When the history of fantasy and horror fiction is being discussed, the pulp magazine Weird Tales is inevitably mentioned. Originally selling for just twenty-five cents on news-stands, and printed on low-grade ‘pulp’ paper, Weird Tales was the first magazine devoted exclusively to weird and fantastic fiction. The three most important and influential writers to have their work published in the pages of ‘The Unique Magazine’ were Rhode Island horror writer H.P. Lovecraft; the Texan creator of Conon the Cimmerian, Robert E. Howard; and the California poet, short story writer, illustrator and sculptor, Clark Ashton Smith.
In The Weird Tales Boys, award-winning writer and editor Stephen Jones explores the relationship between this trio of—in many ways flawed—friends, and how their work and lives became not just entwined with each other, but also with so many other authors and publishers of the period. The legacy of these writers—Lovecraft, Howard and Smith—and the periodical in which their work appeared still has a profound influence on horror and fantasy fiction after more than a century, as The Weird Tales Boys’ continue to cast their long, talented and sometimes controversial shadows over the genre today. This is their story…
Dark bleatings, my lovely tribe! I hope you’re all well, and have been enjoying great books recently. Speaking of great books, I picked up The Weird Tales Boys at FCon last year, and finally got around to reading it! I was super excited to get stuck in, especially since I got to buy it from the author himself, who kindly signed it for me. I went to that convention vowing to “only buy 1 or 2 books” but that PS Publishing launch alone threw those plans out of the window, because I bought everything.
This book of mini-essay style chapters is a delight. I never read Weird Tales (the magazine), but that didn’t hinder my enjoyment of reading about its notable contributors and the details of their literary histories, and the magazine itself.
I think, even more than the information given (which is interesting and fun to read – I love trivia and behind-the-scenes stuff!), I really enjoyed the overall tone in which this entire book is written. The author’s enthusiasm for the topics really shines through, and reading it feels like being in conversation with someone telling you about things they love. I’ve been such a huge fan of Stephen Jones for the longest time – I’ve been obsessively collecting any and all anthologies I see his name attached to. He’s a master of compiling and arranging fantastic fiction, and that talent in the way this non-fiction book is put together is evident here too. He not only knows how to tell a story, but he’s also an expert in how to present it.
I’d recommend this to fans of the original magazine, people who enjoy horror related non-fiction, and of course, people who enjoy the work of the authors discussed. If you’d like to get your own copy or check out the author and press, there are some links below for you:
Happy Goat Horror 
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