weird n.
something that is weird adj.; weird fiction collectively
OED has 19th century evidence for ‘a supernatural or marvellous occurrence or tale’.
SF Criticism
Genre
-
1936
page image
Forrest J. Ackerman
Even today, when I make a weird fan’s acquaintance, same seems apt inevitably to mention ‘my pal’ Lovecraft and wink knowingly—as tho I should like to put poison in HP’s potatoes.
Whither Ackermankind? in Novae Terrae (vol. 1, no. 9) (Dec. 1936 –Jan. 1937) 4 -
1942
page image
I have read quite a number of magazines pertaining to the weird and fantastic. As yet I haven’t found one that can pass in superiority to Weird Tales.
Letter in Weird Tales Nov. 126 -
1947
page image
I've read some good verse dealing with the weird and fantastic and since I like poetry I would love to see Startling Stories with such a department.
Letter in Startling Stories May 101/2 -
1948
page image
Lovecraft must have something people like; he is virtually the only legend to survive from the literature of the macabre, or supernatural, or fantastic. He is about the sole writer of the weird I would include with the best of older horror writers—William Hope Hodgson, Arthur Machen, and Algernon Blackwood.
It’s a Long Wind in Thrilling Wonder Stories June 128/1 (letter) -
1951 Fantastic Adventures July 124/1 (editorial response to reader letter)
page image
Science-fiction is based on man’s mechanical and imaginative progress. Fantasy has to do with the inexplicable, with the weird, with the worlds outside ‘reality’, and with ‘things that go bump in the night’.
-
2007
Ian McDonald
He picked the old mall because it is enclosed and free from the eyes of cameras, but it’s big and out of the way and full of weirds and he doesn’t love the idea of her hanging around among them too long.
Brasyl 294
Research requirements
antedating 1936
Research History
Fred Galvin submitted a 1947 cite from a letter in Startling Stories.Bee Ostrowsky submitted a 1936 cite from Forrest J. Ackerman.
We would like cites of any date.
Last modified 2024-11-17 00:09:25
In the compilation of some
entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries
in OED.