Weird Tales, May 1923-Part Four: "The Eyrie"

The May 1923 issue of Weird Tales once again had nonfiction fillers. By my count, there are eleven of these. Nine out of the eleven have to do with Chicago or Evanston, Illinois. That leads me to think that their anonymous author was based in Chicago. I think Otis Adelbert Kline is still the best candidate for the author behind these anonymous works in early issues of "The Unique Magazine."

In the May installment of "The Eyrie," editor Edwin Baird opened with the same complaint that I have had about stories in those early issues of Weird Tales. Or I guess I should say I have the same complaint that he had one hundred years ago, long before I showed up:

These manuscripts come from all parts of the civilized world, and they come from all sorts of people--lawyers, truck drivers, doctors, farmers' wives, university professors, carpenters, high school girls, convicts, society women, drug fiends, ministers, policemen, novelists, hotel clerks and professional tramps--and one, therefore, would naturally expect their stories to possess a corresponding diversity. But not so. With rare exceptions, all these stories, written by all these different kinds of people, are almost exactly alike. (p. 113)

When would there be something different?

There are nineteen letters in the May 1923 installment of "The Eyrie." They were by:

• L. William Pitzer, director of the Girard Avenue Theatre Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
• Charles M. Boone, third officer of the steamship Yumuri, who wrote from Vera Cruz, Mexico. It was the first of his two letters in Weird Tales.
• George F. Morgan of Hazelton, Pennsylvania.
• James P. Marshall of Boston, Massachusetts, who went on to have stories in Argosy All-Story Weekly and Science Wonder Stories in the late 1920s.
• Earl Leaston Bell (1895-1972), a teller of weird tales from Augusta, Georgia.
• George W. Crane (1901-1995), also a teller of weird tales, then of the Department of Psychology at Northwestern University in Chicago.
• Edward Schultz of Buffalo, New York. It was the first of his four letters in Weird Tales.
• S.A.N., address not given.
• Richard P. Israel of New York, New York.
• A.L. Richard of Chicago, Illinois.
• Miss Violet Olive Johnson (1887-1960) of Portland, Oregon, who wrote the first letter known to have been by a woman printed in "The Eyrie." She also had a letter in Strange Stories, February 1941. Miss Johnson was an author. Her short story "The Last Lap" was in the Heppner, Oregon, Gazette-Times on March 2, 1916 (p. 3). Maybe there are other stories by her hiding in the online electrons of today. Miss Johnson was the granddaughter of Oregon pioneer Hezekiah Johnson, Sr. (1799-1866).
• F.L.K. of Indianapolis.
• Victor Wilson of Hazen, Pennsylvania. This was the second time he had written. His first letter was in the April issue.
• J.O. O'C. of Raleigh, North Carolina.
• R.M. of St. Petersburg, Florida.
• Harry M. Worth of Brooklyn, New York.
• Mrs. Glenn Thompson Cummings of Lansing, Michigan.
• Dean Smith, address not given.
• Private R.S. Bray of 133d Co. Detachment, Fort Terry, New York.

There may be other authors represented by the many initials shown above. For example, R.M. of St. Petersburg, Florida, may very well have been Roylston Markham (1885-1950). To learn who the others were would take some puzzling out.

Next: "The Moon Terror" by A.G. Birch

Original text copyright 2023 Terence E. Hanley