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.
