Page:Weird Tales volume 31 number 03.djvu/105

 appreciate it as a very splendid weird tale, it should have been entered as a reprint, as I read the same story in the magazine section of the Toronto Star Weekly three or four months ago. With the exception of the reprint story, I always had the impression that all stories published in Weird Tales were original, and I would like to be informed regarding the editorial policy in this matter. As for my voting for the best stories in the current issue, it is on this occasion impossible, for with all appreciation for the other tales in this issue, Seabury Quinn's Roads defies comparison." [Toean Matjan was sold to us as a new story which had seen publication in England only. We did not know that it had been printed in Canada. Like many other publications, occasionally buys outstanding stories that have already been printed in the British Isles, but we do not knowingly use stories that have been published in North America.—.]

Brickbats

J. Vernon Shea, Jr., writes from Pittsburgh: "I wish Seabury Quinn hadn't written Roads, for that tale for children has no place in WT. It made me squirm. Of the stories in the January issue, I prefer Toean Matjan, a beautifully written version of a familiar theme. Miss Herron is a highly promising newcomer. Edmond Hamilton had a novel idea in The House of Living Music, but ruined it by his formula handling. The Witch's Mark marks considerable of an advancement for Dorothy Quick, but I for one am pretty fed-up with witch-women, especially when they go through their all-too-familiar routines. I wish you would caution your authors against topical subjects as applied to weird tales. They have not the immediacy the authors imagine them to have, but intrude unpleasantly in a non-realistic field. Thus, the attempted lynching in The Hairy Ones Shall Dance, which seems to be taken from the motion picture Fury, seemed wildly incongruous in WT. Don't misunderstand me: I am very fond of realism in a realistic story, but hardly consider much realism fitting for WT."

A New Reader

Margaret H. Gray writes from Steubenville, Ohio: "Greetings from a comparatively new member of your circle of readers, I have been reading your magazine for only one short year, much to my chagrin. I have just completed the January edition, and I say that there are entirely too many days to wait until February. The Witch's Mark was by far the best in this issue. Perhaps I am prejudiced, as I am brimful of Irish and Scottish folklore, but the translating of Deidre and Shamus into modern life, is in my eyes, a masterpiece. Some more stories just like it, please, Dorothy Quick! (By the way, is she Irish?) Virgil Finlay's illustrations are still 'splendiferous' (that's my own invention!) and M. Brundage's cover picture is grand. Toean Matjan, by Vennette Herron, rates second in my list. I love stories like this. May we have some more, if you please? I am collecting all of those illustration passages from poetry so that I can frame them. Couldn't you make them in color? I think I have asked too many questions already. Good luck, WT, and may the sun never set on your splendid magazine."

A Posing Tiger

Michael Liene writes from Hazleton, Pennsylvania: "Toean Matjan, by Vennette Herron, was a strange little tale, beautifully written. The tiger in the illustration looks suspiciously like the one used to advertise Listerine mouth wash, or some such. Or did this tiger take up posing for advertisements, in the spare time he had, aside from jealously guarding our heroine of the story? Were it not for Quinn's beautifully told story, Roads, I would have given Toean Matjan first place in the January issue—the story, I mean, not the tiger.... Gans T. Field's The Hairy Ones Shall Dance serial has started out quite thrillingly. It leaves the reader all prepared for startling events, which will either make or ruin the story. But if the first installment is any indication of shudders, I just took my racoon coat out of storage."

He Wants a Sequel

Alvin V. Pershing writes from Anderson, Indiana: "Would it be proper to ask for a sequel to The Sea-Witch? That story was a tremendous knock-out, amazing and weird. It was one of the best stories I have ever read. Virgil's black-and-white frontispiece was a real addition to the magazine."

Quinn and Howard

J. Mackay Tait writes from Bridgetown,