Tag Archives: Weird Tales

Happy Birthday, Farnsworth

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Farnsworth Wright (1888-1940) was born on this date, July 29.

He was the editor of Weird Tales during what is regarded as the best years of the magazine. He was the greatest fantasy editor of the first half of the Twentieth Century, if not the whole century. The only other editor who even came close was John W. Campbell, Jr., who was the editor of Unknown/Unknown Worlds. And  as a general rule, Campbell didn’t publish the same type of fantasy as Wright.

One can argue that Dorothy McIlwraith, who tooks Farnsworth Wright’s place at the helm of Weird Tales was a more significant editor than Campbell. But that’s an argument for another post. Continue reading →

Frank Belknap Long

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Today (April 27) marks the birthday of one of the Lovecraft Circle, Frank Belknap Long (1901-1994).

Long is probably best remembered today for his Lovecraftian fiction, but he also wrote sceincde fiction as well as fantasy and weird horror. He also wrote gothic romances in the seventies under the name Lydia Belkanp Long. For those who may not be familair with this subgenre of romance, the covers usually featured a beautiful young woman with great hair, often in a night dress, running from a castle or other large structure with a sinle light high in a tower. When I was a kid, you couldn’t swing a cat without hitting one. Tastes and times have changed, and  you never see them anymore.

But I digress. Continue reading →

Kuttner

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Henry Kuttner (1915-1958) was born today, May 5. He’s been my favorite science fcition and fantasy writer ever since I read “Mimsy were the Borogoves” in The Best of Henry Kuttner the summer before I started high high school.

I was going to read and review Lands of the Earthquake (thanks for sending me a copy, Deuce), but I’ve been on the road with one of the dayjobs most of the past week. It took me all week to read “The Brood of Bubastis” for the Robert Bloch post, and I was falling asleep over the keyboard as I wrote it. So, obviously, I didn’t get to it. I’ll try to read it and post something in the next few months. Continue reading →

When a God Passes

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Today, March 5, is the birthday of Henry S,. Whitehead (1882-1932}. Whitehead wrote for Weird Tales, and if he hadn’t died so young, I believe  he would have attained a reputation, if not on par with Howard, Lovecraft, and Smith, at least only slightly less well-regarded. Whitehead lived much of his adult life in the Caribbean, and he drew on his first-hand knowledge of the iinhabitants of the region when writing his fiction. He was a popular writer in his day, and was highly regarded by Lovecraft. Unfortunately, he is almost forgotten today.

I reviewed one of his best tales, “Seven Turns in a Hangman’s Rope“, some years back. It remains one of my favorites.

Today I’m going to look at an audio edition of his story, “The Passing of a God”. I’m  on the road today, and I listened to it earlier while I was driving. There are spoilers below the fold. Continue reading →

C. L. Moore, Pioneer of Fantasy and Science Fiction

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Catherine Lucille (C. L.) Moore (1911-1987) was born in Indianapolis on this date, January 24. She is the third of three major fantasy writers whose birthdays are every other day in January. The first was A. Merritt, and the second was Robert E. Howard.  She is someone whose work should not be forgotten. If you haven’t read her work, or if it’s been a while, do yourself a favor and do so.

Like Howard, I’ve written about Moore so many times over the years that it’s becoming a challenge to come up with something  new. Work and some travel have kept me from doing much reading for the last week, so there won’t be a review of any particular story.  Forgive me if I rehash things from older posts. Continue reading →

Clark Ashton Smith and the Ballantines

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Today, as I’m writing this, it’s January 13. Or to put it another way, it’s the birthday of Clark Ashton Smith (1893-1961). I’ve been on the road since  I got off work  this morning, and only got home about forty-five minutes ago, which is why I’m posting this so late. Most of you probably won’t see it until tomorrow.

I say all that to say that I’ve not had a chance to read anything by Smith today, so I’m going to do something different. I’m going to take a brief look at the four CAS collections Lin Carter put together for the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series. That’s the Ballantine I reference in the title of the post. I’m not going to put “Adult Fantasy” in the title.

As an aside, do you have any idea what comes up if youtype “Ballantine Adult Fantasy” into a search engine? Hint: Don’t try this at work.

Continue reading →

Jesting with Kuttner

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Today, April 7, marks Henry Kuttner’s birthday (1915-1958). Kuttner is one of the most revered authors in these here parts. I’ve been in a Weird Tales kind of mood lately, probably because it the Weird Tales centennial. I’m going to try to get some posts up about that soon.

But I digress.

For today’s post, I’m going to look at one of Kuttner’s early stories for Weird Tales, “The Jest of Droom-Avista”. Kuttner was still learning  the ropes on this one, so it’s a little rough around the edges. It was first published in the August 1937 issue.

The basic plot goes like this: Continue reading →

Blogging Northwest Smith and Jirel of Joiry: “Quest of the Starstone”

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C. L. Moore

Today, January 24, is the birthday of C. L. Moore (1911-1987). She was one of the best practitioners of the weird tale, and later, mostly with her husband Henry Kuttner, of science fiction.

Today for her birthday, I’m going to look at “Quest of the Starstone”, in which Northwest Smith and Jirel meet. This story was a collaboration with her future husband, Henry Kutner. This story was originally published in the November 1937 issue of  Weird Tales. Catherine and Hank didn’t marry until 1940.

His his introduction to the story in Echoes of Valor II, Karl Edward Wagner says it was a collaboration by mail. I’m going to rely heavily on that volume and a couple of others when I look at the two remaining stories in the Northwest Smith series. “Quest of the Starstone” is the final Jirel story. Continue reading →

Ambrose Bierce’s Birthday, with a Guest Appearance by Robert E. Howard, Part 3: The Effects of Psychological Terror and Obsession

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This is a guest post by John Bullard. I apologize for taking so long to get it posted. (Family medical issues required my attention.) Take it away, John.

I didn’t get a chance to post this article up on writer, reporter, and Civil War veteran Ambrose Bierce’s actual birthdate of June 24th due to work, but better late than never. I had originally started what has become an unexpected series of only thinking about what appeared to me to be the obvious influence Ambrose Bierce’s writing had on two of Robert E. Howard’s horror stories. I later was struck by how much another Bierce story seems to have influenced another Howard story. As I finally got around to reading another Howard story that I haven’t read before, I immediately saw the influence of Bierce’s writings on it, too. I feel that with these 4 stories, I can show that Ambrose Bierce, being one of Howard’s favorite writers1, definitely played a role on some of Robert E. Howard’s horror story writing. Continue reading →

Happy Birthday Farnsworth

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Farnsworth Wright (1888-1940) was born on this date, July 29. Farnsworth, as I’m sure you all know, was editor of Weird Tales during its glory years.

I wanted to give a quick shout-out to him today since I haven’t posted much lately.I’ll post an update soon. The summer hasn’t been dull.

Next year (2023) is the centennial of Weird Tales. I’m in the planning stage for a series of posts that will run next year.

In the meantime, keep your eye out for guest posts by John Bullard and Will Oliver over the next week.