MAGAZINE OF HORROR NO. 1 (PART 1)

MAGAZINE OF HORROR
Vol. 1 No. 1 (Whole number 1)
August 1963
Health Knowledge, Inc.
Editor: Robert A. W. Lowndes
Cover: Text cover
Pages: 132
Cover price: 50 cents

Inspired by WEIRD TALES, the digest-sized MAGAZINE OF HORROR was the brainchild of author and editor, Robert Augustine Ward Lowndes (September 4, 1916 – July 14, 1998). "Doc" Lowndes got his start with Columbia Publications, where he edited multiple titles such as FUTURE SCIENCE FICTION, SCIENCE FICTION QUARTERLY, as well as crime, western and sports fiction magazines. Lowndes was also a fan of horror and tried his hand at writing horror fiction. He was encouraged by the two letters that he received from The Old Gentleman himself, H.P. Lovecraft. His "Annals of Arkya" was an homage to Lovecraft's cycle of weird poems, "Fungi From Yuggoth."

In 1963, he pitched the idea of a horror fiction magazine similar to WEIRD TALES to Health Knowledge. They gave him the go-ahead and thus began MAGAZINE OF HORROR, of which the first issue is serialized here this week. Noted for its mix of new and classic material, MoH lasted for for 8 years, until Health Knowledge went out of business in 1971. But for those few years, many excellent stories were printed in its pages. This issue is a prime example.