Page:Weird Tales Volume 13 Number 06 (1929-06).djvu/131



FRIEND of recently remarked that not only does this magazine publish a multitude of fascinating stories, but that it also prints more great stories than any other magazine in the world, in his opinion. He said that he was certain of finding in every third or fourth issue a story so superb as to deserve rank with the world's classics. One of these masterworks of fiction, to judge by the acclaim of the many readers who have written in to express their opinion, is The Dunwich Horror, by H. P. Lovecraft, in our April issue.

A. V. Pershing of St. Paul, Indiana, writes to the Eyrie: "I have just finished The Dunwich Horror by the great H. P. Lovecraft. I am a graduate of Indiana University and have taught physics in the high schools for six years. During this time I have read stories by some 'real' authors; for instance, I have read all of Shakespeare's plays, and many of Poe's works. I say that Lovecraft has an uncanny, nearly superhuman power of transporting one bodily to scenes of his unparalleled 'horrors' and forcing upon us the exquisite pleasure of 'living' the story, so that he (the reader) experiences actual meetings with the shadowy demons of Older Earth. The bare remembrance of such matter-of-fact acquaintances with the gibberish 'terrors' of his pen freezes my brain, the while my thoughts scatter and flee panic-stricken to the crumbling recesses of ancient hyper-space where laughing, screeching demons of all the crystallized filth and anguish of a universe obscenely chant the death orgies of the insane existence we term 'reality.' Some day I hope to purchase a classic, containing all of Lovecraft's works so far published in I like best a weird. Again I say that surely Lovecraft is as great a writer as ever lived. Where does this genius live and how old is he?"

Writes Jack T. Whitfield, of Penn Yan, New York: "I have just finished reading about the best story I have ever read in the three and a half years I have been reading your extraordinary magazine. To me H. P. Lovecraft has outdone himself in The Dunwich Horror. It held me more deeply than any story I have read in some time. Since I can not find words to express my appreciation of this story, let it suffice that I find it utterly enthralling. I am