Public-domain ebook
by Various
Language: en9,792 downloads on Project Gutenberg
Subjects
In: Short Stories·Science-Fiction & Fantasy·Crime, Thrillers and Mystery
Public-domain ebook sourced from Project Gutenberg #68957.
Weird Tales, Volume 1, Number 1 (March 1923) is a single‑issue pulp magazine that assembles twenty‑two short stories and three novelettes under the banner of “gooseflesh” fiction. The front matter reads like a 1920s trade sheet, listing subscription rates, submission guidelines, and a bold promise to deliver “fantastic, extraordinary, grotesque” tales that mainstream editors supposedly reject. The contents list hints at the range: horror (“The Grave,” “The Unknown Beast”), adventure (“The Ghoul and the Corpse,” “The Ape‑Man”), and speculative pieces (“The Thing of a Thousand Shapes”). The opening story, “The Dead Man’s Tale,” plunges the reader into a WWI battlefield where a soldier discovers he is a phantom, setting a tone of uncanny dread and psychological twist that the rest of the issue follows.
The magazine’s voice is unmistakably of the early twentieth‑century pulp era, direct, sensational, and eager to shock with vivid descriptions of terror, madness, and the supernatural. Its prose balances brisk, plot‑driven narration with moments of eerie introspection, reflecting the period’s fascination with occultism and the uncanny. Readers who relish atmospheric horror, speculative adventure, and the raw energy of 1920s genre magazines will find this debut issue a compelling snapshot of the era’s “weird” imagination.
Editor Published monthly by the Rural Publishing Corporation , 934 North Clark Street, Chicago, Ill. Application made for entry at the postoffice at Chicago, Ill., as second class matter. Single copies, 25 cents: subscription, $3 a year in the United States, $3.50 in Canada. The publishers are not responsible for the loss of unsolicited manuscripts in transit, by fire, or otherwise, although every precaution is taken with such material. All manuscripts should be typewritten and must be accompanied by stamped and self-addressed envelopes. The contents of this magazine are fully protected by copyright, and publishers are cautioned against using the same, either wholly or in part. Copyright, 1923, by the Rural Publishing Corporation. …
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