Arthur J. Burks - The Wizard of Weird Tales

[dem bones]

Arthur J. Burks - The Wizard of Weird Tales (Armchair Fiction, 2022)

Bells of Oceana
Room of Shadows
Black Harvest of Moraine
The Ghosts of Steamboat Coulee
Luisma's Return
Rhythmic Formula
Orbit of Souls
Morpho on the Screen
Asphodel
When the Graves were Opened
Voodoo
Vale of the Corbies
The Invading Horde
Something Toothsome

Blurb:

THE TERRIFYING WORLD OF ARTHUR J. BURKS

Stationed in the Dominican Republic with the United States Marine Corps during WWI, Arthur J. Burks discovered a taste for the macabre. The tales of voodoo rituals that reached his ears served as a profound inspiration, resulting in a deluge of the most gruesome stories ever to chill any Weird Tales fan to the bone and sparking the beginning of a long and prolific writing career. Burks' talent for weaving a spell of suspense and dread is revealed over and over again in his illustrious Weird Tales legacy. This illustrated collection contains some of his very best tales.

300+ pages compiling 14 of Burkes' (I think) 29 contributions to Weird Tales. Of added appeal -at least, to those of us who appreciate such things - each story is accompanied by its original magazine artwork as provided by Andrew Brosnatch, G. O. Olinick, Hugh Rankin, Vincent Napoli and Jon Arfstrom (the sole exception being the shortest, Asphodel, which was published undecorated).

Andrew Brosnatch

Luisma's Return: (Weird Tales, Jan. 1925). Haiti — Death of Henry I, Emperor of the North. To impress a visiting diplomat, Christophe, self-proclaimed Emperor Henri I of North Haiti, orders an entire company to assemble on a cliff and march off its precipice. General Luisma Llansal is happy to do so, having sworn revenge on Christophe for dispatching him on a fools' errand while the tyrant molested lovely Marietta. As the bodies of his men smash on the rocks, Luisma drags what's left of himself back up the cliff face ....

Andrew Brosnatch

Something Toothsome: (Weird Tales, March 1926). A weird crime — and a hideously deformed face. A vengeful, horribly mutilated ghost from the past catches up with Commander Danvers, now dentist in residence at the Naval Hospital. The man with the ruined face listens at the window while Danvers and fellow author, Marine Lieutenant Alexander, light-heartedly consider the perfect murder.

Jon Arfstrom

Rhythmic Formula : (Weird Tales, May 1952). The old jungle chief announced that one murderer in his family was enough; but there were other families!. At fifty, Russ Creavey is a famed ethnologist, jungle explorer, and the murderer of two fabulously wealthy wives by Sapkaure, a failsafe rhythmic method taught him by a medicine man. Should ever he run short of money, Creavey need only wed a third or fourth ghastly-but-loaded widow and repeat the process. The perfect set up — until he ruins everything by falling in love with fellow adventurer, Leslie Deane ...

Andrew Brosnatch

Vale of the Corbies: (Weird Tales, Nov. 1925). The Beating of Unseen Wings Filled the Valley of Ravens. Narrator is tormented throughout life by a worsening nightmare of attack by an unkindness of psychotically malevolent ravens ...

[helrunar]

That sounds like an awesome collection, Dem. Great scans and notes! 

Thankee,

Hel.

[cauldronbrewer]

Apr 26, 2023 16:49:42 GMT dem bones said:

Arthur J. Burks - The Wizard of Weird Tales (Armchair Fiction, 2022)

Bells of Oceana
Room of Shadows
Black Harvest of Moraine
The Ghosts of Steamboat Coulee
Luisma's Return
Rhythmic Formula
Orbit of Souls
Morpho on the Screen
Asphodel
When the Graves were Opened
Voodoo
Vale of the Corbies
The Invading Horde
Something Toothsome

I'd missed this one, so thank you for posting it! I've read around half the stories; of those, "Bells of Oceana" was my favorite.

[dem bones]

Andrew Bensen "Plone leapt at Hildreth, striking her with his fist. His hand crooked like a great talon, and Hildreth uttered a gurgling scream."

The Ghosts of Steamboat Coulee: (Weird Tales, May 1926). Shivery Tale of Dreadful Happenings in a Rockbound Western Gulch, With the Howling of Bobcats for Chorus. At close of the Great War, Harold Skidmore is shipped home from Flanders, destitute, invalid and not long for this world. Wandering the Palisades, Skidmore is pathetically grateful when an unfashionably dressed melon-farmer named Plone offers him use of a derelict log cabin at Steamboat Coulee. It should suit him fine, provided he keeps alert for rattlers and "you ain't afraid of ghosts." Skidmore doesn't believe that to be the case — until he's witnessed the comings and goings of a spectral farmhouse and re-enactments of the several murders committed by his benefactor, Plone, in cahoots with son, Reuben. It's Plone's wife, however, who suffered worst at their hands after she threatened to report their crimes to the authorities.

Artist uncredited

Burks was of the "Look, Ma, no hands" school. He was a natural storyteller, who could write anytime, and get his ideas from everywhere. Once he sat down at his typewriter, he usually didn't get up until he had finished ... He never had to revise ... or at least, never did. To keep on schedule, he didn't have time to rewrite, and at two to three cents a word, which was what he was getting, he felt he couldn't afford to. Also, it was a matter of temperament. Once he completed a story, he couldn't rewrite it; he lost all creative affinity with it. When an editor once asked him to change one of his stories, Burks tried and finally, just discarded it.

— Robert Kenneth Jones, "The Speed Merchant of the Pulps", The Shudder Pulps: A History of the Weird Menace Magazines of the 1930s, FAX, 1975

Below, a partial bibliography of Burks' weird & macabre fiction. On past form, I'll have almost certainly overlooked some obvious titles, and there are surely some horrors scattered among his contributions to the nastier Detective pulps.

Arthur J. Burks in Weird Tales

Thus Spake the Prophetess [as by Estil Critchie] (Nov. 1924)
Voodoo [as by Estil Critchie] (Dec. 1924)
Luisma's Return (Jan. 1925)
A Broken Lamp-Chimney [Strange Tales of Santo Domingo 1] Feb. 1925)
Desert of the Dead [Strange Tales of Santo Domingo 2] (Mar. 1925)
Daylight Shadows [Strange Tales of Santo Domingo 3] (Apr. 1925)
The Sorrowful Sisterhood [Strange Tales of Santo Domingo 4] (May 1925)
The Phantom Chibo [Strange Tales of Santo Domingo 5] (June 1925)
Black Medicine (Aug. 1925)
Vale of the Corbies (Nov. 1925)
When the Graves Were Opened (Dec. 1925)
Something Toothsome: (March 1926)
The Ghosts of Steamboat Coulee (May 1926)
Asphodel (June 1926)
Orbit of Souls (December 1926)
Faces [Strange Tales of Santo Domingo 6] (Apr. 1927)
The Invading Horde (November 1927)
Bells of Oceana (Dec. 1927)
Three Coffins (May 1928)
Invisible Threads [serial in 2 parts] (Sept. 1928, Oct. 1928)
Chinese Processional (Jan 1933)
Room of Shadows (May 1936)
Wizard of the Bird-in-Hand (March 1949)
The Inner Man (May 1949)
These Debts are Yours (Nov. 1949)
Black Harvest of Moraine (Jan. 1950)
Shallajai (July 1950)
Church in the Jungles (Sept. 1951)
Rhythmic Formula (May 1952)
Astra (Nov. 1952)
Morpho on the Screen (March 1954)


Strange Tales

The Place of the Pythons (Se[t 1931)
Guatemozin the Visitant (Nov. 1931)

Strange Stories

Kanaima (April 1940)
Death, I Want To Dance (Feb. 1941)

Arthur J Burks in the Shudder Pulps

[Chronological listing of Burks' contributions to Dime Mystery, Horror Stories, Marvel Tales, Mystery Tales, Terror Tales, Thrilling Mystery, &Uncanny Tales.

Terror in the Dark (Horror Stories, Feb 1935)
Death Calls From the Lake (Dime Mystery, March 1935)
Death's Brain-Child [as by Spencer Whitney] (Dime Mystery, March 1935)
Six Doors to Horror (Terror Tales, March 1935)
Where the Dead Dance Always (Horror Stories, Mar 1935)
The Cat People (Thrilling Mystery, Apr 1935)
Eater of Souls (Terror Tales, Apr 1935)
Jewel of Madness (Dime Mystery, Apr 1935)
Keepers of the Black Tavern (Terror Tales, May 1935)
Blossoms of Doom (Terror Tales, June 1935)
The Devil's Sculpture (Horror Stories, June 1935)
No Man Escapes Me! [as by Spencer Whitney] (Terror Tales, June 1935)
Women of Stone (Dime Mystery, June 1935)
Dance of the Dead (Horror Stories, July 1935)
Priestess of Shame (Dime Mystery, July 1935)
The Well of Suicides [as by Spencer Whitney] (Horror Stories, July 1935)
Dead Man's Darling (Dime Mystery, Aug 1935)
When a Corpse Commands (Terror Tales, Aug 1935)
Picnic of the Damned (Dime Mystery, Sept 1935)
Satan's Lash (Horror Stories, Sep 1935)
Through Death's Thin Veil (Terror Tales, Sep 1935)
Corpse Pirates (Horror Stories, Oct 1935)
Death Nymph (Dime Mystery, Oct 1935)
Dogs of Madness (Horror Stories, Nov 1935)
Death — The Tempter (Dime Mystery, Dec 1935)
Death's Masterpiece [as by Spencer Whitney] (Terror Tales, Dec 1935)
Living Nightmare [as by Spencer Whitney] (Horror Stories, Dec. 1935)
Murder Brides (Horror Stories, Dec 1935)
Slaves of the Blood-Wolves (Terror Tales, Dec 1935)
Her Lover— the Executioner (Terror Tales, Feb 1936)
The Women Loved by Death (Horror Stories, Feb-Mar 1936)
Call Me Monster (Terror Tales, March 1936)
A Bride for Death (Terror Tales, Apr 1936)
Invitation to the Morgue (Dime Mystery, Apr 1936)
Satan's Honeymoon (Dime Mystery, May 1936)
The Chair Where Terror Sat (Horror Stories, Jun-July 1936)
Mates for Madmen [as by Spencer Whitney] (Terror Tales, June 1936)
They Call Me Killer (Terror Tales, June 1936)
Dance of the Damned (Horror Stories, Aug-Sep 1936)
Hostage of the Tomb (Horror Stories, Dec-Jan 1936-1937)
From Time's Black Vault (Horror Stories, Apr-May 1937)
Canyon of Missing Brides (Terror Tales, Nov-Dec 1937)
Floodgates of Hell (Horror Stories, Dec-Jan 1937-38)
Cathedral of Horror (Terror Tales, Jul-Aug 1938)
Madness for Two (Terror Tales, Sep-Oct 1938)
Tiger Pit (Thrilling Mystery, Nov. 1938)
Take Me, and Die (Uncanny Tales, Apr-May 1939)
Spawn of Satan's Scourge (Mystery Tales, May 1939)
Tonight I Sleep with Terror (Mystery Tales, Sept. 1939)
Dance with my Bride, and Die! (Uncanny Tales, Nov. 1939)
Mates for the Morgue-Master (Mystery Tales, Dec. 1939)
My Bride Belongs to the Ages (Marvel Tales, Dec. 1939)
The Flesh-Hungry Phantoms (Uncanny Tales, March 1940)
Mistress of Death and Desire (Mystery Tales, March 1940)
The Secret of Dr. Haemo (Horror Stories, Dec 1940)

[dem bones]

G. O. Olinick

Orbit of Souls: (Weird Tales, Dec. 1926). The tale of a businessman with heart of stone, and the eery horror that befell him.
Among the several casualties of a train disaster, a party making for the home of the man who'd suckered them into investing heavily in Everglades swamp mud. Adam Crabtree, 65, is unsympathetic. This is the 'twenties! The fools should have exercised due diligence, and besides, "if they had the spunk that God allowed geese, they could begin again and earn more."

An old woman, Mara Simons, the sole survivor of the tragedy, bursts in on a startled Crabtree to berate him. "I hope that the souls of those folks who died in that collision will go into a pack of timber wolves, and that the pack will roam in the valley of souls without food until your time has come to die ..."

When Rheinhard, the long-suffering secretary, assures Crabtree he has received no visitors, the old man decides on a short break at his country bolthole, a lonesome hut in the forest on the edge of Willow Lake.

Andrew Brosnacht

Voodoo: (Weird Tales, Dec. 1924, as by 'Estil Critchie'). Haiti - Worship of the Green Serpent. Rodney Davis goes native to infiltrate a cannibal voodoo cult and avenge the torture murder of his pal, Charlie 'Music' Hepner. As first read (retitled "Cerimarie") in Peter Haining's The Evil People.

[dem bones]

Andrew Brosnatch

When the Graves were Opened: (Weird Tales, Dec. 1925). The Sepulchres Yawned and the Dead Came Into Jerusalem. Jess Gibbons, atheist and wilful iconoclast, test drives friend Harvey Hensford's time machine. Strapped to the chair, Gibbons' astral self travels back to Golgotha in the immediate wake of Christ's crucifixion, when, according to St. Matthew, the graves opened, spilled forth their dead on the Holy City. Gibbons much doubts this is accurate, and even suppose it were true, what became of these walking corpses?