- Farnsworth Wright
Farnsworth Wright (1888-1940) was the editor of the
pulp magazine "Weird Tales " during the magazine's heyday.Wright, a veteran of
World War I , was working as amusic critic for the "Chicago Herald and Examiner" when he began his association with "Weird Tales", founded in 1923. [Joshi and Schultz, p. 304.] At first serving as chief manuscript reader, [ [http://members.aol.com/weirdtale1/authors.htm "The Authors"] , "Weird Tales: The Unique Magazine"] he replaced founding editorEdwin Baird in 1924 when the latter was fired by publisher J. C. Henneberger. [Carter, pp. 37, 46.]During Wright's editorship of the magazine, which lasted until 1940, it was publishing regularly such well-known authors as
H. P. Lovecraft ,Robert E. Howard andClark Ashton Smith . Yet Wright had a strained relationship with all three writers, rejecting major works by them such as Lovecraft's "At the Mountains of Madness " and "The Shadow over Innsmouth ", [Joshi and Schultz, p. 305.] Howard's "The Frost Giant's Daughter " [Hoffman and Cerasini, pp. 93-94.] and Smith's "The Seven Geases " (which Wright dismissed as just "one geas after another"). [Murray, p. 13.]Wright (nicknamed "Plato" by his writers) was also noteworthy for starting the commercial careers of three important fantasy artists:
Margaret Brundage ,Virgil Finlay , andHannes Bok . Each of the three made their first sale to, and had their work first appear in, "Weird Tales."Wright developed
Parkinson's disease in 1921; by 1930, he was unable to sign his own letters. His failing health forced him to resign as editor during 1940, and he died later that year. [Joshi and Schultz, p. 304.]References
*
Lin Carter , ""
*Charles Hoffman and Marc A. Cerasini, "The Strange Case of Robert Ervin Howard", "The Horror of It All",Robert M. Price , ed.
*S. T. Joshi and David E. Schultz, "An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia"
*Clark Ashton Smith , "The Book of Hyperborea", Will Murray, ed.[http://members.aol.com/weirdtales/index.htm "Weird Tales: The Unique Magazine"] (website; accessed September 13, 2006)
Notes
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