Page:Weird Tales Volume 9 Number 4 (1927-04).djvu/137



ETTERS are still pouring in to The Eyrie on the question of whether should continue to use one "Weird Story Reprint" in each issue, and so far those who want us to continue our reprint policy are greatly in the majority. So, in obedience to your wishes, we shall continue our policy of selecting, each month, one of the short-story masterpieces of weird fiction from the literature of the past; but all the other stories in each issue will be entirely new, the best current weird fiction and weird-scientific fiction that can be obtained. In the future, as in the past, will print a type of fiction such as can be obtained nowhereelse—highly imaginative tales of science and pseudo-science (such as Explorers Into Infinity in this issue); tales of supernatural horror (such as Out of the Earth in this issue); tales of spirit return (such as The Return in this issue); bizarre and fantastic tales, occult and mystic stories; tales of terror and mystery; tales of werewolves, witchcraft and devil-worship, and tales of strange monsters. It is on such stories that the brilliant success of has been built, and we shall continue to give you, the readers, a wide variety of the best weird fiction in the world.

Arthur W. Davenport, of Buffalo, New York, asks for more orientales. "According to my opinion, you have published very few Oriental weird stories," he writes. "To the minds of most people, the East is filled with mystery and weird happenings. In saying that the plot of a story is laid in New York or London there is no special effect produced upon the mind of the auditor; yet how different is the connotation of the words Bagdad, Stamboul and Damascus! Mystery, intrigue and weirdness are disclosed in the 'Open Sesame' of those words. The unusual fairly leaps into being. The unknown and the unusual should produce the most weird effect in story-telling."

will publish a number of weird Oriental tales such as Mr. Davenport asks for, during this year. Some of the best orientales of recent magazine-literature have appeared in the pages of this magazine, for instance, the Asiatic tales of E. Hoffmann Price, and the Chinese fantasies of Frank Owen; and letters are still coming in from readers praising Murray Leinster's powerful Asiatic torture-tale, The Oldest Story in the World, which appeared in

"I have been a silent admirer of Weird Tales long enough," writes Jack T. Chord, of New York City, "so I want to take this opportunity of telling you how I enjoy the first of every month, when W. T. appears on the