Railroad Magazine was a pulp magazine founded by Frank Anderson Munsey and published October 1906 to January 1979. It was the first specialized pulp magazine with stories and articles about railroads . The magazine merged with Railfan to form the new Railfan & Railroad , published by Carstens Publications beginning after the final Railroad issue in 1979.
150-453: Weird Tales is an American fantasy and horror fiction pulp magazine founded by J. C. Henneberger and J. M. Lansinger in late 1922. The first issue, dated March 1923, appeared on newsstands February 18. The first editor, Edwin Baird , printed early work by H. P. Lovecraft , Seabury Quinn , and Clark Ashton Smith , all of whom went on to be popular writers, but within a year, the magazine
300-544: A $ 25 million gift to the Metropolitan Museum of Art . In 1929, when freelance author William Edward Hayes announced he was bringing out a new railroad-oriented pulp, the Munsey Company recruited him to edit a revival of Railroad Man's Magazine . Upon the abrupt departure of the editor in chief in 1930, Freeman H. Hubbard took over the post, yet was uncredited on the masthead for many years. In 1932,
450-643: A bank failure froze most of the magazine's cash. Henneberger changed the schedule to bimonthly, starting with the February/March 1931 issue; six months later, with the August 1931 issue, the monthly schedule returned. Two years later Weird Tales ' bank was still having financial problems, and payment to authors was being substantially delayed. The Depression also hit the Hall Printing Company, which Henneberger had been hoping would take over
600-430: A cancelled subscription from a Klan member. Price later recalled Wright's response: "a story that arouses controversy is good for circulation ... and anyway it would be worth a reasonable loss to rap bigots of that caliber". Wright also printed George Fielding Eliot 's "The Copper Bowl", a story about a young woman being tortured; she dies when her torturer forces a rat to eat through her body. Weinberg suggests that
750-461: A city in the clouds with the birds and challenges Zeus 's authority. Ovid 's Metamorphoses and Apuleius 's The Golden Ass are both works that influenced the development of the fantasy genre by taking mythic elements and weaving them into personal accounts. Both works involve complex narratives in which humans beings are transformed into animals or inanimate objects. Platonic teachings and early Christian theology are major influences on
900-690: A feudal society hindering the modernization of China. Stories of the supernatural continued to be denounced once the Communists rose to power, and mainland China experienced a revival in fantasy only after the Cultural Revolution had ended. Fantasy became a genre of pulp magazines published in the West. In 1923, the first all-fantasy fiction magazine, Weird Tales , was published. Many other similar magazines eventually followed, including The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction ; when it
1050-546: A few books and published periodicals and newspapers in many cities. At the time that Munsey founded The Railroad Man's Magazine , the first offices were located in the Flatiron Building in New York City and there was no organized railroad enthusiast movement. Initially the magazine was targeted towards railroaders and retirees. Fictionalized stories of working on the railroad became the cornerstone of
1200-682: A few years later, and the story eventually appeared in April 1932. Wright also rejected Lovecraft's " Through the Gates of the Silver Key " in mid-1933. Price had revised the story before passing it to Wright, and after Wright and Price discussed the story, Wright bought it, in November of that year. Wright turned down Lovecraft's novel At the Mountains of Madness in 1935, though in this case it
1350-517: A final agreement had not yet been reached with Weinberg over licensing. Only 12,500 copies were printed; these were sent to two distributors who both went into bankruptcy. As a result, few copies were sold, and Forbes was not paid by the distributors. Despite the financial setback, Forbes attempted to continue, and a second issue eventually appeared. Its cover date was Winter 1985 but it was not published until June 1986. Few copies were printed; reports vary between 1,500 and 2,300 in total. Mark Monsolo
1500-634: A group of writers as regulars, including Long and La Spina, and published many stories by writers who would be closely associated with the magazine for the next decade and more. In April 1925, Nictzin Dyalhis 's first story, "When the Green Star Waned", appeared; although Weinberg regards it as very dated, it was highly regarded at the time, Wright listing it in 1933 as the most popular story to appear in Weird Tales . That issue also contained
1650-564: A large audience. Lord Dunsany established the genre's popularity in both the novel and the short story form. H. Rider Haggard , Rudyard Kipling , and Edgar Rice Burroughs began to write fantasy at this time. These authors, along with Abraham Merritt , established what was known as the "lost world" subgenre, which was the most popular form of fantasy in the early decades of the 20th century, although several classic children's fantasies, such as Peter Pan and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz , were also published around this time. Juvenile fantasy
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#17327978314601800-467: A letters column, titled "The Eyrie", for most of its existence, and during Wright's time as editor it was usually filled with long and detailed letters. When Brundage's nude covers appeared, a lengthy debate over whether they were suitable for the magazine was fought out in the Eyrie, the two sides being divided about equally. For years it was the most discussed topic in the magazine's letter column. Many of
1950-471: A main plot element, theme , or setting . Magic, magic practitioners ( sorcerers , witches and so on) and magical creatures are common in many of these worlds. An identifying trait of fantasy is the author's use of narrative elements that do not have to rely on history or nature to be coherent. This differs from realistic fiction in that realistic fiction has to attend to the history and natural laws of reality, where fantasy does not. In writing fantasy
2100-437: A mention of necrophilia . According to Eddy, this led to the magazine being removed from the newsstands in several cities, and beneficial publicity for the magazine, helping sales, but in his history of Weird Tales Robert Weinberg reports that he found no evidence of the magazine being banned, and the financial state of the magazine implies there was no benefit to sales either. S. T. Joshi, Lovecraft's biographer, contends that
2250-412: A new style of "fuzzy" supernatural texts. The fantastic is on the dividing line between supernatural and not supernatural, Just as during this time period the women were not respecting the boundary of inequality that had always been set for them. At the time, women's roles in society were very uncertain, just as the rules of the fantastic are never straightforward. This climate allowed for a genre similar to
2400-721: A regular cover artist for Weird Tales starting with the December 1935 issue. Demand from readers for Finlay's artwork was so high that in 1938 Wright commissioned a series of illustrations from Finlay for lines taken from famous poems, such as "O sweet and far, from cliff and scar/The horns of Elfland faintly blowing", from Tennyson's " The Princess ". Not every artist was as successful as Brundage and Finlay: Price suggested that Curtis Senf , who painted 45 covers early in Wright's tenure, "was one of Sprenger's bargains", meaning that he produced poor art, but worked fast for low rates. During
2550-479: A regular quarterly schedule was maintained for the next four and a half years. Sales were weak, never rising above 6,000 copies, and DNA began to experience financial difficulties. Wildside Press, owned by John Betancourt, joined DNA and Terminus Publishing as co-publisher, starting with the July/August 2003 issue, and Weird Tales returned to a mostly regular schedule for a few months. A long hiatus ended with
2700-684: A revamp of Weird Tales , naming Stephen H. Segal the editorial and creative director and later recruiting Ann VanderMeer as the new fiction editor. In January 2010, the magazine announced Segal was leaving the top editorial post to become an editor at Quirk Books . VanderMeer was elevated to editor-in-chief, Mary Robinette Kowal joined the staff as art director and Segal became senior contributing editor. On August 23, 2011, John Betancourt announced that Wildside Press would be selling Weird Tales to Marvin Kaye and John Harlacher of Nth Dimension Media. Marvin Kaye took over chief editorial duties. Issue 359,
2850-442: A series of high fantasy stories, many of which were part of his Hyperborean cycle . Robert Bloch , later to become well known as the writer of the movie Psycho , began publishing stories in Weird Tales in 1935; he was a fan of Lovecraft's work, and asked Lovecraft's permission to include Lovecraft as a character in one of his stories, and to kill the character off. Lovecraft gave him permission, and reciprocated by killing off
3000-613: A single source. The Welsh tradition has been particularly influential, due to its connection to King Arthur and its collection in a single work, the epic Mabinogion . There are many works where the boundary between fantasy and other works is not clear; the question of whether the writers believed in the possibilities of the marvels in A Midsummer Night's Dream or Sir Gawain and the Green Knight makes it difficult to distinguish when fantasy, in its modern sense, first began. Although pre-dated by John Ruskin 's The King of
3150-605: A story for him using a plot supplied by Houdini. The story, " Imprisoned with the Pharaohs ", appeared under Houdini's name in the May/June/July 1924 issue, though it was nearly lost—Lovecraft left the typed manuscript on the train he took to New York to get married, and as a result spent much of his wedding day retyping the manuscript from the longhand copy he still had. The May/June/July 1924 issue included another story: " The Loved Dead ", by C. M. Eddy Jr. which included
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#17327978314603300-413: A thinly disguised version of Bloch in one of his own stories not long afterward. Edmond Hamilton, a leading early writer of space opera , became a regular, and Wright also published science fiction stories by J. Schlossel and Otis Adelbert Kline. Tennessee Williams ' first sale was to Weird Tales , with a short story titled " The Vengeance of Nitocris ". This was published in the August 1928 issue under
3450-423: A weak challenge from Ghost Stories , all between the late 1920s and the early 1930s, Weird Tales had little competition for most of Wright's sixteen years as editor. In the early 1930s, a series of pulp magazines began to appear that became known as " weird menace " magazines. These lasted until the end of the decade, but despite the name there was little overlap in subject matter between them and Weird Tales :
3600-458: A while he was the most popular writer in the magazine. Other regular contributors included Paul Ernst , David H. Keller , Greye La Spina, Hugh B. Cave , and Frank Owen, who wrote fantasies set in an imaginary version of the Far East. C.L. Moore 's story " Shambleau ", her first sale, appeared in Weird Tales in November 1933; Price visited the Weird Tales offices shortly after Wright read
3750-419: A while, at two separate addresses, but moved to Chicago toward the end of 1926. After a short period on North Broadway , the office moved to 840 North Michigan Avenue , where it would remain until 1938. In 1927, Popular Fiction Publishing issued Birch's The Moon Terror , one of Weird Tales ' more popular serials, as a hardcover book, including three other stories from the magazine's first year. One of
3900-674: A wide audience, with the success of Robert E. Howard 's Conan the Barbarian and Fritz Leiber 's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories. However, it was the advent of high fantasy , and most of all J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings , which reached new heights of popularity in the late 1960s, that allowed fantasy to truly enter the mainstream . Several other series, such as C. S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia and Ursula K. Le Guin 's Earthsea books, helped cement
4050-570: A year he announced that there would be no more of them. In 1939 two more serious threats appeared, both launched to compete directly for Weird Tales ' readers. Strange Stories appeared in February 1939 and lasted for just over two years; Weinberg describes it as "top-quality", though Ashley is less complimentary, describing it as largely unoriginal and imitative. The following month the first issue of Unknown appeared from Street & Smith. Fritz Leiber submitted several of his " Fafhrd and
4200-624: Is One Thousand and One Nights (Arabian Nights) , which is a compilation of many ancient and medieval folk tales. Various characters from this epic have become cultural icons in Western culture, such as Aladdin , Sinbad and Ali Baba . Hindu mythology was an evolution of the earlier Vedic mythology and had many more fantastical stories and characters, particularly in the Indian epics . The Panchatantra ( Fables of Bidpai ), for example, used various animal fables and magical tales to illustrate
4350-417: Is a genre of speculative fiction which involves themes of the supernatural , magic , and imaginary worlds and creatures . Its roots are in oral traditions, which became fantasy literature and drama. From the twentieth century, it has expanded further into various media, including film , television , graphic novels , manga , animations , and video games . The expression fantastic literature
4500-726: Is also often used to refer to this genre by the Anglophone literary critics. An archaic spelling for the term is phantasy . Fantasy is distinguished from the genres of science fiction and horror by the absence of scientific or macabre themes, although these can occur in fantasy. In popular culture , the fantasy genre predominantly features settings that emulate Earth, but with a sense of otherness. In its broadest sense, however, fantasy consists of works by many writers, artists, filmmakers, and musicians from ancient myths and legends to many recent and popular works. Many works of fantasy use magic or other supernatural elements as
4650-558: Is now regarded by magazine historians as having been the start of the pulp magazine era. For years, pulp magazines were successful without restricting their fiction content to any specific genre, but in 1906, Munsey launched Railroad Man's Magazine , the first title that focused on a particular niche. Other titles that specialized in particular fiction genres followed, starting in 1915 with Detective Story Magazine , with Western Story Magazine following in 1919. Weird fiction , science fiction, and fantasy all appeared frequently in
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4800-632: The Epic of Gilgamesh . The ancient Babylonian creation epic, the Enûma Eliš , in which the god Marduk slays the goddess Tiamat , contains the theme of a cosmic battle between good and evil, which is characteristic of the modern fantasy genre. Genres of romantic and fantasy literature existed in ancient Egypt. The Tales of the Court of King Khufu , which is preserved in the Westcar Papyrus and
4950-521: The Elder Edda and the Younger Edda , includes such figures as Odin and his fellow Aesir , and dwarves , elves , dragons , and giants . These elements have been directly imported into various fantasy works. The separate folklore of Ireland, Wales, and Scotland has sometimes been used indiscriminately for "Celtic" fantasy, sometimes with great effect; other writers have specified the use of
5100-474: The "disgusting side". McIlwraith continued to publish many of Weird Tales' most popular authors, including Quinn, Derleth, Hamilton, Bloch, and Manly Wade Wellman . She also added new contributors, including Ray Bradbury . Weird Tales regularly featured Fredric Brown , Mary Elizabeth Counselman , Fritz Leiber , and Theodore Sturgeon . As Wright had done, McIlwraith continued to buy Lovecraft stories submitted by August Derleth, though she abridged some of
5250-471: The 1930s, Brundage's rate for a cover painting was $ 90. Finlay received $ 100 for his first cover, which appeared in 1937, over a year after his first interior illustrations were used; Weinberg suggests that the higher fee was partly to cover postage, since Brundage lived in Chicago and delivered her artwork in person, but it was also because Brundage's popularity was beginning to decline. When Delaney acquired
5400-426: The Barbarian stories in the magazine, and Seabury Quinn's series of stories about Jules de Grandin , a detective who specialized in cases involving the supernatural, was very popular with the readers. Other well-liked authors included Nictzin Dyalhis , E. Hoffmann Price , Robert Bloch , and H. Warner Munn . Wright published some science fiction , along with the fantasy and horror, partly because when Weird Tales
5550-516: The December 2004 issue, which appeared in early 2005; this was the last issue under the arrangement with DNA. Wildside Press then bought Weird Tales , and Betancourt again joined Scithers and Schweitzer as co-editor. The first Wildside Press edition appeared in September 2005, and starting with the following issue, dated February 2006, the magazine was able to stay on a more or less bimonthly schedule for some time. In early 2007, Wildside announced
5700-562: The February 1928 issue. This was the first tale of the Cthulhu Mythos , a fictional universe in which Lovecraft set several stories. Over time other writers began to contribute their own stories with the same shared background, including Frank Belknap Long, August Derleth, E. Hoffmann Price , and Donald Wandrei . Robert E. Howard and Clark Ashton Smith were friends of Lovecraft's, but did not contribute Cthulhu stories; instead Howard wrote sword and sorcery fiction, and Smith produced
5850-600: The Golden River (1841), the history of modern fantasy literature is usually said to begin with George MacDonald , the Scottish author of such novels as Phantastes (1858) and The Princess and the Goblin (1872); the former is widely considered to be the first fantasy novel ever written for adults. MacDonald was a major influence on both J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis . The other major fantasy author of this era
6000-595: The Gray Mouser " stories to Wright, but Wright rejected all of them (as did McIlwraith when she took over the editorship). Leiber subsequently sold them all to John W. Campbell for Unknown; Campbell commented each time to Leiber that "these would be better in Weird Tales ". The stories grew into a very popular sword and sorcery series, but none of them ever appeared in Weird Tales . Leiber did eventually sell several stories to Weird Tales , beginning with "The Automatic Pistol", which appeared in May 1940. Weird Tales included
6150-534: The May 1923 issue, and "Lucifer" by John Swain, from the November 1923 issue, as memorable, and comments that " The Rats in the Walls ", in the March 1924 issue, was one of Lovecraft's finest stories. Baird is also credited with discovering and encouraging Lovecraft. It was Henneberger who came up with another idea involving Lovecraft: Henneberger contacted Harry Houdini and made arrangements to have Lovecraft ghost-write
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6300-592: The RPG products sold in 2005. The science fantasy role-playing game series Final Fantasy has been an icon of the role-playing video game genre (as of 2012 it was still among the top ten best-selling video game franchises ). The first collectible card game , Magic: The Gathering , has a fantasy theme and is similarly dominant in the industry. Fantasy encompasses numerous subgenres characterized by particular themes or settings, or by an overlap with other literary genres or forms of speculative fiction. They include
6450-689: The Rings film trilogy directed by Peter Jackson , and the Harry Potter films, two of the highest-grossing film series in cinematic history. Fantasy role-playing games cross several different media. Dungeons & Dragons was the first tabletop role-playing game and remains the most successful and influential. According to a 1999 survey in the United States , 6% of 12- to 35-year-olds have played role-playing games. Of those who play regularly, two thirds play D&D . Products branded Dungeons & Dragons made up over fifty percent of
6600-476: The Supernatural in the 1890s and 1920s , Lizzie Harris McCormick, Jennifer Mitchell, and Rebecca Soares describe how the social climate in the 1890s and 1920s allowed for a new era of "fantastic" literature to grow. Women were finally exploring the new freedoms given to them and were quickly becoming equals in society. The fear of the new women in society, paired with their growing roles, allowed them to create
6750-505: The air of uncertainty in its narratives as described by Todorov. Jackson also introduces the idea of reading the fantastic through a psychoanalytical lens, referring primarily to Freud's theory of the unconscious, which she believes is integral to understanding the fantastic's connection to the human psyche. There are however additional ways to view the fantastic, and often these differing perspectives come from differing social climates. In their introduction to The Female Fantastic: Gender and
6900-450: The atmosphere one would expect from a horror magazine. All the illustrations were by Heitman, whom Weinberg describes as "... notable for his complete lack of imagination. Heitman's specialty was taking the one scene in a frightening story that featured nothing at all frightening or weird and illustrating that". The new editor, Farnsworth Wright, was much more willing than Baird had been to publish stories that did not fit into any of
7050-438: The author uses worldbuilding to create characters, situations, and settings that may not be possible in reality. Many fantasy authors use real-world folklore and mythology as inspiration; and although another defining characteristic of the fantasy genre is the inclusion of supernatural elements, such as magic, this does not have to be the case. Fantasy has often been compared to science fiction and horror because they are
7200-613: The author's real name, Thomas Lanier Williams. Weird Tales ' subtitle was "The Unique Magazine", and Wright's story selections were as varied as the subtitle promised; he was willing to print strange or bizarre stories with no hint of the fantastic if they were unusual enough to fit in the magazine. Although Wright's editorial standards were broad, and although he personally disliked the restrictions that convention placed on what he could publish, he did exercise caution when presented with material that might offend his readership. E. Hoffmann Price records that his story "Stranger from Kurdistan"
7350-468: The authors Wright published wrote letters too, including Lovecraft, Howard, Kuttner, Bloch, Smith, Quinn, Wellman, Price, and Wandrei. In most cases these letters praised the magazine, but occasionally a critical comment was raised, as when Bloch repeatedly expressed his dislike for Howard's stories of Conan the Barbarian, referring to him as "Conan the Cimmerian Chipmunk". Another debate that
7500-440: The average sales were 18,000 copies per issue, well short of the 23,000 that would have been needed for the magazine to survive. The fourth issue, dated Summer 1974, was the last, as Margulies closed down all his magazines except for Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine , which was the only one that was making a profit. Mike Ashley , a science fiction magazine historian, records that Moskowitz was unwilling to continue in any case, as he
7650-413: The best known artist. Many of Brundage's covers were for stories by Seabury Quinn, and Brundage later commented that once Quinn realized that Wright always commissioned covers from Brundage that included a nude, "he made sure that each de Grandin story had at least one sequence where the heroine shed all her clothes". For over three years in the early 1930s, from June 1933 to August/September 1936, Brundage
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#17327978314607800-406: The bizarre, and the outré" because of the likelihood of rejection by existing markets. He added "I must confess that the main motive in establishing Weird Tales was to give the writer free rein to express his innermost feelings in a manner befitting great literature", but it is unlikely any of these authors promised to submit anything to Henneberger. Edwin Baird, the first editor of Weird Tales ,
7950-591: The central Indian principles of political science . Chinese traditions have been particularly influential in the vein of fantasy known as Chinoiserie , including such writers as Ernest Bramah and Barry Hughart . Beowulf is among the best known of the Old English tales in the English speaking world, and has had deep influence on the fantasy genre; several fantasy works have retold the tale, such as John Gardner 's Grendel . Norse mythology , as found in
8100-644: The circular effect that all fantasy works, even the later The Lord of the Rings , were therefore classified as children's literature . Political and social trends can affect a society's reception towards fantasy. In the early 20th century, the New Culture Movement 's enthusiasm for Westernization and science in China compelled them to condemn the fantastical shenmo genre of traditional Chinese literature. The spells and magical creatures of these novels were viewed as superstitious and backward, products of
8250-646: The convention. The first WFC was held in 1975 and it has occurred every year since. The convention is held at a different city each year. Additionally, many science fiction conventions, such as Florida's FX Show and MegaCon , cater to fantasy and horror fans. Anime conventions, such as Ohayocon or Anime Expo frequently feature showings of fantasy, science fantasy, and dark fantasy series and films, such as Majutsushi Orphen (fantasy), Sailor Moon (urban fantasy), Berserk (dark fantasy), and Spirited Away (fantasy). Many science fiction/fantasy and anime conventions also strongly feature or cater to one or more of
8400-400: The debt from Cornelius; Robert Eastman, the owner of Hall, at one point was unable to meet payroll. Eastman died in 1932, and with him went Henneberger's plans for recovering control of Weird Tales . The magazine advertised in the early science fiction pulps, usually highlighting one of the more science-fictional stories. Often the advertised story was by Edmond Hamilton , who was popular in
8550-469: The difference of critical traditions of each country have led to controversies such as the one led by Stanislaw Lem . Rosemary Jackson builds onto and challenges as well Todorov's definition of the fantastic in her 1981 nonfiction book Fantasy: The Literature of Subversion . Jackson rejects the notion of the fantastic genre as a simple vessel for wish fulfillment that transcends human reality in worlds presented as superior to our own, instead positing that
8700-404: The earlier issues of Weird Tales had been extensively mined for reprints by August Derleth's publishing venture, Arkham House , and as a result McIlwraith often reprinted lesser-known stories. They were not advertised as reprints, which led in a couple of cases to letters from readers asking for more stories from H. P. Lovecraft, whom they believed to be a new author. Fantasy Fantasy
8850-483: The early 1930s, commented on "The Eyrie" in a letter to a fellow writer: "No other magazine makes such a point of discussing past stories, and letting the authors know how their stuff is received". McIlwraith was an experienced magazine editor, but she knew little about weird fiction, and unlike Wright she also had to face real competition from other magazines for Weird Tales ' core readership. Although Unknown folded in 1943, in its four years of existence it transformed
9000-445: The editor of Detective Tales , to edit Weird Tales ; Farnsworth Wright was first reader , and Otis Adelbert Kline also worked on the magazine, assisting Baird. Payment rates were low, usually between a quarter and a half cent per word; the budget went up to one cent per word for the most popular writers. Sales were initially poor, and Henneberger soon decided to change the format from the standard pulp size to large pulp , to make
9150-517: The editorial director. Issue #363-367 (2019-2023) became available to purchase at the Weird Tales website. Henneberger gave Weird Tales the subtitle "The Unique Magazine" from the first issue. Henneberger had been hoping for submissions of "off-trail", or unusual, material. He later recalled talking to three well-known Chicago writers, Hamlin Garland , Emerson Hough , and Ben Hecht , each of whom had said they avoided writing stories of "fantasy,
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#17327978314609300-507: The end of the 1920s he was unable to sign his name, and by the late 1930s Bill Sprenger was helping him get to work and back home. The first issue with Wright as editor was dated November 1924, and the magazine immediately resumed a regular monthly schedule, the format changing back to pulp again. The pay rate was initially low, with a cap of half a cent per word until 1926, when the top rate was increased to one cent per word. Some of Popular Fiction Publishing's debts were paid off over time, and
9450-401: The existing pulp categories. Ashley describes Wright as "erratic" in his selections, but under his guidance the magazine steadily improved in quality. His first issue, November 1924, was little better than those edited by Baird, although it included two stories by new writers, Frank Belknap Long and Greye La Spina , who became popular contributors. Over the following year, Wright established
9600-514: The fantastic is a liminal space , characterized by the intrusion of supernatural elements into the realistic framework of a story, accompanied by uncertainty about their existence. However, this precise definition is not the predominant one in English critical literature, and the French term fantastique is used to differentiate the French concept from the broader English term of fantastic, synonym of fantasy. The restrictive definition of Todorov and
9750-429: The fantastic represents the unspoken desire for greater societal change. Jackson criticizes Todorov's theory as being too limited in scope, examining only the literary function of the fantastic, and expands his structuralist theory to fit a more cultural study of the genre—which, incidentally, she proposes is not a genre at all, but a mode that draws upon literary elements of both realistic and supernatural fiction to create
9900-554: The fantasy publisher Tor Books , men outnumber women by 67% to 33% among writers of historical, epic or high fantasy. But among writers of urban fantasy or paranormal romance, 57% are women and 43% are men. Fantasy is studied in a number of disciplines including English and other language studies, cultural studies , comparative literature , history and medieval studies . Some works make political, historical and literary connections between medievalism and popular culture. French literature theorists as Tzvetan Todorov argues that
10050-426: The field of fantasy and horror, and Weird Tales was no longer regarded as the leader in its field. Unknown published many successful humorous fantasy stories, and McIlwraith responded by including some humorous material, but Weird Tales ' rates were less than Unknown 's , with predictable effects on quality. In 1940 the policy of reprinting horror and weird classics ceased, and Weird Tales began using
10200-739: The first instalment of La Spina's novel Invaders from the Dark , which Baird had rejected as "too commonplace". It proved to be extremely popular with readers, and Weinberg comments that Baird's rejection was "just one of the many mistakes made by the earlier editor". Arthur J. Burks , who would go on to be a very successful pulp writer, appeared under both his real name and under a pseudonym, used for his first sale, in January 1925. Robert Spencer Carr 's first story appeared in March 1925; H. Warner Munn 's "The Werewolf of Ponkert" appeared in July 1925, and in
10350-404: The first issue of Weird Tales , Rural switched to a cheaper printer, but it meant that the magazine began at a financial disadvantage. The magazine lost a considerable amount of money under Baird's editorship: after thirteen issues, the total debt was over $ 40,000 and perhaps as much as $ 60,000. In the meantime, Detective Tales had been retitled Real Detective Tales and was making a profit, as
10500-455: The first issue was "Ooze", by Anthony M. Rud ; there was also the first installment of a serial, "The Thing of A Thousand Shapes", by Otis Adelbert Kline, and 22 other stories. Ashley suggests that the better pulp writers from whom Baird did manage to acquire material, such as Francis Stevens and Austin Hall, were sending Baird stories which had already been rejected elsewhere. In the middle of
10650-457: The first time, women started to possess more masculine or queer qualities without it becoming as much of an issue. The fantastic during this time period reflects these new ideas by breaking parallel boundaries in the supernatural. The fantastic breaks this boundary by having the readers never truly know whether or not the story is supernatural. Railroad Magazine Frank Munsey (b. Maine, 1854) moved to New York City in 1892, where he authored
10800-480: The first under the new publishers, was published in late February 2012. Some months before the release of issue 359, a special World Fantasy Convention preview issue was given away for free to interested attendees. Four issues then appeared, with issue #362 published in Spring of 2014. On August 14, 2019, the official Weird Tales Facebook magazine announced the return of Weird Tales with author Jonathan Maberry as
10950-429: The following year Lovecraft died. There was so much unpublished work by Lovecraft that Wright was able to use that he printed more material under Lovecraft's byline after his death than before. In Howard's case, there was no such trove of stories available, but other writers such as Henry Kuttner provided similar material. By the end of Wright's tenure as editor, many of the writers who had become strongly associated with
11100-536: The following: In her 2008 book Rhetorics of Fantasy , Farah Mendlesohn proposes the following taxonomy of fantasy, as "determined by the means by which the fantastic enters the narrated world", while noting that there are fantasies that fit none of the patterns: Publishers, editors, authors, artists, and scholars with interest in the fantasy genre get together yearly at the World Fantasy Convention . The World Fantasy Awards are presented at
11250-451: The format to digest with the September 1953 issue, but there was to be no reprieve. In 1954, Weird Tales and Short Stories ceased publication; in both cases the last issue was dated September 1954. For Weird Tales , the September 1954 issue was its 279th. In the mid-1950s, Leo Margulies , a well-known figure in the magazine publishing world, launched a new company, Renown Publications, with plans to publish several titles. He acquired
11400-513: The fourth issue was already in the works and finally appeared with a date of Summer 1983. In 1982 Sheldon Jaffery and Roy Torgeson met with Weinberg to propose taking over as licensees, but Weinberg decided not to pursue the offer. The following year, Brian Forbes approached Weinberg with another offer. Forbes' company, the Bellerophon Network, was an imprint of a Los Angeles company named The Wizard. Ashley reports that Weinberg
11550-528: The genre is inseparable from real life, particularly the social and cultural contexts within which each work of the fantastic is produced. She writes that the "unreal" elements of fantastic literature are created only in direct contrast to the boundaries set by its time period's "cultural order", acting to illuminate the unseen limitations of said boundaries by undoing and recompiling the very structures which define society into something "strange" and "apparently new". In subverting these societal norms, Jackson claims,
11700-633: The genre's popularity. The popularity of the fantasy genre has continued to increase in the 21st century, as evidenced by the best-selling status of J. K. Rowling 's Harry Potter series, Robert Jordan 's The Wheel of Time series, George R. R. Martin 's Song of Ice and Fire series, Steven Erikson 's Malazan Book of the Fallen sweeping epic, Brandon Sanderson 's The Stormlight Archive series and Mistborn series, and A. Sapkowski 's The Witcher saga. Several fantasy film adaptations have achieved blockbuster status, most notably The Lord of
11850-460: The highest pay rate eventually rose to one and a half cents per word. The magazine's cover price was high for the time. Robert Bloch recalled that "in the late Twenties and Thirties of this century...at a time when most pulp periodicals sold for a dime, its price was a quarter". Although Popular Fiction Publishing continued to be based in Chicago, the editorial offices were in Indianapolis for
12000-401: The history of science fiction and fantasy art, made his first sale to Wright in 1935; Wright only bought one interior illustration from Finlay at that time because he was concerned that Finlay's delicate technique would not reproduce well on pulp paper. After a test print on pulp stock demonstrated that the reproduction was more than adequate, Wright began to buy regularly from Finlay, who became
12150-499: The imagination reservoir of all U.S. (and many non-U.S.) genre-fantasy and horror writers is part of the spirit of Weird Tales ". In the late 19th century, popular magazines typically did not print fiction to the exclusion of other content; they would include nonfiction articles and poetry, as well. In October 1896, Frank A. Munsey Company's Argosy magazine was the first to switch to printing only fiction, and in December of that year, it changed to using cheap wood-pulp paper. This
12300-411: The job. Henneberger offered ten weeks advance pay, but made it a condition that Lovecraft move to Chicago, where the magazine was headquartered. Lovecraft described Henneberger's plans in a letter to Frank Belknap Long as "a brand-new magazine to cover the field of Poe-Machen shudders". Lovecraft did not wish to leave New York, where he had recently moved with his new bride; his dislike of cold weather
12450-537: The longer pieces, such as " The Shadow over Innsmouth ". Sword and sorcery stories, a genre which Howard had made much more popular with his stories of Conan, Solomon Kane and Bran Mak Morn in Weird Tales in the early 1930s, had continued to appear under Farnsworth Wright; they all but disappeared during McIlwraith's tenure. McIlwraith also focused more on short fiction, and serials and long stories were rare. In May 1951 Weird Tales once again began to include reprints, in an attempt to reduce costs, but by that time
12600-504: The magazine in late 1938, the fee for a cover painting was cut to $ 50, and in Weinberg's opinion the quality of the artwork declined immediately. Nudes no longer appeared, though it is not known if this was a deliberate policy on Delaney's part. In 1939 a campaign by Fiorello LaGuardia , the mayor of New York, to eliminate sex from the pulps led to milder covers, and this may also have had an effect. In 1936, Howard committed suicide, and
12750-430: The magazine lived up to its subtitle, "The Unique Magazine", and published a wide range of unusual fiction. Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos stories first appeared in Weird Tales , starting with " The Call of Cthulhu " in 1928. These were well-received, and a group of writers associated with Lovecraft wrote other stories set in the same milieu. Robert E. Howard was a regular contributor, and published several of his Conan
12900-431: The magazine more visible. This had little long-term effect on sales, though the first issue at the new size, dated May 1923, was the only one that first year to sell out completely—probably because it contained the first instalment of a popular serial, The Moon Terror , by A.G. Birch. Even before the launch, Rural had incurred higher than expected costs from the printer for the first few issues of Detective Tales . After
13050-416: The magazine remained in financial trouble, issues becoming irregular over the next couple of years. The Summer 1993 issue was the last to have a hardcover edition; it was also the last, for a while, to bear the name Weird Tales , as Weinberg did not renew the license. The magazine was retitled Worlds of Fantasy & Horror , and the volume numbering was restarted at volume 1 number 1, but in every other way
13200-410: The magazine thicker, but this failed to increase sales. In September 1939 the page count went down to 128, and the price was cut from 25 cents to 15 cents. From January 1940 the frequency was reduced to bimonthly, a change which stayed in effect until the end of the magazine's run fourteen years later. None of these changes had the intended effect, and sales continued to languish. In March 1940, Wright
13350-494: The magazine was indeed removed from newsstands in Indiana, but according to John Locke, a magazine historian, the suggestion that there was ever a public reaction to the story is a misinterpretation of comments made by Lovecraft about the story. The cover art during Baird's tenure was dull; Ashley calls it "unattractive", and Weinberg describes the color scheme of the first issue's cover as "less than inspired", though he considers
13500-575: The magazine was unchanged, and the four issues under this title, issued between 1994 and 1996, are regarded by bibliographers as part of the overall Weird Tales run. In April 1995, HBO announced they had plans to turn Weird Tales into a three-episode anthology show similar to their Tales from the Crypt series. The deal for the rights was facilitated by screenwriters Mark Patrick Carducci and Peter Atkins. Directors Tim Burton , Francis Ford Coppola , and Oliver Stone were executive producers, and each
13650-407: The magazine were gone; Kuttner, and others such as Price and Moore, were still writing, but Weird Tales' rates were too low to attract submissions from them. Clark Ashton Smith had stopped writing, and two other writers who were well-liked, G.G. Pendarves and Henry Whitehead , had died. Except for a couple of short-lived magazines such as Strange Tales and Tales of Magic and Mystery , and
13800-643: The magazine, starting in 1973. The longest-lasting version began in 1988 and ran with an occasional hiatus for over 20 years under an assortment of publishers. In the mid-1990s, the title was changed to Worlds of Fantasy and Horror because of licensing issues, the original title returning in 1998. The magazine is regarded by historians of fantasy and science fiction as a legend in the field, Robert Weinberg considering it "the most important and influential of all fantasy magazines". Weinberg's fellow historian, Mike Ashley , describes it as "second only to Unknown in significance and influence", adding that "somewhere in
13950-415: The major categories of speculative fiction . Fantasy is distinguished from science fiction by the plausibility of the narrative elements. A science fiction narrative is unlikely, though seemingly possible through logical scientific or technological extrapolation, where fantasy narratives do not need to be scientifically possible. Authors have to rely on the readers' suspension of disbelief , an acceptance of
14100-571: The manuscript for it, and recalls that Wright was so enthusiastic about the story that he closed the office, declaring it "C.L. Moore day". The story was very well received by readers, and Moore's work, including her stories about Jirel of Joiry and Northwest Smith , appeared almost exclusively in Weird Tales over the next three years. As well as fiction, Wright printed a substantial amount of poetry, with at least one poem included in most issues. Originally this often included reprints of poems such as Edgar Allan Poe 's " El Dorado ", but soon most of
14250-449: The masthead of the combined publication. As successor, White River Productions retains the copyright on all Railroad Magazine content and trademarks. In 2015, Bold Venture Press began issuing authorized reprints of stories selected from Railroad Stories . These editions collect stories according to themes such as authors, series characters, or serialized novels. These volumes also reprint illustrated features such as Joe Easley's "Along
14400-437: The material he put together, and is as much in the dark as everybody else. Lamont says that he is still renegotiating his contract and is not sure where he stands". The original plan was for the first issue to appear in August 1984, dated July/August, but before it appeared the decision was taken to change the contents, and a new, completely reset issue finally appeared at the end of the year, dated Fall 1984. Even with this delay
14550-510: The modern fantasy genre. Plato used allegories to convey many of his teachings, and early Christian writers interpreted both the Old and New Testaments as employing parables to relay spiritual truths. This ability to find meaning in a story that is not literally true became the foundation that allowed the modern fantasy genre to develop. The most well known fiction from the Islamic world
14700-467: The new company was William (Bill) Sprenger, who had been working for Rural Publishing. Henneberger had hopes of eventually refinancing the debt with the help of another printer, Hall Printing Company, owned by Robert Eastman, though it is not known when Eastman and Henneberger discussed the possibility. Baird stayed with Lansinger, so Henneberger wrote to H. P. Lovecraft , who had sold some stories to Weird Tales , to see if he would be interested in taking
14850-533: The new magazine, along with profiles of current and historic railroad operations around the country. As a boy, the author H.P. Lovecraft is known to have read the entire run of the magazine, from cover to cover. The magazine was published under different names and formats throughout its history. In 1919, it merged with Argosy which became Argosy and Railroad Man's Magazine for a brief period before reverting to Argosy , thus killing Railroad Man's Magazine . In 1925, magazine founder Frank Munsey had died, leaving
15000-424: The next month's cover to be an improvement. He adds that from the May 1923 issue "the covers plunged into a pit of mediocrity". In Weinberg's opinion the poor cover art, frequently by R. M. Mally, was probably partly to blame for the magazine's lack of success under Baird. Weinberg also regards the interior art during the magazine's first year as very weak; most of the interior drawings were small, and with little of
15150-408: The poetry was original, with contributions from Lovecraft, Howard, and Clark Ashton Smith, among many others. Lovecraft's contributions included ten of his " Fungi from Yuggoth " poems, a series of sonnets on weird themes that he wrote in 1930. The artwork was an important element of the magazine's personality; Margaret Brundage , who painted many covers featuring nudes for Weird Tales , was perhaps
15300-425: The publication long before, her column featuring a dated photo of her). By this time, the magazine was known more for its photos featuring conveniently-posed attractive women around trains than any editorial content. After years of declining revenue and readership, the magazine abruptly ceased publication with the January 1979 edition, with no mention of the situation. In a deal worked out with Carstens Publications ,
15450-445: The publisher of Short Stories , and within two years, Wright, who was ill, was replaced by Dorothy McIlwraith as editor. Although some successful new authors and artists, such as Ray Bradbury and Hannes Bok , continued to appear, the magazine is considered by critics to have declined under McIlwraith from its heyday in the 1930s. Weird Tales ceased publication in 1954, but since then, numerous attempts have been made to relaunch
15600-486: The pulps of the day, but by the early 1920s, still no single magazine was focused on any of these genres, though The Thrill Book , launched in 1919 by Street & Smith with the intention of printing "different", or unusual, stories, was a near miss. In 1922, J. C. Henneberger, the publisher of College Humor and The Magazine of Fun , formed Rural Publishing Corporation of Chicago, in partnership with his former fraternity brother, J. M. Lansinger. Their first venture
15750-464: The quality of Baird's issues was poor, but comments that some good stories were published: "it was just that the percentage of such stories was dismally small". Weinberg singles out "A Square of Canvas" by Rud, and "Beyond the Door" by Paul Suter as "exceptional"; both appeared in the April 1923 issue. Weinberg also regards "The Floor Above" by M. L. Humphries and "Penelope" by Vincent Starrett , both from
15900-570: The rights to both Weird Tales and Short Stories , and hoped to bring both magazines back. He abandoned a plan to restart Weird Tales in 1962, using reprints from the original magazine, after being advised by Sam Moskowitz that there was little market for weird and horror fiction at the time. Instead Margulies mined the Weird Tales backfile for four anthologies which appeared in the early 1960s: The Unexpected , The Ghoul-Keepers , Weird Tales , and Worlds of Weird . The latter two were ghost-edited by Moskowitz, who proposed to Margulies that when
16050-527: The same issue Wright printed "Spear and Fang", the first professional sale of Robert E. Howard , who would become famous as the creator of Conan the Barbarian . In late 1925 Wright added a " Weird Tales reprint" department, which showcased old weird stories, typically horror classics. Often these were translations, and in some cases the appearance in Weird Tales was the story's first appearance in English. Wright initially rejected Lovecraft's " The Call of Cthulhu ", but eventually bought it, and printed it in
16200-458: The several subcultures within the main subcultures, including the cosplay subculture (in which people make or wear costumes based on existing or self-created characters, sometimes also acting out skits or plays as well), the fan fiction subculture, and the fan video or AMV subculture, as well as the large internet subculture devoted to reading and writing prose fiction or doujinshi in or related to those genres. According to 2013 statistics by
16350-469: The sf magazines. Wright also sold hardcovers of books by some of his more popular authors, such as Kline, in the pages of Weird Tales . Although the magazine was never greatly profitable, Wright was paid well. Robert Weinberg , author of a history of Weird Tales , records a rumor that Wright was unpaid for much of his work on the magazine, but according to E. Hoffmann Price , a close friend of Wright's who occasionally read manuscripts for him, Weird Tales
16500-419: The slogan "All Stories New – No Reprints". Weinberg suggests that this was a mistake, as Weird Tales ' readership appreciated getting access to classic stories "often mentioned but rarely found". Without the reprints Weird Tales was left to survive on the rejects from Unknown , the same authors selling to both markets. In Weinberg's words, "only the quality of the stories [separated] their work between
16650-465: The social structure to emerge. The fantastic is never purely supernatural, nor can the supernatural be ruled out. Just as women were not equal yet, but they were not completely oppressed. The Female Fantastic seeks to enforce this idea that nothing is certain in the fantastic nor the gender roles of the 1920s. Many women in this time period began to blur the lines between the genders, removing the binary out of gender and allowing for many interpretations. For
16800-576: The stories be resubmitted as typed double-spaced manuscripts; Lovecraft disliked typing, and initially decided to resubmit only one story, " Dagon ". It appeared in the October 1923 issue, which was the most noteworthy of Baird's tenure, since it included stories by three writers who would become frequent contributors to Weird Tales : as well as Lovecraft, it marked the first appearance in the magazine of Frank Owen and Seabury Quinn . Robert Weinberg, in his history of Weird Tales , agrees with Ashley that
16950-410: The stories in the weird menace magazines appeared to be based on occult or supernatural events, but at the end of the tale the mystery was always revealed to have a logical explanation. In 1935 Wright began running weird detective stories to try to attract some of the readers of these magazines to Weird Tales , and asked readers to write in with comments. Reader reaction was uniformly negative, and after
17100-558: The stories, "An Adventure in the Fourth Dimension", was by Wright himself. The book sold poorly, and it remained on offer in the pages of Weird Tales , at reduced prices, for twenty years. It was at one point provided as a bonus to readers who subscribed. In 1930 Cornelius launched a companion magazine, Oriental Stories , but the magazine was not a success, though it managed to last for over three years before Cornelius gave up. Another financial blow occurred in late 1930 when
17250-481: The story was so gruesome that it would have been difficult to place in a magazine even fifty years later. On several occasions Wright rejected a story of Lovecraft's only to reconsider later; de Camp suggests that Wright's rejection at the end of 1925 of Lovecraft's " In the Vault ", a story about a mutilated corpse taking revenge on the undertaker responsible, was because it was "too gruesome", but Wright changed his mind
17400-530: The time was right to start the magazine up again, it should include reprints from obscure sources that Moskowitz had found, rather than just stories reprinted from the first incarnation of Weird Tales . These stories would be as good as new for most readers, and the money saved could be used for an occasional new story. The new version of Weird Tales finally appeared from Renown Publications, in April 1973, edited by Moskowitz. It had weak distribution and sales were too low for sustainability; according to Moskowitz
17550-505: The title to Lin Carter , who interested a publisher, Zebra Books , in the project. The result was a series of four paperback anthologies , edited by Lin Carter, appearing between 1981 and 1983; these were originally planned to be quarterly, but in fact the first two both appeared in December 1980 and were both dated Spring 1981. The next was dated Fall 1981; Carter's rights to the title were terminated by Weinberg in 1982 for non-payment, but
17700-404: The title was simplified to Railroad Stories , then changed to Railroad Magazine in 1937. Through the 1930s, the magazine helped grow the organized railfan movement by encouraging communication between enthusiasts, organizing special "fan trip" excursions with the railroads, and reporting on the activities of various clubs and museums around the country. After December 1942, Railroad Magazine
17850-400: The top rates of other science fiction and fantasy magazines of the day. War shortages also caused problems, and the page count was reduced, first to 112 pages in 1943, and then to 96 pages the following year. The price was increased to 20 cents in 1947, and again to 25 cents in 1949, but it was not only Weird Tales that was suffering—the entire pulp industry was in decline. Delaney switched
18000-553: The two pulps". Delaney's personal taste also reduced McIlwraith's latitude. In an interview with Robert A. Lowndes in early 1940, Delaney spoke about his plans for Weird Tales . After saying that the magazine would still publish "all types of weird and fantasy fiction", Lowndes reported that Delaney did not want "stories which center about sheer repulsiveness, stories which leave an impression not to be described by any other word than 'nasty ' ". Lowndes later added that Delaney had told him he found some of Clark Ashton Smith's stories on
18150-494: The unbelievable or impossible for the sake of enjoyment, in order to write effective fantasies. Despite both genres' heavy reliance on the supernatural, fantasy and horror are distinguishable from one another. Horror primarily evokes fear through the protagonists' weaknesses or inability to deal with the antagonists. While some elements of the supernatural and the fantastic were a part of literature from its beginning, fantasy elements occur throughout ancient religious texts such as
18300-405: The venerable title would be merged with their Railfan magazine, and existing subscribers would have their obligation fulfilled with the new title. For the first few years, Steve Maguire continued his "Transit Topics" column, as did Mike Eagleson with "In Search of Steam." The combined publication continued as a part of Railfan & Railroad until 2015. Railroad Magazine is no longer listed in
18450-435: The year Baird received five stories submitted by H. P. Lovecraft; Baird bought all five of them. Lovecraft, who had been persuaded by friends to submit the stories, included a cover letter that was so remarkably negative about the quality of the manuscripts that Baird published it in the September 1923 issue, with a note appended saying that he had bought the stories "despite the foregoing, or because of it". Baird insisted that
18600-482: Was Detective Tales , a pulp magazine that appeared twice a month, starting with the October 1, 1922 issue. It was initially unsuccessful, and as part of a refinancing plan, Henneberger decided to publish another magazine that would allow him to split some of his costs between the two titles. Henneberger had long been an admirer of Edgar Allan Poe , so he created a fiction magazine that would focus on horror, and titled it Weird Tales . Henneberger chose Edwin Baird ,
18750-423: Was College Humor . Henneberger decided early in 1924 on a reorganization of the editorial staff, which meant that by late spring Baird was no longer actively editing Weird Tales , though for a while he remained on the staff. A financial reorganization was also necessary, and Henneberger decided to sell both magazines to Lansinger and invest the money in Weird Tales . This did not address the debt, $ 43,000 of which
18900-603: Was William Morris , an English poet who wrote several novels in the latter part of the century, including The Wood Beyond the World (1894) and The Well at the World's End (1896). Despite MacDonald's future influence with At the Back of the North Wind (1871), Morris's popularity with his contemporaries, and H. G. Wells 's The Wonderful Visit (1895), it was not until the 20th century that fantasy fiction began to reach
19050-409: Was a combined May/June/July issue, with 192 pages—a much thicker magazine than the earlier issues. It was assembled by Wright and Kline, rather than Baird. Henneberger gave Wright full control of Weird Tales , and did not get involved with story selection. In about 1921, Wright had begun to suffer from Parkinson's disease , and over the course of his editorship the symptoms grew gradually worse. By
19200-547: Was aired in the letter column was the question of how much science fiction the magazine should include. Until Amazing Stories was launched in April 1926, science fiction was popular with Weird Tales ' readers, but after that point letters began to appear asking Wright to exclude science fiction, and only publish weird fantasy and horror. The pro-science fiction readers were in the majority, and as Wright agreed with them, he continued to include science fiction in Weird Tales . Hugh B. Cave, who sold half-a-dozen stories to Wright in
19350-432: Was annoyed by Margulies's detailed involvement in the day-to-day editorial tasks such as editing manuscripts and writing introductions. Margulies died the following year, and his widow, Cylvia Margulies, decided to sell the rights to the title. Forrest Ackerman , a science fiction fan and editor, was one of the interested parties, but she chose instead to sell to Victor Dricks and Robert Weinberg. Weinberg in turn licensed
19500-464: Was another deterrent. He spent several months considering the offer in mid-1924 without making a final decision; Henneberger visited him in Brooklyn more than once, but eventually either Lovecraft declined or Henneberger simply gave up. Wright briefly severed his connection with Weird Tales in mid-1924, but by the end of the year he had been hired as its new editor. The last issue under Baird's name
19650-428: Was assisted by Lamont Buchanan, who worked for her as associate editor and art editor for both Weird Tales and Short Stories . August Derleth also provided assistance and advice, although he had no formal connection with the magazine. Most of McIlwraith's budget went to Short Stories , since that was the more successful magazine; the payment rate for fiction in Weird Tales by 1953 was one cent per word, well below
19800-483: Was considered more acceptable than fantasy intended for adults, with the effect that writers who wished to write fantasy had to fit their work into forms aimed at children. Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote fantasy in A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys , intended for children, although his works for adults only verged on fantasy. For many years, this and successes such as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) created
19950-440: Was converted to a small interest in the new company, Weird Tales, Inc., a subsidiary of Delaney's Short Stories, Inc. Dorothy McIlwraith, the editor of Short Stories, became Wright's assistant, and over the next two years Delaney tried to increase profits by adjusting the page count and price. An increase from 144 pages to 160 pages starting with the February 1939 issue, along with the use of cheaper (and hence thicker) paper, made
20100-465: Was expected to direct an episode. Stone was to be director of the pilot, but the series never came to fruition. No issues appeared in 1997, but in 1998 Scithers and Schweitzer negotiated a deal with Warren Lupine of DNA Publications which allowed them to start publishing Weird Tales under license once again. The first issue was dated Summer 1998, and, other than the omission of the Winter 1998 issue,
20250-456: Was expensive and had become less effective in the 1980s, they planned to build a base of direct subscribers and distribute the magazine for sale through specialist stores. The first issue had a cover date of Spring 1988, but it was produced early enough to be available at the 1987 World Fantasy Convention in Nashville, Tennessee . The size was the same as the original pulp version, though it
20400-401: Was founded in 1949, the pulp magazine format was at the height of its popularity, and the magazine was instrumental in bringing fantasy fiction to a wide audience in both the U.S. and Britain. Such magazines were also instrumental in the rise of science fiction, and it was at this time the two genres began to be associated with each other. By 1950, " sword and sorcery " fiction had begun to find
20550-485: Was held after purchase for six months before Wright printed it in the July 1925 issue; the story includes a scene in which Christ and Satan meet, and Wright was worried about the possible reader reaction. The story nevertheless proved to be very popular, and Wright reprinted it in the December 1929 issue. He also published "The Infidel's Daughter" by Price, a satire of the Ku Klux Klan , which drew an angry letter and
20700-412: Was in financial trouble. Henneberger sold his interest in the publisher, Rural Publishing Corporation, to Lansinger, and refinanced Weird Tales , with Farnsworth Wright as the new editor. The first issue to list Wright as editor was dated November 1924. The magazine was more successful under Wright, and despite occasional financial setbacks, it prospered over the next 15 years. Under Wright's control,
20850-417: Was launched, no magazines were specializing in science fiction, but he continued this policy even after the launch of magazines such as Amazing Stories in 1926. Edmond Hamilton wrote a good deal of science fiction for Weird Tales , though after a few years, he used the magazine for his more fantastic stories, and submitted his space operas elsewhere. In 1938, the magazine was sold to William Delaney,
21000-475: Was let go because of his increasing health problems—he was by now suffering from Parkinson's so severely that he had trouble walking unassisted. and was replaced by McIlwraith as editor. Wright then had an operation to reduce the pain with which he suffered, but never fully recovered. He died in June of that year. Wright was replaced by McIlwraith, whose first issue was dated April 1940. From 1945 through 1949, she
21150-457: Was not an ideal choice for the job as he disliked horror stories; his expertise was in crime fiction, and most of the material he acquired was bland and unoriginal. The writers Henneberger had been hoping to publish, such as Garland and Hough, failed to submit anything to Baird, and the magazine published mostly traditional ghost fiction, many of the stories being narrated by characters in lunatic asylums, or told in diary format. The cover story for
21300-491: Was only able to contact Forbes by phone, and even that was not always reliable, so negotiations were slow. Forbes' editorial director was Gordon Garb and the fiction editor was Gil Lamont; Forrest Ackerman also assisted, mainly by obtaining material to include. There was a good deal of confusion between the participants in the project: according to Locus , a science fiction trade journal, "Ackerman says he has had no contact with publisher Forbes, does not know what will happen to
21450-402: Was owed to the magazine's printer, Cornelius Printing Company. Cornelius agreed to an arrangement in which they would control a new company, to be called Popular Fiction Publishing, until the debt was paid off. Not all of the magazine's debts were eliminated by this transaction, but it meant that Weird Tales could continue to publish, and perhaps return to profitability. The business manager of
21600-494: Was paying Wright about $ 600 a month in 1927. In 1938 Popular Fiction Publishing was sold to William J. Delaney, who was the publisher of Short Stories , a successful general fiction pulp magazine based in New York. Sprenger and Wright both received a share of the stock from Cornelius; Sprenger did not remain with the company but Wright moved to New York and stayed on as editor. Henneberger's share of Popular Fiction Publishing
21750-409: Was printed on better paper. There were also limited edition hardcover versions of each issue, signed by the contributors. A special World Fantasy Award Weird Tales received in 1992 made it apparent that the magazine was successful in terms of quality, but sales were insufficient to cover costs. To save money the format was changed to a larger flat size, starting with the Winter 1992/1993 issue, but
21900-420: Was probably because of the story's length—running a serial required paying an author for material that would not appear until two or three issues later, and Weird Tales often had little cash to spare. In this case he did not change his mind. Quinn was Weird Tales ' most prolific author, with a long-running sequence of stories about a detective, Jules de Grandin , who investigated supernatural events, and for
22050-548: Was probably written in the middle of the second half of the eighteenth century BC, preserves a mixture of stories with elements of historical fiction, fantasy, and satire. Egyptian funerary texts preserve mythological tales, the most significant of which are the myths of Osiris and his son Horus . Myth with fantastic elements intended for adults were a major genre of ancient Greek literature . The comedies of Aristophanes are filled with fantastic elements, particularly his play The Birds , in which an Athenian man builds
22200-758: Was published by Popular Publications , which purchased the Munsey Company. It dropped railroad fiction after January 1979. At mid-century, the magazine staff consisted of editor Henry B. Comstock, associate editors K.M. Campbell and Ted Sanchargin, art editor George H. Mabie, and "Electric Lines" editor Stephen B. Maguire. By the 1970s, the magazine staff consisted of editor Freeman Hubbard, associate editor Gordon T. Wilbur, assistant editor Nancy Nicolelis, "Steam Locomotives" editor Michael A. Eagleson, "Diesel Locomotives" editor Jim Edmonston, "Transit Topics" editor Steve Maguire, "Passenger Trains" editor Ramona K. McGuire, "Technical Editor" Sy Reich, and "Information Booth" editor Barbara Kreimer (although, in truth, Kreimer had left
22350-465: Was the fiction editor, but Garb continued as editorial director; Lamont was no longer involved with the magazine. Weird Tales was more lastingly revived at the end of the 1980s by George H. Scithers , John Gregory Betancourt and Darrell Schweitzer , who formed Terminus Publishing, based in Philadelphia, and licensed the rights from Weinberg. Rather than focus on newsstand distribution, which
22500-419: Was the only cover artist Weird Tales used. Another prominent cover artist was J. Allen St. John , whose covers were more action-oriented, and who designed the title logo used from 1933 until 2007. Hannes Bok 's first professional sale was to Weird Tales , for the cover of the December 1939 issue; he became a frequent contributor over the next few years. Virgil Finlay , one of the most important figures in
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