Weird Tales was in print from March 1923 to September 1954, for a total of 279 issues and thirty-one and a half years. That was the longest year-to-year run in the history of the magazine. The third longest run began with the Spring issue of 1988. That issue was whole number 290. By volume and number, it was Volume 50, Number 1. John Gregory Betancourt, Darrell Schweitzer, and George H. Scithers were the editors. The publisher was Terminus. The cover art was by George Barr.
Spring 1988 coincided with the sixty-fifth anniversary of Weird Tales, and the editors knew it. At the top of the front cover is a blurb:
Sixty-Fifth Anniversary Issue!
On the back cover is some copy that begins:
65 Years of Terror!
Below that:
Weird Tales first brought you the
adventures of Conan the Barbarian and tales of
the Cthulhu Mythos.
I don't have this issue of Weird Tales, so I don't know what anniversary-related content there might be inside. But an observance of an anniversary is a nice way to begin your new-old magazine.
Original text copyright 2024 Terence E. Hanley
Hi Terence,
ReplyDeleteI've e-mailed you a scan of the introductory essay from this issue. I don't think the copyright holders could possibly object as it is for scholarly purposes. Best wishes from the United Kingdom (not really in a tyrannical state, i'm pleased to say, despite your post of 01-Sep-24. I think, like the chap who went to Casablanca for the waters, you've been misinformed there).
Hi, Mike,
DeleteAnd thanks for sending the images from the anniversary issue. I might post those images to my blog, but even if I don't, at least I have the editors' essay on the occasion.
I have never been to the United Kingdom or the British Isles. All I know about the situation there is what I read and see on the Internet. I have to say that a lot of it is pretty alarming. Maybe you hear similar things coming out of the United States. Anyway, I'm glad to hear that your country is not really a tyrannical state. We should be vigilant, though, you there and us here.
Thanks again. I'm working on a summary article of this anniversary series and including some content that you and Phil Stephenson-Payne have sent me.
TH
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DeleteThe Eyrie in the following issue did contain a correction to the Lovecraft story:
Delete"In Crypt of Cthulhu #48 (St. John's Eve, 1987), which appeared about the time Weird Tales™ 290 went to press, there appeared an article by David E. Schultz, which seems to have definitively proven that the "black magic" quote was actually manufactured by one Harold Farnese, an occultist with whom Lovecraft corresponded. After Lovecraft's death, Farnese wrote to August Derleth, quoting from his own (Farnese's) somewhat faulty memory various things Lovecraft had written. So the scientific materialist Lovecraft's views were filtered through the mind of the occultist, and Derleth took Farnese's inaccurate paraphrases to be actual quotations. Derleth, as Lovecraft's publisher and chief advocate, spread the error far and wide. Now it has come to rest at last."
You've covered Harold Farnese in some detail in the past so that won't be news to you.
Hi, Mike,
DeleteEven though that quote has been shown to have been manufactured by Farnese and Derleth, we should still keep reminding people of that fact. It went on for so long as being supposedly factual that there are still people who believe it, I think.
Thanks for writing.
TH