Page:Weird Tales Volume 8 Number 2 (1926-08).djvu/140

282 tention to print the best weird and weird-scientific stories obtainable, but all must carry the illusion of reality. If they have this, then they have power to thrill; and it is this illusion of reality that has established the success of this magazine of "weird tales."

The June issue has called forth many enthusiastic letters, though we have space to print only a few. "The magazine certainly deserves credit for its wonderful strides in the last few months," writes Rosemary E. Field of Uniontown, Pennsylvania. "You are carrying better stories, and I love the magazine—even if it does keep me awake all night shivering with imagined dangers. Why don't you print the pictures of the authors? I, for one, would like to see what they look like."

Amelia Tarnozzi, of San Francisco, suggests: "Would it be possible to secure as reprints chapters or extracts of some of the practically unknown books on black magic, witchcraft, etc.? Many of the rare books of the Middle Ages none of us have a chance to read, and some of them certainly must be suitable for publication in as reprints."

Writes L. J. Frank, of Portland, Oregon: "In The Eyrie I see that you hear from many parts of the East. I want you to know that there are people out in the West that also wait anxiously for each edition of . I congratulate you on your selection of stories for the last edition and am eagerly waiting for the next one."

"Spider-Bite, in the June issue, is the most eery and fascinating tale I have ever read," writes Carroll McMasters, of Tacoma, Washington. "I would also like many more stories by Lovecraft, please, for he is a wonderful writer."

Manual S. Perry, of New Bedford, Massachusetts, voices his dissent from those readers who want published twice as often as at present. "Many readers suggest having the magazine published semi-monthly, but let it remain as it is," he writes. "The stories in your magazine would lose their thrilling effect if published oftener. Remember, Mr. Editor, that only rare things are precious; so let it be rare."

"Your magazine each month proves an oasis in a weary desert of standard reading matter," writes Manly Wade Wellman, of Wichita, Kansas. "I have long been attracted by the fantastic and unusual in fiction, but there seemed to be little in modern writing of that order. I have been reading with intense interest for months."

Ralph Anstad, of Minneapolis, writes enthusiastically to The Eyrie: "Though I have read your magazine since it was first published, never have I read a more thrill-inspiring issue than the June copy. The magazine held me spellbound for the whole afternoon. To think that in one magazine are stories by the great Stamper, Powers, Burks and Lovecraft is worth ten times the price of the magazine."

Frank Simon, of Hartsville, Tennessee, finds reading lucrative. He writes to The Eyrie: "I began reading with the March number, 1925, and haven't missed a copy since. I have all my magazines, as I read them and then lease them out for ten cents a week. I have four out this week, so I make my magazine free."

Harold Weight, of Pasadena, California, writes: "I've been a constant reader of from almost the first issue. The magazine certainly is improving. There isn't a bad story in the May issue. Strange though it may seem, with all the good stories, none of them held my interest as much as one little poem. That poem was The Moon Dance, by A. Leslie. The poem was wonderful. I must have read it a dozen times. There was a certain swing to