vampire Tales: 30 Blood-Chilling Stories from the Weird Fiction Pulps: Books: Martin H. Greenberg,Robert Weinberg,Stefan R. Dziemianowicz=

not to mention such things as Rivals of Weird Tales, which has things from several magazines of the period which were in a similar (though not identical) mold....

[j. d. worthington]

Originally Posted by D_Davis

Damn, what a killer web site!

I've already found a Smith story reprinted in its entirety.

Very cool.

Yes, I notice that they've got links to quite a few things there that might be of interest....

[GOLLUM]

When I get more time I can contirbute to this thread.

Perhaps this belongs under the Classic SF&F thread JD?

I'll move it if you like.....

[j. d. worthington]

I suppose you're right. Why I didn't put it there in the first place, I really couldn't tell you.... As this is your territory, please do so; and thanks.

[littlemissattitude]

Originally Posted by j. d. worthington

Or, if you prefer, the whole run:

Miskatonic University library Periodical Reading Room - Weird Tales

That might help to open some discussion there....

Thanks for that link, j. d. I've already got it bookmarked just based on the strength of the Louisa May Alcott (!) story I found over there, "Lost in a Pyramid, or the Mummy's Curse", that I took the time to read while I was there. Good stuff.

[Fried Egg]

I'd certainly be interested in such a discussion but mainly from the point of view of what I could learn rather than contribute (as I don't have much to offer).

I've read and enjoyed some of C.A. Smith, H.P. Lovecraft, R.E. Howard, F.B. Long and R. Bradbury. I would definitely like to find out more about other authors in that crowd as I really like their style of writing and firey imaginations.