total—are reprints; probably not surprizing, since the reprints represent, in theory, and usually in practise, the cream of bygone issues. I shouldn't be surprized if a demand soon arose for a re-reprint section, in which some of the reprints of eight and nine years ago might reappear once more.... You began reprinting from back numbers in 1928, when WT was only five years old. Now it has rounded out its fifteenth year; and it might be reasoned that a story which was worth reprinting once, five years after its first publication, might merit another such honor ten years later."
Overrated
Richard Kraft, of Allenhurst, New Jersey, writes: "To my mind the most overrated story you have ever published was Quest of the Starstone. It was simply a cheap thriller and did not compare with Paul Ernst's Dread Summons or Rex Ernest's The Inn. In the December issue Edmond Hamilton again writes a winner: Child of Atlantis. Hamilton is the best in the business and I enjoy his work immensely. The Sea-Witch was terrible—I can't see what Weird Tales readers will find in it, as it was slow and tiresome, nothing like that swell story of Mary Counselman's in that issue, The Black Stone Statue."
Virgil Finlay's Drawings
Doctor Karl K. Webber writes from Flora, Illinois: "This is the first time I have written you, although I have been an avid reader of Weird Tales for about six years. In the December 1937 issue, The Sea-Witch is 'tops,' with Flames of Vengeance a close second, and Child of Atlantis hot on the latter's heels. One thing must be kept in your publication and that is Virgil Finlay's drawing. I'm a little bit of an artist myself and I recognize a masterful touch when I see it. No one can approach his subtle mastery of pen and ink. Orchids to Virgil!"
A Million Congratulations
Julius Hopkins writes from Washington, D. C: "Roads is one of the most high-class stories that WT has ever printed. Throughout, the language is elevating, and not the usual, pulpy kind prevalent in a great many tales written today. I truly believe that any magazine would have been glad to have this story between its covers. WT should be mighty proud to have been privileged to print it. A million congratulations to you, Mr. Quinn, for a really outstanding story."
Norse Mythology
M. W. Schauffler, of Larchmont, New York, writes: "The Howard and Quinn stories have been what I have bought the magazine for, and I have been buying it for eight years. One other thing which makes your magazine a pleasure is that almost always the mythology and other background data are accurate. So please speak to Nictzin Dyalhis, if you don't mind, and ask him to check a little more carefully. I don't know when I have liked a story better than The Sea-Witch. But the moment when his Witch and his hero both agreed that Ran was a god, not a goddess, wrecked the illusion of factuality for me to the end of the story. And there were two other minor slips: No viking was ever named Gudrun any more than he was named Eliza, and for the same reason—it is a woman's name. Neither was Comnenus ever spelled with two n's—though that's a small matter. As for the viking's refrain to the rowing-song, he probably knows more than I do about that—I am not an authority on Norse legends. But I have a feeling that it isn't entirely, or at least typically, a sea refrain."
Quinn's Masterpiece
Bernard Austin Dwyer writes from West Shokan, New York: "My first choice of stories in die January issue is Roads by Seabury Quinn. This is truly Quinn's masterpiece; I have never seen anything even remotely so good by him. In my opinion, it far overtops even The Phantom Farmhouse. Apart from the story itself, which is delightful and wonderful—the fetching together of such ordinarily widely separated elements as Christ's crucifixion, a blond heroic warrior from the North, a harlot from the house of Magdalene, the Eastern and Western dynasties, and the Middle Ages, the little carved sleighs, the dwarf faery, smiths of the mountains, and the legend of Santa Claus—the style itself is very beautiful. I love especially the last few paragraphs with their flavor of the iron and heroic North, the Valhalla-like feast; how Klaus laid aside his arms, and the final piercing and beautiful paragraph. But I love everything—the story and the style, from beginning to end. . . . This story will go down as one of the very best, by any
