Weird Fiction & Fantasy Magazines-Weird Tales Part 2

Editor and publisher Leo Margulies acquired the Weird Tales property in the 1950s after the original run of the magazine had come to an end. Rather than sit on it and guard it like the fabled dog in the manger, Margulies wanted to do something with his new title and the stories that went with it. Sam Moskowitz, an associate of Margulies, was in a position to advise him. "I twice talked Leo Margulies out of reviving the magazine," Moskowitz remembered, "once in 1958 and again in the sixties, because I thought he would lose his shirt." (1) I can't say that I like Moskowitz's advice, but I wasn't there and I don't know the circumstances. It's worth noting that Robert A.W. Lowndes' Magazine of Horror, one of the longest running magazines in the Weird Tales mold, was in print from 1963 to 1971. If he did it, I'm not sure why Leo Margulies couldn't have done it as well. Hindsight is always 20-20 of course. In any case, instead of publishing a magazine, Leo Margulies issued four paperback collections of stories from Weird Tales between 1961 and 1965. (Sam Moskowitz was ghost editor on at least two of them.) If you wanted Weird Tales in the 1960s, those four books were the place to start. (2) Of course interest in pulp fiction picked up as the decade went on. By its end, Robert E. Howard and H.P. Lovecraft were household names, at least among fantasy fans.

Mass market paperbacks are obviously not periodicals. They don't really belong in a series of blog postings about weird fiction and fantasy magazines. Here I have included these four books not just for completists but also because they may have been a model of sorts to a later incarnation of Weird Tales, Lin Carter's four-issue paperback series. Before posting something on that series, I'll write about Sam Moskowitz's 1970s version of Weird Tales.

Notes

(1) From Weird Tales #1, edited by Lin Carter and published in 1981, p. 266.

(2) Leo Margulies also published The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Magazine, a digest-sized journal in which he recycled stories from Weird Tales. For example, "Hellsgarde" by C.L. Moore (Weird Tales, Apr. 1939) appeared in the November 1967 issue. "Hell on Earth" by Robert Bloch (Weird Tales, Mar. 1942) was reprinted in The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Magazine in November 1966.

The Unexpected, published in February 1961, edited by Leo Margulies, and containing eleven stories, all from Weird Tales. The only original content was an introduction by the editor. The cover art was by John Schoenherr. I believe I have seen this book in red as well. P.S. (Aug. 11, 2013): I was mistaken when I wrote that The Unexpected was printed with a red cover as well. Actually it was The Ghoul Keepers. See below.

Schoenherr returned to create the cover illustration for The Ghoul Keepers from October 1961. Once again, all the stories in the book were originally published in Weird Tales.

Weird Tales (the book) followed in May 1964 with eight stories and an introduction, which may have been written by Sam Moskowitz. The cover was by Virgil Finlay and all of the stories inside are from the original Weird Tales.

Finally, Worlds of Weird from January 1965. (This is a reprint from 1977.) Sam Moskowitz finally received credit for his input. The seven stories inside are from Weird Tales. That's Virgil Finlay's art on the cover.

P.S. (Aug. 11, 2013): The Ghoul Keepers in the original edition with a red cover. Note that the art was cropped and reversed for the later edition with the yellow cover (above). Could Sam Moskowitz have had that process in mind when he reworked Jack L. Thurston's art for the cover of the Summer 1974 issue of Weird Tales? Thanks to Chap O'Keefe for the image.

Text and captions copyright 2013, 2023 Terence E. Hanley