In "The Eyrie" for April/May 1931, the editor wrote:
WEIRD TALES will continue the policy on which its brilliant success has been built since it was first published eight years ago. That is, we will print the best weird fiction in contemporary literature, stories that Edgar Allan Poe and FitzJames O'Brien would delight to read if they were alive today. Both these writers would undoubtedly have been writing for WEIRD TALES if the magazine had been published in their time. In addition to the weird tale proper, we will offer you marvelous weird-scientific tales that forecast the science of the future; tales of other planets, and wars between the worlds; tales of eery surgery; tales of megalomaniacs whose brilliant scientific achievements menace the world with destruction; tales of tremendous dooms sweeping upon our world from the depths of stellar space; tales of the interstellar patrol; astronomical tales that bring to you the most daring prognostications of stellar science.
The bulk of our stories, however, will be tales of utter weirdness, for it is upon these that the splendid reputation of the magazine has been built. Such tales, for instance, as the stories of cosmic horror penned by H. P. Lovecraft, to mention one of the most popular writers in this magazine; the eery adventures of Jules de Grandin, as told in Seabury Quinn's inimitable style; shuddery werewolf stories (you all remember The Werewolf of Ponkert, by H. Warner Munn, do you not?); tales of the unnatural and abnormal; fantastic and bizarre stories such as Frank Owen's unforgettable tale, The Wind That Tramps the World; tales, of vampires and witches; thrilling stories of devil-worship, of which E. Hoffmann Price is a master narrator; occasional ghost stories; tales of strange monsters, such as the ever-to-be-remembered story by Frank Belknap Long, Jr., entitled The Space-Eaters; thrill-tales of mystery and terror; tales of stark horror, but nothing sickening or disgusting.
We could dwell at length on some of the great stories we have published in the past; but we think it better to continue publishing the finest weird fiction in the world today, rather than harp on the past glories of the magazine.
(Boldface added.)
The 1930s had begun, and science fiction magazines were proliferating. I like that Weird Tales gave some space to what the editor called "weird-scientific" stories. Weird science, weird science fiction, or science-fantasy is its own sub-sub-genre, I think. Where else would you put "Shambleau" by C.L. Moore? Many readers liked stories of this type. Some did not. But another one of the things I like about Weird Tales is that it listened to and allowed its readers to speak.
Lovecraft, Owen, and Price received repeat mention after the editorial of two years before, but Frank Owen's story "The Wind That Tramps the World" was the only one mentioned by name in both the sixth- and eighth-anniversary editorials.
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| Weird Tales, April/May or just May 1931, with a cover story, "The Dust of Death" by Hugh Jeffries and cover art by C.C. Senf in a somewhat different mode from his earlier covers. Note the clever vertical lettering in imitation of the Chinese. |
Original text copyright 2024 Terence E. Hanley
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