WEIRD TALES MAGAZINE.Volume 50, No. 1, Spring, 1988 Issue. With Promotional Material & Signed by Gene Wolfe

Octavo, original colour pictorial wrappers. The first issue of the "New" Weird Tales. 146 pp., colour cover artwork by George Barr, interior artwork is exclusively by Barr in black & white. This is the special Gene Wolfe issue, with multiple story contributions by Wolfe, plus a Profile of Wolfe by David Hartwell and an Interview by Darrell Schweitzer. Wolfe has signed this copy at page 31, the illustrated header for his story THE OTHER DEAD MAN. A fine copy, accompanied by an unused but folded cover (folded vertically along the rear spine hinge) and a typed letter from the Terminus Publishing Company on Weird Tales letterhead to a Canadian Bookseller (me) dated 16 Nov 1987, signed by John Betancourt, accompanied by 2 pages of photocopies ordering information. The letter pertains simply to stocking copies of the new WEIRD TALES Magazine. A fine copy. Founded in 1923, WEIRD TALES Magazine is the Great-Grandfather of all the Weird and Supernatural Fiction Magazines, made famous by it's publication of early stories by H.P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard and Clark Ashton Smith. The original series foundered in 1954 after publishing 279 issues under various editors and publishers. In the mid-1950's Leo Margulies acquired the rights to Weird Tales Magazine and founded Renown Publications to publish it, but a new version of Weird Tales did not appear until April 1973. It was edited by Sam Moskowitz, but distribution and sales were low and it only lasted for 4 issues. Margulies died in 1975 and his widow sold the rights to Victor Dricks and Robert Weinberg. Weinberg in turn licensed the title to Lin Carter, who issued a series of four paperback anthologies published by Zebra Books appearing between 1981 and 1983. In the mid-1980's Weinberg licensed the magazine to The Bellerophon Network, Inc. Two issues were published: the first was sent to distributors who went bankrupt and few copies were distributed, the second had a miniscule print run. After that incarnation failed, it was revived again by The Terminus Publishing Company, and this is the first issue under their management. This issue is dated Spring, 1988, but copies were produced early enough to be available at the 1987 World Fantasy Convention in Nashville, Tennessee. I attended that convention, where I purchased this copy and had it signed by Gene Wolfe in my presence.…