It is hard to say why certain authors are remembered and others are forgotten. It is easy to say that quality is the major factor, but, while I’ve found most classics worth reading, there are some classics that I don’t think hold up. (I could complain forever about F. Scott Fitzgerald, but I will spare you.) There are also writers who aren’t well known that I believe deserve more respect. Harold Lamb’s great adventure stories were close to being forgotten if not for Howard Andrew Jones. Another such case is that of Weird Tales writer Allison V. Harding.

Harding is obscure enough that we don’t really know who she was. It was quite possibly a pseudonym for a woman named Jean Milligan. However, she was engaged to Lamont Buchanan who was an associated editor of Weird Tales. Some think he was the real author. Others believe that they were a writing team like Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore, because Harding often wrote from a male point of view and did so with understanding. The problem with that is the female Leigh Brackett did so as well so it’s not impossible for a female writer.

Whoever Harding was, she was very talented.

Harding seems to have written exclusively for Weird Tales. I discovered her through the Horrorbabble podcasts on YouTube. (I’d recommend these podcasts. They produce a lot of adaptations of Weird Tales writers like Smith, Howard, and of course Lovecraft.) They impressed me enough to buy Allison V. Harding: The Forgotten Queen of Horror Fiction by Armchair Fiction.

Harding’s most famous story is “The Damp Man” which is included in the Armchair volume. It and its two sequels are also on Horrorbabble. It is the story of a woman being stalked by the titular character. Over the course of the story it becomes clearer that the stalker is not really human. It is a suspenseful story, but not my favorite of hers. That said the character of The Damp Man is unique and interesting. I see why she brought it back for two sequels.

I think my favorite of hers is “Fog Country.” (Again you can find it both in the Armchair Volume and on Horrorbabble.) It deals with a town haunted by a mysterious fog that causes people to disappear. It has some great atmospheric touches and neat twist about the narrator.

A theme that continues throughout her stories is one that I call “malevolent anthropomorphism.” That is to say that many of her stories are about machines and lower life forms that have human and sinister qualities. “The Murderous Steam Shovel” is about just that. Similarly, “Revolt of the Trees” is about a plot by a group of trees to overthrow humanity.

There are also stories dealing with other themes. “The Underbody” is an effective horror tale about a boy’s encounter with a monster. Written mostly from his father’s perspective, the boy’s story is not taken seriously until it is too late. The theme of children not being take seriously is also taken up in “Guard in the Dark,” which involves a boy’s obsession with toy soldiers and his well meaning but arrogant tutor’s attempts to discover its cause. These are not stories for those who are squeamish about bad things happening to children.

The stories also remind me in a lot of ways of her fellow Weird Tales writer, Ray Bradbury. Bradbury and Harding both wrote about childhood. Both wrote about horror within the seemingly mundane world. Harding’s “The Machine” and “The Coming of M. Alkerhaus” are also science fiction along with being horror. Bradbury’s science fiction dealt with the dangers of technology. In Harding’s “The Machine,” technology is shown to steal one’s soul. Literally.

Bradbury was the better prose stylist, admittedly. There’s a more pulpy quality to Harding’s work, but it works for the stories she tells. Still, her prose style is a lot better than… say… Seabury Quinn.

(There is also the problem of typos in the Armchair Fiction volume, but that is the problem of the publisher.)

A lot of her fiction is set in a working class environment. Construction work is a major element of both “The Murderous Steam Shovel” and “The Frightened Engineer.” Other stories, however, take place in an academic environment. “The Scope” and “The Machine” deal with horrors created by science. The first is an interesting take on cosmic horror.

For the record, I don’t think I’ve read a truly bad story by her. Some are better are better than others, but all I’ve read are at least decent. It then begs the question why she is so little known?

Well, one reason may be that she wrote during the Dorothy McIlwraith era of Weird Tales, not the more studied Farnsworth Wright era. Because it was the era of Lovecraft and Howard, it is the era most focus on, but good stories were published during both eras. McIllwraith published a lot of Manly Wade Wellman and the first solo stories of Ray Bradbury. That’s not nothing. (She was not a perfect editor. For example, she rejected Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories, but Wright rejected stories by Howard and Lovecraft that are considered classics.)

Another reason may be that she only published in Weird Tales. The more famous Bradbury would also publish in other pulps and even in the more respected slicks. Wellman would have a long and prolific career. Perhaps being confined to Weird Tales did her no favor.

So in the end, I think she may have been dealt a bad hand. She deserves to better remembered.