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WEIRD TALES OCTOBER 1936
Paperback
Published January 1, 1936
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 11, 2025
This is the first classic issue of WT I’ve read from cover to cover under the editorship of Farnsworth Wright. I don’t own a print issue of course. I downloaded a pdf from The Internet Archive.
I chose to read this issue after coming across a review of “Isle of the Undead” by the Paperback Warrior and thought the story sounded interesting. I want to read and know more about the WT authors other than just the big 3 of HPL, REH, and CAS. I, then, decided to read the entire issue.
Here are the contents (there are also two poems—“The Lost Temples of Xantoos” by Howell Calhoun and “R. E. H.” by R. H. Barlow in tribute to Howard’s death in June of 1936 as well as the letters section in The Eyrie).
“Isle of the Undead” by Lloyd Arthur Eshbach.
I had never heard of Eshbach before but read a review of this novelette by the Paperback Warrior and that got me intrigued. Eshbach was mostly a sci-fi/fantasy/horror fan from the first fandom who published a fanzine and later founded Fantasy Press which would publish Heinlein and E. E. Smith. He wrote several books. I’m not sure if “Isle of the Undead” was ever collected, but it got the cover of this issue of Weird Tales.
The story is an interesting horror tale with a good dose of adventure. A group out on a pleasure ride on a yacht come across a seemingly derelict boat from an earlier era, but they soon discover to their horror that the boat is crewed by undead sailors. They are captured and brought to an uncharted island that looks like a giant skull emerging from the water. There, the horrors only multiply, as vampires and zombies are the only inhabitants on the island.
The adventure part comes in as one of the survivors of the yacht has to rescue his girl from the clutches of the evil creatures that inhabit a castle on the island.
I was surprised by some scenes in this story. There is an attempted rape. And the scene depicted on the cover is quite morbid. There is some suggestion of hematolagnia, although the creatures bleeding the naked victim aren’t really being sexually aroused. Nonetheless, they suckle her naked body with their dead lips. Good stuff! It’s definitely very weird.
“The Opener of the Way” by Robert Bloch
This was a good Egyptian tale. Cursed tomb. Very atmospheric with a strong buildup of dread. This story later provided the title for Bloch's first collection of stories originally published by Arkham House and currently available by Valancourt.. I have that collection (actually it was a gift for my wife– it's great when you can buy books for your spouse that you look forward to reading too). This may only be the second story of Bloch's I've read before. I look forward to reading more.
“The Lost Door” by Dorothy Quick
A gothic ghost story. A bit on the slow side, but an interesting premise. I’d never heard of Dorothy Quick before reading this story, but it sounds like she had a lot published in Weird Tales. Is she mostly forgotten in terms of her WT stories? Apparently, she developed a friendship with Mark Twain when she met him on the SS Minnetonka when she was a kid.
“Doom of the House of Duryea” by Earl Peirce, Jr.
A really good vampire tale set in Maine. The vampire lore is quite different from Dracula and that makes it very interesting. The story has been reprinted several times in various vampire anthologies.
“The Tree of Life” by C. L. Moore
This is the first Northwest Smith story I’ve read. I liked the creepy weirdness of the story. It’s a very unique situation and setting, but I felt Moore’s style is overwrought like Lovecraft. I wanted the story to pick up the pace, but it’s almost as if to give the reader a sense of the unfathomable nature of the horror present in the story, the description of it must go on, and on, and on . . .
“Red Nails” (part three) by Robert E. Howard
I was going to skip it since it’s just the last part of “Red Nails,” but I decided to read it anyway. I want this to be my first cover-to-cover read of classic Weird Tales. “Red Nails” is one of my favorite Conan stories.
“The Doors of Death” by Arthur B. Waltermire
The only story published in WT by Waltermire, who would ironically die within 2 years of publishing this story. A family curse and an attempt at cheating death. A good, solid story with a satisfying ending.
“The Secret of Kralitz” by Henry Kuttner
Another family curse. This one invokes the Cthulhu Mythos. The revelation at the end wasn’t unexpected, but it was still satisfying.
“The Great Keinplatz Experiment” by A. Conan Doyle
A Weird Story Reprint. A humorous story about mesmerism and the mind/body problem. A bit too stodgy for my tastes. Originally published in Belgravia magazine in 1885.
Overall, this was a solid issue with several strong stories.
I chose to read this issue after coming across a review of “Isle of the Undead” by the Paperback Warrior and thought the story sounded interesting. I want to read and know more about the WT authors other than just the big 3 of HPL, REH, and CAS. I, then, decided to read the entire issue.
Here are the contents (there are also two poems—“The Lost Temples of Xantoos” by Howell Calhoun and “R. E. H.” by R. H. Barlow in tribute to Howard’s death in June of 1936 as well as the letters section in The Eyrie).
“Isle of the Undead” by Lloyd Arthur Eshbach.
I had never heard of Eshbach before but read a review of this novelette by the Paperback Warrior and that got me intrigued. Eshbach was mostly a sci-fi/fantasy/horror fan from the first fandom who published a fanzine and later founded Fantasy Press which would publish Heinlein and E. E. Smith. He wrote several books. I’m not sure if “Isle of the Undead” was ever collected, but it got the cover of this issue of Weird Tales.
The story is an interesting horror tale with a good dose of adventure. A group out on a pleasure ride on a yacht come across a seemingly derelict boat from an earlier era, but they soon discover to their horror that the boat is crewed by undead sailors. They are captured and brought to an uncharted island that looks like a giant skull emerging from the water. There, the horrors only multiply, as vampires and zombies are the only inhabitants on the island.
The adventure part comes in as one of the survivors of the yacht has to rescue his girl from the clutches of the evil creatures that inhabit a castle on the island.
I was surprised by some scenes in this story. There is an attempted rape. And the scene depicted on the cover is quite morbid. There is some suggestion of hematolagnia, although the creatures bleeding the naked victim aren’t really being sexually aroused. Nonetheless, they suckle her naked body with their dead lips. Good stuff! It’s definitely very weird.
“The Opener of the Way” by Robert Bloch
This was a good Egyptian tale. Cursed tomb. Very atmospheric with a strong buildup of dread. This story later provided the title for Bloch's first collection of stories originally published by Arkham House and currently available by Valancourt.. I have that collection (actually it was a gift for my wife– it's great when you can buy books for your spouse that you look forward to reading too). This may only be the second story of Bloch's I've read before. I look forward to reading more.
“The Lost Door” by Dorothy Quick
A gothic ghost story. A bit on the slow side, but an interesting premise. I’d never heard of Dorothy Quick before reading this story, but it sounds like she had a lot published in Weird Tales. Is she mostly forgotten in terms of her WT stories? Apparently, she developed a friendship with Mark Twain when she met him on the SS Minnetonka when she was a kid.
“Doom of the House of Duryea” by Earl Peirce, Jr.
A really good vampire tale set in Maine. The vampire lore is quite different from Dracula and that makes it very interesting. The story has been reprinted several times in various vampire anthologies.
“The Tree of Life” by C. L. Moore
This is the first Northwest Smith story I’ve read. I liked the creepy weirdness of the story. It’s a very unique situation and setting, but I felt Moore’s style is overwrought like Lovecraft. I wanted the story to pick up the pace, but it’s almost as if to give the reader a sense of the unfathomable nature of the horror present in the story, the description of it must go on, and on, and on . . .
“Red Nails” (part three) by Robert E. Howard
I was going to skip it since it’s just the last part of “Red Nails,” but I decided to read it anyway. I want this to be my first cover-to-cover read of classic Weird Tales. “Red Nails” is one of my favorite Conan stories.
“The Doors of Death” by Arthur B. Waltermire
The only story published in WT by Waltermire, who would ironically die within 2 years of publishing this story. A family curse and an attempt at cheating death. A good, solid story with a satisfying ending.
“The Secret of Kralitz” by Henry Kuttner
Another family curse. This one invokes the Cthulhu Mythos. The revelation at the end wasn’t unexpected, but it was still satisfying.
“The Great Keinplatz Experiment” by A. Conan Doyle
A Weird Story Reprint. A humorous story about mesmerism and the mind/body problem. A bit too stodgy for my tastes. Originally published in Belgravia magazine in 1885.
Overall, this was a solid issue with several strong stories.
February 22, 2025
The cover illustration for Lloyd Arthur Eschbach’s “Isle of the Undead” is by J. Allen St. John. The story is more weird menace than Weird Tales.
Best in issue is the conclusion of “Red Nails,” and The Eyrie has several memorial letters, including one from Lovecraft, for its author. Robert Barlow contributes an interesting sonnet on the death of Conan.
In close second is C.L. Moore’s “The Tree of Life,” another story of cross-species lust as Northwest Smith follows a seductive lure to a Manichean tree god. Her future partner Henry Kuttner contributes “The Secret of Kralitz,” another one of his fringe Cthulhu Mythos tales and newcomer Earl Pierce Jr offers “Doom of the House of Duryea,” also namechecking Elder Gods while spinning a creepy, incestuous vampire story. Robert Bloch’s “The Opener of the Way” is a classic, maybe most memorable for providing the name of his first short story collection. Not my favorite Bloch but still good stuff. “The Lost Door,” by Dorothy Quick doesn’t do much with its time-suspension premise, but it seems like an idea that could have made a decent Gothic novel.
Minor contents include The Doors of Death,” by Arthur B. Waltermire, and a reprint of Conan Doyle’s silly “The Great Keinplatz Experiment.”
Best in issue is the conclusion of “Red Nails,” and The Eyrie has several memorial letters, including one from Lovecraft, for its author. Robert Barlow contributes an interesting sonnet on the death of Conan.
In close second is C.L. Moore’s “The Tree of Life,” another story of cross-species lust as Northwest Smith follows a seductive lure to a Manichean tree god. Her future partner Henry Kuttner contributes “The Secret of Kralitz,” another one of his fringe Cthulhu Mythos tales and newcomer Earl Pierce Jr offers “Doom of the House of Duryea,” also namechecking Elder Gods while spinning a creepy, incestuous vampire story. Robert Bloch’s “The Opener of the Way” is a classic, maybe most memorable for providing the name of his first short story collection. Not my favorite Bloch but still good stuff. “The Lost Door,” by Dorothy Quick doesn’t do much with its time-suspension premise, but it seems like an idea that could have made a decent Gothic novel.
Minor contents include The Doors of Death,” by Arthur B. Waltermire, and a reprint of Conan Doyle’s silly “The Great Keinplatz Experiment.”
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews