Weird Tales, June 1923

Like the first pair of issues of Weird Tales, the second pair--the issues of May and June--go together. Both have the same main title logo and each has 120 interior pages. William F. Heitman was the cover artist on both, and he drew all of the interior art in both. There are twenty-one stories in the May issue of 1923 but only seventeen in the one for June. The staff of the magazine made up for that with thirteen non-fiction fillers (all by an uncredited author or authors), plus a non-fiction article, plus two features, "The Eyrie" and a new feature called "The Cauldron: True Adventures of Terror," conducted by Preston Langley Hickey (1900-1962).

Firsts in Weird Tales for June 1923 include:

• The first story with a series character, Dr. Dorp in Otis Adelbert Kline's short story "The Phantom Wolfhound."

• The first reprint of a story by Edgar Allan Poe, "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," from 1841.

• The first photograph, a picture of an electric chair, taken by Harry Hirschfield and used as an illustration for "The Chair," a non-fiction article by Dr. Harry E. Meerness.

• The first regular feature other than "The Eyrie," the aforementioned "The Cauldron: True Adventures of Terror," conducted by Preston Langley Hickey.

I haven't read most of the stories in that fourth issue. There may be other firsts hiding inside.

I have written before about eleven of the eighteen authors listed below. Click on their names for links.

• Paul Ellsworth Triem (1882-1976)

• Harold Freeman Miners (1890-1928)

• Hamilton Craigie (1880-1956)

• Edwin MacLaren (dates unknown)

• Adam Hull Shirk (1881-1931)

• Julian Kilman (1878-1954)--His story "The Well" was reprinted in The Best of Weird Tales: 1923, edited by John Gregory Betancourt and Marvin Kaye.

• Otis Adelbert Kline (1891-1946)

• Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1949)

• A. G. Birch (1883-1972)--His story was the second part of the two-part serial "The Moon Terror."

• Walter Noble Burns (1866-1932)--The title of his story "The Man the Law Forgot" is a variation of "The Man Who . . .".

• George Warburton Lewis (1878-1963)

• Loual B. Sugarman (1894-1965)--His story "The Gray Death" was reprinted in The Eighth Green Man and Other Strange Folk, edited by Robert Weinberg (Starmont House, 1989).

• Henry Leverage (1885-1931)

• Hugh Thomason (dates unknown)--This may have been Captain Hugh Thomason, a friend of and correspondent with Edgar Rice Burroughs. Captain Thomason also used the pen names Jack MacLeod and Captain John Graham. Hugh Thomason the author, if he was a different person, also used the pen name Rjinn Van Veldt.

• Helen Rowe Henze (1899-1973)--She was the only woman author in the fourth issue of Weird Tales.

• Tarleton Collier (1888 or 1889-1970)

• Herbert Hipwell (dates unknown)

• Dr. Harry E. Mereness (dates unknown; possibly a pseudonym)

Next: "The Cauldron: True Adventures of Terror."

Weird Tales, June 1923, with cover art by William F. Heitman illustrating Edgar Allan Poe's story "The Murders in the Rue Morgue." This is the first gorilla or ape cover in Weird Tales. Unfortunately, it's terribly inept. Heitman was a better artist than this. I wonder what happened.

Text copyright 2023 Terence E. Hanley