Weird Tales September 1926

by Farnsworth Wright (Editor), E.M. Stevenson (Illustrator), Everil Worrell

Facsimile edition of Weird Tales Volume VIII Number 3, containing 13 stories, two serial chapters, verse, and editorial material.

Table of contents:

The Eyrie
Everil Worrell. The Bird of Space
Edmond Hamilton. Across Space
Edward Phillips Oppenheim. The Tower Ghost
Dick Heine. A Creeping, Crawling Thing
Victor Rousseau. The Case of the Jailer's Daughter
Percy Bysshe Shelley. Ozymandias
Seabury Quinn. Ancient Fires
August Derleth, Mark R. Schorer. The Marmoset
Talbert Josselyn. The Bracelet
H. P. Lovecraft. He
H. F. Arnold. The Night Wire
A. Leslie. Elysium
Henry S. Whitehead. Jumbee
Walter Scott. The Tapestried Chamber
Sidney Lanier. Barnacles
Mary Sharon. The Cat of Chiltern Castle
Greye La Spina. Fettered
Edgar Allan Poe. Eldorado

Genres: Horror, Short Stories

144 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1926

Reviews

[Bill Wallace · Rating 5 out of 5]

An exceptionally fine issue of WT! The highlight here is H.F. Arnold's wonderfully weird "The Night Wire," a powerful, short story of undefinable strangeness, but there are other gems. Lovecraft's "He" isn't one of his better known stories but it's something of an indicator of the path his fiction would take within a couple of years. It starts off with his usual xenophobia and overall horror at the 20th Century but becomes much stranger, reaching for the cosmic horror he would become famous for. Whitehead contributes "Jumbee," which, not altogether free of his usual racism, is a better story, using "native" superstitions more subtly than in his earlier work. Part three of La Spina's "Fettered" continues a first-rate vampire novel that would have made a fine screenplay. On the whole, the other stories in the issue are solid, with even the proto-SciFi -- Everil Worrell's cover feature "The Bird of Space" and Edmond Hamilton's serial starter "Across Space" -- quite readable. Possibly the best issue of the magazine in its first three years!

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

'Ancient Fires' (Jules de Grandin) by Seabury Quinn. 3.5 stars. The ancient fires of the title refers to a love affair that ended badly due to the families' distaste for miscegenation. It is also an opportunity to expose de Grandin's romanticism and the fact that he has a love from his past that did not go well. On the face of it the story is a creepy ghost story that takes place in a haunted house. Add to that gypsies and a lunatic asylum and you wind up with a unique weird tale. This story can also be found in 'The Horror on the Links (Complete Tales of Jules de Grandin, Volume 1)'.
'Ozymandias' (poem) by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1818). I'm a so so fan of poetry, but there is a reading of this on youtube recited by Bryan Cranston worth checking out.
'He' by H. P. Lovecraft. 4 stars. A creepy story. Imagine the ambience of walking in New York city at night before all of the modern lighting it has now. Then imagine meeting a stranger and accompanying him home.
"I saw him on a sleepless night when I was walking desperately to save my soul and my vision. My coming to New York had been a mistake; for whereas I had looked for poignant wonder and inspiration in the teeming labyrinths of ancient streets that twist endlessly from forgotten courts and squares and waterfronts to courts and squares and waterfronts equally forgotten, and in the Cyclopean modern towers and pinnacles that rise blackly Babylonian under waning moons, I had found instead only a sense of horror and oppression which threatened to master, paralyse, and annihilate me." Suffice it to say, this won't end well for someone.
'Barnacles' (poem) by Sidney Lanier.
'Eldorado' (poem) by Edgar Allan Poe (1849).
Also in this edition:
'The Bird of Space' by Everil Worrell.
'Across Space' (Part 1 of 3) by Edmond Hamilton.
'The Tower Ghost' by E. Phillips Oppenheim.
'A Creeping, Crawling Thing' by Dick Heine.
'The Case of the Jailer's Daughter' by Victor Rousseau.
'The Marmoset' by August Derleth and Mark Schorer.
'The Bracelet' by Talbert Josselyn.
'The Night Wire' by H. F. Arnold.
'Elysium' (poem) by A. Leslie.
'Jumbee' by Henry S. Whitehead.
'The Tapestried Chamber' by Sir Walter Scott (1828).
'The Cat of Chiltern Castle' by Mary Sharon.
'Fettered' (Part 3 of 4) by Greye La Spina.