Masterpieces of Weird Fiction

Weird Tales began reprinting classic tales of weird fiction in the May issue of 1923. The series is called "Masterpieces of Weird Fiction," and although the last entry is numbered six, there are actually seven entries. (The miscounting began with entry number five.) Five of the seven are by Edgar Allan Poe. We should remember that the co-founder of the magazine, Jacob C. Henneberger, was a great fan of Poe. Ambrose Bierce and Edward Bulwer-Lytton had one entry each in the series.

The first reprint was "The Haunted and the Haunters; or The House and the Brain" by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, originally in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. DXXVI, August 1859. Also in the May 1923 issue was "The Closed Cabinet," ostensibly by an anonymous author but actually by Lady Gwendolen Cecil and originally in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. CLVII, No. DCCCLI, January 1895. Edwin Baird, the editor of Weird Tales, probably got both stories from Old-Time English Stories (1909), a volume in the series Library of the World's Best Mystery and Detective Stories, which I think was also called and/or reprinted as The Lock and Key Library. "The Closed Cabinet" was not named as one of the series, but it might as well have been. All of the others were by male authors.

The next entry in the series was "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" by Edgar Allan Poe. It was the cover story for the June 1923 issue of Weird Tales and originally in Graham's Magazine in April 1841. Some people call it the first detective story. Poe called it a tale of ratiocination. It was the first story by Poe to appear in the magazine that was probably named after his posthumous collection from 1895. The cover illustration for that June issue was by William F. Heitman. Unfortunately, it turned out pretty poorly.

"Masterpieces of Weird Fiction" number three was "The Damned Thing" by Ambrose Bierce. Bierce's story was first in Town Topics: The Journal of Society on December 7, 1893, and reprinted in Weird Tales in September 1923. It was Bierce's only story in Weird Tales.

Edgar Allan Poe returned in the October 1923 issue with "The Pit and the Pendulum," first published in The Gift: A Christmas and New Year's Present for 1843 (1842). Although it was named as part of the series, "The Pit and the Pendulum" was not numbered. The same held true in November 1923 with the reprinting of Poe's story "The Tell-Tale Heart." It was originally in the first issue of James Russell Lowell's magazine The Pioneer in January 1843.

"Masterpieces of Weird Fiction" number five was "The Black Cat," again by Poe and originally in The Saturday Evening Post, August 19, 1843. "The Black Cat" was in Weird Tales in January 1924. Poe's "Never Bet the Devil Your Head" followed in March 1924. It was numbered as the sixth in the series but was actually number seven. The story was originally in Graham's Magazine as "Never Bet Your Head: A Moral Tale," in September 1841.

As far as I can tell, the next reprint in Weird Tales didn't come along until the issue of July 1925. A new series started then. Called "Weird Story Reprints," it ran for many years and included not just weird tales from the past but also reprints of stories that had originally appeared in Weird Tales itself.

I'm not sure that "Masterpieces of Weird Fiction" can be called a feature. I have used the word series instead. Nonetheless, I have included it in "Weird Tales Features" in the list of labels on the right.

"Masterpieces of Weird Fiction" in Weird Tales, May 1923 to March 1924:

• No. 1--"The Haunted and the Haunters; or The House and the Brain" by Edward Bulwer-Lytton (May 1923)

• No. 2--"The Murders in the Rue Morgue" by Edgar Allan Poe (June 1923)

• No. 3--"The Damned Thing" by Ambrose Bierce (Sept. 1923)

• [No. 4]--"The Pit and the Pendulum" by Edgar Allan Poe (Oct. 1923)

• [No. 5]--"The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe (Nov. 1923)

• No. 5 [actual No. 6]--"The Black Cat" by Edgar Allan Poe (Jan. 1924)

• No. 6 [actual No. 7]--"Never Bet the Devil Your Head" by Edgar Allan Poe (Mar. 1924)

"The Haunted and the Haunters" by Edward Bulwer-Lytton was in The Haunters and the Haunted and Other Ghost Stories, published by Corgi books in 1963. The artwork on the cover is signed, but this image is too poor for the signature to be legible. Can someone help?

Text copyright 2023 Terence E. Hanley