Come over here, sit down, and let me tell you a story.
It is true that every family has an interesting story to tell. Certain stories may be more unbelievable than most.
What do any of us really know about our fathers before they started a family? As it turns out, in my case, not very much. This story is about my dad, Wilson Hassell Shepherd. My dad was an early publisher of weird fiction during the Great Depression and even went on to publish a few of Howard Phillips Lovecraft’s works and correspond with him. How did my dad, as a teenager, become interested in publishing science fiction? This is his incredible journey into the mystical and fantastic world occupied by H. P. Lovecraft (HPL) and his countless adherents. How did Dad’s small-town upbringing prepare him for the world of early science fiction, fantasy, and horror? That he would correspond with HPL, Robert E. Howard (Conan the Barbarian), Robert Bloch (Psycho), Donald Wollheim (Mimic), Henry Kuttner, Duane Rimel, August Derleth, Robert Barlow (though they got off to a rough start), and others within this world, and also produce science fi ction / fantasy publications from his dirt fl oor cellar in Oakman, Alabama, is a story worth telling.
