There’s never quite been a magazine such as Weird Tales. In any conversation of genre, it’s hard to place the publication in a tidy box of fantasy, horror or science fiction; over the course of its history, it’s published a range of speculative stories, often crossing from one genre to another. Throughout its 30-year run, the magazine proved to be the starting point for a wide range of authors such as H.P. Lovecraft to Tennessee Williams to C.L. Moore. The magazine was the first dedicated publication devoted to stories that broadly fit into the speculative fiction movement, founded just three years before the first “Scientifiction” magazine, Amazing Stories landed on magazine racks in 1926. The story of the magazine’s history is a remarkable tale of survival, and one that helped to launch many a career in the speculative publishing genres.
Michael Sauers is the Director of Logan Library in Logan, UT. Prior to this he was one of the founding staff and Technology Manager for Do Space in Omaha, NE. After earning his MLS in 1995 from the University at Albany's School of Information Science and Policy Michael spent his first 20 years as a librarian training other librarians in technology along with time as a public library trustee, a bookstore manager for a library friends group, a reference librarian, a technology consultant, and a bookseller. He has written dozens of articles for various journals and magazines and has published 14 books ranging from library technology, blogging, Web design, and an index to a popular horror magazine. In his spare time, he blogs at TravelinLibrarian.info, runs The Collector's Guide to Dean Koontz website at CollectingKoontz.com, takes many, many photos, and typically reads more than 100 books a year.
Unless otherwise stated, all opinions are my own and are not to be considered those of the City of Logan, UT.
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There’s never quite been a magazine such as Weird Tales. In any conversation of genre, it’s hard to place the publication in a tidy box of fantasy, horror or science fiction; over the course of its history, it’s published a range of speculative stories, often crossing from one genre to another. Throughout its 30-year run, the magazine proved to be the starting point for a wide range of authors such as H.P. Lovecraft to Tennessee Williams to C.L. Moore. The magazine was the first dedicated publication devoted to stories that broadly fit into the speculative fiction movement, founded just three years before the first “Scientifiction” magazine, Amazing Stories landed on magazine racks in 1926. The story of the magazine’s history is a remarkable tale of survival, and one that helped to launch many a career in the speculative publishing genres.
