Weird Tales at Sixty

Phil Stephenson-Payne has confirmed that Lin Carter's Weird Tales #4, from 1983, was in fact an anniversary issue. He has supplied an excerpt from Carter's essay in that issue:

By the time this issue reaches the stand, Weird Tales will have entered its sixtieth year, so this is by way of being an anniversary issue to The Unique Magazine.

By this issue, the 287th, we have published (at a conservative estimate), some 14,713,000 words . . . yes, fourteen million, seven hundred and thirteen thousand words of the finest stories in the modern literature of the macabre.

As seems only befitting, we are celebrating this anniversary in a "unique" manner: that is, we are happy to present herein two contributions, written especially for Weird Tales, by two writers who, between them, represent virtually the entire history of this extraordinary magazine. The first of these is Frank Belknap Long, who made his first appearance in these pages in 1924, our second year of publication. Mr. Long, a youthful protege of the great H.P. Lovecraft and a prolific and gifted writer in his own right, has contributed fiction and verse to no fewer than forty-seven issues of the magazine. He appears in this issue with a new story, aptly entitled "Homecoming."

Our second "anniversary item" is the work of one of our most distinguished alumni, Mr. Ray Bradbury. While Mr. Long was the first major discovery of WT's most famous editor, Farnsworth Wright, Mr. Bradbury was an early discovery of Dorothy Mcllwraith, who succeeded Farnsworth Wright to the prestigious editorial chair. His first story appeared in our issue for November, 1942, eighteen years after the debut of Frank Belknap Long, and over the years his distinctive short-stories have adorned some twenty-seven issues of Weird Tales. His last appearance here was in our Fall, 1973 issue, while Mr. Long's last appearance here was in the issue dated Summer, 1974.

Between the two of these gifted gentlemen, then, they span most of the entire history of Weird Tales--two hundred and seventy-three issues, anyway--which explains why, to us, they represent the history of the Unique Magazine. And we are delighted to welcome them back to this sixtieth anniversary issue of the magazine in which they both were first published.

* * *

One final word on this sixtieth anniversary issue, and then we will turn the page over to our correspondents. Our Weird Tales 'First' department has become a regular fixture in this new series, and for this very special issue it seems only fitting and proper to reprint a story from the very first issue of this magazine, that of March, 1923.

Among the twenty-four stories, and the first part of a serial, which appeared in that historic first issue, only one tale has survived the generations to become something of a modem classic in horror fiction. Often anthologized, it seems appropriate to reprint it at this time . . . "Ooze," by Anthony M. Rud.

(Boldface added.)

Thank you, Mr. Stephenson-Payne.

Weird Tales #4 (1983), edited by Lin Carter, with cover art by Doug Beekman.

Original text copyright 2024 Terence E. Hanley