Fantasy Review Vol II No 7 February-March 1948

Fantasy Review Vol II No 7 February-March 1948

With its March issue the American Weird Tales, which pioneered the development of the supernatural story as a specialized form of popular fiction and was one of the first magazines to feature science-fantasy. celebrates a quarter century of regular publication. During that time it has published thousands of stories, of which a very high percentage remain memorable to its devoted readers and are acceptable today to a bigger audience: for no other pulp magazine has contrived to maintain such a high literary standard as was imposed by the late Farnsworth Wright. who for sixteen years occupied its editorial chair.
Much of the material which has been and is still being used in anthologies of modern weird stories originally appeared hi Weird Tales, which cradled dozens of fantasy fiction’s most popular writers. including H. P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, Edmond Hamilton, C. L.. Moore, Robert Bloch, Ray Bradbury, and many others, It has also featured the work of writers whose names, though they became familiar enough to its followers, were seldom if ever encountered in other magazines: such as Arthur William Bernal. Greye La Spina, Robert H. Leitfred, Ariton Eadle. Nietzin Dyalhla, Mary Elizabeth Counselman, and the late Robert E. Howard. Authors whose interest was and is to write for the magazine which, in spite of garish covers, had gained a following of discriminating readers interested in "the bizarre and unusual" in fiction.
Since the first issue, dated March 1923, some 240 numbers of Weird Tales have appeared; It is now in its fortieth volume. Though many scattered collections have been jealously hoarded, only a half-dozen complete files are believed to exist, and early issues are of almost fabulous value. For most of its life it has been published monthly, but of recent years has appeared only bi-monthly under the capable editorship of Dorothy McIlwraith, with Lamont Buchanan as Associate Editor. Though older renders, recalling its pre-war days, declare that. its standards have deteriorated. It still nurtures new writers and artists and. In spite of radical changes, maintains a type of render-Interest that has always been peculiarly its own.
Overleaf, Arthur F, Hillman, who has watched it with a critical eye for many years, tells the story of Weird Tales from the beginning. On behalf of its readers. FANTASY REVIEW here tenders congratulations to this unique publication on its enviable record, with the wish that it will continue to delight its devotees for many years to come.