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The Thing's Incredible! The Secret Origins of Weird Tales
by John Locke The Thing’s Incredible! is a sweeping revisionist history of the founding of Weird Tales, one of the most influential and entertaining pulp magazines of them all. Its first two years (1923-24) was a period of tumult and controversy unequaled in the pulps, before or since, an experience so painful to its creators that they immediately banished their memories to secrecy, their code of silence suppressing the story for almost a century. Here at last is the true saga, the unraveling of the many twisted threads which have bound the creation of Weird Tales in mystery. Who were Henneberger and Lansinger, the co-founders, and what circuitous chain of events brought about their doomed destiny? How did the first editor, the outspoken and uncontrollable Edwin Baird, become the wild man of the pulps? What dark secrets lay buried in second editor Farnsworth Wright’s haunted past that he never dared speak of? What was the significance of the constantly mutating “reorganization” that united two legends, world-famous magician Houdini and horror author H.P. Lovecraft, into a grand nexus of weird? How did Henneberger lose control of his slow-motion disaster of a magazine? And how did an all-out war behind the scenes lead to the long peace of the Wright years? This is the grand story of the challenges in establishing a radical, new magazine in the early 1920s—and not just any magazine, but the immortal Weird Tales. 310 pages . . . available at Amazon hardbound or softbound |
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REVIEWS:
"Brimming with new insights and extensive research, The Thing's Incredible! carries the added advantage of extreme readability. Author Locke not only keeps the pace swift throughout; he also makes sure the names here emerge from the pages as authentic people, complex and three-dimensional. This heretofore untold real-life origin story of the greatest horror magazine of all, Weird Tales, will fascinate anyone with even a remote interest in its subject. A deeply entertaining and satisfying work that delivers in every way."--John Wooley, author of Ghost Band and Wes Craven: A Man and His Nightmares
“The Thing’s Incredible! . . . explores in minute detail the founding and first two years of the self-described ‘unique magazine,’ long the flagship periodical of the fantastic, bizarre and outré. In many ways, Locke’s book should be viewed as publishing history, since he tells us about the magazine’s founders, editors and finances, as well as its most important contributors, notably H.P. Lovecraft but also the prolific Arthur J. Burks and the once exceptionally popular Seabury Quinn, creator of the occult detective Jules de Grandin. . . . this book is an essential acquisition.”--Michael Dirda, Washington Post book review
Our thanks to Nicky Wheeler-Nicholson for a really nice review: "For those of you who are devoted fans of Weird Tales and H.P. Lovecraft this is the book you have been waiting for. Why then, do I love this book? Because dear reader, the thing that is incredible is not so much the details of Weird Tales but the richer story that Locke provides in everything he writes. It is the story of the nuts and bolts of what it meant, and in many ways, still means to be a writer, an editor and a publisher." Read the full review here.
"Brimming with new insights and extensive research, The Thing's Incredible! carries the added advantage of extreme readability. Author Locke not only keeps the pace swift throughout; he also makes sure the names here emerge from the pages as authentic people, complex and three-dimensional. This heretofore untold real-life origin story of the greatest horror magazine of all, Weird Tales, will fascinate anyone with even a remote interest in its subject. A deeply entertaining and satisfying work that delivers in every way."--John Wooley, author of Ghost Band and Wes Craven: A Man and His Nightmares
“The Thing’s Incredible! . . . explores in minute detail the founding and first two years of the self-described ‘unique magazine,’ long the flagship periodical of the fantastic, bizarre and outré. In many ways, Locke’s book should be viewed as publishing history, since he tells us about the magazine’s founders, editors and finances, as well as its most important contributors, notably H.P. Lovecraft but also the prolific Arthur J. Burks and the once exceptionally popular Seabury Quinn, creator of the occult detective Jules de Grandin. . . . this book is an essential acquisition.”--Michael Dirda, Washington Post book review
Our thanks to Nicky Wheeler-Nicholson for a really nice review: "For those of you who are devoted fans of Weird Tales and H.P. Lovecraft this is the book you have been waiting for. Why then, do I love this book? Because dear reader, the thing that is incredible is not so much the details of Weird Tales but the richer story that Locke provides in everything he writes. It is the story of the nuts and bolts of what it meant, and in many ways, still means to be a writer, an editor and a publisher." Read the full review here.
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