"It" in Print & Image

"It" by Theodore Sturgeon (1918-1985) was in Unknown in August 1940. Sturgeon's contemporary, Joseph Payne Brennan (1981-1990), was working for a newspaper in New Haven, Connecticut, at about that time. Brennan had been trying for years to break into print, especially into the pages of his ideal, Weird Tales. Published by Street & Smith, Unknown was in much the same vein as "The Unique Magazine." I think "It" would have fit right into its pages. 

Brennan could easily have read Sturgeon's story the first time around in Unknown. He would have had a second chance to read "It" just a few years later, after he gone to and returned from war in Europe. In 1946, Rinehart published a collection of stories called Who Knocks? The editor of Who Knocks?, August W. Derleth (1909-1971), drew from many sources for his contents, including Weird Tales. Less than halfway through the book, readers would have encountered "It." I have a feeling that they and generations of readers since have considered "It" one of their favorites, or at least a very memorable story.

"It" was reprinted again in 1948, first in a very limited paperback edition of 200 copies. A quarter of those were given away at the 6th World Science Fiction Convention, or Torcon, held in Toronto, Canada, from July 3 to July 5, 1948. The paperback version was to promote the publication of Theodore Sturgeon's first collection, Without Sorcery, published by Prime Press, Inc., of Philadelphia, also in 1948. "It" was in that collection as well. One of the men behind Prime Press was Armand E. Waldo (1924-1993), who shared a surname with Theodore Sturgeon, né Edward Hamilton Waldo. Were they related? I don't know.

Joseph Payne Brennan's story "Slime" was published in Weird Tales five years later, in March 1953. The other day, I wrote about how similar is the introduction of his story to that of Sturgeon's. As a fan of weird fiction and fantasy, Brennan would have had at least three chances to read "It" in print before sitting down to write his own story. The influence of one upon the other seems pretty clear to me. But was that a conscious influence? I can't say.

"It" by Theodore Sturgeon was in Unknown in August 1940. The author was all of twenty-two years old at its publication. "It" was illustrated by Edd Cartier (1914-2008). His two illustrations appear above. These images are from a French-language website called Collector's Showcase, accessible by clicking here.

"It" was also in Who Knocks?, a hardbound collection from 1946. The illustrator of that volume was Lee Brown Coye (1907-1981). Unfortunately I don't have any images to show of Coye's illustration or illustrations.

Original text copyright 2024 Terence E. Hanley