Page:Weird Tales Volume 27 Issue 01 (1936-01).djvu/128

126 sequel to this astounding story. Hollywood Horror of course has a high average. Instead of the cover that was printed I would rather have seen a picture of a girl with a skull for a head looking in a mirror or killing herself with the shears. Take Mary Ashley's advice and have a few nude men as you do women. Why not give the male sex a chance for once? I have been buying many back copies lately and am glad to see how the magazine has improved. The best part of the magazine is the Eyrie."

David Mahoney, of San Francisco, writes: "Just a few words on the magazine and the authors themselves. My favorite authors are six: Lovecraft, Howard, Quinn, Moore, Hamilton and Ward. I've only been reading your book for the last two and a half years, but I think Lovecraft is your best, greatest, etc., author Now for the best three stories in the November issue. They are, in order: 1. Shadows in Zamboula; 2. The Consuming Flame; 3. The Hand of Wrath."

Jack Darrow, of Chicago, writes to the Eyrie: "The story I liked best in the November issue of is The Way Home by Paul Frederick Stern. A truly weird story. The latter seems to be scarce these days. Let's have more stories dwelling on the unknown, stories without natural explanations. E. Hoffmann Price I can always enjoy; hence The Hand of Wrath went over all right with me. I also enjoyed When the Flame-Flowers Blossomed and Mr. Berbeck Had a Dream. The Conan stories live up to the title—. Why not try Napoli on the cover? I'm glad to hear that Jack Williamson is returning. Let's hope he writes more prolifically now."

Julius Hopkins, of Washington, D. C., writes: "The November WT is an excellent issue and I thoroughly enjoyed every story in it. Shadows in Zamboula by Howard is a masterpiece and easily takes first place. His descriptions of vigorous action are superb. I like especially well his colorful description of the battle royal between Conan and the massive structure of bone and muscle called Baal-pteor. As much as I dislike purely scientific and detective stories I must admit that The Consuming Flame by Ernst held my attention to the very last word and gets my selection for second place. The Way Home by Stern is a very interesting tale and I award third place to it. It seems to me that he couldn't refrain from obtaining a glimpse of himself, when he passed by so many shop windows with the street lights shining on them. My selections of the twelve best stories in WT during 1935, judging by their uniqueness and originality, are as follows: The Dark Eidolon, Rulers of the Future, Lord of the Lamia, Jewels of Gwahlur, Julhi, Out of the Eons, The Man Who Could Not Go Home, The Bronze Casket, Jirel Meets Magic, The Mystery of the Last Guest, Shadows in Zamboula, and—choosing this one because the other Kaldar stories are so excellent—The Great Brain of Kaldar."

Robert Tuft, of White Plains, New York, writes: "My sincere thanks for printing Paul Frederick Stern's unheralded masterpiece, The Way Home. It is the best story has presented in many ages. It was an unusual and very well written tale, worth waiting a long time for. Unless I miss my guess, it will cause quite a stir among your readers."

Ernest H. Ormsbee, of Albany, New York, writes: "In the interest of keeping weird, I am for the second time since this series started, writing to tell you that Paul Ernst's superb story, Hollywood Horror, is strictly not weird and has no place in our unique magazine. Again I will state this reader's definition to you: a tale, to be weird, must consist of things that have no possible solution in our prosaic everyday scheme of things. These stories of Paul Ernst contain not a single truly supernatural feature, not a thing that hasn't an answer in the realm of science. They are superb stories—but not for WT. To go on with my (I hope) constructive criticism for the month of October, Edmond Hamilton is not known as a particular writer of weird tales. His field is the interplanetary, and in this field he excels, but the interplanetary is not in itself weird. Some of his tales have weird features. I would classify The Six Sleepers as pseudo-weird. An answer to all the questions he builds up might be found in pathological and mechan-