Then
in the early spring of 1403 there came to him, in an inner court of his
pleasure-palace at Brusa, where he lolled guzzling the forbidden wine and
watching the antics of naked dancing girls, certain of his emirs, bringing a
tall Frank whose grim scarred visage was darkened by the suns of far deserts.
—Robert E. Howard, “Lord
of Samarcand” in Oriental Stories (Spring
1932)
 |
| Farnsworth Wright |
In 1930, Weird
Tales editor Farnsworth Wright struck out with a new pulp: Oriental Stories, tales of historical
adventure and Orientalist fancy, set in an “Exotic East” of the imagination—of
the sort popularized by the likes of Harold Lamb and Sax Rohmer, shades of
Yellow Peril and the Crusades. This was a risky venture in many respects, due
to the state of the Popular Fiction Company’s finances and the Great
Depression, and the decision was made for Weird
Tales and Oriental Stories to
shift to quarterly publication for a period—to the dismay of many Weird Tales regulars. (For more on
which, see Scott Connor’s “Weird Tales
and the Great Depression” in The Robert
E. Howard Reader). Wright had considerable talent to draw on, including Weird Tales regulars and enthusiasts of
the Orient like Otis Adelbert Kline and E. Hoffmann Price.
Robert E. Howard landed a novelette in the
first issue, “The Voice of El-Lil” (Nov 1930), and followed it with others:
“The Blood of Belshazzar” (Autumn 1931), “Red Blades of Black Cathay” (with
Tevis Clyde Smith, Feb-Mar 1931), “Hawks of Outremer” (Apr-May-Jun 1931), and
“The Sowers of the Thunder” (Winter 1932). The latter was a story of Baibars
the Panther, written at Wright’s own request, inspired by the editor’s reading
of Harold Lamb’s The Crusades: The Flame
of Islam (1931). Wright followed up the purchase of “The Sowers of Thunder”
by “hinting Tamerlane as a fit subject for an Oriental Story story.” (CL2.196,
222) Howard obliged by writing “Lord of Samarcand” which appeared in the Spring
1932 issue.
