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Letters of Henry S. Whitehead, 1942
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THE LETTERS OF HENRY S. WHITEHEAD A NOTE OF EXPLANATION Nearly a decade has passed since the death of Rev. Henry S. Whitehead, but to those of us who read his stories he remains one of the unforgettable great figures of weird fiction. Unhappily time has swept its blurring brush across his memory, and to the younger fan he has become but a dimly remembered name, if even that. I wish that I were able to paint a word-portrait of the Episcopal rector whose strong sense of fantasy and knowledge of native beliefs of the West Indies enabled him to write such powerful weird stories. Unfortunately I was very young when he was still alive, little interested in the authors whose stories I read, and my only knowledge of him comes from half-forgotten articles and conversations. But I do know he was a creative artist who should not be forgotten by the followers of fantasy. His fiction lies buried in the files of Weird Tales, Strange Tales, and Adventure; 35 stories were written by him during the ten years or so in which he contributed to these magazines. There is still some hope that the best of this output may be preserved in permanent bound form, for August W. Derleth has promised that one of the next volumes in the Arkham House series would be a collection of Whitehead's tales. Unfortunately the war seems to have delayed this project, but it is to be hoped that it can be carried through at some later time. However another portion of Whitehead's writings should not be forgotten. Whitehead, like Lovecraft, was a fascinating correspondent, even though less prolific than his more famed colleague, and the letters shed a great deal of light on a very interesting personality. When this material reaches the public one person will deserve most of all of the credit. -- R. H. Barlow. Barlow gathered together the Whitehead correspondence a number of years ago and started to print it, but circumstances forced him to abandon the task. Later he started to prepare the material in mimeographed form, but after cutting eight stencils was again forced to quit. Recently he turned these stencils over to me, and I am mimeographing them for distribution through the Fantasy Amateur Press Association. I think that these letters will be of interest to the fans -- but even more important, I hope that they will lead someone to the task of issuing the entire collection of Whitehead correspondence. Paul Freehafer
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THE LETTERS OF HENRY S. WHITEHEAD A NOTE OF EXPLANATION Nearly a decade has passed since the death of Rev. Henry S. Whitehead, but to those of us who read his stories he remains one of the unforgettable great figures of weird fiction. Unhappily time has swept its blurring brush across his memory, and to the younger fan he has become but a dimly remembered name, if even that. I wish that I were able to paint a word-portrait of the Episcopal rector whose strong sense of fantasy and knowledge of native beliefs of the West Indies enabled him to write such powerful weird stories. Unfortunately I was very young when he was still alive, little interested in the authors whose stories I read, and my only knowledge of him comes from half-forgotten articles and conversations. But I do know he was a creative artist who should not be forgotten by the followers of fantasy. His fiction lies buried in the files of Weird Tales, Strange Tales, and Adventure; 35 stories were written by him during the ten years or so in which he contributed to these magazines. There is still some hope that the best of this output may be preserved in permanent bound form, for August W. Derleth has promised that one of the next volumes in the Arkham House series would be a collection of Whitehead's tales. Unfortunately the war seems to have delayed this project, but it is to be hoped that it can be carried through at some later time. However another portion of Whitehead's writings should not be forgotten. Whitehead, like Lovecraft, was a fascinating correspondent, even though less prolific than his more famed colleague, and the letters shed a great deal of light on a very interesting personality. When this material reaches the public one person will deserve most of all of the credit. -- R. H. Barlow. Barlow gathered together the Whitehead correspondence a number of years ago and started to print it, but circumstances forced him to abandon the task. Later he started to prepare the material in mimeographed form, but after cutting eight stencils was again forced to quit. Recently he turned these stencils over to me, and I am mimeographing them for distribution through the Fantasy Amateur Press Association. I think that these letters will be of interest to the fans -- but even more important, I hope that they will lead someone to the task of issuing the entire collection of Whitehead correspondence. Paul Freehafer
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