Various

“ Maturin at length evolved the vivid horror-masterpiece of "Melmoth, the Wanderer," (1820) in which the Gothic tale climbed to altitudes of sheer spiritual fright which it had never known before.
"Melmoth" is the tale of an Irish gentleman who, in the seventeenth century, obtained a preternaturally extended life from the Devil at the price of his soul. If he can persuade another to take the bargain off his hands, and assume his existing state, he can be saved; but this he can never manage to effect, no matter how assiduously he haunts those whom despair has made reckless and frantic. ”

“ I have always believed that such strange, inaccessible worlds exist at our very elbows, and now I believe I have found a way to break down the barriers. I am not joking. Within twenty-four hours that machine near the table will generate waves acting on unrecognized sense-organs that exist in us as atrophied or rudimentary vestiges. ”

“ He chuckled oddly at my surprise. "You thought ultra-violet was invisible, and so it is—but you can see that and many other invisible things now.
"Listen to me! The waves from that thing are waking a thousand sleeping senses in us; senses which we inherit from aeons of evolution from the state of detached electrons to the state of organic humanity. I have seen truth, and I intend to show it to you. Do you wonder how it will seem? I will tell you." Here Tillinghast seated himself directly opposite me, blowing out his candle and staring hideously into my eyes. ”

“ I never feel alone or comfortable, and a hideous sense of pursuit sometimes comes chillingly on me when I am weary. What prevents me from believing the doctor is this one simple fact—that the police never found the bodies of those servants whom they say Crawford Tillinghast murdered. ”

“ No unbiased reader can doubt that with "Melmoth" an enormous stride in the evolution of the horror-tale is represented. Fear is taken out of the realm of the conventional and exalted into a hideous cloud over mankind's very destiny. Maturin's shudders, the work of one capable of shuddering himself, are of the sort that convince. ”

“ Those waves will open up to us many vistas unknown to man, and several unknown to anything we consider organic life. We shall see that at which dogs howl in the dark, and that at which cats prick up their ears after midnight. We shall see these things, and other things which no breathing creature has yet seen. We shall overleap time, space, and dimensions, and without bodily motion peer to the bottom of creation."
When Tillinghast said these things I remonstrated, for I knew him well enough to be frightened rather than amused ”

“ We see things only as we are constructed to see them, and can gain no idea of their absolute nature. With five feeble senses we pretend to comprehend the boundlessly complex cosmos, yet other beings with a wider, stronger, or different range of senses might not only see very differently the things we see, but might see and study whole worlds of matter, energy, and life which lie close at hand yet can never be detected with the senses we have. ”

“ It is not pleasant to see a stout man suddenly grown thin, and it is even worse when the baggy skin becomes yellowed or greyed, the eyes sunken, circled, and uncannily glowing, the forehead veined and corrugated, and the hands tremulous and twitching. ”

“ BOOKS OF THE WEIRD
by J. Harvey Haggard
"Drums of Dambala" by H. Bedford-Jones is a crackerjack of a weird novel in case any of the rest of the fans haven't read it. As related by that master raconteur, we have zombies, ju-ju dances, and lots of thrilling action on that dark island of ancient magic, Haiti. "The Story of Superstition," a non-fiction book dealing with the origin of such quaint modern customs as throwing rice and laying corner-stones, is another absorbing book. ”

“ One great thing may be said of the author; that he never ruined his ghostly visions with a natural explanation. He succeeded in breaking up the Radcliffian tradition and expanding the field of the Gothic novel. Lewis wrote much more than "The Monk." His drama, "The Castle Spectre," was produced in 1798, and he later found time to pen other fiction in ballad form—"Tales of Terror," (1799) "Tales of Wonder," (1801) and a succession of translations from Germany.
Gothic romances, both English and German, now appeared in multitudinous and mediocre profusion. ”

“ The articles that appear beat anything ever written by Shakespeare and makes the works of Poe, Wells, and Verne look amateurish. Lovecraft, Smith, and Howard are the greatest writers of all time, in any branch of literature. Of course, because of the excitement my name would cause if it were printed in your magazine, please do not publish this letter. Just be satisfied in knowing that the greatest man in the world is one of your readers."—John de Rocka Fella
Sorry, Johnny, old kid, but your letter has already gone to press and it's too late to take it out now. ”

“ On the planet called Loth, in the Seventh City, there lived a semi-savage known as Hsuth. He had been captured in his youth by the fearless raiders of Phargo, but popular demand later caused the release of all the beings that once formed an interesting collection of the larger animals. So it was that one might have had for a neighbor anything from one of the reddish parrot-people from the far-away isle of Hin to a pale blue octopus-thing from the dried sea-bed of Innia. Hsuth, it is to be stated, was neither, being merely one of the common-place brown tailed men from Leek. ”

“ After reading it, you'll wonder if man has wholly escaped from his belief in the supernatural after all. "Magic Island," by Seabrook, is another non-fiction book that will thrill you as much as the most imaginative tale. The author relates his experiences in Haiti, in which he goes native with the bushmen and witnesses the sacred dance never before beheld by white men.
From Beyond by H. P. Lovecraft
Horrible beyond conception was the change which had taken place in my best friend, Crawford Tillinghast. ”

“ THE FAVORITE WEIRD TALES OF
AUGUST W. DERLETH (Courtesy of H. Koenig) YOUR VIEWS
[Readers are invited to make free use of this department. However, we must ask you to be brief, due to the limited space available.]
"If the devil suddenly materialized, horns, tail, hooves, brimstone and all, sneaking in at the midnight hour and sat down beside one of us ordinary disbelieving mortals—well, that's my own idea of a good weird story! Most stories react upon one rather distantly. They communicate merely a distant mental fear, and not a physical fear. ”

“ Ten Story Book edited by Harry Stephen Keeler, once put out an all weird issue.... Robert E. Howard occasionally does boxing yarns for Sport Stories.
Farnsworth Wright says the best stories he's printed in Weird Tales are (not in the order listed) : "The Stranger from Kurdistan" by Price, "The Phantom Farmhouse" by Quinn, "The Outsider" by Lovecraft, "The Werewolf of Ponkert" by Munn, "The Shadow Kingdom" by Howard, "The Canal" by Worrell, "The Wind that Tramps the World" by Owen.... ”

“ Another column, "Can it be Done?" presents an illustration of some badly needed device or invention, and asks readers to try to invent them. The readers page occupies the back cover at present and quite a few good arguments are put up. It needs some American letters though, so get busy Mr. Ackerman and Mr. Darrow!
Several requests have been received for information on this magazine, so here it is: Scoops is published weekly at 18 Henrietta St., London, WC2, England. Yearly subscription price is 13s, or about $3.40. Remittance can be made in American postal money orders. ”

“ Farnsworth Wright has had several stories and poems published under the nom-de-plume of Francis Hard.... Desmond Hall, associate editor of Astounding Stories, admits having had a story published in Weird Tales under a pseudonym, but won't divulge which one. ”