The Kid, Two-Gun, and History by Todd B. Vick*

Few American lives have elicited more tales, rumors, and folklores than that of Henry McCarty. I would go so far as to say that of all the famous Americans who have lived such a short life span—two meager decades—McCarty has the most amount of words written about him. He perhaps has also influenced more authors than any other old west figure. And despite all this, he remains one of the most elusive figures of the old west. So who is Henry McCarty? History knows him as one Billy the Kid. The foremost scholar of Billy the Kid, Frederick Nolan, claims “Few American lives have more successfully resisted research than that of Billy the Kid.” (Nolan 3). Evidence for this lies in the fact that The Kid did not receive serious scholarly attention until nearly 100 years after his death. 

            Why is that? What makes Billy the Kid so fascinating that for the better part of the 20th century his life has resisted serious research and remained in the mainstream arena of folklore and myth? No scholar of the Kid seems to have a definitive answer to that question. It might simply be that facts are not as exciting as the mysterious. Regardless, from the late 1950s to the present day reliable research, scholarly articles and books have been written and new historical documents uncovered. Granted, the mythos remains and makes for wonderful movies and exciting novels but we now live in what should be considered a more enlightened era with regard to our understanding of The Kid.

            There was a long period of time where scarcely a word was written or spoken about Billy the Kid and the Lincoln County Wars. This span occurred between the death of the infamous sheriff (Pat Garrett) who killed Billy the Kid in 1908 until 1925 when Harvey Fergusson raised the question in an American Mercury article, “Who remembers Billy the Kid?” Apparently, the Kid’s reputation had faded and Fergusson wondered why (Nolan 295). All this would soon change in 1926 when Walter Noble Burns published The Saga of Billy the Kid, and the Kid would once again be thrust into the limelight of folklore and myth. This was the very book that sparked interest in the mind of a young boy who would later become the premier scholar of Billy the Kid studies, Frederick Nolan. Moreover, Walter Noble Burns, with his flamboyant style and highly exaggerated account of Billy the Kid, would also influence a series of western writers of the early to mid twentieth century. One in particular was a popular pulp fiction writer from Cross Plains, Texas named Robert E. Howard. Although the focus of Howard’s writing had pretty much been the fantasy and action adventure genres, Burn’s book would ultimately set Howard in a new creative direction.

It is no secret to Robert E. Howard aficionados that Howard had a serious interest in the Old West. This interest became so predominant toward the latter years of his life he shifted his writing career in the direction of publishing western stories and even proclaimed in correspondence to August Derleth:

“I’m seriously contemplating devoting all my time and efforts to western writing, abandoning all other forms of work entirely; the older I get the more my thoughts and interests are drawn back over the trails of the past; so much has been written, but there is so much that should be written.” (Howard Letters 2:  372).

In studies about Robert E. Howard’s western writing career there is no definitive time frame or specific cause that pushed Howard in the direction of western tales. Howard had written westerns in his earlier years and sporadically throughout his fantasy and action adventure years, but what made him tell Derleth that he wanted to devote all his time to western writing? There was likely no single factor or date, rather a series of events that hinged upon at least one thing—Walter Noble Burn’s book The Saga of Billy the Kid.

Walter Noble Burns was born October 24^th, 1872. As a teenager he became a junior reporter for the Louisville, KY Evening Post. (Nolan 295). This led Burns into a fairly long career as a writer and reporter which eventually led him to Chicago where he would work for both the Chicago Examiner and Chicago Tribune. It was his work with the Tribune that would launch him into his most famous research and work. In 1923 Burns would visit New Mexico to interview  various people who were still alive during the Lincoln County Wars and the days of Billy the Kid. This research would ultimately end up in Burns’ book The Saga of Billy the Kid (from here on referred to as SBK).

SBK was the definitive book about Billy the Kid’s life until the late 1950s and early 1960s when scholars took pen in hand and began seriously researching the Lincoln County Wars. Today SBK is considered nothing but a novel work on the Lincoln County Wars. It has all but been dismissed as exaggerations, myths, and fun folklore. Regardless, from 1926, the year SBK was published, to the early 1960s, Burns’ work set the tone for movies, western pulp stories, dime novels, and even magazine articles about Billy the Kid.

When SBK was published it quickly became a national best seller, rivaling the sales of other popular books of its day. In just a few short months Nolan explains,

Untrodden Fields: Robert E. Howard’s Sex Library; Part 2 by Bobby Derie

Intro From Part One:

[Some considerable work has been done by Howard scholars Dr. Charlotte Laughlin, Glenn Lord, L. Sprague de Camp, Steve Eng, and Rusty Burke to identify the books that comprised Robert E. Howard’s personal library, based primarily on the holograph list of books that Dr. I. M. Howard donated to form the Robert E. Howard Memorial Collection after his son’s death, as well as Robert E. Howard’s surviving letters and papers. Among these books are a number of works of erotica or curiosa which, while not pornographic to contemporary tastes, were nevertheless concerned with some aspect of sexuality (usually from a scholarly or pseudo-scholarly perspective) and were often treated as such. It is interesting to see, based on these books, what light if any they can shed on Howard’s life and work.]

_________________

Otto A. Wall

Sex and Sex Worship (Phallic Worship) (1919) by Otto A. Wall is demonstrative of the difficulty in assigning a specific source to certain of Howard’s beliefs; a substantial tome of over 600 pages and more than 300 black-and-white illustrations, nominally “A Scientific Treatise on Sex, its Nature and Function, and its Influence on Art, Science, Architecture, and Religion—with Special Reference to Sex Worship and Symbolism” it would perhaps more honestly be described as a pseudo-Victorian, quasi-academic hodgepodge of all matters related to sex and religion that the author could dig up, with as many pictures of nude woman in ancient art, medical textbook drawings, or anthropological photographs as Wall could squeeze in, covering everything from ancient mythology to Ernst Haeckel. Much of the material, if Howard ever read the whole thing, he never mentioned in his fiction or surviving letters (it would be interesting to see what he made of  the anecdote of “Conon and his daughter” on page 520), and nothing that he did mention is specific enough to trace back to this source. For example, in letter to H. P. Lovecraft from October 1930, Howard wrote:

For my part, I am too little versed in antiquities to even offer an opinion, but I am inclined to think that these figures represent a pre-Christian age and have some phallic significance. I am especially inclined to this view by the consistent use of triangles in the stone figure. Phallic worship was very common in Ireland, as you know—the legend of Saint Patrick and the snakes being symbolical of the driving out of the cult—and in almost every locality where phallic worship thrived, small images representing the cult have been found, in such widely scattered places as Africa, India and Mexico. Though of course the workmanship of the images differs with the locality and I have never seen or heard of, figures just like these of yours. At any rate, they are fascinating and open up enormous fields of dramatic conjecture. I am sure you could build some magnificent tales out of them. (CL2.95)

Sex and Sex Worship contains sections on both phallic worship and serpent worship, but it is hard to say if this is Howard’s source—or at least his sole source—for his particular datum, since by 1930 the concept of phallic worship had become relatively widespread since being introduced by Hodder Westropp in his 1870 paper “Phallic Worship”; the best that can be said is this is the most likely source, given that the work was available before Howard made this statement and it was in his library at his death. At the same time, however, it feels insufficient to try to account for some of Howard’s statements in his letters to the sex books known to be in his library. For example, Howard writes in a letter to Harold Preece dated 5 September 1928:

Today at town I saw the hang-over of some old and lascivious custom—a girl had a birthday and her girl and boy friends pounced upon her and indulged in a spanking debauch. I have never been able to find just how that custom originated, but have an idea its roots lie in the old superstition that spanking a woman or whipping her with a switch makes her bear children oftener and easier. (CL1.225)

The basic anecdote of a tradition of whipping or spanking a woman on some particular day to ensure fertility and ease childbirth is found in Sex and Sex Worship, A History of the Rod, and History of Flagellation, often but not exclusively when discussing the Roman festival of Lupercalia. The concept of a “hang-over of some old and lascivious custom,” however, speaks more of the influence of Sir James George Frazer’s The Golden Bough (1890). (Burke)

When & Where by Rob Roehm

While researching for his biography of Robert E. Howard, Dark Valley Destiny, science fiction grandmaster L. Sprague de Camp had to sort through quite a lot of information, some of it contradictory. While I am not a fan of the end product of these researches, I am thankful for the notes, letters, and interview transcripts that he left behind, now stored at the Harry Ransom Center in Austin, Texas. These materials help us to see when, where, and sometimes why de Camp made some of his missteps—posthumous psychoanalysis notwithstanding. Case in point:

In the summer of 1977 de Camp interviewed Wallace Howard, a first cousin of Robert E’s. Sometime after that interview, de Camp received a typed transcription of information from the Howard family Bible, which included the following:

Of particular interest is line #6, “William B. Howard, age 29, died August 2, 1888.” De Camp had a problem: William B. Howard is the name of Robert E.’s grandfather, but he lived well beyond his 29^th year. So who was this W. B.?

In her February 15, 1978 letter to Fannie Dell Adamson nee McClung, another of Howard’s first cousins, de Camp’s partner Jane W. Griffin wrote:

Mr. Wallace Howard sent us some excerpts from the Bible, but without any identifying comments.  For example, a William Benjamin Howard, “only 29 years old” death is recorded.  Would this have been the first child of William Benjamin Howard and Eliza Henry?  [. . .] When and where did your grandfather William Benjamin Howard die?  Was it before or after the family came to Texas?

That April, Adamson replied:

To my knowledge Wm. B. Howard and Eliza Henry had only 3 sons and 3 daughters.  I had always thought that David Terrel was the oldest.  David T. was 25 years old when he brought family possessions from Arkansas to Texas. Wm. B. Howard and Eliza Henry were married in 1856 and David Terrel was born in 1866 – ten years later.  So it very likely could be that Wm. Benjamin Howard, Jr. could have been the first son. 

[. . .]

Not sure of the date but I have always thought that he [William B. Howard] died in Camden, Arkansas, before Eliza Henry Howard came to Texas.  She did not to my knowledge ever mention why they came to Texas.

After a September 9, 1978 telephone interview with yet another of Robert E.’s first cousins, Ollie Lorene Davis nee Howard, de Camp wrote the following note: “William Benjamin Howard [. . .] died before the family moved to Texas.”

All of the above information appeared in Dark Valley Destiny as follows: “Three sons, born to Eliza and William, were growing up. William Benjamin, Jr., the eldest, was born in 1858 and died at twenty-nine on August 2, 1888” and this:

The stable organization of the Howard family was disrupted by the death of James Henry [William B.’s father-in-law] in 1884. Perhaps on the strength of their inheritance, the Howards decided to move to Texas; but before they could complete their plans, William Benjamin Howard himself was stricken and died. Eliza Howard, determined to carry out her husband's wishes, sold her property—fine timberland—for fifty cents an acre, and with her children headed west. In 1885 she located on a farm in Limestone County, between Dallas and Austin, near Waco.

This last piece of information is repeated in the most recent Howard biography, Blood and Thunder by Mark Finn: “In 1884, when James Henry died, William and Louisa decided to make their fortune in Texas. Before the move could be orchestrated, however, William Benjamin Howard fell ill and died in 1885.” Unfortunately, all of the above appears to be incorrect.

James H. & William B. Howard's death entry from the Howard family Bible

Thanks to the tireless efforts of Patrice Louinet, who tracked down the Howard relatives who actually own the family Bible mentioned above, we now have access to the source of de Camp’s information. As the close up from the Bible shown above indicates, it was not William B. Howard who died “aged 29,” though it was his oldest son, James “Jim” H. Howard. (Family legend has this Uncle Jim buried with other members of the Howard clan at Mount Antioch Cemetery in Limestone County, Texas, though he has no marker.) It appears that Wallace Howard is the source of this particular error. He seems to have accidentally copied “aged 29” for William instead of “aged 61.” So, no William Jr.

With the easy one out of the way, let’s have a look at where Robert E. Howard’s grandfather might have died. Keep in mind, all of de Camp’s sources, granddaughters and grandsons of W. B., were fairly far removed from that bit of information. Fannie Dell McClung Adamson’s mother, Willie Price Howard McClung, died in 1919; Wallace Howard and Ollie Lorene Davis nee Howard’s father, David Terrell Howard, died in 1924, more than 50 years before de Camp came calling in the 1970s.

The first piece of information regarding the location of William B.’s death comes from Robert E. Howard himself, in this passage from his circa October 1930 letter to H. P. Lovecraft:

My branch of the Howards came to America with Oglethorpe 1733 and lived in various parts of Georgia for over a hundred years. In ’49 three brothers started for California. On the Arkansas River they split up, one went on to California where he lived the rest of his life, one went back to Georgia and one, William Benjamin Howard, went to Mississippi where he became an overseer on the plantations of Squire James Harrison Henry, whose daughter he married. In 1858 he moved, with the Henry’s, to southwestern Arkansas where he lived until 1885, when he moved to Texas. He was my grandfather.

Seems pretty clear that Robert E. Howard got these details straight from his father, Dr. Isaac M. Howard, who at that time was the last surviving child of William B. And if that’s not good enough . . .

The item seen above is from a “Widow’s Application for Pension” that was filled out by W. B.’s widow in 1910. The application clearly states that W. B. died “near Mt. Calm, Texas, on 3^rd day of August in year of 1889.” This date is pretty similar to the August 2, 1888 date found in the family Bible. If Robert E. Howard’s word isn’t good enough, W. B.’s widow’s certainly should be.

Study This, Not That!: A Suggested Bibliography for REH Studies, Part Three

REH Secondary Works . . .

In any form of research secondary works/sources can be crucial. However, it should be pointed out that where there is a secondary source to support a primary source and the primary source is still available, always use the primary source. This is especially true if you end up writing articles/papers on the topic at hand. I don't say this in an attempt to dissuade the use of secondary sources but to emphasize the fact that primary sources are far superior to secondary sources. At the academic level of research to use a secondary source as if it is a primary source is intellectual dishonesty, and always frowned upon. 

However, secondary sources are wonderful resources, especially those from learned scholars and experts. And, if a secondary source is the only source available for specific information then by all means use it. But don't be quick to draw absolute conclusions based solely upon a secondary source. I'm not saying anything here that is not already widely accepted in academic circles, and this kind of research methodology has been in practice for decades (centuries even).  With that in mind, here are some of the best secondary sources that I have encountered in my research of Robert E. Howard.

History/Historical Documents . . .

Read This . . .

Current REH studies/scholarship is very fortunate to have Rob Roehm and his father Bob Roehm in the research field digging up REH history and historical documents. I love history. In fact, I love the type of history that most history buffs find boring. The gritty details about people's lives: where they are from, where they went to school, where they used to hang out, where they traveled, why they traveled to these places, how they were raised, who were their relatives, all the documents surrounding these facts, and why that all matters. This is the kind of history that the Roehms have researched, uncovered, and made known to everybody in REH scholarship and fandom. If you are unaware of their works, then you are missing out on one of the most important ingredients in REH studies. Aside from actually tracking down articles that Rob has written (e.g. old REHupa zines, the REH Two-Gun Raconteur website, and other various books/magazines) the Roehms currently have two books available. The first is titled Howard's Haunts: A Photographic Journey Through Robert E. Howard's Texas and Events of the Howard Centennial. I bought this book from the REH House and Museum three or four years ago. It was so interesting I read through the whole book in one sitting and have read it several more times since. It details places like Peaster, Dark Valley, Menard, Howard Payne University, Brownwood, Cisco, Rising Star, Fredricksburg, etc., It also covers events such as REH Days in Cross Plains, the 100th birthday bash for REH in Fort Worth, TX, REH Publications for 2006, and a chapter by Mark Finn  about The World Fantasy Convention in Austin, TX in 2006. The book is loaded with historical photographs and current photographs. Their second book is titled The Brownwood Connection: A Guide for Robert E. Howard Fans. This book provides historical details about REH's time in Brownwood during High School, College, and other visits he made to that city. This book is replete with photographs, scans of historical documents, school yearbooks, maps, newspaper articles, legal/court documents, time tables, etc. All accompany a solid written explanation of the facts, documents, events, etc. This book is so detailed at times that even train schedules from back in Howard's day are included. There's even a section about Novalyne Price in the appendices. Any serious researcher should not be without these two volumes. (Note: technically, a lot of this material—especially the actual historical/legal documents—are primary sources. Even so, I've included these works in the secondary sources section due to the current photographs and current travels accounts, esp. in Howard's Haunts, not being essential primary data/sources. However, any historical/legal documents, etc. from this material should be considered primary data and treated as such.)

Another book edited by Rob Roehm I recently purchased is titled School Days in the Post Oaks. As of this article I have yet to read this work so I really cannot review it for you, but I do know (and this is the reason I bought a copy) that it is a collection of newspaper articles about REH and his time/events in the Post Oak area. Click the link I've provided for further details.


Academia . . .

Read This . . .

Current Robert E. Howard fans are quite fortunate that they have a fairly nice size pool of rigorous academic (and academic type) material in which to swim. This certainly has not always been the case. I will not list single articles that are in larger anthologies here (see a few a those below*). There are single volumes devoted to nothing but Howard studies. It is important to note that with academic material the more current a work, the "better" it is. I do not mean "better" in terms of quality, but rather better in the sense that it is freshest, and the most up-to-date research (and usually considers previous research). The first volume that comes to mind in terms of academia, and the most dated, is Don Herron's edited volume titled The Dark Barbarian. This academic collection, published in 1984, was the first of its kind. And quite frankly, several of the articles still hold up today. For REH academic study I would actually recommend beginning with this volume. Now, I should point out several things here. First, some of the chapters mention dating issues of particular manuscripts, and these issues have currently been resolved thanks to the work of later scholars. Second, some of the chapters are not written in formal academic styles. This is only important in so far as that is probably what kept this volume from making serious inroads into academic circles. Third, there are current articles/volumes that are far more rigorous in their assessment, research, and presentation than this volume. But, as I mentioned before this volume set a precedent and therefore ought to have been taken much more seriously than it was. Another feature of REH studies that does not exist in other academic circles of the same kind is that REH studies/scholars have their own peer reviewed journal. I cannot stress how important this is. I also cannot stress how important it is for REH fans to support this effort and keep it alive by purchasing these journals when they are released. The peer reviewed journal is called The Dark Man: The Journal of Robert E. Howard Studies. The reason this journal is so important is that good solid university libraries always make an effort to obtain all peer reviewed journals in pretty much every field. To have one out there means that Howard's work has a far greater chance of being studied at the university level. Plus, The Dark Man journal must adhere to academic standards (e.g. writing in a particular academic style - MLS). If you can find back issues of these journals you will essentially have found a goldmine of REH articles and research. These journals are a must read in REH research/studies.

Another excellent volume in the academic category is titled Two-Gun Bob: A Centennial Study of Robert E. Howard. Now, while this volume is not published via an academic/university press, many of the articles are written by professors and scholars (e.g. S.T. Joshi, Frank Coffman, Glenn Lord, Charles Gramlich, Lorenzo DiTommaso, etc.). This anthology is still in print and that says a lot about the quality of its contents since it was published in 2006 (8 years ago since the posting of this article). Another academic volume that was recently published is titled Conan Meets the Academy. This volume was edited by Jonas Prida who is an assistant professor of English and Head of the English department at the College of St. Joseph, Rutland, Vermont. Published by McFarland it is the first academic volume to focus solely on one of REH's characters. The articles are geared more toward the cultural impact REH's character Conan the Cimmerian has had on culture. Even so, it is a great volume to own, the articles are well researched, thoughtful, and well documented.

*Other volumes with single articles about Robert E. Howard's work include Undead in the West II: They Just Keep Coming. This volume contains an article written by Jeffrey Shanks and Mark Finn titled Vaqueros and Vampires in the Pulps: Robert E. Howard and the Dawn of the Undead West. Jeff Shanks also has a nice article in an academic volume titled Pulp Fiction of the 1920s and 1930s. This volume is edited by Gary Hoppenstand and Jeff's article is titled History, Horror and Heroic Fantasy: Robert E. Howard and the Creation of the Sword and Sorcery Subgenre.

Journals, Fanzines, and Miscellaneous Books/Works . . .

Read This . . .

Over the decades many REH journals and fanzines have come and gone. If you are adventurous, like to collect things, and know where to look you can track down some real jewels. You won't have to work too hard though to get your hands on one of the last surviving REH journals, and one of the better ones to be created (which is probably why it was brought back). The journal I'm talking about is REH: Two-Gun Raconteur. This journal has been around since the 70s—yes, that's a long time. I've been buying copies for at least 5 or so years and have tracked down several back issues. The journal is toted as The Definitive Robert E. Howard Journal, and it lives up to that declaration. It has its origins in the mid 70s, and was the brainchild of Damon C. Sasser. Sasser told me he thought it up in the midst of the REH boom of the 70s when there were only three active fanzines in operation: Fantasy Crossroads (of which I have several issues), The Howard Review, and REH: Lone Star Fictioneer (of which I have several issues). The journal took a bit of a break around the late 80s early 90s and then started back up in 2003 and has since then been published to date. Damon C. Sasser is still the editor today. This journal is always loaded with excellent articles (some on a scholarly level). Here are some of the past contributors: Damon C. Sasser, Patrice Louinet, David Hardy, Brian Leno, Jeffrey Shanks, Barbara Barrett, Rob Roehm, Don Herron, Bill Cavalier, Steve Tompkins, Frank Coffman, Mark Finn, Jim and Ruth Keegan, Michael L. Peters (illustrations), Timothy Truman (illustrations), Charles R. Saunders, Deuce Richardson, Morgan Holmes, Rusty Burke, etc. (I'm sure I've missed a few names). It also includes stories by Robert E. Howard. Each issue is lavishly illustrated. Back issues of these journals are frequently sought. I've seen them sell for as much as $35.00 on Ebay. Current issues are for sale here.



Robert E. Howard: The Power of the Writing Mind is a small independent work allegedly edited by Ben Szumskyj (but in reality edited by Leo Grin, per a reliable source). Regardless of its editor, it is well worth tracking down. It has articles by Joe Marek, Patrice Louinet, Rusty Burke, Leo Grin, stories by Robert E. Howard (An Untitled Story, The Devil's Woodchopper, three autobiographical letters, Double Cross, The Right Hook - this is a photocopy of the actual manuscript, and a High School Theme) illustrations by Gary Gianni, Mark Schultz, images from the portfolio of Rick McCollum Rick Cortes, and David Burton.  There is also a nice interview with Glenn Lord. While this is not a crucial volume to own, it is a solid volume and worth getting.

A good solid book that has provided me with hours of fun reading and information not only about Robert E. Howard but about REH fandom has been The Man From Cross Plains: A Celebration of Two-Gun Bob Howard edited by Dennis McHaney. While this book is not necessarily one that makes for great study and research, it is one that will give you an excellent idea about Cross Plains, TX and REH fandom. I put it in here for that reason. There are some informative chapters that will go much deeper than merely fandom (e.g. Chris Gruber's chapter titled Atavists All? Howard's Boxing Hero's as Throwbacks) but most are fan related, Howard's influences on various people, Cross Plains as a home away from home, etc. Regardless, the book is well worth reading and I highly recommend it.


I hope that this three part series will at least give interested persons a good starting point to really dig their heels in and begin researching the Texas tale-spinner. Keep in mind this list is certainly not exhaustive. It's not intended to be. Anyone reading this who has other suggestions feel free to list them in the comments. I know for a fact more research material is slated to appear in the future, until then happy researching. Cheers!

Study This, Not That!: A Suggested Bibliography for REH Studies, Part Two

REH Primary Works Continued . . .

The Boxing Stories . . .

Study This . . .

Back in 2005 Bison Books released a collection of Howard's boxing stories in a volume titled Boxing Stories edited by Chris Gruber. This was part of a series—by the same publishing company, Bison Books—called The Works Robert E. Howard. This series included two western volumes (which we'll look at shortly), an adventure tales volume and a collection of weird/horror stories called The Black Stranger and Other American Tales. I bought this boxing volume a year after it was released. This volume was my introduction to Howard's boxing stories. Until recently this was the only volume I was aware existed that contained a collection of Howard's boxing stories. It was eye-opening for me. In fact, I never knew Howard wrote boxing stories until this volume. The book has a wonderful introduction by REH scholar Chris Gruber. It gives the reader a solid background about Howard's boxing stories and their characters. Unfortunately, this volume is currently out of print. You can still find a copy but they are not cheap. But all is not lost because the Robert E. Howard Foundation is in the process of publishing the definitive collection of Howard's boxing stories. Chris Gruber joined with REH scholars Mark Finn and Patrice Louinet to compile a massive 4 volume set, the first two volumes of which are already in print and for sale at the Foundations website. This new four volume set is aptly titled Fists of Iron and each volume is designated by a nice pun—"Round 1, Round 2," etc.  Just as a boastful aside, I recently won the first volume of Fists of Iron and the 2014 REH Days auction banquet. It contains a customized special drawing on the inside first blank page by the cover artist Thomas Gianni, and is signed on the numbered titled page by Chris Gruber, Mark Finn & Patrice Louinet. This first volume contains an introduction by Chris Gruber, a couple of hundred pages of boxing stories and four appendices. The four appendices contain early tales, variants and fragments, articles, several special "odds and ends," and part one of an essay by Patrice Louinet titled The Lord of The Ring. And keep in mind this is merely volume one. If you really want to research Howard and his works, and I mean be a well rounded reader and researcher of Howard and his works, then you must read his boxing stories. And now is the best time to begin doing that with the advent of this new four volume set.

The Western Stories . . .

Another necessary set of primary works to read for a well balanced REH diet is his western stories. In the same Bison Books series mentioned above (The Works of Robert E. Howard) there are two volumes devoted to Howard's western stories: The Riot of Bucksnort and Other Western Tales edited and with an introduction by David Gentzel and The End of the Trail: Western Stories edited and with an introduction by Rusty Burke. The former title contains REH's humorous westerns, the later his weird/serious westerns. I discovered The End of the Trail: Western Stories first. Although I had run into a smaller European collection of REH's western tales in the early to mid 90s at a second hand bookstore, it was really Rusty Burke's edited Bison Books volume that turned me on to REH's western stories. More importantly was Burke's introduction. That intro is a kind of "play-by-play" commentary about each story and why it was selected for the Bison volume. I was almost more impressed with this introduction than I was the stories themselves. I'm, of course, being a bit hyperbolic, but am also attempting to stress just how well done the intro to this volume actually is. Moreover, this was my first encounter with one of Robert E. Howard's greatest works of fiction—The Vultures of Wahpeton. I can count on both hands stories by REH that without a doubt deserve a home in high school and college textbooks, Vultures of Wahpeton is one of those. In fact, some of my favorite stories by REH are his westerns. But, this is not an article to point out favorites. Additionally, The Riot at Bucksnort and Other Western Tales contains one of Howard's most endearing characters—Breckenridge Elkins (and Cap 'n Kidd, of course). The above two Bison books are no longer in print. Although, the REH House & Museum in Cross Plains, TX still has copies of The Riot at Bucksnort and Other Western Tales at a reasonable price. Along with the two volumes above is a volume published by the REH Foundation titled Robert E. Howard's Western Tales. This volume has an introduction by western writer James Reasoner. His intro is excellent for anyone researching REH's westerns. Additionally, this volume contains regular westerns, weird westerns, essays, miscellanea, juvenilia, and notes about the texts. Reading Howard's westerns is as important as reading his heroic fantasy, his boxing tales, his adventure stories, horror stories, you get the idea. These stories are important and a well rounded researcher should read them.

Robert E. Howard's Letters/Correspondence . . .

One of the easiest ways to get to know someone is simply read their mail. Reading the correspondence of famous people is a great way to research their lives, their thoughts, their ideas, etc. Fortunately for us today, the correspondence of Robert E. Howard is easily accessible. That was not always the case. Just a mere two or three decades ago, you had to track down REH's letters, or contact Glenn Lord who had done a tremendous amount of footwork to collect them. Today there are several volumes you can buy that contain these letters. There is a three volume set (the first volume is no longer in print/sold out) that the Robert E. Howard Foundation sells titled The Collected Letters of Robert E. Howard (Volume One: 1923-1929; Volume Two: 1930-1932; Volume Three: 1933-1936). These volumes are edited by Rob Roehm and have introductions by Rusty Burke. If you are going to do any type of serious research on the life of Robert E. Howard then these letters are an absolute necessity. In fact, most professional literary research that is done outside the realm of textual analysis is often times focused on the available correspondence of the person being researched due to historical and personal insights. The second set of books contain letters between Robert E. Howard and H.P. Love Craft. These volumes are titled A Means to Freedom: The Letters of H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard (Volume One 1930-1932; Volume two 1933-1936). These volumes are edited by S.T. Joshi, David Schultz and Rusty Burke. Now, while REH's letters to H.P. Lovecraft are in the three volume Collected Letters, H.P. Lovecraft's responses are not. This is what makes the two volume set doubly important—you get both sides of the correspondence. However, what makes the three volume Collected Letters so crucial is the fact that it contains letters to all of REH's friends, other writers, publishers, etc. And this is why I own both sets.


Robert E. Howard's Poetry . . .

The last of the primary material happens to be some of the hardest material to find, especially since the largest volume ever printed, an 800 plus page volume, titled The Collected Poetry of Robert E. Howard, is no longer in print. And, you have a better chance of winning the lottery than finding a copy of it—believe me I've been looking for that single volume on every available internet avenue for about 6 years now. But, here's some good news! At this past REH Days in Cross Plains, Texas, the REH Foundation announced that a new and updated volume of that work will be released in the near future. In the mean time there are several poetry volumes currently available to any reader/researcher to peruse. The first can be obtained at the Robert E. House and Museum. It is titled A Word from the Outer Dark by Robert E. Howard (edited by Paul Herman). It contains a brief introduction about Howard being a poet and his poetry and 100 poems. Another volume that is currently available at the REH Foundation website is titled A Rhyme of Salem Town and Other Poems. This volume also has a brief introduction by Paul Herman and contains a little more than 100 poems. Robert E. Howard scholar Professor Frank Coffman also has an edited version of Howard's poetry titled Robert E. Howard: Selected Poems. This volume is a whopping 567 pages, has just over 700 poems, and three indexes to easily help you hunt down specific poems (by titled and first lines). But the unique thing about this volume over any other is the fact that Frank Coffman provides commentary, chapter introductions, and Coffman happens to be a first rate scholar of Howard's poetry. One of the main reasons I would certainly recommend Howard's poetry in any given research within REH studies is because they are so rich with history, humor, info about Texas, the historical West, love, self-reflective ideas/thoughts, heroism, and even horror and humor. Howard wrote sonnets, ballads, free verse, rhyme scheme, along with other various forms. So his poetry is a must for any serious researcher.

(More to Come . . .)