The Moon Terror (and other stories)

Published in 1927, The Moon Terror by A.G. Birch was the first Weird Tales book. The publisher was the Popular Fiction Publishing Company of Indianapolis. The uncredited editor was almost certainly Farnsworth Wright. You wouldn't know it by the cover, but there are actually four stories in The Moon Terror. They are:

• "The Moon Terror" by A.G. Birch, a novel of 130 pages, originally serialized in the May and June 1923 issues of Weird Tales.

• "Ooze" by Anthony M. Rud, a novelette of 33 pages, originally the first cover story in Weird Tales, in the March issue of 1923.

• "Penelope" by Vincent Starrett, a comic short story of 16 pages, originally in Weird Tales, May 1923.

and

• "An Adventure in the Fourth Dimension" by Farnsworth Wright, another comic short story of just 9 pages, originally in Weird Tales in October 1923.

There are 192 pages in all in The Moon Terror, the same number of pages as in each of the first two issues of Weird Tales.

"The Moon Terror" is the cover story of The Moon Terror the book. The illustration on the cover, drawn by an unknown artist, is a version of the first illustration to appear in Weird Tales. It shows a human sacrificial ritual in the instant before the knife is plunged into the breast of a naked woman. It's not in the best taste. It's also not an especially good drawing. And that brings up an issue.

If it was published in 1927, then The Moon Terror had about four years' worth of stories on which to draw for its contents. "Ooze" is a good enough story I think. The others are passable, I guess. But there were better stories published in those first four years. Did we really need Starrett's or Wright's story reprinted in book form? Imagine instead The Call of Cthulhu and Other Stories, published in 1927, with cover art and interior illustrations by Hugh Rankin! And as for the book itself, it's not an especially well-made volume. My copy is still in good condition (no dust jacket), but, again, it's not the most professional of printing and binding jobs, the paper and boards are not high in quality, and the design is pretty ho-hum.

"The Moon Terror" is a yellow-peril story. The threat emanates from China, and the man who wishes to control the world and every person in it is Chinese. He fancies himself, I think, as a kind of god-emperor. The American scientist Dr. Gresham stands in his way:

"Gentlemen," he said, "I did not come here to argue; I came to help! As surely as I am standing here, our world is upon the brink of dissolution! And I alone may be able to save it! But, if I am to do so, you must agree absolutely to the course of action I propose!" (p. 46)

Three and a half years ago, we experienced another threat emanating from China and its aspiring world-ruler. And we had an American scientist--not just a scientist but a man who went by the self-proclaimed title The Science--tell us that if we were to be saved, we must do whatever he commanded. He alone was able to save us. Call all of this a century-old prognostication made by A.G. Birch. In any case, if you would like to read "The Moon Terror," you should probably do so soon, before President Eleven requires that all traces of it be wiped out and our obeisant government, media, and corporations do as he commands.

I have already written at length about "Ooze" and a little about "Penelope." I'll close with a couple of quick comments on "An Adventure in the Fourth Dimension" by Farnsworth Wright. I don't think that Wright was an especially good writer. Editorship was his true calling (even if he made a few blunders in that department as well.) However, his story in The Moon Terror was an early exploration in Weird Tales of Einsteinian or relativistic physics. For that, Wright deserves some credit.

"An Adventure in the Fourth Dimension" is told in the first person by a man in Chicago who picked up some French expressions while serving in the U.S. Army. As it so happens, Farnsworth Wright lived in Chicago (as well as in Indianapolis), and he was a translator in the Army during the Great War. There are aliens in his story. They arrive on Earth by falling out of the sky in a meteoric missile. You could say that the story is a UFO story before we had a name for these things. With its falling objects, it also has a hint of a Fortean tale. There is mention of transparent steel, which makes me think of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home and its manufacture of transparent aluminum.

As they say, there is nothing new under the sun. Or under the moon.

The Moon Terror by A.G. Birch and others (1927), with a cover illustration by an unknown artist.

Original text copyright 2023 Terence E. Hanley