Strange Tales of Mystery and Terror

Strange Tales (cover-titled Strange Tales of Mystery and Terror) was a U.S. pulp magazine first published from 1931 to 1933 by Clayton Publications. It specialized in fantasy and weird fiction, and was a significant competitor to Weird Tales, the leading magazine in the field. Its published stories include "Wolves of Darkness" by Jack Williamson, as well as work by Robert E. Howard and Clark Ashton Smith. The magazine ceased publication when Clayton entered bankruptcy. It was temporarily revived by Wildside Press, which published three issues edited by Robert M. Price from 2003 to 2007.

Fantasy and occult fiction had often appeared in popular magazines prior to the twentieth century, but the first magazine to specialize in the genre, Weird Tales, appeared in 1923 and by the 1930s was the genre's industry leader.Strange Tales, launched in 1931 by Clayton Publications as a direct rival to Weird Tales, was one of a handful of magazines to seriously challenge for leadership of the field. It was edited by Harry Bates, who also edited Clayton's Astounding Stories of Super Science, which had begun publication the previous year.Strange Tales was launched as a fantasy magazine, but like Weird Tales it often published science-fiction stories, although unlike its rival its focus was on action stories rather than strange ideas. The title was originally planned to be Strange Stories, but Macfadden Publications, who had published True Strange Stories in 1929, challenged the title and forced Clayton to change it.

Bates paid two cents per word, a higher rate than Weird Tales, and attracted noted writers of the day. The magazine published "Wolves of Darkness" by Jack Williamson, "Murgunstruum" by Hugh B. Cave, and "Cassius" by Henry Whitehead. Clark Ashton Smith contributed five stories, including "The Return of the Sorcerer" in the first issue, and Edmond Hamilton and August Derleth also appeared in the magazine.Robert E. Howard, later to become famous as the author of the Conan the Barbarian stories, sent several stories to Strange Tales; some of the stories Bates rejected, such as "The Thing on the Roof" and "The Horror from the Mound", later appeared in Weird Tales, but Bates accepted "The People of the Dark" after asking for revisions, and it was published in the June 1932 issue. Howard also sold "The Valley of the Lost" to Bates, but it had not yet appeared when Clayton went bankrupt, and did not finally see publication until the 1960s.

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