Category Archives: Dorothy McIlwraith

Remembering Dorothy McIlwraith

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Dorothy McIlwraith

Dorothy McIlwraith (1891-1976) was born on this date, October 14. She was the editor of Weird Tales from 1940-1954, when the publication died its first “death”.

Most fans of the Unique Magazine don’t consider her tenure at the editorial helm to be as good as that of Farnsworth Wright. I’m not sure that’s a fair comparison. By the time Ms. McIlwraith took her position, the greatest three writers were gone: Howard and Lovecraft were dead, and Clark Ashton Smith had pretty much stopped writing fiction. Other writers from the 20’s and 30’s had also passed on, such as Henry S. Whitehead.

But other regulars continued to publish there, such as Seabury Quinn and Carl Jacobi. And look at some of the names that graced the covers and tables of contents in those years. Ray Bradbury. Manly Wade Wellman. Robert Bloch. August Derleth. Theodore Sturgeon. Plus Lee Brown Coye illustrated many of those issues.

Of course the tone and contents of the magazine changed with the passing of the Big Three, but things were changing anyway. That can be seen in the other pulps as well. I, for one, like what McIlwraith published in the magazine. Bradbury’s stories from Weird Tales were some of the first dark fantasy and horror that I read as a kid. There’s a lot noise these days about how women weren’t welcomed in the fields of the fantastic before [insert current Year Zero here].

As I’ve stated elsewhere in more than one place (such as here and here),  there were women in the field in the early days, and they and their achievements need to be remembered.

Margaret St. Clair’s Little Red Owl

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“The Little Red Owl”
first published in Weird Tales, July 1951
currently available in The Hole in the Moon
Dover Books
Paperback $14.95

Margaret St. Clair was born on this date, February 17, in 1911.  She passed away in 1995.

St. Clair wrote primarily short stories, with most published in the 1940s and 1950s. She also published eight novels between 1956 to 1973. In addition to writing under her own name, she published under the name of Idris Seabright. These stories appeared primarily F&SF in the 50s. Continue reading →

Of Editorial Greatness

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Earlier today I was reading a post on a site I don’t normally read these days (I was lured by the temptation of a free ebook).  The post made the argument that John Campbell was the greatest editor the science fiction and fantasy fields have seen.

That got me to thinking, which usually gets me in trouble.  I began wondering who would be the greatest editor, greater being defined as having the most impact over time.  The original post didn’t include fantasy other than a passing reference to Unknown.  So I thought I’d throw the question open to anyone who wanted to voice an opinion.  Below is a list I compiled off the top of my head.  I didn’t include any living editors.  If I had, Ellen Datlow would be on it.  My rationale is that the impact of living editors on the can’t be accurately assessed because they are still having an influence and their greatest influences may still be to come.

 

So in alphabetical order are ten editors.  I’ll provide a brief explanation as to why they have been included.  Some will be quickly eliminated.  Others, not so much. Continue reading →

Henry Kuttner’s Prince Raynor: The Citadel of Darkness

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Elak of Atlantis
Henry Kuttner
Planet Stories
$12.95, trade paperback, 224 pgs. 

This is the second and final tale of Prince Raynor that Kuttner wrote.  I don’t think it’s quite up to the standards of “Cursed be the City”, which I discussed earlier in the week.  But it’s still a good yarn.

The story opens with Raynor and his Nubian servant Eblik coming upon a dying archer in the forest.  He’s part of a group of refugees they, along with the warrior maid Delphia, had put together after the close of the previous story.  Prince Raynor’s horse had gone lame the previous day, and he and Eblik had fallen behind the group.  The archer is the only survivor except for Delphia, who has been kidnapped.  Raynor and Eblik set out in pursuit.

While waiting for the moon to rise, they are approached in the forest by an old man in a robe.  From his description, he sounds a lot like Gandalf, and his name, Ghiar, isn’t that far off.  Only this story predates The Lord of the Rings by a number of years. 

Ghiar tells them Delphia has been kidnapped by Baron Malric and gives them a talisman by which they can recover the girl.  There’s a lot of talk about the zodiac, but it’s a different zodiac from the one today.  The signs are different, and there are only seven of them.

Raynor and Eblik go to Malric’s castle and in the commotion of rescuing Delphia, Ghiar shows up and takes off with her.  Seems he needs her for a sacrifice in order to renew his youth.  Things get nicely weird when they arrive at Ghiar’s castle, which is on an island surrounded by black flowers.  Of course they’re the kind that induce sleep.  It’s only the thought of Eblik in danger that enables Raynor to overcome their effects. 

Once inside there are several fights and eventually they overcome Ghiar.  The manner is a little unconventional in that both magic and strength are used.  Ghiar’s motivation and actions don’t always make a lot of sense unless you remember his early speech about signs of the zodiac and which ones are in ascendance.

I liked the weird elements in this one, especially the battle with the serpent inside Ghiar’s castle and the consequences of that.  The black flowers were a nice touch, if not particularly original.  Both of these elements reminded me of Robert E. Howard (which is probably why I liked them).  It’s an established fact that Kuttner was influenced by Howard, and many of his early stories show the influence Howard as well as other writers in their contents.  Still, if you’re going to copy another writer, always copy from the best.

While the influence of Howard is definitely here, Kuttner by this time was too good of a writer to simply cut and paste another author’s style.  Kuttner shows a greater depth in the interactions between Raynor and Eblik than in “Cursed be the City”.  Early in the story Raynor calls him a fool and orders him about, something that would be entirely appropriate for a prince to do to a servant.  Still, when Eblik needs his aid, Raynor manages to find the motivation to save him where he wasn’t finding the motivation to save himself.

Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore

The Raynor stories were both published in Strange Stories in 1939, which implies, given the delays between composition that were common in the pulps in those days, that the first of the two had to have been written in 1938.  Kuttner was beginning to transition at this time to science fiction, where he would ultimately write in collaboration with his wife C. L. Moore some of the great classics of the field such as “Mimsy Were the Borogoves”, “The Twonky”, “The Proud Robot”, and “Vintage Season.”  Just to name a few.  We’ll look at some of these in an in-depth post I’m working on.

It’s easy, and perhaps oversimplifying things, to say that Kuttner wrote no more Prince Raynor stories because the market folded.  Strange Stories only ran for 13 issues between 1939 and 1941.  But Weird Tales was still going strong.  I’ve seen somewhere, and I don’t recall where or I would say, that Dorothy McIlwraith didn’t like the Elak stories and wouldn’t buy any when she became editor of WT.  If I’m recalling correctly, the author of that statement was offering it as speculation.

I have a different idea.  Kuttner was trying to establish a professional writing career.  Weird Tales had a reputation, much deserved, for being slow in paying.  And not always paying that well.  There were a lot more science fiction markets than there were fantasy.  Kuttner didn’t restrict himself to just fantasy and science fiction, but also wrote weird menace and mysteries, and he continued to write fantasy for a number of years, especially for Unknown.  However, he had his greatest success in science fiction.  It seems to me, and this is just speculation, that Kuttner began to focus on writing more science fiction because he could make a better living at it.  The timing of the two heroic fantasy series ending coincides with an increase in Kuttner’s science fiction output and makes the possibility one that should be considered.

“The Citadel of Darkness” ends with the three companions, Raynor, Eblik, and Delphia, riding off together, one supposes to have more adventures.  It’s a shame Kuttner never recorded them.