Monday, March 6, 2023

Weird Tales-The First Issue

The first issue of Weird Tales, dated March 1923, probably arrived on newsstands before that, possibly in mid to late February. (According to the website of the current Weird Tales, the date was February 18, 1923.) I base that only on the idea that magazines usually showed up ahead of their cover dates so as to avoid seeming outdated. For example, Time magazine also started in March 1923. Beginning as a weekly, the first issue was dated March 3. According to Wikipedia--which knows lots of true things but lots of untrue things, too--it was actually put out on February 24.

Indianapolis and Chicago were two likely places for Weird Tales to have made its debut. We can wonder now who were the first buyers of the magazine and how far afield it went. Did "The Unique Magazine" make it as far west as California? As far south as Florida? As far east as Maine? Maybe the early letters columns will let us know. I'm planning to look at "The Eyrie," as the regular letters column was called, for clues about the early days of Weird Tales. Not long ago, I wondered about tellers of weird tales in Alabama and how they might have become connected to the main offices in the Midwest. After reading the first letter published in Weird Tales, I have an idea.

The first issue of Weird Tales was just 6 inches by 9 inches, more or less an octavo-sized volume. Inside, it was numbered Volume 1, Number 1. The cover price was 25 cents, and a yearly subscription was $3. Richard R. Epperly's cover was the only illustration in that March issue, which included 192 numbered pages of stories, fillers, editorial content, and advertisements. The first advertisement to appear in Weird Tales told readers "Get Ready for Big Pay Job" by becoming an "Electrical Expert." Chicago Engineering Works would tell them how to do it.

There are twenty-two short stories, three novelettes, and the first part of a two-part serial in Weird Tales number one. The short stories are called "remarkable," the novelettes "unusual," and the serial "a strange novel in two parts." There are also some nonfiction fillers, the author or authors of which were uncredited. All but one of the stories has the author's name or byline attached to it. Anonymous made his and her first appearance in the first issue of the magazine. There weren't any poems included in the contents. Those would have to wait.

I said that there weren't any illustrations in Weird Tales number one. That may not be entirely true. There are decorations to be sure, but decorations aren't illustrations. Their purpose is to fill space or to break up space or text with simple graphics. There is a map, though, the first map to appear in the magazine, though almost certainly not the first map in a pulp magazine or in a work of fantasy fiction. That map is in Hamilton Craigie's novelette "The Chain," on page 83.

Following are the contents of Weird Tales, March 1923, adapted from the Internet Speculative Fiction Database:
My plan is to go through these stories one by one, to write about them and their authors, and to point out firsts and other interesting facts about each. I'll begin with Willard E. Hawkins.

A self-promotional advertisement from Weird Tales, March 1923, page 4, evidence from the beginning that weird fiction crosses genres. 

Thanks to the Internet Speculative Fiction Database for the compiled contents of Weird Tales, Volume 1, Number 1.
Original text copyright 2023 Terence E. Hanley

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