Page:Weird Tales Volume 29 Number 1 (1937-01).djvu/124



ETTERS about Robert E. Howard's untimely death continue to come in to the editor's desk. They are letters of appreciation of his genius, and of sympathy and condolence. Mr. Howard was undoubtedly a superb writer, with a spirited, vigorous style and an inexhaustible imagination. His poems were works of sheer genius. We believe that his greatest stories will outlast most of what passes today as literature in the slide-paper magazines. By his death has suffered an irreparable loss.

The necrology of authors is altogether too long. Beginning with the tragic death of Alanson Skinner (The Tsantsa of Professor Von Rothapfel, etc.), who was killed in an automobile accident several years ago, has lost by death Henry S. Whitehead (Jumbee, etc.), S. B. H. Hurst (The Splendid Lie, etc.), Edward Lucas White (Lukundoo), Robert E. Howard (The Shadow Kingdom, etc.), Arthur B. Reeve (The Death Cry); those two fine English authors, G. Appleby Terrill (The Supreme Witch, etc.) and Arlton Eadie (The Eye of Truth, etc.); the Mexican poetess Alice I'Anson, and the young Illinois poet Robert Nelson. New authors are coming into their maturity and stepping into the places of those who have gone, but we hope it will be a long, long time before any more of our writers will be added to the necrology of this magazine.

The "fan magazines" are an interesting phenomenon. These are magazines printed by amateurs and devoted to discussions of the type of stories featured in their favorite magazines. Fantasy Magazine has just published its Fourth Anniversary Issue, devoted to weird-scientific stories and weird fiction. Another magazine of this type was Fantasy Fan, which lately discontinued publication. A strong bid for supremacy in this field will be offered by a new amateur publication, to be called Science-Fantasy Correspondent, according to a letter from its editor, Willis Conover, Jr., of 27 High Street, Cambridge, Maryland. We notice that the first issue features an autobiography of Virgil Finlay, whose illustrations in  and A Midsummer Night's Dream (Wright's Shakespeare Library edition) have been so much admired. The new magazine will also offer, among other things, Lovecraft's scholarly treatise, Supernatural Horror and Literature, beginning where Fantasy Fan left off when that publication ceased; and a story by Robert Bloch entitled A Visit With H. P. Lovecraft, which Mr. Conover describes as a "hilarious yarn."

Teofilo D. Agcaoili, of Manila, writes: " is a magazine I can unashamedly carry around with Whit Burnett's Story and Miss Monroe's Poetry, it being the best of its kind. I am sick of the other terror and mystery magazines one sees overcrowding the news stands: their contents are without significance—utterly formless and lacking substance. Their contributors seem to be ignorant of anthropology, science and metaphysics; much more, the greater bulk of them are not meant for writing. They should think less of pulps and more of art. I like August W. Derleth's stories. Paul Ernst is too prolific, but in spite of that I like him too."

Bernard E. Schiffmann, of Laurelton, New York, writes: "It was with deep sorrow indeed, that the tragic death of Robert