Every year there are new anthologies of Lovecraftian stories, and the writers are a who’s who of pop culture. To give you just a taste, here are some key players in no particular order: August Derleth, Robert Bloch, Clark Ashton Smith, Jorge Luis Borges, Michel Houellebecq, Brian Lumley, Thomas Ligotti, Frank Belknap Long, Fritz Leiber, T.E.D. Kelin, Colin Wilson, Joanna Russ, Mike Mignola, Christopher Golden, Richard A. Lupps, Roger Zelazny, George Alec Effinger, Phillip Jose Farmer, Ramsey Campbell, James Chambers, Gergory Frost, Basil Copper, David Conyers, Lindsay Ellis, Philip José Farmer, Sonia Greene, Lois Gresh, S.T. Joshi, Henry Kuttner, Graham Masterton, China Miéville, Joanna Russ, Carrie Cuinn, Brian Stableford, Akihiro Yamada, Victor LaValle, Matt Ruff, Jonathan L. Howard, Ruthanna Emrys, Nick Mamatas, Edward Lee, Khurt Have, L. Sprague de Camp, Lin Carter, John Langan, David Wong, Ted E, Grau, Ron Marz, Jeff VanDerMeer, Gemma Files, Alan Moore, Laird Barron, David Drake, Caitlín R. Kiernan, Junju Ito, Joe Hill, Josh Malerman, Brett Talley, John Hornor Jacobs, Algernon Blackwood, Ruthanna Emrys, Peter Clines, Jim Butcher, Nick Cutter, Joe R. Lansdale, Richard F. Searight, Hugh B. Cave, Gordon Linzner, J. G. Ballard, William S. Burroughs, F. Paul Wilson, Gene Wolfe, Harlan Ellison, Alan Dean Foster, Thomas F. Monteleone, Tim Lebbon, Richard Laymon, Yvonne Navarro, Poppy Z. Brite, Weston Ochse, Brian Hodge, Elizabeth Bear, Cherie Priest, Tim Pratt, Joh Shirley, David J. Schow, Molly Tanzer, Michael Chabon, Cody Goodfellow, Tum Curran, Steve Rasnic Tem, Carrie Vaughn, Neil Gaiman, and Stephen King.

And again I say…that’s just a snapshot.

Lovecraft’s contributions to Weird Tales included forty-nine stories written on his own, but he also did another four in collaboration with friends and colleagues. There are a number of stories for which he did revisions and others he ghost-wrote, and even now that exact count is in debate.

Both Howard and Lovecraft made indelible marks on the magazine, and that, in turn impacted the whole of horror, science fiction, and fantasy fiction that is felt strongly to this day.

Countless authors graced Weird Tales with stories that were not tied to Lovecraft, however. One of the things that made Weird Tales so popular with writers as well as readers is the career building. The editors not only published stories by established “names,” but went out of their way to find newer writers, and in many cases writers with new characters, and they would cultivate that. A lot of landmark characters and story set-ups were born in those pages. Swords & Sorcery fiction, which existed in an uncategorized way prior to Weird Tales, became a certified genre. The Conan tales of Robert E. Howard were a huge part of that, as well as his tales featuring other popular and enduring brawny heroes who first drew swords in those pages, such as Kull, King of Atlantis; the brooding puritan swordsman, Solomon Kane, and the wise and fearless Pict, Bran Mak Morn.