Page:Weird Tales Volume 38 Number 01 (1944-09).djvu/93

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92
Weird Tales

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King which, though of only five thousand characters, is understood by few living men though it is revered by untold millions.

But I am getting away from what I started to write, of the years I have been writing for Weird Tales, of the friends I have made through its pages. The other day, the editor of one of the New York publishing houses sent me a copy of a rare Chinese book of which only a hundred were printed. "Because," he wrote me, "I enjoy your Chinese stories so very much." I have little to say about The Long Still Streets of Evening, but let us hope that the title is symbolic—that in "The Long Still Streets of China," the Japs will meet defeat—devastating, complete, absolute.

Frank Owen.

Background of the "Bookkeeper"

Seabury Quinn, knowing our peculiar fondness for the "backgrounds" of stories, obliges with that information on his popular "Death's Bookkeeper," which appeared in the last (July) issue of Weird Tales.

Jules de Grandin's creator tells us:

I thought that werewolves, vampires, etc., deserved a little rest, so in this instance went directly to the classics for my plot. Specifically, to the Alcestis of Euripides (480-406 B. C.). You may or may not remember the plot of this drama; in case you don't, I'll refresh your memory:

Admetus, king of Thessaly, was ill unto death, and Apollo prevailed upon the Fates to spare him, provided someone would consent to die in his stead. Then came the difficulty. Brave warriors, who would willingly have periled their lives for their prince, shrank from the thought of dying for him in a bed of sickness; his aged parents also shrank from the call, and at last his faithful wife, Alcestis, volunteered to be his surrogate, and went through with it. Alcestis sickened as Admetus revived, and was rapidly sinking into everlasting sleep when Hercules arrived at the palace, hid himself in the death chamber and wrestled with Thanatos (Death) for his prey, finally defeating him. Alcestis recovered and was restored to her husband amid great and (as Euripides spins the yarn) poetical rejoicing.

So here we have an ancient Grecian drama in modern dress with Jules de Grandin substi-