Weird Tales, November 1923

There are seventeen stories in the November 1923 issue of Weird Tales, plus "The Eyrie," the second installment of the feature "Weird Crimes" by Seabury Quinn, and eleven uncredited non-fiction fillers. The cover art was by the as yet unidentified artist Washburn, his or her only cover for "The Unique Magazine." Once again, all of the interior art was by William F. Heitman (1878-1945).

• "Draconda," part one of a six-part serial by John Martin Leahy (1886-1967), an artist and writer of Washington State. "Draconda" would prove to be one of the longest serials to appear in Weird Tales.

• "The Crawling Death" by P. A. Connolly (dates unknown), according to The FictionMags Index, a revised version of "Crawling Hands," originally in The Thrill Book, May 15 and June 1, 1919.

• "A Heroine of the Black Hole," non-fiction filler by an uncredited author.

• "The Closed Room" by Maebelle McCalment (ca. 1878-1950) of Missouri.

• "The Phantom Violinist" by Walter F. McCanless (1876-1965) of North Carolina.

• "Girl, Gypsy All Her Life, Turns from Wilds," non-fiction filler by an uncredited author.

• "Gas Bombs to Check Forest Fires," non-fiction filler by an uncredited author.

• "Lucifer" by John D. Swain (1870-1952), a native New Englander.

• "Wife Slayer Drives All Night with Body in Auto," non-fiction filler by an uncredited author.

• "The Spider" by Arthur Edwards Chapman (1898-?).

• "The Amazing Adventure of Joe Scranton," part two of a two-part serial by Effie W. Fifield (1857-1937) of Minnesota.

• "The Iron Room" by Irish-Welsh-British author Francis D. Grierson (1888-1972), starring his series character Paul Pry, a London-based detective.

• "World-Famed 'Blue Man' Dies," non-fiction filler by an uncredited author. The "blue man" of the title was Fred Walters, who was said to have worked in a silver mine in Australia. If he was poisoned with silver, then he had something in common with Evangeline Walton (1907-1996), a later teller of weird tales.

• "Prisoners of the Dead" by J. Paul Suter (1884-1970). It was Suter's third story for Weird Tales.

• "The Death Pit" by Oscar Schisgall (1901-1984), a foreign-born author then probably living in New York City.

• "The Wax Image," called "A Weird Chinese Story" and written by Burton Harcourt (dates unknown).

• "'Devil's Grip' Spreading," non-fiction filler by an uncredited author.

• "Poisoned" by Farnsworth Wright (1888-1940), his fifth and last story published under his own name in Weird Tales. Wright became editor of the magazine a year later, beginning with the November 1924 issue.

• "New Mecca for Divorce Hunters," non-fiction filler by an uncredited author.

• "British Missionaries Slain by Chinese Bandits," non-fiction filler by an uncredited author.

• "The Magic Mirror" by Mary S. Brown (dates unknown).

• "The Invisible Monster" by Sonia H. Greene (1883-1972) and an uncredited H. P. Lovecraft (1890-1937). The two had met in 1921. Four months after the publication of their short-story collaboration, on March 3, 1924, they were married in Manhattan.

• "The Pebble Prophecy," a Halloween story by Valens Lapsley (dates unknown). I suspect that Valens Lapsley was a pseudonym. If I look for meaning, I see that Valens was the name of a Roman emperor. The word valens is from the Latin, meaning "strength" or "to be strong." In Spanish, valen means "to have value." If I look for the surname Lapsley, I find a woman named Mary Lapsley Caughey (1899-1964), who was a scholar, poet, teacher, translator, and novelist from Pennsylvania. Her two early short works, "Theocritus" and "The Priest and Pan," are on classical themes and subjects. After attending Sewickley Preparatory School, Vassar College, and Bryn Mawr College, she studied Spanish and French at the University of Brussels in the early 1920s. If Valens Lapsley was a pseudonym, then I would look at her as a good candidate as the writer behind the name.

• "The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849).

• "The Grave Robbers," the second installment of "Weird Crimes" by Seabury Quinn (1889-1969).

• "Saved from Fiery Death by Locomotive Bell," non-fiction filler by an uncredited author.

• "$600,000 for Study of Spiritualism," non-fiction filler by an uncredited author.

• "The Survivor," "A Five-Minute Tale" by Edwin G. Wood (1864-1934). Edwin Goodenow Wood was the brother of Theodore Snow Wood (1877-1940), who had had a story, "People vs. Bland," in the July/August 1923 issue of Weird Tales.

• "Will Use Tear Gas on Bootleggers," non-fiction filler by an uncredited author.

• "The Eyrie."

That November issue was the last of 1923. In all, there were eight issues of Weird Tales published in its first calendar year, from March to November 1923. The publication schedule would pick up again in January 1924 and run through the triple-issue of May-June-July 1924. Crisis struck then, and Weird Tales, which came close to dying in mid 1924, returned in November and a thirty-year run under the editorship of Farnsworth Wright (from 1924 to 1940) and Dorothy McIlwraith (from 1940 to 1954). And of course Weird Tales is still in print in 2023, its centennial year.

Original text copyright 2023 Terence E. Hanley