Edwin Baird

{{Short description|American magazine editor (1886–1954)}} {{Infobox writer | name = Edwin Baird | embed = | honorific_prefix = | honorific_suffix = | image = | image_upright = | alt = | caption = | native_name = | native_name_lang = | pseudonym = | birth_name = | birth_date = June 28, 1886 | birth_place = | death_date ={{Death date and age|1954|09|27|1886|06|28}} | death_place = | resting_place = | occupation = [[Editing|Magazine editor]] | language = English | nationality = [[Americans|American]] | citizenship = United States | education = | alma_mater = | period = | genres = [[Horror fiction|Horror]], [[Pulp magazine|pulp fiction]] | subject =  | movement = | notableworks =  | spouse = Mildred Ward<ref name=Marquis1926/> | partner =  | children = | relatives = | awards = | signature = | signature_alt = | years_active = | module = | website =  | portaldisp =  }}

'''Edwin Baird''' ({{IPAc-en|b|ɛər|d}}; June 28, 1886 in [[Chattanooga, Tennessee]]<ref name=Marquis1926>[https://archive.org/details/whoswho141926/page/204/mode/2up BAIRD, Edwin], in ''[[Who's Who in America]]'' (1926 edition); p. 204; via [[archive.org]]</ref>– September 27, 1954)<ref>[[Vincent Starrett]], "Books Alive" (column), ''[[Chicago Tribune]]'', February 13, 1955. Starrett added several brief details about Baird's life, but gave no further information about his death.</ref> was the first editor of ''[[Weird Tales]]'', the pioneering [[pulp magazine]] that specialized in [[horror fiction]], as well as ''Detective Tales'', later re-titled ''Real Detective Tales''. [[File:Argosy 191504.jpg|thumb|Baird's novel ''The Heart of Virginia Keep'' appeared in [[Argosy (magazine)|''The Argosy'']] in 1915.]]

==Career== Baird, hired by ''Weird Tales'' publisher J. C. Henneberger, put out the magazine's premiere issue, dated March 1923.<ref>Joshi and Schultz, p. 15.</ref> Over the course of the next year, Baird published some of the magazine's most famous writers, including [[H. P. Lovecraft]], [[Clark Ashton Smith]], and [[Seabury Quinn]].<ref>Carter, p. 37.</ref>

Baird—in marked contrast to his successor—accepted everything that Lovecraft submitted to the magazine,<ref>Joshi and Schultz, p. 305.</ref> including "[[The Hound]]", "[[Arthur Jermyn]]", "[[The Statement of Randolph Carter]]", "[[The Cats of Ulthar]]", "[[Dagon (short story)|Dagon]]", "[[The Picture in the House]]", "[[The Rats in the Walls]]", "[[Hypnos (short story)|Hypnos]]" and "[[Imprisoned with the Pharaohs]]".<ref>Carter, pp. 32-35.</ref> 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."<ref>H. P. Lovecraft, letter to Frank Belknap Long, May 13, 1923; cited in Carter, p. 33.</ref>

Under Baird's editorship, ''Weird Tales'' lost a considerable amount of money—estimated at $51,000.<ref>Carter, pp. 35-37.</ref> After the April 1924 issue, Henneberger fired him and offered his job to Lovecraft.<ref>Carter, pp. 41-43.</ref> When Lovecraft declined, the publisher made [[Farnsworth Wright]], until then Baird's assistant, the editor of ''Weird Tales'', a position he held until 1940.<ref>Joshi and Schultz, pp. 304-305.</ref>

Baird remained as editor of another of Henneberger's titles, ''Detective Tales''. In this post, he rejected Lovecraft's "[[The Shunned House]]" in July 1925.<ref>Joshi and Schultz, p. 14.</ref> ''Detective Tales'' was sold off, and Baird remained editor when it retitled as ''Real Detective Tales''.

==Notes== {{reflist}}

==References== * [[Lin Carter]], ''[[Lovecraft: A Look Behind the Cthulhu Mythos]]''. New York: Ballantine Press, 1972. * [[S. T. Joshi]] and David E. Schultz, ''[[An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia]]''. New York: Hippocampus Press, 2001.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baird, Edwin}} [[Category:American magazine editors]] [[Category:Horror fiction]] [[Category:1886 births]] [[Category:1957 deaths]] [[Category:Weird Tales editors]] [[Category:American male non-fiction writers]] [[Category:Writers from Chattanooga, Tennessee]] [[Category:20th-century American male writers]]