Perhaps Mr. Wright has the wrong idea of what constitutes weirdness. Would Weird Tales reach a tremendous circulation if Lovecraft, Machen, C. A. Smith, Blackwood, Merritt, and other blood-brothers collaborated on a novel with the following plot which I will sketchily outline? Have the hero born on Friday the 13th under the sign of--say Capricornus. Then show his misadventures down life's highway starting with the theft of his mammy's rabbit's foot and culminating in a cacophonic tumult of soul-shattering events following his breaking up of the merchandise in a mirror warehouse. There you have something everybody can understand and appreciate. Oh yes! and have the novel endorsed by Einstein, Stalin, the A.A.A.S., Lindbergh, and Mae West. Publicly, you know. Seriously, though, I do not believe fantasy will be a strong force until we root out superstitious hoodoos. Paradoxical? 98 out of 100 have it. What Price Something-or-other! * * * * * WITHIN THE CIRCLE by F. Lee Baldwin Forrest Ackerman says he really had that "surprise of one's life" when Linus Hogenmiller of Missouri, his first correspondent, unexpectedly dropped in on him in Los Angeles. A well-known editor who has been recently collecting old Weird Tales had the good fortune of purchasing quite a few for two and a half cents a copy. Just imagine! C. L. Moore has had some of her own illustrations accepted by Weird Tales. A. Merritt calls his "The Metal Monster" his "best and worst" story. The youthful Robert Bloch of Milwaukee has sold his first story to Weird Tales. It is titled "The Secret of the Tomb." On his way North from Florida, H. P. Lovecraft stopt in Washington, D. C. and "did several things I had never done before" ... His "The Rats in the Walls" was first submitted to Argosy but was rejected as being too horrible.... His "The Shunned House" is to be bound and issued by R. H. Barlow. The edition consists of about 225 copies and will appear some time in the fall. Two of H. P. Lovecraft's "Fungi from Yuggoth" ("Mirage" and "The Elder Pharos") have been set to music by Harold S. Farness of the Los Angles Inst. of Musical Education. A. Merritt is an authority on folklore and mythology and has made a study of ancient sorcery and witchcraft, past and modern. Forrest J. Ackerman often wonders what _would_ happen to him if an earthquake came and splattered up the room where his collection is situated. * * * * * PROSE PASTELS by Clark Ashton Smith _IV. The Lotus and the Moon_ I stood with my beloved by the lotus pool, when the moon was round as the great ivory breast of a Titaness, and the flowers were full-blown and pale upon the water.