Hamilton Craigie

Hamilton Craigie’s name appears in the early record of Weird Tales as both a crime writer and a writer of supernatural fiction. A specialist reconstruction places his life between 1880 and 1956 and traces his work across the pulp magazines. “The Chain” appeared in the magazine’s first issue; “The Incubus” followed in the April 1923 number. Later that year came “Midnight Black” and “The Jailer of Souls,” with “The Man-Trap” appearing in 1925. His stories also reached Detective Tales before the launch of Weird Tales.

The April issue prints Craigie’s byline above “The Incubus,” subtitled “A Man’s Frightful Adventure in an Ancient Tomb.” Its opening places Gerald Marston in a subterranean maze after the murder of the archaeologist who brought him there. The story works through pursuit, guilt and the uncertain sensations of moving in darkness; those are features of the fiction, not evidence about Craigie’s own life. The record offers a clear sequence of publication credits and a few biographical anchors, while leaving much of the writer’s personal history obscure. Craigie died in Florida in 1956.