1936 brought a few ruffles to the Kline-Howard relationship,
beginning with a letter from Howard to agent August Lenniger, dated 27 December
1935:
I have received your letter of the
17th, and read it with much interest, together with the literature that
accompanied it. Mr. Otis Adelbert Kline handles most of my work, and I have no
reason to be dissatisfied with him. However, there’s no harm in having more
than one string to a bow, as in the case of my friend, Ed Price, who does
business with both yourself and Mr. Kline, and seems to be doing very well
indeed. I notice that in your ad in the December issue of the [Author & Journalist] you state that,
in the case of a professional who has sold $1,000 worth of stuff within the
last year, you will waive reading fees and handle his work on straight
commission. Well, I sold considerably more than a thousand dollars worth of
stories. If you are willing to handle my work on a straight commission basis,
I’ll be glad to send you some yarns and let you see what you can do with them.
Of your ability as an agent there is of course no question. As to my yarns, I
write westerns, adventure, fantasy, sport, and occasionally detective. I have
been a contributor to Weird Tales for
eleven years, and a 70,000 word novel, The
Hour of the Dragon is at present running in that magazine as a serial. Action Stories is running a series of
humorous western shorts, one of these stories having appeared in every issues
of the magazine for about two years now. In the past few months I have made
three new markets, Western Aces,
Thrilling Mystery and Spicy
Adventures. In addition to the magazines above mentioned my work has
appeared in Ghost Stories, Argosy, Fight
Stories, Oriental Stories, Sport Stories, Thrilling Adventures, Texaco Star,
The Ring, Strange Detective, Super-Detective, Strange Tales, Frontier Times
and Jack Dempsey’s Fight Magazine. (CL 3.395-396)
 |
| Western Aces October 1935 |
Gus Lenniger was, strictly speaking, Kline’s competition,
although the two were on friendly terms, and by unusual circumstances shared a
client in E. Hoffmann Price, whose situation combined with the non-exclusive
nature of Howard’s agreement with Kline probably precipitated the confusion. As
Price tells it, he had Lenniger as his agent, but wasn’t getting sales, so:
I wrote Otis, and sent him a novelette
with which Lenniger had no luck whatsoever. All I expected, in my ignorance,
was some advice which I could utilize. After all, Otis and I had drunk from the
same barrel. He suggested a revision, and a second revision, and then, a
substantial cut. It was only then that I learned about his agency business. As
a friend, he was giving me a hand. He was not looking for another client. He
never once suggested that I dump August Lenniger. He took my much revised
script, sold it, and also, a short story which had got nowhere. Each salvage
operation was in the crime field. And then, August Lenniger got his stride. I
had never had any cause for complaint. That it had taken him awhile to express
himself in terms meaningful to me was natural. [...] Stories for Kline went to
him as “Hamlin Daly” yarns. My “official” agent got E. Hoffmann Price stuff.
Oddly, each sold to publishers which the other was not selling. An arrangement
of this sort could not, and of course, should not last long. It did not. (BOD 33)
Kline had a slightly different take on events, in a letter
to Otto Binder dated 14 May 1936:
I really gave Price his start in the
detective story field. When he wanted to branch out he came to me, and at that
time I told him I was busy with my own writing and didn’t want to take on
anymore clients. I recommended Lenniger. He sent him four or five novelettes
and a bunch of shorts, and Lenniger didn’t sell a damn thing for him over a
period of six months. He then asked me if I would check up and see what was
wrong for him. I agreed to do so, and he wrote Lenniger for a couple of the
novelettes. He revised them under my directions, and I sould them right off the
bat to Dell for 1 ¼ ¢ a word. He then wrote for some more, and during that six
months period I sold, all told, five novelettes which Lenniger had been unable
to sell because he didn’t demand revisions, and three or four short stories.
With all all of these sales editors began to notice Price’s name, and Lenniger
began to sit up and take notice. He sold a short story for Price, and started
going around to editorial offices trying to get assignments. Then he sold a
novelette, and some other stuff, and kept getting Price more assignments. In
spite of that fact, I solde twice as much for Price over the period of a year
as did Lenniger. I continued this record for another year. [...] Lenniger, however, kept boring in, using the assignment
method. He kept contacting new editors, asking for assignments for Price. Then
he would wire or airmail Price, and naturally he wouldn’t turn down any orders
for stories if he could possibly dill them, on the “bird in the hand” theory.
This ran down my stock of Price stories, and of course ran down my sales. I got
him the Pawang Ali assignment from Tremain, and if I had been in New York
regularly could have gotten him a lot of others and beaten Lenniger at his own
game. As it is, he is cashing in on a man I trained for the work, and the only
way I can beat him is through the New York end. (OAK 16.6-7)
Howard had also dealt with Lenniger briefly in 1933, when
Lenniger, Price, and Kirk Mashburn had the idea for an anthology that never
materialized. (CL2.240; 3.14, 41) The
extent to which Howard intended to use Lenniger as an agent isn’t clear, but
the issue was further complicated by a letter from Howard to William Kofoed,
dated 8 Jan 1936:
Glad that Bloomfield can use “Fists of
the Desert”, and congratulations on your ability to persuade him to take it
without cutting it any. Of course you were quite entitled to your commission.
You mention that Bloomfield wants some dope about me to use when the yarn is
published. Well, there’s not much to tell; I’ve lived a pretty ordinary life;
however, I’m inclosing such data as there is on another page. I feel very
gratified that Bloomfield should be, as you say, interested in my work, as
that’s a market I’ve tried in vain to make for years. I haven’t any westerns or
adventure yarns on hand just now, as those I have written are being submitted
by Mr. Otis Adelbert Kline, of Chicago, who handles a great deal of my work,
though not all of it. However, I’m working on a short sport yarn now which I’ll
be glad to send you to try with the Popular Publications, as you suggest. Also,
if you’ll send me the three Costigan yarns that were rejected, I’ll rewrite
them in the third person as first person slang would seem (judging from the
letter you enclosed) to be the main objection, and let you try them with
Bloomfield again, if you care to do so. (CL 3.399-400)
Jack Kofoed was the former editor of Fight Stories and Jack
Dempsey’s Fight Magazine; after the latter magazine folded in 1934, Kofoed
sought to act as agent for the stories that had been accepted but not
published; “Fists of the Desert” (published as “Iron Jaw” in Dime Sports Magazine, Apr 1936) was
presumably one of these. For his part, Howard was not trying to go behind
Kline’s back, and wrote to his agent on 8 Jan 1936:
And now about another thing: When the
sport magazine Jack Dempsey’s Fight Magazine went off the stands the editor,
W.H. Kofoed, had on hand three shorts and a novelet which I understand he had
intended using. Not long ago, when it became evident that the magazine was not
to be revived, he offered to show these stories to the editors of other sports
magazines for me, and I agreed. Today I received a check from him for the
novelet, which he sold to Dime Sport.
The shorts were rejected. He tells me that Bloomfield is interested in my work,
and suggests that I let him have something else to submit. Popular Publications
is a company I’ve long yearned in vain to crash. So I’m re-writing “Sailor
Dorgan and the Jade Monkey” in the third person for him to try. This one, you
know, you placed with Wright for the Magic
Carpet, and recently returned to me to be re-written when Magic Carpet was abandoned as a
publishing project. If Kofoed sells this, you’ll receive your commission just
as if you had sold it, for you’ve handled the yarn and are entitled to it.
Kofoed says: “A number of the boys at Popular Publications are old friends of
mine who worked at Fiction House when I was editing Fight Stories. I therefore feel pretty much at home with them. This
of course doesn’t hurt any, though it can’t make up for unsuitable stories.” A
few sport stories placed with Popular Publications might rouse a little
interest in my work, and help our chances with the adventure yarns. Just
between you and I, I’m afraid I’m burnt out on sport stories, but Popular
Publications is a market worth shooting at. I trust that my intention of
letting Kofoed try to place “The Jade Monkey” meets with your approval. If it
sells, I’ll send you a check for your commission on the next mail. And by the
way, I notice that Fiction House is reviving Fight Stories on a quarterly basis. That doesn’t offer much of a
market, but you might offer them the Costigan yarns again. Most of them were
rejected formerly by Byrne, but three or four have been written since the
magazine went out of business. I’ve got the first draft of a fifteen-thousand
word orientale and will rush it to you as soon as I’ve polished it up. At
present it’s full of kinks and wrinkles that iron out slowly. (CL 3.400-402)
Kline’s response is not preserved for posterity, but
probably echoed Price’s sentiments that such a situation could not last long,
and replied promptly, apparently asking it Howard was displeased with his
services. Howard responded on 13 Jan 1936:
Just read yours of the 11th. I gather
you aren’t too pleased with the idea of Kofoed offering some of my stuff to Dime Sport. I’m sorry if I’ve offended
you, for I certainly had no intention of doing so. When I agreed to let Kofoed
show Bloomfield the yarns he had left over when Jack Dempsey’s Fight Magazine went out of business, I did not mean
to imply any dissatisfaction with your agency. Emphatically not. I’ve already
let Kofoed have the three Costigan yarns he had on hand, and the re-written
“Jade Monkey” but if you feel that it’s not fair to you, I won’t send him any
more. I certainly don’t want to do anything unethical. Living off out here with
no contact with the literary world, I’m not always exactly clear on the proper
procedure in various cases, and am always glad to be advised by anyone in
position to know. I was under the impression, though, that some writers do
business with more than one agent. Please let me repeat that I had no intention
of taking away from you any of the work you are handling, to give to Kofoed or anyone
else. Concerning the Dorgan series, under the name of Patrick Ervin, I don’t
think they stand a chance with anybody (except possibly Fight Stories) in their present shape. In a letter from Bloomfield
which Kofoed sent me, Bloomfield expressed a dislike for first person slang,
and I believe there is a trend away from that style of yarn in most of the
other magazines. Obviously, there isn’t a chance for them clicking with Dime Sport. But I believe we might sell
a few if they were re-written in the third person, with some of the dialect in
conversation cut out. If you’ll send me the whole batch I’ll rewrite them that
way. There are a few which I believe I can turn into Spicy Adventures. You remark that Bloomfield might think I’m
sending you the weaker yarns and Kofoed the stronger ones. No chance of that.
The novelet he bought wasn’t a Costigan (Dorgan), being one of the only two
fight novelets I ever wrote in my life, and in no way resembling the Costigan
series, as it was planned to use it in Jack
Dempsey’s Fight Magazine under a pen name. As for the three Costigan yarns
Bloomfield rejected, you have several I consider as good or better. Thanks for
the dope about the needs of the Dells. Their rates sound particularly
intriguing. I’ll have to read some of their magazines to get the slant, though.
P.S. As the Dorgan yarns were re-typed in your office, you can send me the
carbons if it’s handier, and I’ll rewrite the yarns from them. (CL 3.402-404)
 |
| Otis Adelbert Kline |
Kline wasn’t happy, and Howard was apologetic—but having
already promised the stories to Kofoed, seemed determined to keep it; though
Kline’s response appears to have aborted whatever work Howard might have placed
with Lenniger. As Howard wrote to Kline on 18 Jan 1936:
Just read your letter of the 15th. I
can see your point of view, and thanks for enlightening me. No, I don’t
remember that Price ever mentioned to me the circumstances by which both you
and Lenniger came to be handling his work. When I let Kofoed show those yarns
to Bloomfield it did not occur to me that it would be to your disadvantage. I
sinned entirely through ignorance. You will remember that you had never asked
for the exclusive rights on my stuff. You remember when I began selling the
series to Kofoed, for Jack Dempsey’s
Fight Magazine, I wrote offering to pay you your commission just the same,
but you declined to take a commission on a story you had neither read nor
handled. You said at the time that you did not demand exclusive rights on my
yarns. I somehow considered that understood from the start; a year or so before
I got in touch with you, I had rejected the offer of what I think was a very
reputable agency because they wanted me to sign a contract giving them
exclusive rights to all my work. I couldn’t see my way clear to it, because I
was at the time making at least a living with markets I had built up myself,
and entirely by my own efforts. One thing that recommended you to me was the
fact that you didn’t demand all my work; that of course, together with your
unquestioned ability as an agent. However I can see that you are quite right in
desiring exclusive rights as far as other agents are concerned. [...] I’ll be
governed entirely by your wishes in this matter. I’ll let Kofoed submit the
four yarns he has now, and give you your commission on any he manages to sell;
or I’ll have him return them to me, send them to you, and protect Kofoed on
commissions on any of these four you might sell. Let me know what you want me
to do. In any event, I won’t send him any more stories. And I am quite willing
to give you exclusive rights to the New York territory, as far as any other
agent is concerned. I certainly have no reason to be dissatisfied with your
agency, and see no reason why I should give work to other agents. I have
already explained the special circumstances — and my own ignorance — which led
to the business with Kofoed. I do retain the privilege of submitting an
occasional yarn myself to some new market — that is to say, some magazine which
has not bought any of the stories you are handling for me — if I happen to
write a yarn that isn’t connected with any of the series you are handling.
Since you get almost a hundred percent of what I write, anyway, an occasional
short slanted at a new market couldn’t cause any of the complications you point
out as result of working with more than one agent. (Naturally I wouldn’t take
advantage of your market-ties.) As for first-person dialect, I think the best
argument against that sort of story is the fact that the Costigan yarns have
been on offer for some years now, without success. As for the Elkins yarns, it
must be remembered that I built up what I feel justified in considering at
least a fair-sized following of Fiction House readers, years ago when there was
less prejudice against that type of yarn. I first started slanting at the
Fiction House magazines when Fight
Stories first appeared, back in 1928 I believe it was. I wrote story after
story before I clicked. I found the editors kind and helpful, and they seldom
rejected a yarn without a note giving reasons and helpful suggestions. At last
I created Sailor Costigan and the series followed, which ran for a long time,
and which I have every reason to believe was popular with their readers. (The
editor of Sport Story once asked for
the series, but the Fiction House boys wanted to keep it exclusively, and I
felt it was their say-so; I sold a few yarns of the Kid Allison series, also
firstperson dialect to Sport, then they developed a bias against firstperson
stuff.) But what I started out to say was that the Costigan series built up a
following with Fight Stories readers,
and the readers of Action Stories in
which some of the yarns were published. When Fiction House revived Action Stories, there was a market
ready-made for the Elkins stories. I believe the only chance of selling the
Dorgan yarns would be to re-write in third person — and then I have my doubts.
However, you might try them on Fight
Stories first. It won’t do any harm, and Byrne might be able to use a few
of them. (CL 3.404-406)
 |
| Novalyne Price (Ellis) |
This response appears to have mostly placated Kline, as
Howard wrote to Novalyne Price on 14 Feb 1936:
Yes, Kline’s still my agent, and I’m
doing a little business with a fellow named Kofoed, of Philadelphia, former
editor of Fight Stories, and now
editor of Day Book, who does a little
agenting for me on the side, much to Kline’s disgust, I fear. (CL 3.418)
Kline’s emphasis on the “New York territory” was important
to him; many of pulp publishers had offices in New York City, and Kline himself
would move across the country and establish a New York office for his agency.
In the meantime, Kline relied on an associate to cover the New York beat: Otto
Binder. One half of the pulp writer Eando Binder (the other being his older
brother Earl), in late 1935 Kline hired Otto to replace his brother Allen Kline
as the agency’s representative—which included shopping around Howard’s
manuscripts. (OAK 5.18, 16.3) Binder
had a difficult time of it; as the commission on his sales did not nearly begin
to cover his costs, and ended up writing to Kline on 11 May 1936:
As for the loss of John Scott Douglas,
perhaps the favorable outlook for Robert E. Howard’s work will tend to make up
for that. I would appreciate your comments on this. [...] Obviously, in my
opinion, the volume of business itself—and especially the amount of salable
material by the better authors (Ward, Price, Howard, et al.)—must increase,
before this N. Y. end can promise to support an agent. (IMH 35, OAK 5.8, 13-15)
Kline replied to Binder right away, on 14 May 1936:
Howard, too, has had his troubles. He
wrote me some months ago that his mother was very ill. They live in a small
town, and he took her to doctors, hospitals, etc., for observation. While he
didn’t tell me the details, I judge that she must have some lingering,
incurable disease like cancer, as he has been so worried about her he has not
been able to do full justice to his writing, and also has had most of the care
of her, which took his time from his writing. For several weeks he didn’t touch
his machine, and only now is trying to get back into the harness. (OAK 16.4)
Kline likewise restated this belief that Howard’s mother was
dying of cancer to Carl Jacobi (IMH 68),
although her actual illness was tuberculosis.
True to Kline’s predictions, Howard’s sales in the first
half of 1936 were picking up; the year began with a check from Weird Tales for “The Grisly Horror” (IMH 366, CL 3.400), Binder’s list of sales beginning in December 1935
includes eleven stories from Howard (OAK 5.18),
which overlaps with data in the ledger (IMH
367-372). However, the division of payment appears to change in
1935—instead of Kline taking 10% and his associate 5%, leaving Howard with 85%
of the sale price, Kline appears to have split his 10% commission equally with
his associate (usually Otto Binder), so that Howard gets 90% of the sales
price. This would resolve some of the discrepancies between the ledger and
Binder’s commission list; for example, Binder lists a commission of $2.70 for
“Murderer’s Grog”, while the ledger says this was a 5,400 word story that sold
for $54.00 (1¢ per word), of which Howard was paid $48.60 and the commission on
it was $5.40 (10%)—which figures only makes sense if Kline was splitting his
commission with Binder. (OAK 5.18, IMH 371-371)
So assuming no errors were made in either the ledger or the
commissions list, the Kline agency sold “A Elston to the Rescue” ($54.00), “A
Man-Eating Jeopard” ($49.50),
“Murderer’s Grog” ($48.60), “A Gent from the Pecos” ($72.00), “Gents on
the Lynch” ($76.50), “The Purple Heart of Erlik” ($46.80), “The Dragon of Kao
Tsu” ($47.70), “Sons of the Hawk” ($216.00), “Black Winds Blowing” ($72.00),
“The Dead Remember” ($31.50), and “Sons of the White Wolf” ($90.00) before
July, and counting the check for “The Grisly Horror” ($99.00) Howard was
looking at $903.60—his best year yet, and that not counting “Graveyard Rats”,
“Pistol Politics”, “Desert Blood”, and “Evil Deeds at Red Cougar”. This also
does not take into consideration the novel A
Gent from Bear’s Creek, which sold to Herbert Jenkins in the United
Kingdom, or everything outside of Weird
Tales or Dime Sport which Howard
sold outside the Kline agency, and would jive with Dr. Howard’s comment that
“He has collected more than $1400.00 since January[.]” (IMH 60)
Of course, many stories didn’t click. “Guns of Khartum,”
“Daughters of the Feud,” and “Ship in Mutiny” proved too spicy for the spicies.
(CL 3.400-401) Binder couldn’t sell
“Ring Tailed Tornado” or “Fists of the Revolution,” and struggled to move some
of Howard’s adventure stories, but the Kline agency continued to push Howard’s
material and Howard himself, as the Texan mentioned in a letter to Lovecraft
dated 13 May 1936:
I have become so wrapped up in western
themes that I have not, as yet, written a follow-up yarn for the last Oriental
adventure novelet bought by Street & Smith, though Kline’s been urging me
to get one in circulation. (CL 3.461, MF 2.953)
Likewise, Howard wrote to Jack Byrne on 21 Apr 1936:
My agent, O.A. Kline, tells me that you
have suggested that I try my hand at a series of humorous yarns for Argosy, on
the general type of the Breckinridge Elkins stories. I have in mind a new
character, Pike Bearfield, of Wolf Mountain, Texas, about as big, dumb, and
ludicrous as B. Elkins. (CL 3.435)
 |
| Argosy Weekly October 17, 1936 |
This resulted in “A Gent from the Pecos,” “Gents on the
Lynch,” and “The Riot at Bucksnort,” which appeared in Argosy later that year. Binder wrote to Kline 21 May 1936:
Was down to see Jack Byrne today. I
left with him a list of Howard’s adventure stuff, with word lengths and type,
and asked him if he would like to keep it handy in case he needed something in
that line pronto. I’ve been trying to figure out some way of getting Howard’s
adventure stuff in there, and this may result in something. When meeting a
deadline, editors are liable to pounce on the nearest thing, just so it’s
half-way decent, and once in a author has plenty of chance to stick. [...] it
seems that Howard has already submitted two Westerns, shorts, in accordance
with last month’s interviews, and says he is accepting them, although he has
not yet informed Howard. So at least Howard is in Argosy with Western shorts. But I won’t be satisfied until Howard is
in there with some longer adventure stuff. That list may and may not result in
something. If not, we’ll have to figure out something else. (IMH 35, OAK 5.15-16)
Otto Binder wrote to Howard on 5 June 1936, congratulating
him on the sale of the Pike Bearfield stories to the Argosy, and asking if he would accept the sale of “Vultures of
Whapeton” to Smashing Novels at the
low rate of ½ ¢ per word; Howard replied in the margin of the letter:
1/2 a cent is O.K. if you can’t get
more; I think this yarn has been turned down by most of the better paying mags,
anyway. (IMH 37n6, CL 3.464)
This brief note would be one of, if not the last, of
Howard’s letters. He committed suicide on 11 June 1936.
_____________________________
Works Cited
BOD Book of the
Dead: Friends of Yesteryear: Fictioneers & Others
CL Collected
Letters of Robert E. Howard (3 vols. + Index & Addenda)
CS The Conan
Swordbook
FI Fists of
Iron (4 vols.)
IMH The Collected
Letters of Dr. Isaac M. Howard
MF A Means to
Freedom: The Letters of H. P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard (2 vols)
OAK OAK Leaves: The
Official Journal of Otis Adelbert Kline (16 issues)
WT50 WT50: A Tribute
to Weird Tales
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