The Four Big L's

To us, the Weird Tales of 1923 to 1954 is a completed body of work. It's all one piece and will forever be unchanging and unchangeable. But to readers in its time, especially in its early years, the magazine was still opening up for them, still alive and growing. It must have been like a journey made in a new land. No one knew what vistas and what new marvels would appear around each bend in the road. It was exciting to them. You can tell it by the letters they wrote to "The Eyrie." I wish we still had all of those letters, including those that were never published. Alas, every day, week, month, and year, another library at Alexandria must be burned.

Early on there must have been authors who showed real promise. For example, Canadian author Julian Kilman (1878-1954) had five stories in the first year of Weird Tales. Readers never heard from him again. They loved "Invaders from Outside" by J. Schlossel (Joseph H. Schlossel [1902-1977]), published in the January issue of 1925. But Schlossel had just two more stories in Weird Tales, in 1925 and 1926.

On the other hand, readers saw right away the promise in H. P. Lovecraft (1890-1937), and they clamored for more. Lovecraft's name is almost synonymous with Weird Tales. We think of him as one of the Big Three of the magazine, a trio that also included Robert E. Howard (1906-1936) and Clark Ashton Smith (1893-1961). Even by April 1925, though, Lovecraft was recognized as a big name. In "The Eyrie" that month, the anonymous editor--Farnsworth Wright--let readers know what was in store for the following issue or issues, writing, "In addition to Burks, Owen and Quinn, you will have stories by the four big L's--La Spina, Leahy, Long and Lovecraft."

"The Four Big L's"--if that were a more euphonious appellation, it could have been the name of a rock 'n' roll band from the early 1960s.

Before writing about the Four Big L's, I should mention the other three:

• Burks was Arthur J. Burks (1898-1974), then in the U.S. Marine Corps but writing fiction about places he had been to, including tales of Santo Domingo.

• Owen was Frank Owen (1893-1968), who would prove a very prolific author and editor. He had a very popular story, "The Wind That Tramps the World," in the April issue of 1925.

• Quinn was of course Seabury Quinn (1889-1969), who went on to write more stories and other works for Weird Tales than anyone else.

Now the Four Big L's:

• La Spina was Greye La Spina (1880-1969), a very popular author and one of few who would have stories in Weird Tales during every decade of its original run, from the 1920s to the 1950s.

• Leahy was John Martin Leahy (1886-1967), also a very popular author but who disappeared from Weird Tales after 1928. I have never read his stories. They sound promising. I would like to think that his membership in the Four Big L's was well deserved.

• Long was Frank Belknap Long (1901-1994), a young author who, in 1925, had recently had a brush with death but who would go on to live longer than all of the others. He was a member of Lovecraft's circle.

• And of course Lovecraft was H.P. Lovecraft (1890-1937), who stood above most writers in Weird Tales for his erudition, imagination, and tireless reading, writing, editing, helping, guiding, advising, thinking, and theorizing, also for his formation of a coherent and consistent worldview and, above that, cosmic-view.

So for a time, there were the Four Big L's, and what a time it must have been for readers of Weird Tales. And now I wonder whether there were other editorial groupings of big names. We'll have to keep our eye out for mention of them in "The Eyrie."

Original text copyright 2025 Terence E. Hanley