The horror-tales of the powerful and cynical Guy de Maupassant, written as his final madness gradually over-took him, presents individualities of their own; being rather the morbid outpourings of a realistic mind in a pathological state than the healthily imaginative product of a vision naturally disposed toward phantasy and sensitive to the normal illusions of the unseen. Nevertheless they are of the keenest interest and poignancy; suggesting with marvelous force the imminence of nameless terrors, and the relentless dogging of an ill-starred individual by hideous and menacing representatives of the outer blackness. Of these stories The Horla is generally regarded as the masterpiece. Relating the advent to France of an invisible being who lives on water and milk, sways the minds of others, and seems to be the vanguard of a horde of extra-terrestrial organisms arrived on earth to subjugate and overwhelm mankind, this tense narrative is perhaps without a peer in its particular department; notwithstanding its indebtedness to a tale by the American Fitz-James O'Brien for details in describing the actual presence of the unseen monster. Other potently dark creations of de Maupassant are Who Knows?, The Spectre, He, The Diary of a Madman, The White Wolf, On the River, and the grisly verse entitled Horror.
(Continued Next Month)
THE FAVORITE WEIRD STORIES OF H. P. LOVECRAFT
(Courtesy of H. Koenig)
"The Willows" A. Blackwood, "The White Powder," "The White People," "The Black Seal" A. Machen, "The Fall of the House of Usher" E. A. Poe, "The House of Sounds" M. P. Shiel, "The Yellow Sign" R. W. Chambers, "Count Magnus" M. R. James, "The Death of Halpin Frayser" A. Bierce, "The Moon Pool" (original novelette) A. Merritt.
The first nine titles were in Mr. Lovecraft's original list published in "The Side Show." You will notice that he stipulates the original novelette version of "The Moon Pool" as the tenth selection. This of course eliminates the story as it was published in book form, including the sequel.
WEIRD WHISPERINGS
by Schwartz and Weisinger
Rumor had it that for several years Farnsworth Wright, editor of Weird Tales, was writing stories and poems under the pseudonym of Francis Hard. When we asked for permission to "break" the story, Wright said that "since the secret is already out that poems and stories published under the name Francis Hard were in fact written by me, of course I have no further objection to its being known. I have written nothing new since I became editor of Weird Tales in 1924, but I wrote stories for Weird Tales previous to that, when it was edited by Edwin Baird. When I became editor one of my stories was already in type for the next issue (A story called "The Great Panjandrum"). I thought it looked rather phony for an editor to use his own stories in his magazine, even though the story had been accepted by a previous editor; so I used the pen name Francis Hard as the author of that story (Hard was my maternal grandmother's name). Feeling that an editor is a bad judge of his own stuff, I submitted some stories that I had written several years ago, to Otis Adelbert Kline, whose literary judgement I value highly, and used the two that he liked—one in Oriental Stories, and the other in its successor, The Magic Carpet. Two other stories, which Kline considered rotten, I quickly canned—may they rest in peace."
Frank Belknap Long, Jr., is now trying to invade the detective story market.... Here's hoping he matches the stride set by his pal, Donald Wandrei.... New York fans would do well to tune in on Alonzo Deen Cole's weird broadcasts, "The Witch's Tale," over WOR, and to "Tales of Terror," over WINS.... S. Gordon Gurwitt besides turning out weird stories, also writes detective yarns, and bears an amazing resemblance to Eddie Cantor.... Farnsworth Wright has never yet rejected a story on the grounds that it was too juvenile.... A. Merritt claims he sits down to write "only after I have exhausted myself of all possible excuses".... Arthur Sarsfield Ward, when asked why he used the pseudonym of Sax Rohmer for his writings, responded: "The reason why I use the name Sax Rohmer is as much a mystery to me as it is to you."