Page:Weird Tales Volume 5 Number 6 (1925-06).djvu/137



ROM time to time is asked to reprint the great weird stories of the past. Hardly a week passes without the receipt of several letters calling attention to some old masterpiece. Within the past month it has been suggested that we reprint the weird tales of Hoffmann; Wandering Willie's Tale, by Sir Walter Scott; The Dead Leman, by Gautier; The Monkey's Paw, by W. W. Jacobs, and A Terribly Strange Bed, by Wilkie Collins. We have repeatedly been asked to run Bram Stoker's vampire-novel, Dracula, in serial form; but this we shall not do because it would take too much space away from new stories (Dracula comprizes 378 pages in book form).

But (as we have repeatedly stated in The Eyrie) belongs to you, the readers; and we are going to try out your suggestion that we reprint one of the shorter masterpieces of weird fiction in each issue. Edgar Allan Poe is barred, because every lover of weird fiction is already acquainted with his works, and reprinting his tales would give nothing to our readers that they do not already possess. What we want is the lesser-known masterpieces of short weird fiction. We should not care, for instance, to reprint Fitz-James O'Brien's What Was It? or The Diamond Lens, because most of youare already familiar with these two stories; but there are less known stories by this author, which may be welcomed by you, the readers. Every lover of weird fiction is already acquainted with Ambrose Bierce's The Damned Thing, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, and The Man and the Snake, so we shall not reprint these; but fewer are acquainted with An Inhabitant of Carcosa, or The Middle Toe of the Right Foot.

It will not be practicable in all cases to reprint the stories you select, but every effort will be made to conform to your wishes. The stories must be weird, they must possess unusual merit, and they must be short.

If you recall any wonderful weird tale that you think the readers of this magazine would like to read, let us know about it. We have selected, so far, only the first of the "Weird Story Reprints." This is The Three Low Masses, a ghost-tale of old Provence, by Alphonse Daudet. Other short masterpieces of weird fiction will follow in succeeding issues. The selection of stories will be left to you, the readers, as far as possible. Daudet's delicious ghost-tale will appear next month.

R. G. Macready, of Durant, Oklahoma, writes to the editor: "You are to be commended on the determined stand you, as well as the great majority of {{sc|Weird Tales}] readers, have taken against those who protest at the weird quality of the stories printed in your periodical. Why do not these people, who are trying to wipe out of existence the only magazine of its kind, turn