We take pleasure in calling the attention of our readers to a new feature that we are inaugurating this month: a series of full-page pictures by Virgil Finlay, illustrating famous weird passages of verse. The first of these is based on a passage from George Sterling's A Wine of Wizardry—a passage so striking that Ambrose Bierce gave it rank alongside those famous passages from Coleridge's Kubla Khan and Keats's Ode to a Nightingale which Dante Gabriel Rossetti called the two Pillars of Hercules of modern human imagination. One of these Finlay illustrations will appear in each issue. He will draw his subjects from the whole realm of weird literature. Poe's melancholy Raven will appear here, and the angel Israfel, "whose heartstrings are a lute;" the Weird Sisters from Shakespeare's Macbeth; the Belle Dame Sans Merci of Keats; Longfellow's grisly Skeleton in Armor; Burns's Tam o' Shanter pursued by the warlocks; and many other gems of weird literature. Let us know what you think of this feature.
Here It Is
Gertrude Hemken, of Chicago, writes: "Once again I present myself in epistle-form. This time with thanks to David H. Keller for his Tiger Cat—the leddy in the tale had a fine way of getting revenge for that sad instance in New York—I appreciate Doctor Keller's finesse in letting the readers know how a woman can feel about being mistreated. One would almost believe a woman had written the story. I am all in sympathy with the Tiger Cat, although her demise did not sadden me. . . . Icky—one of those slimy tales—and by HPL—wooeey! The Shunned House was something far beyond my imagination. The more I read of Lovecraft's works, the more I see in them the modern Poe—by his minute detail of every angle—the history of the family which built the house—the exact description of the plot of ground in which this ancient dwelling stood (a person could almost draw a map of the site) — on such things I find HPL so very like Poe. I caught myself gasping a bit when reading of the containers of sulfur being emptied on that blasphemous slime and of the resulting fumes. Dear me, how awful it would be if such really happened! (And then the question comes to my mind that perhaps it did occur.) Although The Homicidal Diary was not the type of tale I now associate Earl Peirce, Jr., with, I did find it fascinating—very. What strange things dreams can do to one—and what strange dreams a person can have—and what strange things hypnosis can make one do. Gruesome? Yes—retchingly so. But why can't we have another on the order of The Last Archer? What about it, EP? Well, now, lemme see—dunno just what to say about The Long Arm—the whole thing just sorta disappointed me—wasn't quite nasty enough for my gluttonous taste. Gosh, I'm getting to be a real fiend. Thrills and adventure galore—do I like this Lake of Life! Am looking forward to the next installment and then for more yarns like it. Darkest Africa holds so many strange secrets—I find it more fascinating than the Orient. Mr. Hamilton has me on my toes wondering what the Guardians are and what force they have released on the ring of mountains to discharge instant death to trespassers. Wellman writes the most curious tales of the oddest things coming to life—well, sort of a tangible existence. Last time it was a parchment—now it's fat and bulging cherubs that just ain't cherubs. Nasty things, weren't they? Here Lies was a laugh-getter
