* * * * * VOICES OF THE NIGHT by Robert E. Howard 1 - The Voices Waken Memory The blind black shadows reach inhuman arms To draw me into darkness once again; The brooding night wind hints of nameless harms, And down the shadowed hill a vague refrain Bears half-remembered ghosts to haunt my soul, Like far-off neighing of the nightmare's foal. But let me fix my phantom-shadowed eyes Hard on the stars--pale points of silver light-- Here is the borderland-here reason lies-- There, visions, gryphons, Nothing, and the Night. Down, down, red specters, down, and rack me not! Out, wolves of hell! Oh God, my pulses thrum; The night grows fierce and blind and red and hot, And nearer still a grim insistent drum. I will not look into the shadows--No! The stars shall grip and hold my frantic gaze-- But even in the stars black visions grow, And dragons writhe with iron eyes ablaze. Oh Gods that raised my blindness with your curse, And let me see the horrid shapes behind All outward veils that cloak the universe, The loathsome demon-spells that bind and blind, Since even the stars are noisome, foul and fell, Let me glut deep with memory dreams of Hell. * * * * * THE INTELLECTUAL SHOCKER by H. Koenig Collecting weird and fantastic stories is a fascinating pursuit. Locating first editions of some of our well-known authors affords considerable thrill, but the real kick comes when one discovers a comparatively little-known author of weird stories or re-discovers an old and forgotten one. I experienced such a thrill when I first came across one of the books written by a young Englishman named Charles Williams, and I didn't rest content until I had obtained all five of his novels. Williams appears to be practically unknown over here and a few lines regarding him and his books may prove of interest to other readers and collectors. Sooner or later, the inveterate reader of weird fiction becomes surfeited with stories of one pattern and falls into a rut. A year or so ago one of the magazines devoted to books recommended to readers who found themselves in such a predicament a sure cure--_the intellectual shocker_. It is the type of story the average fiction reader will overlook and even the habitual reader of weird and fantasy stories is apt to ignore it.