Editing Frank Belknap Long (section)

===Early career: the 1920s===

In 1924, at the age of 22, he sold his first short story, "The Desert Lich", to ''[[Weird Tales]]'' magazine. Throughout the next four decades, Long was to be a frequent contributor to pulp magazines, including two of the most famous: ''Weird Tales'' (under editor [[Farnsworth Wright]]) and ''[[Astounding Science Fiction]]'' (under editor [[John W. Campbell]]). Long was an active freelance writer, also publishing many non-fiction articles.
[[File:Weird tales 192412.jpg|thumb|Long's second ''[[Weird Tales]]'' story, "Deadly Waters", was featured on the cover of the December 1924 issue.]]

His first book, the scarce volume ''A Man from Genoa and Other Poems'', was published in 1926 by [[W. Paul Cook]]. Two copies are held in the collections of [[John Hay Library]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://search.library.brown.edu/catalog/b1568671|title=A man from Genoa and other poems|first=Frank Belknap|last=Long|date=July 21, 1926|publisher=Published by W. Paul Cook, The Recluse Press}}</ref>  The poems in this collection won praise from a great variety of writers, among them [[Arthur Machen]], [[Robinson Jeffers]], [[William Ellery Leonard]], [[John Drinkwater (playwright)|John Drinkwater]], [[John Masefield]] and [[George Sterling]].<ref name="autogenerated1946">Jacket bio, Frank Belknap Long, ''The Hounds of Tindalos'', Sauk City, WI: Arkham House, 1946</ref> [[Samuel Loveman]] declared that Long's poem "The Marriage of Sir John de Mandeville" was worthy of [[Christopher Marlowe]].

Long's closest friends (apart from H. P. Lovecraft) in this period included Samuel Loveman, [[H. Warner Munn]], and [[James F. Morton]]. He had several encounters with [[Hart Crane]], who lived one flight above Loveman in Brooklyn Heights.<ref>Frank Belknap Long. ''Autobiographical Memoir''. West Warwick, RI: Necronomicon Press, 198, pp. 10-12.</ref>