Weird Tales, Vol. 1, No. 3

Weird Tales, Vol. 1, No. 3, May 1923

This pulp issue contains nineteen short stories and novelettes alongside features like "The Eyrie" letters column and an "Odd and Weird Happenings" section. The lead story, "The Moon Terror" by A. G. Birch, describes inexplicable wireless signals received simultaneously at stations across the Americas in June, beginning at precisely 3:12 a.m., spaced with mathematical regularity yet indecipherable in code. Astronomer Professor Howard Whiteman theorizes Mars is attempting contact. The signals cease then resume with increased power, now synchronized with earthquakes rippling across the Pacific Coast at identical intervals. As tremors intensify globally, an Atlantic liner runs aground near Newfoundland in waters charted as two miles deep. Accompanying narrative notes cryptic details about Dr. Ferdinand Gresham, an American astronomer-director who has mysteriously returned from Central Asia bearing bodily disfigurements and complete silence about his discoveries. The issue also features the concluding installment of "The Whispering Thing," a multi-part mystery serial by Laurie McClintock and Culpeper Chunn.