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Post by dem bones on Sept 24, 2018 11:29:52 GMT
The famous "banned" issue (that probably wasn't) Edwin Baird (ed.) - Weird Tales (Rural, May-June-July 1924) R. M. Malley Anon ( Otis Adelbert Kline) - Why Weird Tales?
Houdini (H. P. Lovecraft) - Imprisoned with the Pharaohs Vida Taylor Adams - "Whoso Diggeth a Pit—" Gordon Burns - Deep Calleth Otis Adelbert Kline - The Malignant Entity Edith Lichty Stewart - The Sixth Tree Leonard F. Schumann - The Haunted Mansion in the Pines J. M. Alvey - Spirits H. P. Lovecraft - Hypnos J. U. Giesy & Junius B. Smith - Ebenezer's Casket (Part 2 of 2) John Martin Leahy - Draconda (Part 6 of 6) H. Francis Caskey - The Hand C. M. Eddy, Jr - The Loved Dead Lyllian Huntley Harris - The Vow on Halloween Galen C. Colin - Eyes Granville S. Hoss - The Man Who Thought He Was Dead Dan W. Totheron - Called Back George W. Bayly - The Sunken Land Guy L. Helms - The Dancing Partner Meredith Beyers - The Last Entry (In the Diary of R. Q. P.) Edith Lyle Ragsdale - The Purple Death Norman Springer - The Imposter Seabury Quinn - Weird Crimes #6: The Werewolf of St. Bonnot Samuel Stewart Mims - Just Bones Robert Cosmo Harding - First Degree Herman Fetzer - The Latvian Don Howard - The Machine from Outside H. A. Noureddin Addis - Doctor Grant's Experiment Henry S. Whitehead - Tea Leaves Mrs. Chetwood Smith - An Egyptian Lotus Arthur J. Messier - Deep Sea Game H. C. Wire - The Soul Mark E. M. Samson - It! Frank Owen - The Man Who Lived Next Door to Himself Elwin J. Owens - Mystery River Marjorie Darter - The God Yuano Paul L. Anderson - The Cellar Edward Everett & Ralph Howard Wright - In The Weird Light H. M. Hamilton - A Glimpse Beyond Houdini - Ask Houdini Scattered throughout the issue are the following brief unattributed articles. Juvenile Criminal/ Retaliation/ Providential Warning at Sea/ Pastime of Despots/ The Unnatural Son/ Singular Discovery of a Murder in 1740/ Giants/ Sham Fight/ War Horses/ The Original Bluebeard/ Distressing March of the Crusaders Through Phrygia/ Remarkable Accident/ An Account of a Family Who Were All Afflicted with the Loss of Their Limbs/ Hypocrisy Detected/ Force of Imagination/ Immolation of Human Beings/ Imprisonment of Baron De Geramb/ Anecdote Concerning the Execution of King Charles the First/ Anne Bolyn/ The Heroes of Hindoostan/ Extraordinary Instance of Second Sight/ Miracles/ National Superstition/ Death of the Duchess of Bedford / Pardon for Forgery/ Terrific Death of a Painter/ Deaths by Lightning/ Wonderful Providence/ Monsieur Rouelle/ A Singular Experiment/ Pentilly House, Cornwall/ Singular Combat/ Fatal Misfortune and Singular Instance of Affection in a Horse/ Punishment of the Knout in Russia/ Intrepid Conduct of Admiril Douglas/ Only Sound/ Odd Facts. Take your pick: Edwin Baird's final issue, though there is some dispute as to whether or not he had much involvement behind stockpiling the stories, Otis Adelbert Kline having since claimed to have assumed editorial duties for the occasion. Galen C. Colin - Eyes: A Spell Was Cast by the Cold Blue Eyes of a Skeleton, But Suddenly the Spell Snapped. Why Dr. William Ransom, world reknowned surgeon, refuses to treat ocular cases. It all stems from a graverobbing episode back in college days when he desperately required a skeleton. The same author's Teeth ( Weird Tales, April 1926) would resurface five months later in More Not At Night. Edith Lichty Stewart - The Sixth Tree: This is a Tale of the Weirdest Game That Ever Was Played. This last entries in the diary of Professor Carhart, geologist, was suppressed following his hideous death at the teeth and claw of creature unknown, presumed mountain lion. Cahart met his end at the same accursed cabin where five tough guy trappers were butchered in identical fashion. According to Cathart's journal, he played cards with their ghastly phantoms over three consecutive nights. Stakes not mentioned, but we can safely assume he lost. Lyllian Huntley Harris - The Vow on Halloween: Through This Romantic Tale of Love and Rapture Stalks the Grim Specter of Tragedy. See Peter Haining's Halloween Hauntings where he wrongly credits authorship to Dorothy Macardle. Mrs Chetwood Smith - An Egyptian Lotus: An Interesting Narrative of the Land of King Tut. Miss Ethelbert Langshaw masquerades as the ghost of a beautiful Egyptian Princess to attract the interest of gullible cub reporter Johnny Asher. Unfortunately for both, her prank delivers him into the clutches of a robber band who leave him for dead in the catacombs. J M Alvey - Spirits: A Droll Little Tale With a Chuckle at the End. Uncle Henry is mugged by a swinging corpse while returning home from the church on Monk's Head Ridge. Marjorie Darter - The God Yuano: A Fantastic Fragment of Fiction. At the time of sacrifice, twenty infants are placed in baskets and set adrift on the crocodile-infested swamp. Told via a spirit medium ...
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Post by helrunar on Sept 24, 2018 14:41:01 GMT
So, Peter Haining concocted the "infamous" banned issue narrative, perhaps building on something written by Eddy at some point?
If this was the case, it would seem to be consistent with other accounts that have been shared here of Haining's fabrications.
Despite it all, I'm very grateful to Peter Haining for bringing us those collections of tales. They provided me with many happy hours (via copies that were popular in American public libraries) in my teenage years.
H.
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Post by dem bones on Sept 24, 2018 15:17:45 GMT
So, Peter Haining concocted the "infamous" banned issue narrative, perhaps building on something written by Eddy at some point? Not guilty! On this occasion, Peter was paraphrasing/ sexing up August Derleth's remarks in a brief forward to the Consul edition of Night Yawning Peal (1965). " ... it's publication in 1924 stirred a furore which was truly remarkable, impelling educational groups and church organizations to protest and causing the removal of the issue containing the story from many news-stands." Colin Wilson wrote a page on two on the story in Order of Assassins: The Psychology of Murder (Panther, 1972), stating that the psychology was all skewed, but don't have a copy to double-check if he mentioned the ban. From memory, I believe he did.
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Sept 24, 2018 19:44:06 GMT
That May-June-June 1924 issue may have one of Lovecraft's weakest stories under his own name ("Hypnos") but the over-the-top glory of "Imprisoned with the Pharaohs" more than makes up for it. Plus the classic ultraviolet prose of "The Loved Dead" and a Henry S. Whitehead story.
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Post by dem bones on Sept 24, 2018 21:06:35 GMT
"I do not believe these deaths have occurred naturally. I've seen lots of dead men but - boys, what makes that purple ring about the mouth?" Heitman Edith Lyle Ragsdale - The Purple Death: In Your Wildest Imaginings You Will Not Guess What Killed These Men Until The Author Reveals It To You. Something terrible is picking off the eleven-strong band of adventurers prospecting the Indian platinum mine. Suspicion falls on Nanah, their young Hindoo guide as the most likely 'Black Magician.' Capt. Worthington seeks advice from a surgeon-priest at the Temple of Indra who suggests the six men died of fright. Absolutely preposterous! These were fearless, husky daredevils, "No sissies or perfumed dandies in the bunch. Men who would have fought their weight in wildcats." Credit to Baird/ whoever wrote the blurb: they weren't lying. Vida Tyler Adams - "Whoso Diggeth A Pit -": A Tragic Storiette. having been Wrongly accused of agitating for a strike at the oil well, mystery man Shifty Baden is dismissed on the spot. He looks to get even by sparking a blaze in one of the tanks - and falls in ..... H. P. Lovecraft - Hypnos: A Story of Weird Adventures. Complete domination of the universe proves elusive to a pair of misanthropic, terminally up-themselves proto-hippies, whose over-indulgence in hallucinogenics drives them insane. Henry S. Whitehead - Tea Leaves: As Miss Abby Tucker, 37, sets forth from New England on a European cruise, the tea leaves predict romance and riches. An unscheduled visit to a junk shop in Bow Lane sees her on course for both. A light, upbeat fantasy with zero fatalities. Thomas Cook should have snapped it up for their tour brochure. "Book with us and this could happen to you!" It's only really the Lovecraft has let the side down to date.
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Post by dem bones on Sept 25, 2018 16:28:02 GMT
I re-read "Imprisoned with the Pharaohs" (for the first time since the mid 1970s) last Winter and it's a grand tale, but is more ancient Egyptian occult horror, especially focused on the Great Pyramid and the Sphinx. Sphinx-themed horror yarns are really rare. I was delighted and even somewhat creeped out by some scenes involving a predatory Sphinx in Thomas Burnett Swann's novel Cry Silver Bells (posthumously published by DAW in 1977). That May-June-June 1924 issue may have one of Lovecraft's weakest stories under his own name ("Hypnos") but the over-the-top glory of "Imprisoned with the Pharaohs" more than makes up for it. Plus the classic ultraviolet prose of "The Loved Dead" and a Henry S. Whitehead story. Houdini (H.P. Lovecraft) - Imprisoned With The Pharaohs: True adventure of Houdini during a visit to Cairo in January 1910. A band of twenty cut-throat Bedouin led by a treacherous tour guide decide to put the famous escapologist's "magical powers" to the test. Bound, gagged and blindfolded, Houdini is lowered deep into a secret cavern below the Great Sphinx of Gizao and abandoned to his lot. Concussed and bleeding, the stage magician staggers through the darkness until he reaches a huge subterranean temple where an army of monstrous mummies - and worse - pay homage to a tentacled, hydra-headed ghoul which bears vague resemblance to a mutant hippopotamus. Houdini has recently wondered "What huge and loathsome abnormality was the sphinx originally carven to represent?" - now he is about to find out! A thing of fits and starts. Seems to takes an age to get going, considerably ups its game over the second half as Houdini realises something is pursuing him through the cave tunnel. Will overlook the last line ..... George W. Bayly - The Sunken Land: Nature in revolt again as two Mounties and a doctor pursue a fugitive through the Canadian Northwest, only to fall foul of an evil forest of malevolent trees, man-hating plants, and creepers like gigantic serpents with vicious fangs! Made 'Weird Story Reprint' in the March 1930 issue. Guy L. Helms - The Dancing Partner: Chief Gus Miller recalls a terrifying incident from forty-two years back, when, on eve of his wedding, he visited Fulton cemetery to extend an invitation to the resident ghost.
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Post by dem bones on Sept 26, 2018 17:21:09 GMT
Dan W. Totherton - Called Back: "You remember the case. The papers were full of it. It was a sordid, gruesome affair. A scrub girl was killed by a fanatic. His name was Will Hoist. Hers was Gladys Rogers. It was known as the Hoist-Rogers case." Will Hoist went to Old Sparky desperately protesting his innocence, but then, in veteran reporter Bert Willows experience, the "cowardly" ones always do. Willows, who covered the story for The Page, has never doubted that justice was done - until today, when he was called to the death bed of spiritualist Lorna Blanchard, the youth's foster parent. Old Miss Blanchard finally shares her strange secret. H. M. Hamilton - A Glimpse Beyond: To Few Is It Permitted to Penetrate Into the Afterlife, But This Experience Was Given to the Dissolute Tom Crissey. A drunk driving bootlegger is dragged back from the brink of death by a tenacious physician (one of his regular customers, as it turns out). Tom grabs this second chance with both hands, mends his ways, marries the gal who nursed him back to health, presumably revises his opinion on Prohibition, etc. H. C. Wire - The Soul Mark: Dr. Jack Holt returns from the Raphael Islands with a grisly souvenir: a black pouch in human hide, carved from the corpse of a tribesman. He soon wishes he'd left well alone. The relic reeks to high heaven. Far worse, the dead man is desperate to retrieve it. On reaching San Marco, Holt offers the pouch to a friend, Harvey Graham, who is recovering from a breakdown ... Seabury Quinn - Weird Crimes #6: The Werewolf of St. Bonnot: 'Non-fiction,' based on the confession of delusional hermit, Gilles Garnier who, under threat of torture by branding iron, leg-crushers, thumbscrews, and the rack, freely admitted to the cannibal murders of several children during the autumn and early winter of 1573. Quinn would later rework the material for a Jules de Grandin adventure, The Wolf of St. Bonnot, ( Weird Tales, Dec. 1930).
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Post by dem bones on Sept 27, 2018 15:05:31 GMT
Evidently Eddy's story did received mixed reader reaction in the Eyrie over the second half of 1924 but, not having seen the issues in question, have no idea if any were of a "I'll never buy your pornographic magazine again" nature. Farnsworth-Wright was still polling reader opinion as late as January 1925. Would that he'd included a reply coupon at back of the issue. "Yes, please include more stories about sex with dead people .."
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Post by dem bones on Oct 19, 2018 8:27:10 GMT
Two examples of the issue's several news items, concerning "interesting, odd and weird happenings,"
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Post by dem bones on Feb 19, 2019 20:28:14 GMT
Re: The Loved Dead. This is what Farnsworth Wright had to say in 'the Eyrie' for Nov. 1924.
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Post by dem bones on Feb 26, 2019 20:13:26 GMT
Not sure where to commemorate Mrs. Isa-Belle Manzer's solitary contribution to supernatural fiction. I guess this thread is appropriate as any.
Isa-Belle Manzer - The Transparent Ghost: (Weird Tales, Feb, March, April 1924). This story is published by popular request. Adventures of Doctor Daily, who is rendered invisible for three days whenever he "inheals" his 'liquid Fimiliarto Transparent Gas.' It helps his cause that the townsfolk believe him drowned in Rock River, his debts having driven him to suicide. Consequently, Daily is bent on getting even with those responsible for his downfall. In this first instalment, the transparent ghost exposes pillar of the community Goudy Jones, proprietor of the Black Raven gambling den, who has long operated a rigged table.
Here's the Second Instalment of the World's Greatest Serial. Published by Request. ... This Delightful Story Will Be Concluded in the Next Issue of WEIRD TALES. Get It! Read It! Then Try It on Your Banjo.. Daily hears Clara Homes tell a young Banker that she was engaged to marry the poor late doctor. He loudly disputes this, informing the young man that Clara is playing for sympathy. Overhearing a plot to rob Lady Gold-Smith of her jewels, he informs the police and claims half the reward money on offer (presumably Lady Gold-Smith is psychic and reports thefts before they don't happen).
And So Ends the Last Thrilling Words of The Transparent Ghost'. Daily chances upon the funeral of old preacher Baker presided over by a bogus clergyman. The ghost unmasks him as Baker's murderer, claims half the reward, and heads off into the desert, never to be seen in Weird Tales again.
Perhaps the single worst story Baird accepted for Weird Tales, which is saying something. Stefan Dziemianowicz has suggested it may even have been a contributing factor in losing him the editorship.
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Post by helrunar on Feb 27, 2019 2:55:30 GMT
Was it meant to be a spoof? It reads like one. Unfortunately, not all that funny.
I have been reading the 1929 Jules de Grandin stories collected in The Devil's Rosary volume (it was on sale in electronic format at a very, very low price), but don't know that I have the energy to comment. My one-line summing-up of the whole de Grandin shtick: "Sax Rohmer learns French and goes to med school. Hilarity ensues."
cheers, H.
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Post by dem bones on Feb 27, 2019 7:54:44 GMT
Was it meant to be a spoof? It reads like one. Unfortunately, not all that funny. I have been reading the 1929 Jules de Grandin stories collected in The Devil's Rosary volume (it was on sale in electronic format at a very, very low price), but don't know that I have the energy to comment. My one-line summing-up of the whole de Grandin shtick: "Sax Rohmer learns French and goes to med school. Hilarity ensues." cheers, H. Sacré bleu! Still, it makes a change from "Agatha Christie on acid" or whatever. As for The Transparent Ghost, who knows? It smacks of a bored staff member (Baird himself? ) indulging a private joke. It might even be genuine. At this late stage we're unlikely to find out. Here's Edwin laying it on thick in 'The Eyrie' for November 1923.
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Post by johnnymains on Feb 27, 2019 10:04:47 GMT
As soon as I saw 'Amarillo, Texas' - I had one thought, Louise Evelyn 'Pierce' Nace - but luckily, she was only 12 at the time so could never have been responsible...
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Post by dem bones on Mar 1, 2019 10:52:07 GMT
Farnsworth Wright [ed.] - Weird Tales, Dec. 1924Andrew Brosnatch Frank Belknap Long - Death-Waters Snakes - and a Black Man in a Black Lake Carroll K. Michener - The Earth Girl A Distant Planet - Destruction of a Civilisation C. M. Eddy jnr. - With Weapons of Stone Cavemen - Primitive Love - The Saber-tooth Tiger Otto A. E. Schmidt - The Death Clinic Weird Revenge of a Great Surgeon W. Benson Dooling - Cave of Murdered Men A Fantasy Mrs. Edgar Saltus - Kaivala Fourth Dimesion - Hypnotism - Crime Edgar White - A Tryst With Death A Rendezvous at the Tomb Arthur Thatcher - The Valley of Teeheemen (Part One) Two-part Novel - Airplane Falls Into Strange Valley Edwin J. Owens - Black Temple Band Six Black-robed Men - and a Weird Crime C. Franklin Miller - His Family A Mad Colonel in the African Wilderness Romeo Poole - A Hand From the Deep Strange Tale of Quack Surgery Denis Francis Hannigan - After Beyond the Door of Death Thomas B. Sherman - Creeping Mist Crime of a Man Who Was Already Dead Anthony D. Keogh - The Silent Five A Haunted House and a Secret Society Henry W. Whitehill - The Case of the Russian Stevedore Facts in the Strange Death of Dr. Dinwoodie Estil Critchie - Voodoo Haiti - Worship of the Green Serpent L. A. Borah - The House of Dust (Conclusion) Two-part Mystery Serial Howard R. Marsh - Youth Storiette of Shattered Hopes Harry Harrison Kroll - Fairy Gossamer A Cave of Hungry Spiders Galen C. Colin - The Song Eternal Through the Ages It Sang to Him - of Love H. Thompson Rich - The Crimson Crucifix A Birthmark - An Innocent Kiss - and Disaster
The Eyrie A Chat With the ReadersThird issue under Farnsworth Wright's editorship, still stuffed with Baird leftovers, but somehow, much improved. Christine Campbell Thomson recycled no less than four stories over the inaugural volume of what became the Not At Night series. Peter Haining revived Estil Critchie's 'Voodoo' for The Evil People - albeit under a different title - while Dziemianowicz, Weinberg & Greenberg exhumed 'Fairy Gossamer' for 100 Creepy Little Creature Stories. What of the rest? Andrew Brosnatch Ralph Parker Anderson - The Purple Light: Insane Jealousy - and the Death Ray Joseph, a scientist, swears revenge when Lois Howard, the girl he loves, marries his best friend. Knowing of John Leighton's squeamish nature - during their youth he was the official school sissy - Joseph plans to scare him out of his wits. To this end, he invites Leighton over to view his latest and greatest invention. "I have developed a light - it happens to be purple - which will automatically dissolve anything on which it is turned." Joseph's evidence of it's effectiveness include a pile of ashes (formerly a cat), a stack of fused coins, a nasty burn on his arm, and a pile of rubble where once stood the rock face known as Pan's Tombstone. This last is particularly impressive, as Leighton witnesses its destruction with his own eyes. Leighton, spineless jelly that he is, begs Joe to destroy this proto-weapon of mass destruction, but the boffin laughs in his face. Destroy it, indeed! Are you mad? I'm going to use it to frazzle the person I hate most in all the world. You! The ending is possibly the most wonderful thing I have ever read. W. Benson Dooling - Cave of Murdered Men: A Fantasy. Their mouldering corpses sit around a table. As one is avenged, so he departs to the afterlife and another tormented soul is admitted to the company. Edgar White - A Tryst With Death: A Rendezvous at the Grave. The narrator, a journalist, visits Oakland Cemetery at midnight out of duty to his late friend, Dr. Robert St. Clair. The medical man believed that, in certain favourable conditions, the dead may communicate a message from the other side. Jim is greeted at the vault by a young nurse, Agnes Lindell, with whom St. Clair, a confirmed misogynist, had somehow fallen in love. Together they wait for a sign from the beyond. St. Clair does not disappoint, but the consequences are tragic. Denis Francis Hannigan - After: Beyond the Door of Death. The morning after the bungled execution before, the killer is reunited with his victim. This might be embarrassing, were not the victim so deliriously grateful to be free of the bonds of the material world, the puny concerns of mankind. Moral: Book now. Death is the most magnificent thing that will ever happen to us.
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