Robert A.W. Lowndes (1916-1998)-Part 2
According to the Speculative Fiction Database, Robert W. Lowndes' first published science fiction was "Letter: Report of the Plutonian Ambassador" in Wonder Stories for September 1935. The byline was...
View ArticleDark Shadows, Star Wars, and Richard Matheson
I have been away and still have much to do. I would like to acknowledge gifts received by email and to say thank you to the senders. It may be awhile yet before I write again.I watched House of Dark...
View ArticleRobert A.W. Lowndes (1916-1998)-Part 3
On September 18, 1938, Isaac Asimov wrote in his diary: "I attended the first meeting of the Futurians, and boy, did I have a good time." The meeting took place in "a sort of hall which is also a...
View ArticleRobert A.W. Lowndes (1916-1998)-Part 4
Robert W. Lowndes had his first science fiction published when he was a teenager. That was in 1935 when Wonder Stories printed "Letter: Report of the Plutonian Ambassador" on its letters page....
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Richard Matheson and Hell House
Last week I wrote about Dark Shadows, Star Trek, Richard Matheson's novel Hell House, and how fantasists use the material vs. the non-material in their storylines. In House of Dark Shadows (1970), Dan...
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Weird Fiction & Fantasy Magazines-Part 1
Weird TalesThe Unique MagazineWeird Tales, the first magazine devoted exclusively to weird fiction and fantasy, arrived on the newsstand with a cover date of March 1923. This year marks the ninetieth...
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Weird Fiction & Fantasy Magazines-Part 2
Editor and publisher Leo Margulies acquired the Weird Tales property in the 1950s after the original run of the magazine had come to an end. Rather than sit on it and guard it like the fabled dog in...
View ArticleRequest for a Copy from Weird Tales
I'm doing some research on the author Vincent Hayes Gaddis and I wonder if anyone can provide a scan or a photocopy of Gaddis' item "Special News Bulletin" from Weird Tales, April 1939. I hope so. It...
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Weird Fiction & Fantasy Magazines-Weird Tales Part 3
Sam Moskowitz may have talked Leo Margulies out of restarting Weird Tales in the 1950s and '60s, but by the early '70s, they both seemed ready to give it a try. Margulies the publisher and Moskowitz...
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Weird Fiction & Fantasy Magazines-Weird Tales Part 4
Leo Margulies died on December 26, 1975, at age seventy-five. As I understand it, Robert Weinberg acquired the Weird Tales property from Margulies' widow. Mr. Weinberg had assembled and published a...
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Weird Fiction & Fantasy Magazines-Weird Tales Part 5
Lin Carter's last issue of Weird Tales came out in Summer 1983. That's also the last issue of Weird Tales listed in The Collector's Index to Weird Tales by Sheldon R. Jaffery and Fred Cook (1985). Then...
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Weird Fiction & Fantasy Magazines-Weird Tales Part 6
In its first incarnation, Weird Tales lasted from March 1923 to September 1954. Those 46 volumes and 279 issues were followed by:Volume 47--The Sam Moskowitz issues, 1973-1974 (4 issues)Volume 48--The...
View ArticleWeird Fiction & Fantasy Magazines-Oriental Stories & The Magic Carpet Magazine
When Weird Tales began in 1923, it had a companion called Detective Tales. A year or so later, with Weird Tales gasping for air, J.C. Henneberger sold Detective Tales (which was retitled Real Detective...
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Weird Fiction & Fantasy Magazines-The Cockcroft Indices
Thomas George Lawrence Cockcroft, who published under the name T.G.L. Cockcroft, was born on July 28, 1926, and lived in the suburbs of Wellington, New Zealand. By day, Mr. Cockcroft dealt in IBM punch...
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Weird Fiction & Fantasy Magazines-The Thrill Book
Fans of Weird Tales like to say that their magazine was the first American title devoted exclusively to weird fiction and fantasy. That's true as long as you use the word exclusively, for there was...
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Weird Fiction & Fantasy Magazines-Strange Tales
The Thrill Book blazed a trail for weird fiction and fantasy in the pulps. Unfortunately that magazine lasted only a few months. Four years later, in March 1923, Weird Tales made its debut, and for...
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Weird Fiction & Fantasy Magazines-Strange Tales of the Mysterious and...
In my previous article, I wrote about the American magazine Strange Tales of Mystery and Terror. Today I will write about the similarly titled British magazine Strange Tales of the Mysterious and...
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Weird Fiction & Fantasy Magazines-Strange Stories
Published by Ned Pines' Standard Magazines, Strange Stories was more successful than some weird fiction and fantasy magazines, but only by a little. It lasted for an unlucky thirteen issues published...
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Rivals of Weird Tales-Golden Fleece
There's more to Golden Fleece Historical Adventure than meets the eye. It ran for nine monthly issues from October 1938 to June 1939. True to its subtitle, the magazine printed stories of kings,...
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Rivals of Weird Tales-Ghost Stories
If a magazine of genre fiction has to be the size of a pulp magazine and printed on pulp paper in order to be a pulp magazine, then Ghost Stories wasn't a pulp magazine, at least in its first two years...
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