Capwell Wyckoff (1903-1953)

Aka Albert C. Wyckoff, Albert Capwell Wyckoff

Minister and Author

Born February 21, 1903, New Jersey

Died January 10, 1953, Columbia, Kentucky

Albert Capwell Wyckoff was born on February 21, 1903, in New Jersey. His father, also named Albert Capwell Wyckoff, died when his son was young, an event that forced Capwell to go to work. He never finished high school, yet Capwell Wyckoff became a successful author of two and a half dozen children's novels. He also wrote for children's magazines, including Boys' Life and The Open Road for Boys. Wyckoff is most well known for his series of mystery and adventure novels on the Mercer Boys, published in sixteen titles between 1921 and 1951. Interspersed among them were several other mystery novels, a perennially popular genre among children. Capwell Wyckoff wrote two stories for Weird Tales, "The Grappling Ghost" (July 1928) and "The Guillotine Club" (July 1929). Late in life, he wrote a number of Christian novels for children under the name Albert C. Wyckoff. He was well qualified, for Wyckoff served in the lay ministry in Arkansas before becoming ordained in the Presbyterian Church. He used the royalties from his books to pay for missionary work. For many years, Capwell Wyckoff lived and served in Kentucky, the place of his death on January 10, 1953. His headstone reads: "Well done, thou good and faithful servant."

Capwell Wyckoff's Stories in Weird Tales

"The Grappling Ghost" (July 1928)

"The Guillotine Club" (July 1929)

Further Reading

You can read more about Capwell Wyckoff at ColumbiaMagazine.com and at an untitled website devoted to his books: http://lakeswan.tripod.com/capwell.html.

Albert Capwell Wyckoff (1903-1953)

Text copyright 2011, 2023 Terence E. Hanley

George N. Laws (1902-1981)

Aka Hardy Peters

Newspaperman, Advertising Man, Author

Born January 15, 1902, Dallas?, Texas

Died March 12, 1981, San Diego, California

George Newton Bowlin Laws lived a colorful and tragic life, documented by his daughter, Carolyn See, in her memoir, Dreaming: Hard Luck and Good Times in America (1996), and her website, The Rumpus. Laws was born on January 15, 1902, and grew up in Dallas. His family were city fathers, despite the fact that his grandfather, a gambler and drinker, shot a man in a gunfight. Laws was forced to go to work early in life. His employers were his "cousins named Red and Ted Tedford," according to Carolyn See. "They ran a bootlegging establishment and hired little Georgie to walk bottles of hooch across town in a baby carriage under a pretty blanket." At thirteen, he was accidentally shot in the chest by his brother. Laws thought he was "fixin' to die," but he survived and carried the bullet for the rest of his life. A year later, another gunshot wound did irreparable damage to the life of his family when his mother killed herself. It was left to George Laws to find the body.

An admirer of Mark Twain, James Branch Cabell, and C.S. Forester, Laws became a writer, first for newspapers, later for pulp magazines and advertising agencies, later still for an entirely different market. As described by his daughter, "George Laws, a darling, hard-drinking newspaperman with one unpublicized marriage already under his belt and a ukulele under his arms came to California. . . " in the early 1930s. There he worked for the Los Angeles Illustrated News, Los Angeles Daily News, and Huntington Park Signal. He was involved in advertising during the 1950s, employed by David S. Hillman, Inc., and his own George N. Laws Advertising Agency. Laws also wrote short stories for New Western Magazine, All Western Magazine, Western Adventures, and Weird Tales during the mid-1940s. His only story for "The Unique Magazine" was "Stranger in the Mirror," printed in the July 1944 issue.

At age sixty-nine, Laws began the final chapter in his writing career when he authored the first of "seventy-three cheery volumes" of pornography, aimed at the paperback-reading crowd, under the pseudonym Hardy Peters. Titles over the next seven years included When Virtue Fails, Unwilling to Trade, and Sexiest Student. According to Carolyn See, he spent the last three years of his life "in clinical depression." George N. Laws died on March 12, 1981, in San Diego, California.

George N. Laws' Story in Weird Tales

"Stranger in the Mirror" (July 1944)

Further Reading

• Dreaming: Hard Luck and Good Times in America by Carolyn See (1996)
• The Rumpus, Carolyn See's website, at therumpus.net

Weird Tales for July 1944 with cover art by A.R. Tilburne. George Newton Laws' story, "Stranger in the Mirror," also illustrated by Tilburne, appeared in this issue.

The quotes are from Carolyn See's book, Dreaming: Hard Luck and Good Times in America (1996), and are used here only for informational and educational purposes. All rights are reserved to the author.

Otherwise, text and captions copyright 2011, 2023 Terence E. Hanley

Weird Tales Books-The Mighty Barbarians

The Mighty Barbarians edited by Hans Stefan Santesson

The first of two heroic fantasy anthologies edited by Hans Stefan Santesson for Lancer Books was The Mighty Barbarians, from 1969. There are five stories plus an introduction in the book. Two are from Weird Tales, a source that has yet to be mined out even after fifty-seven years since the last issue was printed.

I don't have a copy of this book myself, so I have had to rely on Internet sources for the information here. If you find any of it in error or would like to add something, please leave me a comment or send an email to info@hoosiercartoonists.com. (No longer active as of March 21, 2023.)

The Mighty Barbarians edited by Hans Stefan Santesson

(Lancer Books, 1969, 221 pages)

"Introduction" by Hans Stefan Santesson

"When the Sea-King's Away" by Fritz Leiber (Fantastic Science Fiction Stories, May 1960)

"The Stronger Spell" by L. Sprague de Camp (Fantasy Fiction, Nov. 1953)

"Dragon Moon" by Henry Kuttner (Weird Tales, Jan. 1941)

"Thieves of Zangabal" by Lin Carter (Original to this book)

"A Witch Shall Be Born" by Robert E. Howard (Weird Tales, Dec. 1934)

The Mighty Barbarians, edited by Hans Stefan Santesson (1969), with wraparound cover art by James Steranko, one of the most innovative fantasy artists of the 1960s.

Text and captions copyright 2011, 2023 Terence E. Hanley

Weird Tales Books-The Mighty Swordsmen

The Mighty Swordsmen edited by Hans Stefan Santesson

Lancer Books was at the forefront of the 1960s boom in heroic fantasy, largely because of its line of Conan paperbacks with cover art by Frank Frazetta. The Mighty Swordsman was the second of a pair of anthologies featuring well-known heroes of their genre. Both books were edited by Hans Stefan Santesson (1914-1975), Paris-born in the same month that World War I began and editor of Fantastic Universe Science Fiction from 1956 to 1960. Both books also featured cover art by James Steranko, late of Marvel Comics. (Steranko's break with Marvel came in part from a dispute over Steranko's tribute to H.P. Lovecraft, "The Lurking Fear at Shadow House." Incidentally, in the 1950s, the multi-talented Steranko was a member of a rock band called The Lancers.) There are six stories in The Mighty Swordsmen, but only five heroes: Thongor, Mazda, Dilvish, Elric, and Conan. Conan is the protagonist of stories by his creator, Robert E. Howard, and a latecomer, Bjorn Nyberg. Only one story, Howard's "Beyond the Black River," was originally printed in Weird Tales. Oddly, Santesson dedicated the book "to Harold G. Crawford and other friends at Bergen Pines County Hospital, Paramus, New Jersey."

The Mighty Swordsmen edited by Hans Stefan Santesson

(Lancer Books, 1970, 256 pages)

"Introduction"by Han Stefan Santesson

"Keeper of the Emerald Flame" by Lin Carter (Original to this book)

"The Bells of Shoredan" by Roger Zelazny (Fantastic Stories, Mar. 1966)

"Break the Doors of Hell" by John Brunner (1966)

"The People of the Summit" by Bjorn Nyberg (Original to this book)

"The Flame Bringers" by Michael Moorcock (1962)

"Beyond the Black River" by Robert E. Howard (Weird Tales, two-part serial, May-June 1935)

The Mighty Swordsmen, edited by Hans Stefan Santesson (1970), with dazzling wraparound cover art by James Steranko.

Text and captions copyright 2011, 2023 Terence E. Hanley

Weird Tales Books-The Fantastic Swordsmen

The Fantastic Swordsmen edited by L. Sprague de Camp

Heroic fantasy, a subgenre of Weird Tales' stock in trade, evolved during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but its boom came after the deaths of pioneers such as Lord Dunsany, Robert E. Howard, and Clark Ashton Smith. (I'll use the terms heroic fantasy and sword and sorcery interchangeably here. Feel free to quibble.) Lin Carter played his part in that. Frank Frazetta may have played an even greater part. In any case, paperback fantasy filled the spinner rack during the 1960s and '70s. Not one to miss out on a good thing, Pyramid Books issued its own collection of heroic fantasy, The Fantastic Swordsmen, in 1967, edited by a practitioner of long standing, L. Sprague de Camp. The book includes nine tales, three printed therein for the first time, two originally printed in the pages of Weird Tales, and each introduced by de Camp's biographical and scholarly comments. Each story is also introduced with a map of the world in which it takes place, drawn by cover artist Jack Gaughan after L. Sprague de Camp. There is a Conan story here, and stories of his literary offspring, Elak of Atlantis and Brak the Barbarian. Michael Moorcock also weighs in with an early tale of his hero, Elric of Melniboné.

The Fantastic Swordsmen edited by L. Sprague de Camp

(Pyramid Books, 1967, 204 pages)

"Tellers of Tales" (Introduction) by L. Sprague de Camp

"Black Lotus" by Robert Bloch (Unusual Stories, 1935)

"The Fortress Unvanquishable Save for Sacnoth" by Lord Dunsany (The Sword of Welleran and Other Stories, 1908)

"Drums of Tombalku" by Robert E. Howard and L. Sprague de Camp (Original to this book)

"The Girl in the Gem" by John Jakes (Fantastic Stories of Imagination, Jan. 1965)

"Dragon Moon" by Henry Kuttner (Weird Tales, Jan. 1941)

"The Other Gods" by H.P. Lovecraft (Weird Tales, Oct. 1938)

"The Singing Citadel" by Michael Moorcock (Original to this book)

"The Tower" by Luigi de Pascalis (Translated from the Italian by L. Sprague de Camp and original to this book)

The Fantastic Swordsmen, edited by L. Sprague de Camp (1967). The cover by Jack Gaughan (1930-1985) illustrates John Jakes' contribution to the collection, "The Girl in the Gem." You can see her there in the background, imprisoned in a multifaceted blue oval. 

Text copyright 2011, 2023 Terence E. Hanley

Weird Tales Books-The Ghoul Keepers

The Ghoul Keepers edited by Leo Margulies

For many years after the magazine's demise, editor Leo Margulies owned the Weird Tales property and drew a number of anthologies and reprints from its yellowing pages. The Ghoul Keepers was one. Originally published in 1961, the book was reprinted in 1965 in the version shown here. Margulies introduced the book, but not with the scholarly approach used by Sam Moskowitz in other collections of weird tales. The cover blurb promises a panoply of supernatural creatures: "Monster, Vampire, Demon, Sorcerer, Ghost, Witch." For the more discriminating reader, it also offers a partial list of authors. Every one of the stories in The Ghoul Keepers was originally printed in Weird Tales. Six out of nine are from the Dorothy McIlwraith years (1940-1954). Some trivia: Seabury Quinn, author of "Claire de Lune," was the most prolific of all contributors to Weird Tales. Between 1923 and 1952, "The Unique Magazine" published over 150 of his tales. Weird Tales writer Helen W. Kasson was the sister of pioneering science fictioneer Stanley G. Weinbaum. "Spawn of Dagon," starring Elak of Atlantis, is Henry Kuttner's hybrid of heroic fantasy in the mode of Robert E. Howard and H.P. Lovecraft's "Cthulhu Mythos." The story was published in 1938 shortly after the deaths of those two giants of Weird Tales.

The Ghoul Keepers edited by Leo Margulies

(Pyramid Books, 1965, 157 pp.)

"Introduction" by Leo Margulies

"The Sorcerer's Apprentice" by Robert Bloch (Weird Tales, Jan. 1949)

"The Martian and the Moron" by Theodore Sturgeon (Weird Tales, Mar. 1949)

"The Isle of the Sleeper" by Edmond Hamilton (Weird Tales, May 1938, reprinted May 1951)

"Please Go 'Way and Let Me Sleep" by Helen W. Kasson (Weird Tales, Mar. 1945)

"The Lake" by Ray Bradbury (Weird Tales, May 1944)

"The Witch in the Fog" by Harry Altshuler (Weird Tales, Sept. 1938, as by Alexander Faust)

"When the Night Wind Howls" by L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt (Weird Tales, Nov. 1951)

"Clair de Lune" by Seabury Quinn (Weird Tales, Nov. 1947)

"Spawn of Dagon" by Henry Kuttner (Weird Tales, July 1938)

The Ghoul Keepers, edited by Leo Margulies and featuring nine stories from the pages of Weird Tales. The cover art is by the renowned science fiction illustrator John Schoenherr (1935-2010).

Text copyright 2011, 2023 Terence E. Hanley

Bernice T. Banning (1885-1954)

Teacher, Author, Theosophist

Born February 21, 1885, Providence, Rhode Island

Died September 28, 1954, Ventura County, California

Bernice Thornton Banning was born on February 21, 1885, in Providence, Rhode Island, and graduated from Brown University in 1905 and the University of Wisconsin in 1910. In 1916, she set out for the Far East, to travel in Japan, China, and India, and to teach in Ceylon. She was appointed the first principal of the Buddhist Girls School in Ceylon and filled that post for a year, from January to December 1917. The school, founded by Celestina Dias, also known as Mrs. Jeremias Dias, was located in a house called "The Firs" on Turret Road in Colombo. Now called Visakha Vidyalaya, the school has since moved to larger quarters.

After completing her stint at the Buddhist Girls School, Bernice continued in her travels in Ceylon and India. In 1923, she applied for a passport at Madras, India, so that she might stay on there "for the purpose of study and recreation, on behalf of the Theosophical Society." The Theosophical Society, founded in 1875 by Helena Blavatsky and her associates, established its International Headquarters in Madras, a suburb of Adyar, India, sometime before the turn of the century.

I don't know how long Bernice Banning remained in the Orient, but by 1930, she had returned to the United States and was living in Meiners Oaks in the Ojai Valley of Ventura County, California. The head of her household was the elder Margaret Reed, Bernice's companion in her Asian travels. Bernice continued in her work as a teacher. (She had taught at least as far back as 1910 when she was a university instructor.) She also wrote, though perhaps only a little for publication. Her story, "Finger of Kali," was published in the Winter 1931 (or Dec. 1930-Jan. 1931) issue of Oriental Stories. Oriental Stories, then in its second issue, would have been the perfect place for Bernice to display her knowledge of the Far East. The only other credits I have found for her are pieces written for The Adyar Bulletin, a theosophical publication, and printed in the July 1915 and February 1919 issues. Bernice T. Banning died on September 28, 1954, in Ventura County, California. She was sixty-nine years old.

* * *

Bernice T. Banning hailed from Providence, Rhode Island, the hometown of H.P. Lovecraft of Weird Tales fame. Bernice was five years his senior and far more actively engaged in the world than was Lovecraft. But could they still have met? Chances are they did, or--if nothing else--that Lovecraft knew of the Banning family.

Bernice's father, Edwin Thomas Banning, was born on May 11, 1864. Although he came into the world in Donelson, Connecticut, Banning was descended from John Thurston (1750-1822) of Newport, Rhode Island. Banning attended Brown University in Providence but left school to become a draftsman and architect. On June 13, 1883, he married Isabel Thornton of Providence, originally from England. In 1910, the Banning family was enumerated in the U.S. Census in their residence at 88 Benefit Street in Providence. At that time, Lovecraft, aged twenty, was living at 598 Angell Street, about a mile and a half east of the Banning residence and on the opposite side of College Hill and the Brown University campus. Just down the street from the Banning house, at 135 Benefit Street, stood a large colonial house called the Stephen Harris Mansion. Reputed to be haunted, the house served as a model for Lovecraft's "Shunned House" from his story of the same name, written in 1924 and published in 1937. Lovecraft's aunt, Lillian Clark, lived in the house prior to his mother's death in 1921.

* * *

Like Robert Frost, Lovecraft was "one acquainted with the night":

I have walked out in the rain--and back in the rain.
I have outwalked the furthest city light.

I have looked down the saddest city lane.
I have passed by the watchman on his beat
And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain. . . .

Although he was a recluse and often on the verge of mental illness and physical and emotional collapse, Lovecraft knew his city well, walking over Providence at all hours, alone or with friends. He was an avid admirer of architecture and a thoroughgoing anglophile. He also had a strong bias in favor of old New England families like his own. The Banning family--tied to the Phillips family, that is, Lovecraft's mother's family--could no doubt have been an attraction and may even have been a distant relation through marriage. The distance to their home from his own was really no distance at all. And of course his aunt lived just a couple of blocks away, although it isn't clear to me that she lived on Benefit Street at the same time as the Banning family.

Lovecraft's story, "The Call of Cthulhu," might offer some clues as to possible connections. The second paragraph of the story begins: "Theosophists have guessed at the awesome grandeur of the cosmic cycle wherein our world and human race form transient incidents." Lovecraft mentioned theosophy in several other places in his work, and though it's unlikely he fell for its beliefs, there was probably something there for him, at least as a source of ideas, mood, or atmosphere. Bernice Banning was of course interested in theosophy, traveling halfway around the globe to study at its world headquarters. Second, Lovecraft alluded to "a widely known architect with leanings toward theosophy and occultism [who] went violently insane" at the time that Cthulhu's island crypt rose from the ocean floor. There isn't any indication that Banning was the model for Lovecraft's architect, but was there any other architect closer at hand? Finally, the narrator of "The Call of Cthulhu" is a Bostonian named Francis Wayland Thurston, the same surname as Banning's ancestor.

Edwin Thomas Banning left Providence and settled in San Diego in 1912, where he continued in his practice. At that time, Lovecraft would have been just twenty-two years old and in the depths of a personal--even existential--crisis. He may not have known or cared that the Banning family had departed. Banning is listed in Edan Hughes' Artists in California, 1786-1940, though I think only briefly. He died on May 18, 1940, in San Diego. I suspect that if Lovecraft didn't know them personally, he knew of the Banning family and would have seen them in the street, at the market, or on the streetcar. He no doubt walked by their door many times in his ramblings over that old city of Providence.

Bernice T. Banning's Story for Oriental Stories
"Finger of Kali" (Dec. 1930-Jan. 1931 or Winter 1931)

Further Reading
Girasol Collectables has reprinted the complete Oriental Stories/Magic Carpet Magazine. You'll find Bernice's story in those pages. Otherwise, I don't know of any sources for her stories or biography.

Bernice T. Banning, her passport photo from 1923.

Postscript, April 13, 2012
In reading Strange Angel: The Otherworldly Life of Rocket Scientist John Whiteside Parsons by George Pendle (2005), I have found out that Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895-1986), so-called "World Teacher" of theosophy, settled in Ojai, California, in 1922. He spent most of the rest of his life there and associated himself with other theosophists, including Rosalind Edith Williams Rajagopal (1903-1996). Rosalind founded the Happy Valley School, now the Besant Hill School of Happy Valley, in 1946, in Ojai. (The school is no doubt named after Annie Besant, the British theosophist.) I wonder if Bernice Banning and Margaret Reed followed Krishnamurti to Ojai, and if Bernice taught at Happy Valley after its founding.

Revised December 9, 2018.
Text and captions copyright 2011, 2023 Terence E. Hanley