The Tryout

The Tryout was an amateur press publication by Charles W. Smith from his home at 308 Groveland St. in Haverhill, Massachusetts, U.S.A.

First published in 1914, The Tryout was a National Amateur Press Association publication. Carles Smith had a printing press in a shed in his backyard where he put it together. The publication was noted for its typographical errors, referred to by H.P. Lovecraft as "tryoutisms". The Tryout is noted as the publication that first published many of Lovecraft's stories, poems and articles, as well as those of others of his circle included Clark Ashton Smith.

Other writers who work was included in The Tryout include Chester Prince Munroe, writing a tribute to Lovecraft in the March 1917 issue, as well as John Osman Baldwin, Blanche Blood, Helen Hoffman Cole, Anna Helen Crofts, James Lawrence Crowley, Arthur Goodenough, Winifred Virginia Jordan, Dorothy Louise Morton, James F. Morton, Jr., Marianne Oberton, Henriette Posner, Laura A. Sawyer, Lewis Theobald, and many others.

Charles Smith (2852-19480 was a correspondent of both Lovecraft and Smith. He kept published right up until 2 years before his death.