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, (a Lovecraft collaborator), James Lawrence Crowley, August Derleth, Arthur Goodenough, Jonathon E. Hoag, Winifred Virginia Jordan, Dorothy Louise Morton, James F. Morton, Jr., Marianne Oberton, Henriette Posner, Laura A. Sawyer, Mark Schorer, and many others.

Lovecraft wrote under various pseudonyms for The Tryout, including Lawrence Appleton, Alexander Ferguson Blair, Archibald Maynwaring, Henry Paget-Lowe, Ward Phillips, Richard Raleigh, Edward Softly and Lewis Theobald, Jr.

Also included in The Tryout is a five part history of amateur journalism written by Lovecraft, which began in the February 1920 issue.

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