Over the past couple of years, S.T. Joshi’s Sarnath Press has been putting out weird-fiction collections from several lesser-known authors published in Weird Tales and other pulp magazines.
At present, there are almost a dozen volumes, with more in the works. Each volume has a nice introduction by Joshi on the author and their career. There is also bibliographic information on where the works originally appeared.
So far, we have the following:
- Anthony M. Rud, Ooze and Others (July 2023)
- John Martin Leahy, Draconda and Others (March 2024)
- John Martin Leahy, The Living Death and Drome (April 2024)
- Dorothy Quick, The Witch’s Mark and Others (May 2024)
- Robert Barbour Johnson, The Silver Coffin and Others (May 2024)
- Everil Worrell, The Hollow Moon and Others (September 2024)
- Eli Colter (May Eliza Frost), The Last Horror and Others (February 2025)
- W. Elwyn Backus, The Phantom Bus and Others (April 2025)
- Bassett Morgan (Grace Jones Morgan), The Devils of Po Sung and Others (May 2025)
- H. Thompson Rich, Green Horror and Others (August 2025)
- J. Paul Suter , Beyond the Door and Others (September 2025)
- J.D. Beresford , Powers of the Air: The Complete Speculative Short Fiction (October 2025).
I have no idea what others might be coming. I have the first five volumes and will cover them here, and the others will be covered in the future.
Anthony M. Rud (1893-1942) was a pulp writer and editor. He was editor at Adventure from 1927-30, as well as an editor for Detective Story Magazine. He wrote a wide range of pulp stories, including weird fiction, science fiction, and detective stories.
One of his most notable works is “Ooze,” which was cover featured on the first issue of Weird Tales and later reprinted in The Moon Terror book published by Weird Tales. It’s an early, maybe first, example of the giant-amoeba-on-the-loose story. So Sarnath’s Ooze and Others: Best Weird Stories of Anthony M. Rud reprints a dozen stories from Weird Tales and other pulps.
One of his early Jigger Masters stories from Green Book Magazine is included. Jigger Masters is his detective series, which is now being reprinted by Steeger Books, and I’ve reviewed them here. Some of these do get a bit bizarre, which, for me, makes them more enjoyable than straight detective tales, though Masters isn’t an occult detective by any stretch.
John Martin Leahy (1886-1967) has his entire pulp output reprinted in two volumes from Sarnath Press: Draconda and Others and The Living Death and Drome. Most of his works (three novels and four short stories) appeared in Weird Tales. And it doesn’t seem he wrote anything beyond that.
In the first volume, we get a nice overview of Leahy and his career. While a few works have been reprinted a few times, others have not. Drome, for instance, was serialized in WT and cover featured for the first installment. It was later reprinted by a small press, with new cover art created by Leahy himself. “In Amundsen’s Tent” has been reprinted several times, most likely due to its connection to H.P. Lovecraft and inspiration for “At the Mountains of Madness.”
Most of his stories are lost-world/lost-race works. Draconda, serialized in Weird Tales from 1923 through 1924, is set on Venus, where explorers find a race of humans with some connection with Earth. The Living Death was serialized in Hugo Gernsback’s Science and Invention magazine, which was mainly a nonfiction magazine that did include some science fiction before he launched Amazing Stories. This story is set in Antarctica. Here is found a lost civilization and a woman frozen in ice whom our heroes work to revive.
And Drome is set under Mount Rainier, where a strange lost race is found. As for the others, two stories feature a detective, Guy Oxford, solving mysteries that seem to have a supernatural aspect but do not in the end. “In Amundsen’s Tent” is set in the Antarctic and hints at a strange supernatural presence.
Dorothy Quick (1896-1962) is someone I had posted on for the collection from Sinister Cinema’s Armchair Fiction in their Masters of Horror series. She is probably best known for her childhood friendship with Mark Twain, which led to a book, Mark Twain and Me, later made into a film.
Sarnath Press’s The Witch’s Mark and Others: Selected Weird Stories and Poems reprints 18 stories, including all 15 of those in the Armchair Fiction volume, along with almost 30 poems, and a nice introduction by Joshi. Most of these pieces appeared in Weird Tales, but Quick did contribute to many other pulp magazines. As this collection is more complete and has a great intro by Joshi, this one is a bit better than the Armchair Fiction collection.
And finally, Robert Barbour Johnson (1908-87) had a brief period of stories in Weird Tales and other pulps in the 1930s and 1940s. The Silver Coffin and Others is a reprint/republication of Far Below and Other Weird Stories, published by Weird House Press, which is now out of print. I’m not sure why.
Probably his most well-known work is “Far Below,” which tells of a special group of men who protect the subways of New York City from horrors far below. It’s a sort of sequel to “Pickman’s Model” and is considered one of the best stories published in Weird Tales.
Interestingly, early on, he started working for circuses and became an animal trainer. Later, in the late 1940s, he wrote a series of 16 stories on the circus for Blue Book. I wonder if Steeger Books might reprint those? He also got involved in the ideas of Charles Fort and joined the local Fortean Society. In this collection, we get some of his nonfiction articles, some related to Fort, others to weird fiction.
All of these collections are excellent. I look forward to getting some of the rest of these volumes, and I am looking forward to further volumes. Check these out to move beyond just the Big Three of Weird Tales.
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