Page:Weird Tales Volume 02 Number 2 (1937-02).djvu/123



MAN named John John Seymour, who lives in New York, writes to the Eyrie: "The principles of Numerology have much to do with an author's popularity, with his success or failure. If Oscar Wilde had used his full name, Oscar Fingal O'Flaherty Wills Wilde, he would not (so one Numerologist tells me) have been plunged into the terrible scandal and disgrace that clouded the last years of his life. I am but a novice in Numerology, but I would like to see, if only just once, the full names of some of the authors who have made so popular, so that I can determine (to my own satisfaction, at least) whether their success would be any greater if they used their full names. For instance, what do the initials H. P. stand for in H. P. Lovecraft's name?" [Though we are not numerologists, we willingly print for John John's benefit the full names of some of our best-known authors and artists, as follows: Howard Phillips Lovecraft, Robert Ervin Howard, Henry St. Clair Whitehead, Seabury Grandin Quinn, Hugh Doak Rankin, Virgil Warden Finlay, Paul Frederick Ernst, Abraham Merritt, Edgar Hoffmann Price, Victor Rousseau Emanuel.—.]

Fred C. Miles, of New Providence, New Jersey, writes: "Have not written to the Eyrie for several years, but the uniform excellence of the December has, at long last, evoked this burst of praise. The Fire of Asshurbanipal was, as the cover proclaimed, a superb story. It fills one with an almost nameless dread to contemplate future issues of  without the name of Robert E. Howard gracing its pages. No doubt many of his stories will be reprinted, and I cast the first vote for a Solomon Kane tale—Wings in the Night. I regard that as one of Howard's finest works; indeed, it is one of the most truly weird stories ever printed in the magazine. St. John's cover for December is actually a weird illustration, something rather rare of late, excluding, of course, the same artist's cover for the October issue. I am very glad to see that Virgil Finlay is to do a cover in the near future.