Edwin Baird was the first editor of Weird Tales

Weird Tales

Weird Tales is an American fantasy and horror fiction pulp magazine first published in March 1923. It ceased its original run in September 1954, after 279 issues, but has since been revived. The magazine was set up in Chicago by J. C. Henneberger, an ex-journalist with a taste for the macabre....

, the pioneering pulp magazine

Pulp magazine

Pulp magazines , also collectively known as pulp fiction, refers to inexpensive fiction magazines published from 1896 through the 1950s. The typical pulp magazine was seven inches wide by ten inches high, half an inch thick, and 128 pages long...

 that specialized in horror fiction

Horror fiction

Horror fiction also Horror fantasy is a philosophy of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie atmosphere. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural...

.

Baird, hired by Weird Tales publisher J. C. Henneberger, put out the magazine's premiere issue, dated March 1923. Over the course of the next year, Baird published some of the magazine's most famous writers, including H. P. Lovecraft

H. P. Lovecraft

Howard Phillips Lovecraft --often credited as H.P. Lovecraft — was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction, especially the subgenre known as weird fiction....

, Clark Ashton Smith

Clark Ashton Smith

Clark Ashton Smith was a self-educated American poet, sculptor, painter and author of fantasy, horror and science fiction short stories. He achieved early local recognition, largely through the enthusiasm of George Sterling, for traditional verse in the vein of Swinburne...

, and Seabury Quinn

Seabury Quinn

Seabury Grandin Quinn was an American pulp magazine author, most famous for his stories of the occult detective Jules de Grandin, published in Weird Tales.-Biography:...

.

Baird--in marked contrast to his successor--accepted everything that Lovecraft submitted to the magazine, including "The Hound

The Hound

This page deals with the H. P. Lovecraft short story. For the character from George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire, see Sandor Clegane"The Hound" is a short story written by H. P. Lovecraft in September 1922 and published in the February 1924 issue of Weird Tales...

", "Arthur Jermyn

Arthur Jermyn

"Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family" is a short story by H. P. Lovecraft, written in 1920. The story was first published in the journal The Wolverine in March and June of 1921...

", "The Statement of Randolph Carter

The Statement of Randolph Carter

"The Statement of Randolph Carter" is a short story by H. P. Lovecraft. Written December 1919, it was first published in The Vagrant, May 1920...

", "The Cats of Ulthar

The Cats of Ulthar

"The Cats of Ulthar" is a short story written by American fantasy author H. P. Lovecraft in June 1920. In the tale, an unnamed narrator relates the story of how a law forbidding the killing of cats came to be in a town called Ulthar. As the narrative goes, the city is home to an old couple who...

", "Dagon

Dagon (short story)

"Dagon" is a short story by H. P. Lovecraft, written in July 1917, one of the first stories he wrote as an adult. It was first published in the November 1919 edition of The Vagrant .-Inspiration:...

", "The Picture in the House

The Picture in the House

"The Picture in the House" is a short story written by H. P. Lovecraft. It was written on December 12, 1920, and first published in the July 1919 issue of The National Amateur-- which actually was published in the summer of 1921.-Lovecraft Country:...

", "The Rats in the Walls

The Rats in the Walls

"The Rats in the Walls" is a short story by American author H. P. Lovecraft. Written in August–September 1923, it was first published in Weird Tales, March 1924.-Plot summary:...

", "Hypnos

Hypnos (short story)

"Hypnos" is a short story by American horror fiction writer H. P. Lovecraft, penned in March 1922 and first published in the May 1923 issue of National Amateur.-Synopsis:...

" and "Imprisoned with the Pharaohs". He did, however, insist that Lovecraft retype his first submissions using double spacing, causing the author to remark, "I am not certain whether or not I should bother."

Under Baird's editorship, Weird Tales lost a considerable amount of money--estimated at $51,000. After the April 1924 issue, Henneberger fired him and offered his job to Lovecraft. When Lovecraft declined, the publisher made Farnsworth Wright, until then Baird's assistant, the editor of Weird Tales, a position he held until 1940.

Baird remained as editor of another of Henneberger's titles, Detective Tales. In this post, he rejected Lovecraft's "The Shunned House

The Shunned House

"The Shunned House" is a short story by H. P. Lovecraft in the horror fiction genre. Written on October 16–19, 1924, it was first published in the October 1937 issue of Weird Tales.-Inspiration:...

" in July 1925.