Lovecraft & Weird Tales

One of the better articles on Lovecraft and his writing is by JGW Russell [1]

This extract was interesting:

"{Lovecraft} seems to have gotten along splendidly with the {Weird Tales} magazine's publisher JC Henneberger and his first editor Edwin Baird, who basically printed anything Lovecraft would give them. ... the magazine began to struggle in 1924 ... and Baird was replaced by Farnsworth Wright. ...Wright was famously fond of rejecting stories on thier first submission ... {taking} a second look and then buying them.

"Lovecraft did not often give Wright his second chance. ...Relations grew more strained following Wright's rejection of Moutains of Madness in 1931.

"Yet there were few other options ... Amazing Stories had paid Lovecraft so absurdly little for The Colour Out of Space ... and he was horrified at the hatchet job on At the Mountains of Madness by Astounding Stories in 1936."

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So there you have it. The next time you get down in the mouth about rejections and editorial grief {and Chrispy had has his fill of it lately} remember Lovecraft. He was paid little, waited years to see his stories in print, and no one appreciated him except a handful of loyal fans - who wondered - "Why doesn't he write more? Where has he been lately?"

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JGW Russell, The "Art" of H. P. Lovecraft", Crypt of Cthulhu #105, pp. 24-29.