Walter Scott Story (1879-1955)-The First Sequel

Pulp Fiction Author, Children's Book Author, Editor, Insurance Worker
Born June 23, 1879, Springfield, Massachusetts
Died June 24, 1955, Chatham, New Jersey

At first I thought "Walter Scott Story" was a pen name, and a pretty transparent one at that. Then I found out that it was his real name. It was a perfect appellation for him to have written in the vein of Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832). Instead, Walter Scott Story wrote a sequel to a famous work by Edgar Allan Poe.

Walter Scott Story was born on June 23, 1879, in Springfield, Massachusetts, to Benjamin Franklin Story, naturally a printer, and Rebecca J. "Jennie" Turner Story. The Story men were descended from Charles Scott, a private in Captain James Osgood's company in Colonel Timothy Bedel's New Hampshire Regiment of the Continental Line during the Revolutionary War. Charles Scott enlisted in 1776 and was taken prisoner at the Battle of the Cedars, May 19, 1776, west of Montreal, Canada. He was exchanged shortly after that--possibly only eight days later--and rejoined his regiment. Scott was discharged from service in December 1776 at Saratoga, New York. Bedel's regiment was disbanded on January 1, 1777.

Walter Scott Story attended public schools and in 1895 started work as an office boy at Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company in his native city. He began work at Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York in 1923 and spent twenty-three years as editor of employee publications. He was married twice, first to Margaret Helena Healy, then, after her death in 1937, to Elsie Martha Wolcott. Story's brother, Myron E. Story, was also in the insurance business. Story died without issue on the day after his seventy-sixth birthday, on June 24, 1955, in Chatham, New Jersey. Like Montresor in "The Cask of Amontillado," Story was a Mason.

Walter Scott Story had stories in American magazines from 1908 to 1927, with an outlier published in 1938. (His story "Natural, Inevitable--and O.K." was caught up in the bankruptcy of Tower Magazines, Inc., in 1936.) Story got his start with a series of tales about Snub Smith, Office Boy, in People's in 1908-1909. He followed those up with at least two tales of Tow-Head Murchison in Top-Notch Magazine in 1910. In "Homer Strong, Wireless Operator," Story got in on the sub-genre of radio fiction. That story was serialized in Top-Notch Magazine beginning in the issue of November 1, 1910. Story was also published in American Boy, The Argosy, The Black Mask, Boys' Life, Detective Story Magazine, Sea Stories, Short Stories, and other titles. He also had stories syndicated in American newspapers. And I found a story called "The Haunted House," which was published in The Ropeco Magazine, September 1922, illustrated by Frank J. Rigney. Story's lone story for Weird Tales was "The Sequel," from March 1923.

In addition to writing pulp fiction, Story authored books for boys. These included:

• Skinny Harrison, Adventurer, illustrated by Rufus C. Harrington (1922)
• The Young Crusader: How Richard of Devon Served Richard the Lion-Hearted, illustrated by Frank T. Merrill (1923)
• The Uncharted Island, illustrated by Manning De Vere Lee (1926)
• Boy Heroes of the Sea, illustrated by W.W. Clarke (1928)
• The Missing Millions (date unknown)

Walter Scott Story's Story in Weird Tales
"The Sequel" (Mar. 1923)

Further Reading
"Walter Story" (obituary) in Chatham (New Jersey) Press, July 1, 1955, page 1.

Walter Scott Story's Story:

"The Sequel" is a short short story of two and a half pages, recounted by a first-person narrator. "The Sequel" was the first sequel in Weird Tales. It's also the first example of what you might call historical fiction. We don't know when it takes place exactly, but by extrapolation, the time is seemingly in the eighteenth century. It could be earlier than that. What's sure is that the place is Italy. In order to make the extrapolation, you have to rely on the original source of Story's sequel. And that's where we come to the first reference to Edgar Allan Poe in Weird Tales, for "The Sequel" is a sequel to Poe's short story "The Cask of Amontillado" (1846).

The reference to Poe by name is in the introductory blurb, which reads: "Walter Scott Story offers a new conclusion to Edgar Allen [sic] Poe's 'Cask of Amontillado'." Poor Poe. Weird Tales was inspired by him and his work, yet the editor couldn't even get his name straight. Story launched right into his own story, picking up about two-thirds of the way through "The Cask of Amontillado." Whereas Poe's first-person narrator is Montresor, Story's is his victim, Fortunato. In "The Sequel," we get the story from Fortunato's point of view, and the ending is not what Montresor had thought at the conclusion of Poe's original tale. It's actually a trick played on Montresor by Fortunato, and it sets "The Cask of Amontillado" in a new light.

It's a tall task for any writer to remake a story by Poe, but that's what Walter Scott Story attempted here. "The Sequel" makes for an exercise or a prompt in writing, but I'm not sure what the point was otherwise. There's something distasteful about it, I think. Edgar Allan Poe created a work of art. Walter Scott Story presumed not only to alter it but to undo the vision of a fellow artist, and a much more accomplished one at that. Today, I guess, we would call his story a reboot, which is what every sequel seems to be these days. Original works might better be left alone. The Cask of Amontillado" is no exception. Sequels or adaptations usually aren't improvements over the original. And now we find ourselves at the beginning of a movement to bowdlerize, censor, rewrite, edit, and even cancel the works of long-dead and not-so-long-dead authors, including Dr. Seuss, Roald Dahl, Agatha Christie, Ian Fleming, and P.G. Wodehouse. Story was of course not part of that movement and could not have anticipated it. (Only a few visionaries--mostly conservative visionaries--anticipated our current situation.) Nevertheless, I think he should have left well enough alone. "The Cask of Amontillado" was the way Poe wanted it to be. No one should presume to alter it, reboot it, or try to improve upon it. Story should have written his own story.

Text copyright 2023 Terence E. Hanley