tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-72812039813105627362024-03-18T23:30:18.753-05:00On An Underwood No. 5Robert E. Howard & Pulp StudiesTodd B. Vickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09458339485515819645noreply@blogger.comBlogger197125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7281203981310562736.post-17176920905125326422021-06-16T09:49:00.003-05:002021-06-16T09:51:06.380-05:00The Washington Post Mentions Renegades and Rogues<p> Michael Dirda, acclaimed book reviewer and critic for the Washington Post recently wrote an article about Robert E. Howard. The title of Dirda's article is <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/robert-e-howard-became-famous-for-creating-conan-but-that-warrior-was-only-the-beginning/2021/06/09/a6e8eb1a-c7f1-11eb-a11b-6c6191ccd599_story.html" style="font-style: italic;" target="_blank">Robert E. Howard became famous for creating Conan. But that warrior was only the beginning.</a><i> </i><br /><br />Dirda writes: <br /><br /></p><div class="teaser-content" style="font-family: Franklin, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><section><div data-qa="drop-cap-letter"><p class="font--body font-copy gray-darkest ma-0 pb-md" data-el="text" style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 1.25rem; line-height: 1.75; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 24px;">As a reviewer, I’ve always regarded myself as a generalist, lurching from a novel this week to a biography or work of history the next, occasionally interspersing an essay or rediscovering a neglected classic. But every so often, I feel the need to be much more — what’s the right word? — serious, intense, almost scholarly. I yearn to immerse myself in the works of a single author, to spend time reading as much of his or her writing as possible. During these literary sprees, I even undertake actual research, scribble notes, talk to experts.</p></div></section></div><div class="remainder-content" style="font-family: Franklin, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><section><div></div><div><div data-qa="drop-cap-letter"><p class="font--body font-copy gray-darkest ma-0 pb-md" data-el="text" style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 1.25rem; line-height: 1.75; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 24px;">Last month, I realized that this column would coincide with Robert E. Howard Remembrance Days in Cross Plains, Tex. There, the writer’s fans gather each June 11 — the day the 30-year-old shot himself in 1936 — for talks, barbecue and camaraderie. This year’s guest of honor is Roy Thomas, who wrote the 1970s Marvel comics which — along with Lancer paperbacks featuring brutal and sensual cover art by Frank Frazetta — created a new audience for Howard’s best-known character, the greatest warrior of the ancient Hyborian age. <br />[. . . ]<br />_________________<br /><br />You can continue reading the article at the link I provided above. It's nice to see Robert E. Howard getting national attention.</p></div></div></section></div>Todd B. Vickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09458339485515819645noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7281203981310562736.post-28250091511266774952021-03-07T11:17:00.008-06:002021-03-09T07:44:46.321-06:00The Literary Influences of Robert E. Howard: Pirates and Buccaneers by Todd B. Vick<p>Pirates and Buccaneers, their exploits, adventures, and duels, make a strong mark on many of Robert E. Howard’s stories. The sources for these inspirations are somewhat broad. There are nonfiction books about pirates, their history, their adventures and deaths that Howard read early in his life. Then there is the fiction Howard read that impacted his own stories with swashbuckling duels, high adventure, treasure hunts, and the like. All these pirate histories and fictional works played a pivotal role in Howard’s creation of various characters, especially his more famous Puritan duelist, Solomon Kane, and several Kane stories. </p><p>At an early age Howard discovered and became fascinated with pirates and buccaneers. This is evident in T. A. Burns’ essay for the 10 July 1936 issue of <i>The Cross Plains Review</i> where she explained that a young Howard (likely age 12 or 13 at the time) proudly introduced himself and his dog to her (during one of her frequent outings to read and enjoy the outdoors) and declared that someday he was going to write pirate stories. There are any number of resources for Howard’s interest in pirates. The most difficult to determine are the books he read prior to the age of 15. But by age 15 and beyond, Howard mentions several works that fueled his passion for pirate tales. Howard wrote a brief essay for his English Class No. 3 at Cross Plains High school dated February 7, 1922. A few weeks prior he had turned 16. In this essay, Howard mentions that when he was younger, he read a Captain Kidd biography and various fictions about the pirate. These works enamored him. Here are Howard’s exact words: “Reading his [Captain Kidd’s] biography and fiction based on his eventful life, caused me to determine at an early age, to lead a life of piracy on the high seas. Tales of Blackbeard and Morgan clinched my resolve.” [Howard, <i>Back to School</i>, 271] </p><p>Sometime later, Howard set aside his puerile notion of leading a pirate’s life after reading a different book. According to this same high school essay, the author’s name and the title of this other book escaped Howard’s memory. But he explained that this author “wrote an authentic book about piracy and by some means I secured it [. . .] and devoured it with avidity but was shocked to find that it contained a harrowing account of the deaths of Kidd, Blackbeard, and other noted gentlemen.” [<i>Ibid.</i>] Howard described, in his typical hyperbolic fashion and vivid detail, that the book contained a gruesome image of a known pirate, shortly after his execution, with a spike driven through his head. The contents and that illustration from the book caused Howard to reconsider his vocational desire of piracy on the high seas. It did not, however, deter his passion for pirate tales. In fact, it probably fueled it. </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxS5OYg9p50Jck8DKfcZAq9VjIoD9zWGi64dTONIQJfdkEqMDadfbtkhGww7Gef7JxD1GhA0J6JkYgSxNthSM-Ew-vNXOrI07di1bzGKxgA5hVC56drTw6xfsdgH8bH4Tz2UQHvi8t8ed_/s665/Treasure+Island.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="665" data-original-width="644" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxS5OYg9p50Jck8DKfcZAq9VjIoD9zWGi64dTONIQJfdkEqMDadfbtkhGww7Gef7JxD1GhA0J6JkYgSxNthSM-Ew-vNXOrI07di1bzGKxgA5hVC56drTw6xfsdgH8bH4Tz2UQHvi8t8ed_/w194-h200/Treasure+Island.JPG" width="194" /></a></div>Howard began reading pirate tales from around the age of eight or earlier. One of the earliest works Howard experienced in the literary crafting of high adventure is Robert Louis Stevenson’s <i>Treasure Island</i>. Apropos to Howard’s interest or maybe even the cause, Stevenson’s tale is about buccaneers and buried treasure. What more could an impressionable boy desire than to be a buccaneer who uses a map to find buried treasure? Stevenson’s story ignited young imaginations around the globe. And that motif lasted for more than a century, first in fiction and later in films. Howard jumped on this creative bandwagon in multiple ways. In fact, his poem, “Flint’s Passing” is an homage to Stevenson’s story and characters, Captain Flint and Long John Silver. But what about that authentic account mentioned in Howard’s essay, that spurned his notion of living the pirate’s life? <p></p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRHEWVqiJeOjoMl1JaWqalOKGgKGflpEIQc-vDn1Qu6910DNqOiIxOFxrKhsTz9nW6rVlfDpWigYI2GxabvpaH2EQJlCz3n_kuVVVuobeN9MGGzYow63v2B5PRFXvwhiyW9QZllmoIvNYF/s767/Howard+Pyle%2527s+Buccaneer+illo+from+Captain+William+Kidd+and+Others+of+the+Buccaneers.JPG" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Pyle's Buccaneer illustration from Captain William Kidd and Others of the Buccaneers" border="0" data-original-height="767" data-original-width="533" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRHEWVqiJeOjoMl1JaWqalOKGgKGflpEIQc-vDn1Qu6910DNqOiIxOFxrKhsTz9nW6rVlfDpWigYI2GxabvpaH2EQJlCz3n_kuVVVuobeN9MGGzYow63v2B5PRFXvwhiyW9QZllmoIvNYF/w139-h200/Howard+Pyle%2527s+Buccaneer+illo+from+Captain+William+Kidd+and+Others+of+the+Buccaneers.JPG" width="139" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Illustration by Pyle</td></tr></tbody></table>It is anyone’s guess what book Howard is referring to. I recently spent several weeks online searching for pirate books that might have matched Howard’s description, but also discovered books he may have encountered that further ignited his passion. I found several. The first is written by Howard Pyle, the popular late nineteenth century pirates and buccaneers aficionado (and illustrator), titled <i>The Book of Pirates</i> (1895). While perusing the contents of Pyle’s book, I realized it was not a strong contender for the book Howard mentioned in his essay. None of the images matched the one Howard mentioned (a pike through the head of a pirate). However, Pyle’s book has a chapter titled, <i>Jack Ballister's Fortunes</i>. The name Jack Ballinster is strikingly close to Howard's character Jack Hollinster from “The Blue Flame of Vengeance.” All things considered; Pyle’s book could be one of the biographical accounts Howard indicated he read that influenced his notion of being a pirate on the high seas. And it is possible that Pyle’s book influenced Howard’s Solomon Kane fiction, especially based on Pyle’s illustrations. <p></p><p>I came across another book that I thought might be a contender: <i>Captain William Kidd And Others of the Pirates Or Buccaneers who Ravaged the Seas, the Islands, and the Continents of America Two Hundred Years Ago</i> by John Stevens Cabot Abbott (1876). The contents of Abbott’s book is close to what Howard described in his essay, “it contained a harrowing account of the deaths of Kidd, Blackbeard, and other noted gentlemen.” [<i>Ibid.</i>] Some of the illustrations where gruesome for their day, and this image was toward the back of the book but did not depict exactly what Howard described.<br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB12N9v7fnh61vwCn1u5sp_jPRWtfbplXQtk_W-5c_r44pLBAxvGIHr6NSRSzzcevI5r1LFNXaxtOzyy9gluePBbVOy6mZJOoTOIVWkJNrE-ufaLFXpYO4zJdOwj60YvumHNE7tN8_iiGX/s684/Illo+from+Abbott%2527s+Captain+William+Kidd.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="486" data-original-width="684" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB12N9v7fnh61vwCn1u5sp_jPRWtfbplXQtk_W-5c_r44pLBAxvGIHr6NSRSzzcevI5r1LFNXaxtOzyy9gluePBbVOy6mZJOoTOIVWkJNrE-ufaLFXpYO4zJdOwj60YvumHNE7tN8_iiGX/s320/Illo+from+Abbott%2527s+Captain+William+Kidd.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Illustration from Abbott's <i>Captain William Kidd</i></td></tr></tbody></table><p>While I was poring over pirate books, I began corresponding with Howard scholar Rusty Burke. I told Burke about my research for this article and he immediately turned a light switch on. He said he had done something similar some time ago and the best book he could find that fit Howard’s description was <i>The Pirates Own Book: Authentic Narratives of the Most Celebrated Sea Robbers</i> by Charles Ellms (1837). The contents matched and in the middle of the book is an image of the head of Benavides stuck on a pole (below).<br /></p><span><a name='more'></a></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggREO2rlUErhHDSObBBS9f7x_wU4tVJequDt03LDcW5AEs1X_m7aYT9tIM32EvzY9ylco_h6UAcMK5ARuSmqm28i8cReSbXLYW1ZCkJLdRDYcDCCHZlMMLmVLG5bP0r48W8Y0t1Av1bskk/s816/The+head+of+Benavides+stuck+on+a+pole.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="816" data-original-width="451" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggREO2rlUErhHDSObBBS9f7x_wU4tVJequDt03LDcW5AEs1X_m7aYT9tIM32EvzY9ylco_h6UAcMK5ARuSmqm28i8cReSbXLYW1ZCkJLdRDYcDCCHZlMMLmVLG5bP0r48W8Y0t1Av1bskk/s320/The+head+of+Benavides+stuck+on+a+pole.JPG" /></a></div><br /><p>Towards the end of the book is an image of Blackbeard's head hung from a ship's bowsprit (below) It is possible that Howard mixed these two images in his memory. <i>Viola!</i> Here is the most likely candidate, at least to date.<br /><br /><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs6xhdUp912EJ4e1fDUsXbGYf3kQBQ4xDdEbr_yi5uIuuu-7GOBjzNThyMbvZYnRnQnxy8-5058F0U6Ra_m-JzFjnjnUX-NxrrVXXtNiSqvGYvXQb4kqwhvv_lbYb8oGUYkfpWqnuu4Iyz/s482/Blackbeard.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="479" data-original-width="482" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs6xhdUp912EJ4e1fDUsXbGYf3kQBQ4xDdEbr_yi5uIuuu-7GOBjzNThyMbvZYnRnQnxy8-5058F0U6Ra_m-JzFjnjnUX-NxrrVXXtNiSqvGYvXQb4kqwhvv_lbYb8oGUYkfpWqnuu4Iyz/w200-h199/Blackbeard.JPG" width="200" /></a></div><br /><p>It’s possible that all of the above-mentioned pirate accounts played a role in influencing Howard’s passion for pirates and buccaneers. As popular as Howard Pyle’s works were back then, it is highly likely that Howard encountered it at some point. It should be noted that Pyle also illustrated several popular articles and books for James Branch Cabell in various publishing venues. Cabell was a writer Howard read and enjoyed. Aside from the above-mentioned works of nonfiction, several works of fiction also played an integral part in influencing Howard’s own fiction with pirates, buccaneers, and buried (or mapped) treasure motifs. Robert Louis Stevenson’s <i>Treasure Island</i> has already been mentioned; a story he read at an early age. In addition to Stevenson, Howard read an assortment of fiction writers who wrote pirate tales, or stories about sea fairing commanders like Phillips Russell’s book, <i>John Paul Jones: Man of Action</i> (1927). One of the earlier and most influential of these writers is Jeffery Farnol. In a letter to H. P. Lovecraft, Howard indicates that Farnol is one of his favorite authors. [Howard, <i>The Collected Letters of Robert E. Howard</i>, 2.517]</p><p>Jeffery Farnol wrote approximately 46 books in his lifetime. Most were period romance stories (not “romance” in the sense that we know romance books today), a few were swashbuckling pirate tales. Howard had at least five Jeffery Farnol books in his library, though he may have had more, and he probably read other Farnol books from the Brownwood Carnegie Public Library. The Farnol books that were donated to the Robert E. Howard Memorial Collection at Howard Payne College (from Howard's own personal collection) included these titles: <i>Black Bartlemy’s Treasure</i> (1920 edition), <i>The Broad Highway</i> (1911 edition), <i>Guyfford of Weare</i> (1928 edition), <i>Martin Conisby’s Vengeance</i> (1921 edition), and <i>Sir John Dering</i> (1923 edition). <i>Black Bartlemy’s Treasure</i> and <i>Martin Conisby’s Vengeance</i> were part of Farnol’s <i>Treasure and Vengeance Series</i>; both are swashbuckling pirate tales. <i>Sir John Dering</i> tells of couriers in sword duels with one another for women and royal rights. Howard’s style and his early use of Elizabethan language (‘tis, oft, doth, hath, etc.) may stem from Farnol’s works; though it was likely a combination of multiple authors (including William Shakespeare). Howard’s early narrative style and language (especially used in his early Solomon Kane tales) are similar to Farnol’s.<br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB3yRa5XlxRjfEFeseOBaUPV9FzCot45_BUGU9h8dNrJQC5P6GP5kXI5WG1u-o43ytGqs0urqU2qxaAXJcsC-NdRvAGsQCc7r_IZ6Qhm-4eQNZIZrm99jkAcDUduP4PZujefF7l2eWjcab/s2048/Farnol+Books.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB3yRa5XlxRjfEFeseOBaUPV9FzCot45_BUGU9h8dNrJQC5P6GP5kXI5WG1u-o43ytGqs0urqU2qxaAXJcsC-NdRvAGsQCc7r_IZ6Qhm-4eQNZIZrm99jkAcDUduP4PZujefF7l2eWjcab/s320/Farnol+Books.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The five Jeffery Farnol books Howard owned<br />(Picture from my own personal book collection)</td></tr></tbody></table><p>Like Robert Louis Stevenson, Jeffery Farnol was an early influence in Howard’s formative years. Farnol’s book, <i>The Broad Highway</i> (originally published in 1910 when Howard was four) was a huge bestseller in the U.S. in 1911 (see Alice Payne Hackett’s, <i>70 Years of Best Sellers: 1895-1965</i>), especially with female readers, and Mrs. Howard may have read that book to her son at an early age. Given Farnol’s popularity in the U.S., it’s not much of a wild-haired guess that his mother (Hester) is where young Howard discovered Farnol. And he did have the book in his collection, which may have originally belonged to her. Farnol’s swashbuckling (pirate) stories— <i>Black Bartlemy’s Treasure</i> and <i>Martin Conisby's Vengeance</i>, were published around the time Howard discovered <i>Adventure</i> magazine. Each of these stories’ protagonists exacted vengeance on someone who wronged them, and while doing so, saved a lady in dire straits. Sound familiar? Though this was a common theme (with the common damsel in distress motif), the way it is presented in Farnol’s stories impacted Howard enough to transport the theme (and motif), along with the piracy aspect, into his own Solomon Kane (and other) stories. The fact that these two stories were published when Howard was 14 to 15 years of age, along with his discovery of <i>Adventure</i> magazine (at age 15, in 1921), and his passion for pirate tales (from other nonfiction and fiction works) seems to play quite nicely into the creation of his first popular character, Solomon Kane.</p><p><i>Adventure</i> magazine was a game changer for Robert E. Howard. He discovered several authors who exponentially influenced his writing style, ideas, and provided him with enough fodder to create some his more memorable characters. He discovered the magazine early, in his mid-teen years (age 15). [see Lovecraft and Howard, <i>A Means to Freedom</i>, 2:606] At that time, <i>Adventure</i> was in the process of publishing the works of Rafael Sabatini. A few of the issues had cover art of pirates and buccaneers, several attached to Sabatini’s stories. <br /></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicdoyK-S3sHeEUWZI6AdZZ9i-xsmZLQA7qdXWKhiG1eO7PXWyc-rUvPVzG-WQ6eJEhYfNSLg1D0RhMZx7COvzj3kmyhE8tC_l5gh0qmoELPbmZYdU_-3w_mN9BW3xZtI81VrNXV-LZ9qa1/s914/June+18+1921+Adventure+cover.JPG" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="914" data-original-width="621" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicdoyK-S3sHeEUWZI6AdZZ9i-xsmZLQA7qdXWKhiG1eO7PXWyc-rUvPVzG-WQ6eJEhYfNSLg1D0RhMZx7COvzj3kmyhE8tC_l5gh0qmoELPbmZYdU_-3w_mN9BW3xZtI81VrNXV-LZ9qa1/w136-h200/June+18+1921+Adventure+cover.JPG" width="136" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Adventure</i><br />18 June 1921</td></tr></tbody></table>And while other writers who appeared in the pages of <i>Adventure</i> played a larger role in influencing the budding author, Sabatini is one who is often overlooked. Part of the reason for this is that Howard’s personal library only had one Sabatini book, <i>The Snare</i>. He may have owned other books by Sabatini, and when they were donated to Howard Payne College, over the years, those books may have been stolen from that collection. Sabatini was an immensely popular author in early twentieth-century popular fiction. It is also possible, and highly likely that Howard barrowed Sabatini’s books from the public library. Interestingly, Sabatini is not listed in any of Howard’s extant letters as one of his favorite authors. In fact, Sabatini is not mentioned at all. Regardless, there is no doubt that Howard read Sabatini’s stories in <i>Adventure</i>. Sabatini’s influence, however, seems to be short lived in Howard’s early life and works; his teen years to his early to mid-20s. And, along with Jeffery Farnol, Sabatini seems to have played a role in influencing Howard in the development of his character, Solomon Kane.<p></p><p>In Sabatini’s stories from <i>Adventure</i>, and several of his books, the idea of retributive justice looms large; much larger than it does in Farnol’s stories. And Sabatini’s prose pace is nearly equal to Howard’s, especially in those scenes where characters are in the middle of swashbuckling rapier duels. There is an uncanny similarity between the duels of Sabatini's stories and those of Howard’s early Kane stories. Moreover, in Sabatini’s novel, <i>The Strolling Saint</i> (originally published in 1913 and then reprinted in 1925), there is an underlying theme of religious hypocrisy blended nicely with acts of pious justice and revenge. Keep in mind, and Howard was fully aware of this, Puritans were a stringent sect of Protestants who made it their goal to purify the Christian faith by purging it of any trace of Catholicism. In that, the Puritans were dissenters, pious Christian rebels. But by being so, in far too many ways, restricted the freedoms of their own adherents, especially after they arrived in North America. Many Puritan theologians also emphasized the wrath and justice of God on the depraved and wayward behavior of various individuals, and too often believed that as servants of God, they were obligated to exact punishment. These ideas are underlying themes in <i>The Strolling Saint</i> (though not from a Puritan’s perspective). If Howard did in fact read that story, it is a mere stone’s throw away from this same theme in his Kane stories. This is especially true as Kane, who presents himself as a servant of God, and feels obligated as God's servant, to exact retributive justice on depraved and wayward individuals. Going back to the one Sabatini book that remained in Howard’s collection, <i>The Snare,</i> this book was given to Howard by his close friend from Brownwood, Tevis Clyde Smith. There is an interesting, and telling, inscription from Smith to Howard on the front/back of the first blank page in the book. Here is a portion of that inscription:</p><p>“Say, Bob, you remember that little passage about “wrecking the jail” and the shocking language which also included – shocking to a Puritan – by the way you and I have never had any love for Puritans – [. . .]”</p><p>The book was a Christmas gift from Smith to Howard in 1925. The Puritan reference in this inscription is interesting. The information from the inscription also indicates that Smith and Howard discussed Sabatini’s work (or works) and did so during a time when Howard was creating and developing his character, Solomon Kane. <i>The Snare</i> is a tale of love, dishonor, betrayal, and friendship. It is considered by most Sabatini fans and aficionados to be one of his worst novels, disjointed at various places and lacking a strong plot. It has less of Sabatini’s swashbuckling duels compared to his other stories, though there is some.</p><p>Howard made it easy for us to know which Sabatini stories he read from <i>Adventure</i>. In his papers (from his trunk) was a typing practice page that documented stories from <i>Adventure</i> that he owned (or at least had access to). These <i>Adventure</i> issues contain eight Sabatini stories beginning with the June 1, 1921 issue of the magazine and Sabatini’s story, “The Rebels Convict.” The other Sabatini stories in these <i>Adventure</i> issues include: “Don Diego Valdez” (15 June 1921), “The Prize” (1 July 1921), “Maracaybo” (15 July 1921), “Blood Money” (1 August 1921), “Santa Maria” (1 September 1921), “The Hostage” (10 October 1921), and “Captain Blood’s Dilemma” (20 October 1921). Several of these stories eventually found their way (as chapters) into Sabatini’s novel <i>Captain Blood</i> (1922). They also contain a nice blending of history and swashbuckling duels. Duels and swordplay that would impact Howard in his own storytelling.<br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkwAgMSdZm3UVjGi7Wh_zSmc-16azzT-tfOK0o0WiTYSMcSQeSdcqbjqWXEwpp3PkiUf_hDLvuyOYY14wVp2XAKs4Qi9t0bDsO8Kl-J3RpbYH4WaTqbyn68c64Nhq50jF9-B1_6AWYvtRo/s861/Sabatini_Adventure_7_01_1921.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="454" data-original-width="861" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkwAgMSdZm3UVjGi7Wh_zSmc-16azzT-tfOK0o0WiTYSMcSQeSdcqbjqWXEwpp3PkiUf_hDLvuyOYY14wVp2XAKs4Qi9t0bDsO8Kl-J3RpbYH4WaTqbyn68c64Nhq50jF9-B1_6AWYvtRo/s320/Sabatini_Adventure_7_01_1921.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From<i> Adventure</i> 3 July 1921</td></tr></tbody></table><p>Regardless of all these influences and his childhood desire to write pirate stories, Howard was not successful at writing a pirate story per se. He was, however, successful at incorporating pirate themes and motifs in several of his stories. Between Farnol’s prose, which Howard emulated to a certain degree, and Sabatini’s descriptive duels and action, along with his early passion for pirates through the nonfiction works mentioned above, we see themes, motifs, and bits of content in several Solomon Kane tales, and these same things in several of his subsequent characters and their stories, which include "Queen of the Black Coast", "The Black Stranger," various poems, along with several early pieces of unfinished fiction.<br />_______________________________<br /><br /><b>Works Consulted:</b><br /><br /></p><p>Abbott, John S. C. <i>Captain William Kidd And Others of the Pirates Or Buccaneers Who Ravaged the Seas, the Islands, and the Continents of America Two Hundred Years Ago.</i> New York, Dodd, Mead, and Company, 1876.</p><p>Ellms, Charles. <i>The Pirates Own Book.</i> Boston, Samuel N. Dickenson, 1837.</p><p>Hackett, Alice Payne. <i>70 Years of Best Sellers: 1895-1965.</i> New York, R. R. Bowker Company, 1967.</p><p>Howard, Robert E. <i>Back to School.</i> Plano, Texas, The Robert E. Howard Foundation Press, 2012.</p><p>Howard, Robert E. <i>The Collected Letters of Robert E. Howard, Volume Two: 1930-1932.</i> Plano, Texas, The Robert E. Howard Foundation Press, 2007.</p><p>Lovecraft H. P. and Robert E. Howard. <i>A Means to Freedom: The Letters of H.P. Lovecraft & Robert E. Howard, 1933-1936.</i> New York, Hippocampus Press, 2017.</p><p>Pyle, Howard. <i>The Book of Pirates.</i> New York, Harper & Brothers, 1895.</p>Todd B. Vickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09458339485515819645noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7281203981310562736.post-59984627124568942662021-01-22T07:45:00.000-06:002021-01-22T07:45:04.061-06:00Happy 115th Birthday, Robert E. Howard!<p style="text-align: center;">Happy birthday, Robert E. Howard!</p><p style="text-align: center;">Born January 22nd, 1906 in Peaster, Texas.</p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Happy 115th Birthday, Robert E. Howard<br /><br /></span></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0KM8-dCSS7xKRP-QiCIcj1pY2CAow6ya064XWtmGy1QeOg6camMF2L3w1OPH5DbjzBdZ6qRZyN3a6SlwxnOs31KiF6J8TAu7wbo2S3vFcmcxWYgvPnExYz1zeRp4pm1nWZK9E5xs5Ck3Z/s687/REH_Fort_McKavett.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="454" data-original-width="687" height="264" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0KM8-dCSS7xKRP-QiCIcj1pY2CAow6ya064XWtmGy1QeOg6camMF2L3w1OPH5DbjzBdZ6qRZyN3a6SlwxnOs31KiF6J8TAu7wbo2S3vFcmcxWYgvPnExYz1zeRp4pm1nWZK9E5xs5Ck3Z/w400-h264/REH_Fort_McKavett.PNG" width="400" /></a><br /><br /><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">The general tradition in Howard fandom is to read a story by Howard and while doing so, imbibe your favorite beverage!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">So . . . Here's to the first of all dog brothers . . . Cheers!</div></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p>Todd B. Vickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09458339485515819645noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7281203981310562736.post-55068673877381367242021-01-17T12:23:00.001-06:002021-01-17T12:46:53.529-06:00Renegades and Rogues: The Life and Legacy of Robert E. Howard by Todd B. Vick<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW2o976Prnw3dTlsJojofMvg6iqc9F9H4ZmOe7bwIP6uv0L8RH0ylpGSm_MZZwqcRBWV2Syd-xtfOVXIKPg6y3kvrRXaw52KeGLiejALuVQ-AE7IIDowRJBbH-ANKwhIAomwcuqxWx7gmB/s512/REH+with+patch.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="363" data-original-width="512" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW2o976Prnw3dTlsJojofMvg6iqc9F9H4ZmOe7bwIP6uv0L8RH0ylpGSm_MZZwqcRBWV2Syd-xtfOVXIKPg6y3kvrRXaw52KeGLiejALuVQ-AE7IIDowRJBbH-ANKwhIAomwcuqxWx7gmB/s320/REH+with+patch.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />This Tuesday (January 19) , my book, <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Renegades-Rogues-Legacy-Robert-Howard/dp/1477321950/ref=sr_1_1?crid=T0B7MSDB45MT&dchild=1&keywords=todd+b+vick&qid=1610826606&sprefix=Todd+B+Vick%2Caps%2C171&sr=8-1" target="_blank">Renegades and Rogues: The Life and Legacy of Robert E. Howard </a> </i>hits the shelves in bookshops around the world. It is the first comprehensive biography of Robert E. Howard published by a major academic press (The University of Texas Press). It is a cumulation of three years of research and writing devoted solely to the book, 18 years of scholarly research and writing (articles and blog posts), and 40 years of being a reader and fan of Howard's work. <p></p><p>There are several reasons I wanted to write this biography: <br /><br />This book is something I had been planning on doing since 2002, but back then I was ill-prepared to take on the task. There was so much more research I needed to do, so much more reading, uncovering of Howard's family and life. So, I dug my heels in and pushed forward and devoted my time to the task of researching and writing a biography. </p><p><br />To date there has not been a biography about Robert E. Howard from an academic press. Moreover, there is a need for a biography that benefits both fans and scholars. And when I say scholars, I mean the use of available reliable sources, with notes that students and writers can use in their own research. I thought it was also important to take advantage of the advancements of the publication of Howard's collected letters, the letters of other pulp writers about Howard, and other materials. All this was paramount to me writing <i>Renegades and Rogues</i>. I also felt that an objective examination of Howard's life, from birth to death, with an emphasis on the external factors that not only affected his life but his work was needed. I knew from the start I was writing about real people, with real flaws, real struggles, and issues that everyone could relate to. My research and sources had to be present to give the work the academic foundation it needed. <br /><br /><i>Renegades and Rogues</i> establishes a solid foundation for current and future fans and scholars providing them with an objective, unexaggerated, unromanticized examination of Robert E. Howard's life and work. It includes the vast amount of new data that has been uncovered over the last ten years presented on blogs with limited readership. I also spent months poring over interviews of the people from Cross Plains and other local areas who knew the Howards. What were they saying? How consistent were their claims and memories? I then incorporated this information in the book. These are intriguing firsthand interviews that help illustrate the larger picture about the Howard family and in particular Robert E. Howard's life.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu1XuZifGikUFfnCFE0ZNSFb5muJHyqGQ-j-Kqej2yC7LFD2ZLNxSZMyfsF3-jx-xGUmL6bwh2xP6yX07hcY4iViDLOb8TJmf0DJlFYeyqypz_oSWi6ZnDRjz1JY7XCVdvtendcJ1OVUyK/s687/REH_Fort_McKavett.PNG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="454" data-original-width="687" height="132" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu1XuZifGikUFfnCFE0ZNSFb5muJHyqGQ-j-Kqej2yC7LFD2ZLNxSZMyfsF3-jx-xGUmL6bwh2xP6yX07hcY4iViDLOb8TJmf0DJlFYeyqypz_oSWi6ZnDRjz1JY7XCVdvtendcJ1OVUyK/w200-h132/REH_Fort_McKavett.PNG" width="200" /></a></div>Some of the questions I asked myself while I was researching this biography include, what events did Howard experience that caused him to write what he wrote? How did his formative years play a role in his stories? What influences did his parents have on him? What made Howard tick? What got him out of bed in the mornings? How did the publishing markets move him to write? What directions? Why did he write what he wrote? And, if he had lived, what direction was Robert E. Howard headed with his writing? All these questions and others I attempted to answer.<br /><br />The first three chapters of the monograph focus on the Howards' familial history, their travels from Robert's birth up to their move to Cross Plains. I apply this information to not only Howard's personality, but to his work as well. I then discuss Howard's education, his friends and their influences on him, and how his correspondence with friends and other writers moved him and his works in various directions. I examine Howard's 12-year publishing career (with an emphasis on his historical period), the market in which Howard published and how that market directed his stories. I take a look into his relationships, especially with Novalyne Price (Ellis), but I did this from her perspective and how she explained her encounters with Robert and his parents. I examine a select amount of Howard's stories and provide cursory exposition and commentary about those stories. I also examine Howard's most famous character, Conan the Cimmerian, and the publishing career of that character in great detail. I do all this and much more.<p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3kn93xwvxumcCDrFB1RHzWyPyHZKzVf23LU8-FbRacqq7sH0nf4Wse5pNIWwhKFgwfICN0JaRtK4_b2UR-rVZS5Y9yDUXdryF4KjseMAR_lmWG55ng4zEBj1CLHWKzml-dvun-13ILfRI/s400/Renegades+and+Rogues+cover.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="270" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3kn93xwvxumcCDrFB1RHzWyPyHZKzVf23LU8-FbRacqq7sH0nf4Wse5pNIWwhKFgwfICN0JaRtK4_b2UR-rVZS5Y9yDUXdryF4KjseMAR_lmWG55ng4zEBj1CLHWKzml-dvun-13ILfRI/s320/Renegades+and+Rogues+cover.jpg" /></a></div><br />Because the book is published through an academic press, my initial manuscript draft was read by peer readers who basically took the manuscript, examined it, broke it down, and then sent it back to me for revision and improvement. This process vastly improved the direction and content of the book. Once the initial review was corrected, it went back out to several other peers who did the same. The first two peers who examined the manuscript were S.T. Joshi and Karen Kohoutek. Both provided me with wonderful feedback. The second group remained anonymous, and we discussed what was necessary to change during this final phase of editing. Due to this process the book's research, sources, and content were scrutinized and improved upon. I'll not lie here, this process was somewhat painful and arduous, but in the end it vastly improved the monograph. <br /><br />All the above should give you a good idea as to the whys and wherefores of <i>Renegades and Rogues</i>. I hope that those who know only a little about Howard (but perhaps know more about his characters, especially Conan) will find this book helpful in understanding the man behind all these wonderful stories. I also hope that the seasoned Howard fan or scholar will benefit from these pages as well. That was my goal in writing this book. I sincerely hope you enjoy it and that you learn more about Robert E. Howard and his work.<br /><br />Here is a book trailer for the biography:<p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="324" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/IKwrlkZfYVQ" width="544" youtube-src-id="IKwrlkZfYVQ"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Early reviews of the book:<br /><br /></div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">“Todd B. Vick surveys the entire panoply of Robert E. Howard's times and life. Early twentieth-century Texas, so important to a young writer who almost never crossed its borders except in the mighty treads of his imagination, becomes a player in the action fully as much as Conan or Solomon Kane—and <i>Renegades and Rogues</i> is a truly outstanding biography because of it. The book is a terrific read that will grab you like the brawny iron arms of Khosatral Khel and not let you go.”</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">—Roy Thomas, former editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics and author of the <i>Conan the Barbarian</i> comic<br /><br /><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">“Renegades and Rogues is a compelling read. Vick does an outstanding job in portraying Howard’s family life, in describing the major incidents of his literary career, and especially in providing insightful details into the remarkable resurgence of Howard’s work in various media after his death.”</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">—S. T. Joshi, author of<i> I Am Providence: The Life and Times of H. P. Lovecraft<br /><br /><br /></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><i><br /></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><b>The book can be ordered at your local independent bookstore or online at:</b><br /><br /><a href="https://utpress.utexas.edu/books/vick-renegades-and-rogues" target="_blank">The University of Texas Press</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Renegades-Rogues-Legacy-Robert-Howard/dp/1477321950/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1YQHU16DIRN6U&dchild=1&keywords=todd+b+vick&qid=1610907655&sprefix=todd+B+Vick%2Caps%2C163&sr=8-1" target="_blank">Amazon</a><br /><br /><a href="https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/renegades-and-rogues-todd-b-vick/1136652719?ean=9781477321959" target="_blank">Barnes and Noble</a></div><br /></div><p><br /></p>Todd B. Vickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09458339485515819645noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7281203981310562736.post-71804290487287350662020-10-04T11:16:00.000-05:002020-10-04T11:16:35.048-05:00The Cthulhu Stories of Robert E. Howard (2020, WordFire press), a review by Bobby Derie<p><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Cthulhu Stories of Robert E. Howard</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (2020, WordFire press). Edited by M. Scott Lee, foreword by Paul Di Filippo. ISBN 978-68057-098-4.</span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-478dca4f-7fff-f132-8ef9-d3284a9d7448"><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">By 2020, nearly every word that Robert E. Howard wrote has been published in some form or another. Collections of his fiction began with </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Skull-Face and Others </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(1946, Arkham House), and since then there have been dozens of books published, focused on any number of themes. Any new collection of Robert E. Howard’s fiction must be evaluated against all the others that have come before. Readers want to know if there are any stories or poems they haven’t read, if there is any art or essays that add to the overall value.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is all the more important now that many of Howard’s original pulp stories have entered the public domain in various parts of the world. Many of his stories are available for free online on Wikisource or Project Gutenberg or the Internet Archive. It has never been easier for any random individual to grab the text of the stories off the internet, compile them in a word processor, and have it published in a professional-looking ebook, paperback, or hardback.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3M-S_sYR2jn5C3YrSoUWp_oSZ7C74T-OMKh56cpQrXMgbM58YWAq8aNvmDyk94SpOe0PvTrntQaaif622BkwsuOyHK3GkTWMNlrL7Bl1EpXPqtYx786Nz2VME34ooqswFhqcuZ_wKp4n9/s499/REH+Cthulhu+Stories.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="340" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3M-S_sYR2jn5C3YrSoUWp_oSZ7C74T-OMKh56cpQrXMgbM58YWAq8aNvmDyk94SpOe0PvTrntQaaif622BkwsuOyHK3GkTWMNlrL7Bl1EpXPqtYx786Nz2VME34ooqswFhqcuZ_wKp4n9/s320/REH+Cthulhu+Stories.jpg" /></a></div><br />Which is essentially what we have with </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Cthulhu Stories of Robert E. Howard</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. This book collects Howard’s stories “The Shadow Kingdom,” “Skull-Face,” “The Children of the Night,” “The Gods of Bal-Sagoth,” “The Black Stone,” “People of the Dark,” “Worms of the Earth,” “The Thing on the Roof,” “The Haunter of the Ring,” “The Fire of Asshurbanipal,” “Dig Me No Grave,” and the round-robin story “The Challenge From Beyond” written by C. L. Moore, A. Merritt, H. P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, and Frank Belknap Long. All of which works are claimed to be in the public domain.</span><p></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Is this every Cthulhu Mythos story Robert E. Howard wrote? Strictly speaking, no. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Cthulhu: The Mythos and Kindred Horrors </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(1987, Baen) edited by David Drake includes the 1932 poem “Arkham,” along with various other Howard stories that aren’t directly related to the Mythos. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Nameless Cults: The Cthulhu Mythos Fiction of Robert E. Howard </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(2001, Chaosium) includes “The Little People,” “The Hoofed Thing,” and fragments completed and incomplete such as “The Abbey,” “The Black Bear Bites,” “The House in the Oaks” (completed by August Derleth), “The Door to the World” (completed by Joseph S. Pulver, Sr.), and “Black Eons” (completed by Robert M. Price).</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Diligent Howard scholars might add the original draft of “The Phoenix on the Sword” with its references to “Cthulhu, Tsathogua, Yog-Sothoth, and the Nameless Old Ones,” or the various drafts of “Isle of the Eons” (which Price based his story on). Yet these bits and pieces are not in the public domain, not even available online. A case could also be made for excerpts from some of Lovecraft and Howard’s letters discussing the Mythos; so too, any number of other Howard stories related to Solomon Kane, Bran Mak Morn, Kull, Turlogh Dubh O’Brien and Conan the Cimmerian could have been included, since the settings intersect in various ways. H. P. Lovecraft mentioned “Bran” in “The Whisperer in Darkness” and Howard “the Bran cult” in “The Children of the Night,” so it wouldn’t be much of a stretch to include “The Dark Man,” for example.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So, </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Cthulhu Stories of Robert E. Howard</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> does not have absolutely everything. It also has no art, aside from a lovely stark black-and-white cover, “Spawn of the stars” by Sofyan Syarief. What else should a Howard Mythos collection have to give value for the money spent on it? What else should a reader expect?</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ideally, some sort of explanatory notes or essays on the story. Something that puts the texts in the wider context of the Mythos at large. David Drake did a bit of this in his 1987 introduction; Robert M. Price went one better and had notes on each individual story. The moderately obscure collection </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mythos: The Myths and Tales of H. P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(2011, Numen Books) includes a literary essay by M. Alan Kazlev. I myself wrote “From Cimmeria to R’lyeh: Robert E. Howard and H. P. Lovecraft,” an essay on the relationship of Lovecraft and Howard, and how it influenced their Mythos fiction which was included in the German collection </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Der Mythos des Cthulhu </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(2020, Festa). </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(2008, Del Rey), which contains many of these stories and others, includes an introduction by noted Howard Scholar Rusty Burke and notes on the original texts.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Wordfire Press turned to Paul Di Filippo, noted writer of science fiction and weird fiction. There’s no doubt that Di Filippo generally knows his stuff, and he’s not above pointing out that “Skull-Face” isn’t technically a Mythos story, and that “The Challenge From Beyond” only is because Lovecraft decided to actually inject some plot. However, despite his considerable talent, he’s not really a Mythos scholar. So he misses a lot of the fine details, content to summarize some stories and quote from others.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The result is fine for beginners to Howard or Lovecraft who don’t know any better, who are tired of staring at a screen and just want a nice hardback or paperback collection of Howard’s Mythos stories (most of them, anyway) curated for them. It is a well-made book, and the stories are pure Robert E. Howard...but it’s also nothing that anyone else could do, grabbing texts off the internet. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Which is going to be an issue going forward; we have already seen this kind of thing happening with H. P. Lovecraft’s fiction, the market flooded with innumerable editions. The peril of the public domain is </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">caveat emptor</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: the same stories are there to be re-packaged and sold by multiple different publishers, then it is up to the reading public to decide what they want—and what they will pay for. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Cthulhu Stories of Robert E. Howard </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">may not represent the nadir of laziness in this regard, but it is definitely a tidemarker: how much work actually went into this book? What is the point of it, beyond making money? What does it give you that you can’t already get better or cheaper somewhere else?</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The answer to those questions is not much, not much, and an introduction by Paul Di Filippo, respectively. If that is worth your hard-earned money, have at it.</span></p><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>Todd B. Vickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09458339485515819645noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7281203981310562736.post-92051710694586631052020-08-16T10:47:00.001-05:002020-08-16T10:54:28.562-05:00What’s in a Name?: Discovering the Origin of Solomon Kane’s Name by Todd B. Vick<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span face="" style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">In early 1935, Robert E.
Howard sent a letter to his friend Alvin Earl Perry. In this letter, Howard
briefly delineates the origins of his popular characters: El Borak (Francis
Xavier Gordon), Bran Mak Morn, Solomon Kane, King Kull, and Conan. For some of
these characters, this is the only place Robert explains their creative origin.
With such scant information given, we are left to piece together other aspects
of their origin from other various sources and historical data. In the case of
Solomon Kane, here Howard explains that he created the character when he was in
high school, at around age sixteen. Nothing further is provided except this
explanation: “[Solomon Kane] was probably the result of an admiration for a
certain type of cold, steely nerved duelist that existed in the sixteenth century.”
(<i>CL</i> 3.287) </span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6oHKKzdcpdfs8_2VLXexGDXPULBXO_68SkpIfVy9xQfYr4RhB5RQDNoIYvF897owxv4nlGF2s-HyB3AlieKPEf4ovdED0wYu-d5g4Fgl4N54DoNfq5bYexhzOxDomryQxlEUYHAKCiyPF/s640/SOLOME_KANE_Ken+Kelly.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="467" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6oHKKzdcpdfs8_2VLXexGDXPULBXO_68SkpIfVy9xQfYr4RhB5RQDNoIYvF897owxv4nlGF2s-HyB3AlieKPEf4ovdED0wYu-d5g4Fgl4N54DoNfq5bYexhzOxDomryQxlEUYHAKCiyPF/w234-h320/SOLOME_KANE_Ken+Kelly.jpg" title="Solomon Kane (Ken Kelly artist)" width="234" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Solomon Kane (Ken Kelly)</td></tr></tbody></table><span face="" style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p></o:p></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span face="" style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Howard’s
admiration for a cold, steely nerved duelist stems from a number of likely
sources, most of which come from his reading of Rafael Sabatini, coupled with Rudyard Kipling’s, Arthur
O. Friel’s, and H. Rider Haggard’s swashbuckling sword duels and jungle
settings. A more detailed look into Howard’s influences and the creation of
Solomon Kane are in the upcoming biography </span><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Renegades-Rogues-Legacy-Robert-Howard/dp/1477321950/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=todd+b+vick&qid=1597414625&sr=8-1" target="_blank"><i><span face="" style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Renegades
and Rogues</span></i></a><span face="" style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">. For now, let's leave those details alone
in this article, since those elements present Howard’s use of those writers, the development of the character, and
their stories to create the settings, sword-play, and various plot devices used
for his Solomon Kane stories. But what about the name, Solomon Kane?
Where did Howard come up with his character’s name? What details do we know
about that?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span face="" style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">There
has been some previous speculation about the dour Puritan’s name. Howard never
explains in any letter or essay how he conjured Solomon Kane's name. At a
previous Howard Days, it was suggested that the name was a combination of two
Biblical people: King Solomon, the wise and wealthy, if flawed, Hebrew King, and
Cain, an aggressive but pious murderer. Howard did enjoy several Old Testament
stories, though he was partial to Saul, the first Hebrew King (<i>CL</i>
2.208), and the story of Samson. With regard to King Solomon, Howard told
Lovecraft in a June 1931 letter that he lost interest in Biblical history after
King David, calling Solomon “a typical Oriental ruler.” (<i>CL</i> 2.208) While
there is likely more to unpack in the notion that Solomon Kane is a combination
of King Solomon and Cain (changed to Kane), the idea is novel, but ultimately seems
to be a bit of a stretch. It’s possible that Howard may have used Dr. Solomon
Chambers’ first name. Dr. Chambers was a friend of the Howards who practiced medicine with Dr. Howard in and around the Cross Cut and Burkett, Texas area. But
there is still too much uncertainty as to why or where Howard derived the ‘Kane’
portion.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span face="" style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Recently,
Kurt B. Shoemaker’s zine, “The Happiest Blue Elephant,” was published in <i>PEAPS</i> (The
Pulp Era Amateur Press Society). In Shoemaker's zine there is a section titled “‘Sir Piegan Passes’ by W.C. Tuttle.” (<i>PEAPS</i>
#31, 15 June 2020) In this section Shoemaker discusses Tuttle’s
story (“Sir Piegan Passes”) that was published in <i>Adventure</i> 10 August
1923. Shoemaker summarizes Tuttle’s story and explains how it
was used for several silent films during Tuttle’s early writing career.
Shoemaker also details each film based on “Sir Piegan Passes.” Whether Shoemaker realized
it or not, he dropped a small bomb on the history and speculation about where
Howard may have derived the name Solomon Kane. “Solomon Kane’s heart would, if
properly broken up, have made a number of perfectly good arrowheads. His
conscience, if properly cut to certain lengths, would have made any number of
perfectly good corkscrews. Outside of that, Solomon Kane was normal.” (<i>Adventure</i>
XLII.1.121) </span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihTp1D6VMWCuzJUvHAfLoai_XsdXojH-3dQfzWdn9-TLgiwqVDj0MiNulwHtlEU451LcVBf8F0vAye98W7SrdllQLIKa7-YCTE3MA4e6c87ClerhSx2apa0vpUz-SkaCRuJL-PsbfessNn/s1032/Sir+Piegan+Passes+image.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="509" data-original-width="1032" height="198" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihTp1D6VMWCuzJUvHAfLoai_XsdXojH-3dQfzWdn9-TLgiwqVDj0MiNulwHtlEU451LcVBf8F0vAye98W7SrdllQLIKa7-YCTE3MA4e6c87ClerhSx2apa0vpUz-SkaCRuJL-PsbfessNn/w400-h198/Sir+Piegan+Passes+image.JPG" title="Sir Piegan Passes (Adventure)" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Adventure</i> (10 August 1923)<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><o:p></o:p><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span face="" style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">When
Tuttle’s story was published in the August 10, 1923 edition of <i>Adventure</i>
magazine, Howard had been reading the magazine for approximately two years.
Tuttle’s story published when Howard was just seventeen, near the age he
declared (about sixteen) when he claims he created Solomon Kane. Tuttle’s
character, Solomon Kane, is used pretty much throughout the story. What are we
to make of this? Is it a mere coincidence that Tuttle and Howard concocted the
same name for a character? It seems possible, but unlikely. Howard certainly
read W. C. Tuttle’s works; his personal library contained almost a dozen <i>Adventure</i>
magazines with Tuttle’s stories in them. Is it possible that Howard created his
character around age sixteen but had not yet established a name for him? Then
along comes Tuttle's "Sir Piegan Passes" providing Howard with a name. It is quite
conceivable that Howard did, in fact, read Tuttle’s story from this issue of
<i>Adventure</i>. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span face="" style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Howard
loved <i>Adventure</i>, he declared on several occasions it was one of his
favorite magazines. Moreover, several authors who immensely influenced Howard’s
own work were regulars in <i>Adventure</i>: Talbot Mundy, Harold Lamb, and
Rafael Sabatini. Howard would have gone out of his way to read these author’s
stories. And, two of them (</span><span face="" style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 16px;">Talbot Mundy and Harold Lamb)</span><span face="" style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"> appeared in the August 10 1923 </span><i style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">Adventure</i><span face="" style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"> along
with Tuttle’s story. Add this fact to the fact
that reading material was so scarce in and around Cross Plains, Texas, that
Howard was prone to read everything he could get his hands on, and read it thoroughly. The implication
here is that if Howard owned this magazine, he would have read it
from cover to cover.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span face="" style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">There
are vast differences between Tuttle’s and Howard’s Kanes. Tuttle’s story, “Sir
Piegan Passes” is a western. Tuttle’s Solomon Kane is an assayer in Micaville,
who is less than reputable and does his best to swindle people by
misrepresenting their gold and mineral weight and values. This is a far cry
from the dour Puritan we all know, who exacts his own retributive justice on
those who take advantage of the helpless. Frankly, I think the name Solomon
Kane is better suited to Howard’s character than Tuttle’s. But perhaps this is
merely my own bias toward Howard’s Solomon Kane stories. Howard was certainly no
stranger to lifting ideas from authors he enjoyed reading. He also re-used
names of characters for stories (e.g. the various Steve Costigans, Conans: the
Reaver and the Cimmerian, etc.). It was common for Howard to use foreign words in
his own stories that he found in <i>Adventure </i>magazines. So, lifting the name
of a character used in a story from <i>Adventure</i> should not surprise us.
That being the case, the likeliest scenario is that Howard read Tuttle’s story,
liked the name Solomon Kane, possibly wrote it down and earmarked it for his
own character. <br /><br /></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO5tPr-Ne6XN-Bi3NermEVmd8HcSK1A5IVOEjLDSF8jUFGItvbwCWbazJGInfIVSirdUog-ou00ycDnM1QEDLlRTwoQ97lrEr98FnWwqqz8akI32WYgoI3uOr_ZooSkq9EwUhgfemna4Z2/s576/Adventure+10+August+1923.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="400" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO5tPr-Ne6XN-Bi3NermEVmd8HcSK1A5IVOEjLDSF8jUFGItvbwCWbazJGInfIVSirdUog-ou00ycDnM1QEDLlRTwoQ97lrEr98FnWwqqz8akI32WYgoI3uOr_ZooSkq9EwUhgfemna4Z2/w222-h320/Adventure+10+August+1923.jpg" width="222" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Adventure</i> cover (10 Aug. 1923)<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><span face="" style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p></o:p></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span face="" style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">It
would not be a surprise if Howard refrained from using the name Solomon Kane to
see if Tuttle would ever include his own Solomon Kane in another story. While this is
speculation, it is interesting that Howard’s Kane would not see
print until five years, to the month, after “Sir Piegan Passes” was published
in <i>Adventure</i>. And as far as can be determined, Tuttle never
used his Solomon Kane character in any of his subsequent stories. If this is
the case, it raises a question. With the popularity of <i>Weird Tales</i>, how
is it that Tuttle never said anything about Howard’s Solomon Kane? It is
possible that Tuttle never read <i>Weird Tales</i> magazine? Perhaps he did not
care for those kinds of stories. If this is the case, he may have never known
that Howard used the name Solomon Kane. It is also possible that Tuttle knew
that Howard used the name and he simply did not care. Whatever the
case, Tuttle never kicked up any dirt over it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span face="" style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Howard
was a thoughtful writer, not prone to taking words, names, and other ideas from
the sources he read and giving them no thought as to how he could use them.
With Howard’s Solomon Kane, there is a certain amount of development that went
into the character. It took half a decade before the character was created,
named, developed and then placed on the printed (and published) page. His
thoughts and ideas had time to percolate. He had time to add and change things
when he needed, and he likely continued to develop these ideas even after
Solomon Kane came alive for the reading public. But as for <i>where</i> Howard discovered
the name Solomon Kane, Tuttle’s story certainly plays an integral if not <i>the</i>
pivotal part.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span face="" style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">While
it is not definitive proof, it is certainly highly credible that Howard got the
name for his character from W. C. Tuttle’s story, casting a shadow over the
idea that Howard combined two biblical people into one name, or that he may
have borrowed Dr. Solomon Chamber’s first name. With this new information, all
the quintessential elements for the nomenclature of Howard’s Solomon Kane come
together almost to a fault. Perhaps we can now put to rest further speculation
about the origin of Solomon Kane’s name, until further information is discovered.<br />______________________<br /><b>Works Cited</b><br />CL <i>Collected Letters</i><br />PEAPS<i> </i></span><span face="" style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 16px;">The Pulp Era Amateur Press Society<br />ADV <i>Adventure<br /><br />[Special thanks to Bobby Derie for his input on this article]</i></span></p>Todd B. Vickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09458339485515819645noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7281203981310562736.post-90372823170015474802020-07-04T10:33:00.000-05:002020-07-05T10:43:35.623-05:00Barlow Letters Related To Robert E. Howard by Bobby Derie<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Bookman Old Style";">In
</span><span lang="EN"><a href="http://onanunderwood5.blogspot.com/2017/12/the-two-bobs-robert-e-howard-and-robert.html"><span style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Bookman Old Style";">The Two Bobs: Robert E. Howard and
Robert H. Barlow</span></a></span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Bookman Old Style";">
it was mentioned that after the death of their mutual friend H. P. Lovecraft,
Barlow became the literary executor for Lovecraft’s estate—which included the
disposition of the file of letters from Robert E. Howard. Several letters
pertinent to Barlow’s possession of these letters and efforts to get them to
Dr. Isaac M. Howard, the late Robert E. Howard’s father, have been made
available online by Brown University as part of their digitization of the
Lovecraft materials, and make interesting reading concerning the posthumous
afterlives of Barlow and his two literary correspondents.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN"><a href="https://repository.library.brown.edu/studio/item/bdr:417301/"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Bookman Old Style";">R.
H. Barlow to Elizabeth Spicer, 2 Apr 1937</span></b></a></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Bookman Old Style";"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableGrid" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184;">
<tbody><tr style="mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;">
<td style="border: 1pt solid; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 467.5pt;" valign="top" width="623">
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Bookman Old Style";">Dear
Miss Spicer,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Bookman Old Style";">I
pulled out rather abruptly & had no opportunity for farewells, but
perhaps I’m forgiven.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Bookman Old Style";">In
about two weeks I’ll send you some Sterling items &c from KC. Thanks for
putting up with all the bother I made while in Providence.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Bookman Old Style";">Here
is something for your files—revised, it will appear in in HAWK ON THE WIND—a
book—in six or eight months.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Bookman Old Style";">I
beseech & implore you to keep the various correspondences—except R. E.
Howard—under your hat & out of the catalogue. Their authors would boil me
over a slow fire!—The sacrifices one makes in the interests of Literature.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Bookman Old Style";">Regards
to Prof. Damon. I’m going to write him when I settle.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Bookman Old Style";">Yrs
ever,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Bookman Old Style";">R.
H. Barlow<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Bookman Old Style";"><br />After
Lovecraft’s death, Robert H. Barlow was made his literary executor; the young
writer took steps to archive Lovecraft’s correspondence and other papers at the
John Hay Library, where Elizabeth Spicer worked. The “Sterling” items were
presumably related to Kenneth Sterling, one of Lovecraft’s later correspondents
and his collaborator on “In the Walls of Eryx.” Barlow wrote this on his way
back to Kansas City (“KC”) where he was attending the Art Institute. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Hawk on the Wind” Poems </i>(1938, Ritten
House) was a collection of August Derleth’s poetry, containing “Elegy: In
Providence the Spring…” regarding Lovecraft.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Bookman Old Style";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Barlow’s desire to keep the
correspondence from Lovecraft’s correspondents “out of the catalogue” was
probably in an effort to protect their privacy; Howard was at this point
already deceased, so this was less of an issue.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Bookman Old Style";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>By May of 1937, Dr. Isaac M. Howard
had determined that Barlow was the executor of Lovecraft’s estate and was in
possession of the letters from his son Robert E. Howard that Lovecraft had
saved, mentioned above; Dr. Howard wrote to Barlow and to Lovecraft’s surviving
aunt asking for their return, but did not receive a prompt reply, probably
because Barlow’s situation was unsettled—the young writer would soon head out
for California (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">IMH </i>164, 166).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Bookman Old Style";">As Howard letters were actually at
the John Hay Library while Barlow was in Kansas City, this might explain some
of the delay and confusion, but Barlow did eventually respond to Dr. Howard’s
request.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN"><a href="https://repository.library.brown.edu/studio/item/bdr:417302/"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Bookman Old Style";">R.
H. Barlow to S. Foster Damon, 23 Apr 1937</span></b></a></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Bookman Old Style";"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Bookman Old Style";">Dear
Professor Damon,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Bookman Old Style";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Bookman Old Style";">I
am sending you a miscellany; too varied to itemise. Among the contents of the
express package shipped today are a couple of pieces of sheet-music; a
typescript of THE SPHINX, unpublished play by the author of THE HERMAPHRODITE
& OTHER POEMS; nearly all the Ms. I have from the pen of Clark Ashton
Smith, author of THE STAR-TREADER, EBONY & CRYSTAL, ODES & SONNETS,
&c; a special issue of The Modern School on Whitman (1919) &c &c.
Of these, I think I’d like to keep nominal ownership of the Whitman <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">photograph</i>, though in all probability
it’s yours till Doomsday.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Bookman Old Style";">Did
you receive the Sterling letter sent in my last? The envelope turned up, and
is enclosed in the Tomato Surprise. I have a few other things which I’m not
quite ready to send, but will hand over later.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Bookman Old Style";">I
would appreciate it if you would send me the cardboard box containing <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">letters from R. E. Howard</i>, which I
deposited. His father wants them to go to Howard Payne College. If you will
send them Express collect, I shall be in your debt.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Bookman Old Style";">Later,
Mrs. Gamwell may want someone to look over Howard’s books for possible
library donations, I believe there is not much for the Harris Collection, but
other departments might find material.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Bookman Old Style";">Yours
ever,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Bookman Old Style";">Barlow</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Bookman Old Style";">Am
still typing dementedly on the “copy” for the Lovecraft collection to be
published!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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</tr>
</tbody></table><p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Bookman Old Style";"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0ulip2vK8Qoty54j6u-_GcTDY2diwtVNruSQ4AJImBW60zNuJ_H_4NeEgA4YS-O1bLktXtwOP-3JRDIzoNQBhkgovNs3ggVq9sYSsxlDAmZqRjdvJ-udxL6tlH-GnYpj1KvGojMbxmREo/s800/Barlow+Letter_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="616" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0ulip2vK8Qoty54j6u-_GcTDY2diwtVNruSQ4AJImBW60zNuJ_H_4NeEgA4YS-O1bLktXtwOP-3JRDIzoNQBhkgovNs3ggVq9sYSsxlDAmZqRjdvJ-udxL6tlH-GnYpj1KvGojMbxmREo/s320/Barlow+Letter_1.jpg" /></a></b></div><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span><br /></span></b><p></p><a name='more'></a><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Bookman Old Style";">S.
Foster Damon was a Curator of the Harris Collection in the John Hay Library.
The author of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Hermaphrodite &
Other Poems </i>(1936) was Samuel Loveman, a close friend and correspondent of
H. P. Lovecraft.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Bookman Old Style";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>From the date of this letter, we can
infer that Dr. Howard first requested the Robert E. Howard letters around
mid-April, and Barlow wrote to the John Hay attempting to secure them post
haste (literally). The delay of about two months suggests that something went
wrong…which is the case, as we see in the following letter.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN"><a href="https://repository.library.brown.edu/studio/item/bdr:417303/"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Bookman Old Style";">R.
H. Barlow to S. Foster Damon, 23 May [1937]</span></b></a></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Bookman Old Style";"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Bookman Old Style";">Dear
Professor Damon;</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Bookman Old Style";">I
am sorry to hear that you have been laid up, and trust that the strenuous
matter of removal is finished by now.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Bookman Old Style";">Would
you please have the box of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Robert E.
Howard letters </i>sent to me by Express, C.O.D.? I want to place them in a
memorial collection founded by his father. And (if it does <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not </i>entail much searching) the sonnet
by Frank Belknap Long, Jr; a typescript probably filed among your broadsides.
This is of less consequence, but I have a notion of using it in a miscellany
which I am getting out.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Bookman Old Style";">Glad
the last shipment was of use…I will send you a good many Lovecraft
manuscripts and papers as soon as I can get them copied for printing.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Bookman Old Style";">Yours
ever,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Bookman Old Style";">Barlow<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
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</tbody></table>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Bookman Old Style";"><br />It
is evident that the reason for the long delay was an illness on the part of
Prof. Damon. The timing of this letter is after that of Dr. Howard to Otis
Adelbert Kline, Howard’s agent (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">IMH </i>164),
but before Dr. Howard’s second letter to Barlow (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">IMH </i>166), suggesting that Barlow was aware of the delay. There is
an annotation on the letter “Mailed June 11, 1937”—signed by Elizabeth Spicer,
suggesting the letters were mailed then. Her intercession is apparent from the
next letter.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Bookman Old Style";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The Long typescript that Barlow
mentions is probably “The Beautiful City,” which appeared in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Leaves </i>#1<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>(Summer 1937). The references to getting Lovecraft manuscripts
“copied for printing” shows Barlow’s early ambitions to publish his work, this
being before Arkham House was established (and, indeed, before Barlow would
travel to California and with Groo Beck would found the aptly-named Futile
Press).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Bookman Old Style";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN"><a href="https://repository.library.brown.edu/studio/item/bdr:417304/"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Bookman Old Style";">R.
H. Barlow to S. Foster Damon, 13 Jun [1937]</span></b></a></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Bookman Old Style";"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Bookman Old Style";">Dear
Professor Damon,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Bookman Old Style";">Would
you please have someone ship me the box of ROBERT E. HOWARD LETTERS which I
left on deposit? It is imperative I have them at once.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Bookman Old Style";">You
can send them Express, C.O.D.,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Bookman Old Style";">Many
thanks,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Bookman Old Style";">Yrs
ever,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Bookman Old Style";">Barlow<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
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</tbody></table>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Bookman Old Style";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEBUM_xQvWwJMlHcEEEBnockMDSrHfOdsxzbL-71WgS9Ki_q3pRc8gxLvnqb-cD4zUg-kSzJnCaOtrQd_jl6f-oiTzASe-K3EYhJg_2HSHu-kzTwdpWMcOoPqMvNXwAOEI1fdlkST7dn1r/s800/Barlow+Letter_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="621" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEBUM_xQvWwJMlHcEEEBnockMDSrHfOdsxzbL-71WgS9Ki_q3pRc8gxLvnqb-cD4zUg-kSzJnCaOtrQd_jl6f-oiTzASe-K3EYhJg_2HSHu-kzTwdpWMcOoPqMvNXwAOEI1fdlkST7dn1r/s320/Barlow+Letter_2.jpg" /></a></div><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Bookman Old Style";">There
is an annotation on the letter by a later hand that “These had been sent by
Miss Spicer before you came back.” indicating that the reason for delay had
been Damon’s continued illness and/or recovery. It is also notable that this
letter is sent not from Kansas City, but Leavenworth; the change of address
would likely have added to Dr. Howard’s difficulties in reaching Barlow and
exacerbated the whole issue of retrieving the letters, which had stretched on
for weeks.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Bookman Old Style";">What
this group of letters details, basically, is that Barlow was not being
unresponsive to Dr. Howard’s requests, and it provides a little more detail as
to the whereabouts and disposition of the Howard letters at this early period
between the death of Lovecraft and their receipt by Dr. Howard.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN"><a href="https://repository.library.brown.edu/studio/item/bdr:418913/"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Bookman Old Style";">E.
Hoffmann Price to R. H. Barlow, 4 Sep 1937</span></b></a></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Bookman Old Style";"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Bookman Old Style";">Dear
RHB:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Bookman Old Style";">Memphis
trip still vague. Meeting renowned EHP is a bit of a snare; nothing
impressive about the encounter. Why, even my own wife says I’m a loud mothed
egoist who bores people silly in an hour.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Bookman Old Style";">Just
got a card from Robt. S. Carr, Aug. 5<sup>th</sup>, Dusket, Gurdjistan
(Caucasia); very much alive, el hamdu lilahi!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Bookman Old Style";">I
am heading south Monday, 30<sup>th</sup>, business + visiting; hope see H.
Kuttner, & will if he is in. Will keep it QT re. HSW. FW usually turned
down a man’s best works.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Bookman Old Style";">Thanks
for assistance offered in Howard case but thus far, no more word from Dr. H.
Don’t know if MSS you cite are extant. Kline, as far as I know, never was in
Cross Plains; in NY, rather, as you say. You better keep in touch with Dr. H.
about “Leaves”. I think the poor old fellow is crushed & heart broken but
doing his best to face it with real fighting spirit; if only his son had had
an equally stout heart! Perhaps his plan of publication was more an
expression of grief than anything else; perhaps his health is failing; maybe
he realizes the snares of privately printing poems & fiction. I don’t know.
I’ve just not heard from him for some time. He used to write me very often
because he knew I thought a lot of REH, and knew I was a sympathetic audience
when he spoke of his late son; knew also that I myself like to reminisce
about REH. Maybe time is healing his wounds; I hope so. I still plan on next
trip to go to Cross Plains as a sort of “ritual” game or exercise, or tribute
or something. Follow classic precedent; set a 90 mile an hour pace from El
Paso to Cross Plains, a la funeral games of Homeric times. Insane conceit,
yes: but REH would like that, having always marvelled at terrific road
speeds.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Bookman Old Style";">Regards
[EHP]<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Bookman Old Style";"><br />Robert
S. Carr was a friend of Price and a fellow <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Weird
Tales </i>writer who made a trip to the USSR in the mid-late 1930s, including Kurdistan
(“Gurdistan” above); “el hamdu lilahi” is Price’s phonetic rendering of “Al-</span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: cambria, serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-font-family: "Bookman Old Style";">ḥ</span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Bookman Old Style";">amdu
lil-lāh” (“Praise be to God” in Arabic). Henry Kuttner, another <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Weird Tales </i>writer and correspondent of
Lovecraft, was at the time visiting Los Angeles. “HSW” likely refers to Rev.
Henry St. Clair Whitehead, another <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Weird
Tales </i>writer who had been a correspondent of Lovecraft, Howard, and Price
who had died in 1932; Barlow would publish a revised version of his story “The
Tree-Man” in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Leaves </i>#2 (Winter 1938),
and planned to publish a collection of his letters, which never quite came to
fruition. “FW” in this context likely refers to Farnsworth Wright, editor of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Weird Tales</i>.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Bookman Old Style";">Leaves </span></i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Bookman Old Style";">#1<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">
</i>(Summer 1937) included “With a Set of Rattlesnake Rattles” by Robert E. Howard,
which had been included in Howard’s letters to Lovecraft. It appears that
Barlow was inquiring after Dr. Howard’s plan stated in his 15 May 1937 to write
a book of his son’s life (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">IMH </i>166);
it is unclear what manuscripts that Barlow as asking after, although possibly
he was fishing for more material regarding <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Leaves</i>.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Bookman Old Style";">It
is curious that the card was addressed to Barlow in Florida, but he was very
unsettled during this period, and may have returned to the area for a time
before making his way out to California, where he would eventually meet E.
Hoffmann Price.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Bookman Old Style";">Works Cited<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Bookman Old Style";">IMH<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Collected
Letters of Dr. Isaac M. Howard</span></i></p>Todd B. Vickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09458339485515819645noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7281203981310562736.post-58674260918523619412020-05-31T12:58:00.000-05:002020-05-31T12:58:01.775-05:00Unspeakable! The Secret History of Nameless Cults by Bobby Derie<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif;">As
the John Hay Library at Brown University continues to digitize its collection,
and place them online, interesting little tidbits are revealed for the more
detail-minded among us.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif;">Farnsworth Wright to H. P. Lovecraft,
2 Apr 1934</span></b><span style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableGrid" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none;">
<tbody><tr>
<td style="border: 1pt solid; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 467.5pt;" valign="top" width="623">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif;">Dear Mr. Lovecraft:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif;">I just received your letter of last Friday, and hasten
to answer it.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif;">I shall try to look up further authority regarding
"unaussprechlich" and "unnennbar". If I can find good
authority for "unaussprechlich" I am inclined to let that stand;
for "unaussprechlich" has a sinsiter aspect that is lacking in
"unnennbar".</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif;">Just got a letter from the Sultan of the Southern
Kingdom, Lord Malik (accompanying a manuscript). He and Juggernaut are about
to leave the land of the Osages and trek westward. He hopes to see Conan the
Reaver as he passes through Texas; and the Lord of Xothique and Averoigne
after he leaves San Francisco.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif;">I envy him his trip.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif;">I read in yesterday's paper about the death in
Baltimore of Edward Lucas White last Friday. He was 68 years of age, and died
from illuminating gas--the journal does not say whether it was suicide or
accident. He was a strange genius. My wife, who used to be a librarian before
I married her, considered his "El Supremo" one of the very best
adventure stories she ever read. I have not read it.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif;">We are keeping the windows of our office closed today,
so as to retain what cool air there is; that is, cool compared with the air
outside. The morning paper says that cooling off has begun in the far
Northwest; so I suppose the coolness will reach here within a few days. But
until then...</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif;">I am glad that Barlow likes the pictures. I myself
admired Doolin's illustration for THE STRANGE HIGH HOUSE. The trouble with
Doolin is that although he occasionally turned out something good like this,
yet the most of his illustrations lacked imagination. The lack of imagination
is why we have let Wilcox go.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif;">I was surprized, when I read the page-proofs of THROUGH
THE GATES OF THE SILVER KEY, to find no mention whatever of <i>Unaussprechlichen Kulten</i>. So there was
nothing to change. In the typescript of Mrs. Heald's story, OUT OF THE EONS, <i>Unaussprechlichen Kulten</i> is mentioned
twice; and I have changed this in the typescript (following Howard's example)
to Nameless Cults.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif;">Thanks again for your promptness. Regards to both you
and Barlow.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif;">Cordially yours,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif;">Wright.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpk18RzuAWMrnlovHBlg3WP-M9tXvBlzpJmRcVC7RmyKw7mpRgQrRDkU-LwAXuZIda2ZY1p1QcoKHXPo0Bt27I8Dcnij_HyobTwIf_faLxkJZMToywYq4UESzPQYMr8qDh7aC2Bigp4-TM/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="374" data-original-width="620" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpk18RzuAWMrnlovHBlg3WP-M9tXvBlzpJmRcVC7RmyKw7mpRgQrRDkU-LwAXuZIda2ZY1p1QcoKHXPo0Bt27I8Dcnij_HyobTwIf_faLxkJZMToywYq4UESzPQYMr8qDh7aC2Bigp4-TM/s320/Farnsworth_Wright.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Farnsworth Wright</td></tr></tbody></table><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif;">[[
Link to letter, with images: </span><a href="about:blank">https://repository.library.brown.edu/studio/item/bdr:423149/</a>
]]<span style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif;">The
beginning and the end of the letter concern Robert E. Howard’s creation <i>Unaussprechlichen Kulten</i>, which first
appeared in “The Black Stone” (<i>Weird
Tales </i>Nov 1931) and “The Thing on the Roof” (<i>WT </i>Feb 1932) under the English title <i>Nameless Cults</i>. The book, inspired by works such as Lovecraft’s <i>Necronomicon, </i>was well-received by HPL:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif;">And
this reminds me to remark how much I enjoyed “The Thing on the Roof”. That
carried the sort of kick I enjoy! Before long I mean to quote Justin Geoffrey
and von Juntz’s “Black Book” in some story of my own.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif;">—H.
P. Lovecraft to Robert E. Howard, 16 Jan 1932, <i>MF </i>1.264</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif;">Neither
Lovecraft nor Howard were fluent in German, but Lovecraft felt the book should
have a German title and attempted to create one. Before he used it, however,
Lovecraft tried out the title on August Derleth, whose family retained some
German (his grandmother being Pennsylvania Dutch), which led to this exchange:</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.5in; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "bookman old style", serif; font-size: 11pt;">By the way—in case I ever
try any more tales for my own amusement, can you tell me if Ungenennte
Hedenthume is an even approximately decent German equivalent of the title
“Nameless Cults”? I want to be able to make casual allusions to von Junzt’s
Black Book in the original. I only took German a year, & that was in
1906—the present possibly ridiculous attempt at translations being a result of
blind & unintelligent groping in a meagre grammar & wholly inadequate
dictionary. I thought it best to give the word “Cult” its darkest signification—the
phrase as above being really, I suppose, “Unnamed Heathenisms”. Any light you
can shed on this matter will be of the utmost interest to an illiterate old
man. I have a remote notion of some day hinting at the reason why von Junzt’s
great-grandson lately cut his throat after discovering certain papers in his
ancestor’s long-sealed Düsseldorf attic.</span><span style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.5in; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "bookman old style", serif; font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">—H. P. Lovecraft to August
Derleth, 28 Jan 1932, </span><i style="font-size: 11pt;">ES </i><span style="font-size: 11pt;">2.446</span><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;"><br /></span></span></p><div style="font-size: 11pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></div><p></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.5in; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "bookman old style", serif; font-size: 11pt;">Thanks for the original
title of the Black Book. I feel sure that <i>Unausprechlichen Kulten </i>is the
correct version!</span><span style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.5in; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "bookman old style", serif; font-size: 11pt;">—H. P. Lovecraft to August
Derleth, 2 Feb 1932, <i>ES </i>2.448</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif;">Neither
phrase is grammatically correct German, but Lovecraft passed the title on to Robert
E. Howard.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif;">I feel honored that you should refer to Von
Junzt’s accursed document, and thanks for the German of “Nameless Cults”, which
I’ll use in referring to it. Though I’ve lived adjacent to Germans for many
years, I know nothing of the language—and neither do a lot of them.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: 0.5in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "bookman old style", serif;">—Robert E. Howard to H. P. Lovecraft, Apr 1932, <i>MF </i>1.279</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif;"></span></p>The
new title did not make an “official” appearance immediately, although Lovecraft
began to make reference to it in his letters (cf. <i>DS </i>367, <i>MF </i>1.308, etc.)
Lovecraft would first make reference to the book under its German title in “The
Horror in the Museum” (<i>WT </i>Jul 1933),
ghostwritten for Hazel Heald. Farnsworth Wright, however, was not in on the
joke, as was apparent when he wrote:<br /><span></span><p></p><a name='more'></a><p></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0.5in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; font-size: 11pt;">We frequently receive queries from our
readers wanting to know where they can get copies of the Book of Eibon, the
Necronomicon, the Black Book, and von Junzt’s Unassprechlichen Kulten. I answer
such letters personally, for it would be a shame to destroy the illusion of
reality by broadcasting in the Eyrie.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; font-size: 11pt;">—Farnsworth
Wright to Clark Ashton Smith, 29 Sep 1933, <i>DS
</i>467n2</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif;">This
caused Lovecraft in turn to write:</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.5in; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "bookman old style", serif; font-size: 11pt;">By the way—to pull a piece
of counter-pedantry, do you notice that Pharnabozus speaks of the Black Book <i>and</i>
von Junzt’s <i>Unauss. Kulten</i>? For shame, Farny! As if any schoolboy didn’t
know that “Black Book” is a colloquial name for von Junzt’s hellish tome
itself!</span><span style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.5in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "bookman old style", serif; font-size: 11pt;">—H. P. Lovecraft to Clark Ashton Smith, 22 Oct 1933, <i>DS</i> 464</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif;"></span></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgimQQQkXt6V8PDpNw2R-6MJjGdRTeXZV-x4NZUVM9fh3tnRyYwFcJ9BlphNysmoGplfGX374qK0Gi_1kUMGBrhjOa5EP3C2pbkQssMU-U74VtutfSMDACQL-SN9GR9wfEIo5fgqebi5h0A/" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="806" data-original-width="630" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgimQQQkXt6V8PDpNw2R-6MJjGdRTeXZV-x4NZUVM9fh3tnRyYwFcJ9BlphNysmoGplfGX374qK0Gi_1kUMGBrhjOa5EP3C2pbkQssMU-U74VtutfSMDACQL-SN9GR9wfEIo5fgqebi5h0A/w156-h200/H.P.+Lovecraft_Brooklyn.jpg" width="156" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lovecraft</td></tr></tbody></table>Lovecraft
made further reference to <i>Unaussprechlichen
Kulten </i>in “The Dreams in the Witch House” (<i>WT </i>Jul 1933), and other stories written during 1932-1933, though
most were only published later. The issue only came to a head in early 1934:<p></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.5in; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "bookman old style", serif; font-size: 11pt;">Price & Wright have
started quite a controversy over our version of von Junzt’s original title—<i>Unaussprechlichen
</i>Kulten. Sultan Malik claims that <i>Unnennbaren </i>(= unmentionable) has
some subtle preferability (in the way of unmistakable <i>evil</i>) over the
earlier choice. Let ‘em fight it out among themselves. Wish Two-Gun Bob had
doped out his own original & saved us the trouble!</span><span style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.5in; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "bookman old style", serif; font-size: 11pt;">—H. P. Lovecraft to August
Derleth, 29 Mar 1934, <i>ES</i> 2.628<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif;">Price
had taken courses on German while a student at West Point; the division over
the name came about because of Lovecraft and Price’s collaboration “Through the
Gates of the Silver Key” (<i>WT</i> Jul
1934), the result of a legendary meeting between Lovecraft and Price in New
Orleans in October 1932 (thanks to the quick thinking and intercession of
Robert E. Howard, <i>MF </i>1.314). This
letter would appear directly after Lovecraft’s 29 Mar letter to August Derleth,
and was followed by:</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.5in; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "bookman old style", serif; font-size: 11pt;">Odds in the Black Book name
debate return toward <i>Unaussprechlichen</i>. Satrap Pharnabazus concedes that
nothing else could be quite as malignly mouth-filling as that. It has a
sinister <i>rhythm </i>about it, compared to which Sultan Malik’s choice—<i>Unennbaren</i>—sounds
deplorably tame.</span><span style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.5in; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "bookman old style", serif; font-size: 11pt;">—H. P. Lovecraft to August
Derleth, 13 Apr 1934, <i>ES</i> 2.630<br /><br /></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.5in; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "bookman old style", serif; font-size: 11pt;">Well—the <i>unaussprechilichen—unnennbaren
</i>controversy goes merrily on! Just before receiving your letter I had a note
from Satrap Pharnabazus saying that <i>unaussprechlichen </i>was quite out—that
it meant chiefly something <i>mechanically or phonetically unpronounceable</i>—hence
I took the liberty of quoting the statements in your letter. I’ve no idea where
Wright got the material for his cocksure statement—though I believe he refers
questions of Germanic erudition to a young Austrian who works in the office.
[...] Had a joint card from Two-Gun Bob & Sultan Malik at Cross Plains,
& fancy they must have enjoyed their personal session.</span><span style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.5in; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "bookman old style", serif; font-size: 11pt;">—H. P. Lovecraft to August
Derleth, 29 Apr 1934, <i>ES</i> 2.631<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.5in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.5in; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "bookman old style", serif; font-size: 11pt;">I had the enclosed just read
when a letter from Satrap Pharnabazus arrived with the following matter
pertaining to the “unaussprechlichen” controversy. Looks as if our side were
winning! But how ironical to have aid coming from the despised Senf!</span><span style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.5in; text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-tab-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: "bookman old style", serif; font-size: 11pt;"><span> </span></span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "bookman old style", serif; font-size: 11pt;">“Senf wandered into
the office yesterday, & I asked him (without explaining why I wanted to
know) ‘What does <i>unaussprechlich</i> mean?’ ‘It means “unspeakable”’, he
said. Then I told him why I wanted to know, & he commented, ‘The fellow
that said <i>unaussprechlich </i>means “unspeakable” only in the sense of
“unpronounceable” couldn’t have known very much about German.’</span><span style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.5in; text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-tab-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: "bookman old style", serif; font-size: 11pt;"><span> </span></span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "bookman old style", serif; font-size: 11pt;">“So <i>unaussprechlich</i>
it is!</span><span style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.5in; text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-tab-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: "bookman old style", serif; font-size: 11pt;"><span> </span></span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "bookman old style", serif; font-size: 11pt;">“Senf is a little
gnome of a man, with a marked German accent (for he was a grown man before he
left Germany), & he wears a dark brown toupee which is so obviously a
toupee that it fools nobody.”</span><span style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.5in; text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-tab-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: "bookman old style", serif; font-size: 11pt;"><span> </span></span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "bookman old style", serif; font-size: 11pt;">Well—I guess Wright
will use <i>unaussprechlichen </i>after all—so much for Sultan Malik’s
synthetic West Point German!</span><span style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.5in; text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-tab-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: "bookman old style", serif; font-size: 11pt;"><span> </span></span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "bookman old style", serif; font-size: 11pt;">Incidentally, Wright
reveals the fact that he doesn’t know that The Black Book & Unaus. Kulten
are supposed to be one & the same volume. Evidently he didn’t read
Two-Gun’s <i>Black Stone </i>attentively.</span><span style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.5in; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "bookman old style", serif; font-size: 11pt;">—H. P. Lovecraft to August
Derleth, 29 Apr 1934, <i>ES </i>2.632</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif;">“Senf”
was C. C. Senf, an artist at <i>Weird Tales </i>and
a native of Germany who had immigrated to the United States; “despised” by
Lovecraft because of some of his errors in illustration..</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.5in; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "bookman old style", serif; font-size: 11pt;">Wright stubbornly refuses to
heed my plea for the retention of <i>Unaussprechlichen Kulten</i>, & plans
to flip tamely back to the “translated” form—simply <i>Nameless Cults </i>in
English! That’s one way of cutting the Gordian knot. Evidently he found that
Price’s <i>Unnennbaren </i>wouldn’t hold water. By the way—he & I were both
considerably surprised to find that the name is not used at all in the text of
the Silver Key sequel!</span><span style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.5in; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "bookman old style", serif; font-size: 11pt;">—H. P. Lovecraft to August
Derleth, 7 Jun 1934, <i>ES </i>2.642</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif;">The
whole issue was ultimately a bit moot, as Price apparently removed any
reference to von Junzt’s tome from “Through the Gates of the Silver Key.”
Lovecraft ended up summarizing the whole debate in a later letter:</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.5in; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "bookman old style", serif; font-size: 11pt;">Did I, by the way, ever tell
you about last year’s heated controversy regarding a German equivalent for
“Nameless Cults”? Robert E. Howard invented the mythical von Junzt opus, but
did not give it a German name—since he is as ignorant as I of German. I thought
it would be more convincing to have one, so passed the question to Derleth—who
responded with <i>Unaussprechlichen Kulten</i>. Not long afterward Price,
recalling his scraps of West Point German, began to question the correctness of
this phrase for the exact shade of meaning intended, & offered <i>Unnenbarren
</i>as a substitute. Wright—who prides himself on a smattering of German—became
convinced that Sultan Malik was right, & refused to use the Derleth version
…. forgetting that Sauk City was settled by Germans of great cultivation, among
whom the language was kept alive in its best form as a heritage, so that little
Augie knows what he’s talking about. These matters stood deadlocked until, one
day, the ex-illustrator Senf happened in at 840 N. Michigan to talk over old
times. He was born & educated in Germany, & obviously has the right
dope. The subject was brought up, & C. C. unhesitatingly voted for Derleth…
thus settling the matter, & atoning for all the third-rate “art” he
perpetrated in the dear dead days gone by! So it is certain that the monstrous
compilation of Herr von Junzt (with its cryptic borrowings from the Eltdown
Shards) was issued in Düsseldorf under the title <i>Unaussprechlichen Kulten!</i></span><span style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif; font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.5in; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "bookman old style", serif; font-size: 11pt;">—H. P. Lovecraft to Richard
F. Searight, 22 Dec 1934, <i>LRS</i> 40</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif;">Other
matters of interest in the letter involve “Sultan Malik” (E. Hoffmann Price),
who at the time was leaving a job at a garage in Pawhuska, Oklahoma to visit
Mexico in his “Juggernaut” (a 1928 Model A. Ford), stopping on the way at Cross
Plains to visit with Robert E. Howard. Wright here is echoing Lovecraft’s
language from his letters:</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.5in; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "bookman old style", serif; font-size: 11pt;">Juggernaut has been nobly
groomed & supplied with new parts, & stands ready to roll over the
plains to the Cimmerian stronghold of Conan the Reaver—& later to the Black
Temple of Tsathoggua in Au-Bhun.</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.5in; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "bookman old style", serif; font-size: 11pt;">—H. P. Lovecraft to R. H.
Barlow, 10 Apr 1934, <i>OFF</i> 130-131</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiImEx9z_ODdYvYV6mAyWRe5jPuAoQKoyQnzEinCsE01uFQgX010JsQZKyqAl34eJW9P7FYuR7-sMcVWmFOOWiQvm1dDetBTMvDEx3szmnt39sxE33OWfuPgVpuJgmKktx-Ulyq_n1Gr9Z1/" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="615" data-original-width="452" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiImEx9z_ODdYvYV6mAyWRe5jPuAoQKoyQnzEinCsE01uFQgX010JsQZKyqAl34eJW9P7FYuR7-sMcVWmFOOWiQvm1dDetBTMvDEx3szmnt39sxE33OWfuPgVpuJgmKktx-Ulyq_n1Gr9Z1/w147-h200/Robert+E.+Howard+profile.JPG" width="147" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">R.E. Howard</td></tr></tbody></table>The
nickname “Conan the Reaver” came from Robert E. Howard’s story “The People of
the Dark” (<i>Strange Tales of Mystery and
Terror</i>, Jun 1932); “Au-Bhun” is Auburn, California, home of Clark Ashton
Smith, author of tales set in Xothique and Averoigne, who Price would visit on
his return trip. Farnsworth Wright himself was a native of San Francisco.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif;">At
the time this letter was written, while addressed to 66 College Street,
Lovecraft was preparing to be hosted by R. H. Barlow and his family in DeLand,
Florida, where he would stay for some weeks. Young Barlow had a penchant for
original pulp art and typescripts, writing to pulpsters like Robert E. Howard
asking for pieces (cf. <i>CL </i>3.212-13,
215). One of the <i>Weird Tales </i>artists
was Joseph Doolin, who among other pieces executed the illustration for
Lovecraft’s “The Strange High House in the Mist” (<i>WT </i>Oct 1931). “Wilcox” is Jayem Wilcox, who worked briefly for <i>Weird Tales </i>and <i>Oriental Stories </i>in 1932 through 1934, his illustrations include
the interiors for Robert E. Howard’s “Worms of the Earth,” “The Phoenix on the
Sword,” “The Scarlet Citadel,” “The Tower of the Elephant,” “Black Colossus,”
“The Slithering Shadow,” “The Pool of the Black One,” and “Alleys of Darkness</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "bookman old style", serif;">”—as well as many
illustrations for Clark Ashton Smith, H. P. Lovecraft, Seabury Quinn, Henry S.
Whitehead, and others.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-family: "bookman old style", serif;">The final interesting note about this letter is the note “FW:RG”
at the bottom. Wright suffered from Parkinson’s disease, with the palsy so bad
that he found it difficult to type, and apparently later in life the <i>Weird Tales </i>offices made use of staff,
at least on temporary basis, to handle typing, opening mail, and other office
work. These workers are often unnamed, but “RG” would be the initials of the
typist.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif;">Works Cited<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif;">CL<span> </span>Collected
Letters of Robert E. Howard<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif;">DS<span> </span>Dawnward
Spire, Lonely Hill<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif;">ES<span> </span>Essential
Solitude<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif;">IMH<span> </span>Collected
Letters of Dr. Isaac M. Howard<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif;">LRS<span> </span>Letters
to Richard F. Searight<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif;">MF<span> </span>A
Means to Freedom<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "bookman old style", serif;">OFF<span> </span>O
Fortunate Floridian</span></i><o:p></o:p></p><br />Todd B. Vickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09458339485515819645noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7281203981310562736.post-89533555674121812532020-05-24T14:01:00.004-05:002020-05-25T09:21:40.688-05:00The Literary Influences of Robert E. Howard: Arthur O. Friel by Todd B. Vick<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsADYuMV5qfukjEFEVn4DV8WFERw_pK-gvhA8Z8RP501MErjB1SYKTTPYLM-5NC6FKRN6WHIFzvJ-282JXYz7vcxa3wxIUK0SzrvKOsx1rQlKlwbPHQhj6bUPgV4CNl8qT_qF9FjJkjgig/s1600/Adventure+1921-06-03.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="930" data-original-width="650" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsADYuMV5qfukjEFEVn4DV8WFERw_pK-gvhA8Z8RP501MErjB1SYKTTPYLM-5NC6FKRN6WHIFzvJ-282JXYz7vcxa3wxIUK0SzrvKOsx1rQlKlwbPHQhj6bUPgV4CNl8qT_qF9FjJkjgig/s320/Adventure+1921-06-03.jpg" width="222" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Adventure June 3, 1921</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Adventure</span></i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">
magazine played an integral part in Robert E. Howard’s life as a writer (and
reader). According to Howard, he discovered the magazine on a summer evening
when he had “exhausted all the reading material on the place.” (<i>CL</i> 3.87)
He apparently walked to downtown Cross Plains and ventured into one of the
shops (possibly Higginbotham or one of the local drug stores; he never reveals
the locale), and discovers the magazine on the rack. The stories in <i>Adventure</i>
dazzled him so much he continued to purchase the magazine for years.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">As
best as I can determine, the <i>Adventure</i> magazine Howard purchased that summer evening was
most likely the June 3, 1921 issue. The issue featured two writers who would
make a lasting impression on fifteen-year-old Howard: Arthur O. Friel and
Rafael Sabatini. Both writers are similar in style and content (e.g.
swashbuckling sword fights, etc.), though the settings of their adventure
stories are worlds apart; many of Friel’s stories are typically set in South
America (Amazon/Brazil) and Sabatini’s in various different locales. Howard
would utilize (and mimic) both writer’s style. From Friel, Howard borrows vast
jungle settings, from Sabatini Howard borrows rapier sword duels (and other
things). Sabatini also fueled Howard’s passion for pirate stories. We will
examine Rafael Sabatini’s influence on Howard in a future post. For now,
let’s turn our attention to Arthur O. Friel.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">That
June 3 1921 issue of <i>Adventure</i> was most likely the first time Howard had
encountered Arthur O. Friel’s work. Friel’s story “The Barrigudo” was in that
issue. After this first encounter with the magazine, Howard indicated that he
continued to purchase <i>Adventure</i> for years, when he could afford it. By
fall of 1921, October the 10th to be precise, Howard began reading Friel’s
four-part series “The Pathless Trail.” The subsequent parts appeared in these
issues of <i>Adventure</i>: October 20 (part 2), October 30 (part 3), and
November 10 (part 4). This series and other
stories by Friel would be paramount for Howard’s stylistic prose for several of his Solomon Kane and his latter adventure fantasy stories (e.g. Conan) stories. <br /><br /><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQMQ3zeFUVk7Omc6LyZQsYoAWoZxRb-epE7SDvHfrQtZ29yXcY0xjGcW2vbNzXve2mgIqrUSh_aqG2xtfvBcLjsbAtfD7oLbSkvL1IK0ttppQD3lwUm1OSkVsfHl6bmdKwkXef_yqYG7HP/s1600/Arthur+Olney+Friel+%25282%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="226" data-original-width="167" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQMQ3zeFUVk7Omc6LyZQsYoAWoZxRb-epE7SDvHfrQtZ29yXcY0xjGcW2vbNzXve2mgIqrUSh_aqG2xtfvBcLjsbAtfD7oLbSkvL1IK0ttppQD3lwUm1OSkVsfHl6bmdKwkXef_yqYG7HP/s1600/Arthur+Olney+Friel+%25282%2529.png" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Arthur Olney Friel</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">For
sheer adventure in faraway uncharted Amazonian jungles, Friel was the
consummate writer for <i>Adventure</i>. In fact, he had quite a large readership.
Friel’s descriptive prose and quick paced action narrative would apply a deep
brand on Howard’s early published works.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now, back to Friel’s four-part
series “The Pathless Trail.” I chose this series by Friel because Howard
indicated that he read it (REHB appendix 2), and to a large degree, Howard
mimics Friel’s narrative style and structure in several of his Solomon Kane
stories. Howard uses this style and structure throughout his career in various
places until he perfects it and places his own stamp on it, coupling it
with his own signature prose rhythm and pace. He then uses it later in his Conan
stories. This style also influences Howard’s writing voice throughout his
publishing career. There are a handful of writers who influenced Howard in this
fashion, and Friel is one of them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The columns below show the
similarities between Friel’s and Howard’s use of language, description, style, and
sentence structure. <br /><br /><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableGrid" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184;">
<tbody>
<tr style="mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0;">
<td style="border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">“Day
by day the downflowing jungle river pushed steadily, sullenly against its
prow, as if striving to repel the invasion of its secret places.” From
Friel’s “The Pathless Trail”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">“He
gazed at the huts, wondering why the thatch roofs of so many were torn and
rent, as if by taloned things seeking entrance.” From Howard’s “Wings in the
Night”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 1;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">“The
bushman turned at once and stole away. The others turned the canoes,
transported the necessary duffle to the base of the hollow tree, made camp,
and squatted against the trunk to smoke, watch, and wait. Several times they
heard calls receding in the distance. Then came silence.” (Ibid)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">“When
all were buckling from exhaustion. The sun dipped, night rushed on, and a
halt was called. Camp was pitched, guards thrown out, and the slaves were fed
scantily and given enough water to keep life in them – but only just enough.”
From Howard’s “The Footfalls Within”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 2; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">“Worming
around gigantic columns, crawling over rotting trunks, changing directions
abruptly when blocked by some great butt too high to be scaled, sinking
ankle-deep in clinging mud, the venturesome band wound along through the
wilderness. The general trend of the march was southeast, but impassable
obstacles encountered at frequent intervals necessitated not only detours,
but sometimes actual backtracking.” (Ibid) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">“The
littoral of the great river altered. Plains turned into swamps that stank
with reptilian life. Where fertile meadows had rolled, forests reared up, growing
into dank jungles. The changing ages wrought on the inhabitants of the city
as well. They did not migrate to fresher lands. Reasons inexplicable to
humanity held them to the ancient cities and their doom.” From Howard’s
“Queen of the Black Coast”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">These examples demonstrate
that Howard, as a reader of stories and writers he loved, paid attention to
what he was reading. Friel’s influence on Howard’s early and later writing
style is certainly present in these three examples. There are a host of other
examples between the two writers, but these three examples work well to drive home my point. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>A use of hearty pronouns to vividly describe landscapes and action in each of their stories was frequently utilized. In fact, the language
and style between the two writers was fairly common among pulp writers. The
writers who stood out among the hundreds of pulp writers from this era are,
however, the ones who not only utilized these techniques, but chose their words
carefully to help control their story’s pace, creating a much better tone and rhythm. Even though other pulp writers like Friel influenced Howard. Howard stood out due to his signature prose,
distinct writing voice, and his ability to astutely control the pace of his
narrative, taking hold of his reader and pulling them through the scenery and
action. In other words, Howard took what he liked in Friel’s work, made it his
own, and then wrote better and far more enduring tales.<br /><br /><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzVnXZrJXSEsP8Tph1f5wrF1B0FbjDmWzerBmGaKk6N26CdDlgJCy3rM3tSY0avROv_NxEjRn3N6BFxskFZ0hODMMZeekNafiyDSnIW4xxyg9QbNpylfaTFJM77tMR_rmSnyFJzQ9OO4eo/s1600/The+Pathless+Trail.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="489" data-original-width="286" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzVnXZrJXSEsP8Tph1f5wrF1B0FbjDmWzerBmGaKk6N26CdDlgJCy3rM3tSY0avROv_NxEjRn3N6BFxskFZ0hODMMZeekNafiyDSnIW4xxyg9QbNpylfaTFJM77tMR_rmSnyFJzQ9OO4eo/s320/The+Pathless+Trail.JPG" width="187" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Pathless Trail<br />
Time-Lost Series<br />
Centaur Press, 1969</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>With all this in mind, it’s interesting that Arthur O.
Friel is mentioned only once in all of Robert E. Howard’s letters. In a letter
to Carl Jacobi from the Summer of 1934, Howard declares, “I was much interested
to note that you are acquainted with Arthur O. Friel. He has been one of my
favorite authors for years.” That’s it, one simple statement indicating that
Howard had read Friel’s work for years and that Friel was one of Howard’s favorite
authors. We have certainly seen why this is the case. Interestingly,
Arthur O. Friel never broke free from <i>Adventure</i>
magazine into the wider publishing community. Although, in 1950 he managed to
publish a collection of his stories from <i>Adventure</i>. Some of these same stories were
republished in 1969 by Centaur Press for their <i>Time-Lost </i>series. It’s
worth noting that three of the volumes in this same <i>Time-Lost</i> series
from Centaur Press are Robert E. Howard collections containing several Solomon Kane tales and
fragments. The two writers certainly complement each other in this series and,
Howard would be proud to know his work was published in a series of
works that included one of his favorite writers, Arthur O. Friel.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><b>Works Cited</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; text-indent: 48px;">CL </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-indent: 48px;">Collected Letters</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; text-indent: 48px;">REHB <i>The Robert E. Howard Bookshelf</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; text-indent: 48px;"><i>The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane</i> Del Rey, 2004</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; text-indent: 48px;">The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian Del Rey, 2003</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; text-indent: 48px;">The Pathless Trail Centaur Press, 1969</span></span></div>
<br />Todd B. Vickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09458339485515819645noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7281203981310562736.post-25510298876208628492020-04-26T11:41:00.002-05:002020-04-26T11:41:34.600-05:00The Literary Influences of Robert E. Howard: Robert W. Service by Todd B. Vick<br />
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 16px;">From a very early age Robert E. Howard loved poetry. This was in large part due to his mother and her passion for verse. From the time Robert was born, Hester Howard recited poetry to her son. So naturally, Robert grew to love poetry. And there were a number of poets who influenced him as a reader and a writer. One such poet was Robert W. Service. His work loomed large in its influence of Robert E. Howard.<br /><br /></span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiSSGD-31RXHOMEXgWAAcIvmH0MURO3ZiFRVS4YP2dNsKau_Oc9GvsHvZE6T7pE3zbmbf8Nx9IuUPS90-AnifgNoTisO9Av8JxvOgqYVvErR8TO3tmLqhOHPMLlv3ZrpiSrtBbswPQTOrX/s1600/Robert+W.+Service.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="445" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiSSGD-31RXHOMEXgWAAcIvmH0MURO3ZiFRVS4YP2dNsKau_Oc9GvsHvZE6T7pE3zbmbf8Nx9IuUPS90-AnifgNoTisO9Av8JxvOgqYVvErR8TO3tmLqhOHPMLlv3ZrpiSrtBbswPQTOrX/s200/Robert+W.+Service.jpg" width="138" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Robert W. Service</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 16px;">Service was born on January 14, 1874 in a small village named Preston, in Lancashire England just 20 or so miles northeast of the port town Liverpool. Service began writing poetry at an early age, heavily influenced by these Victorian poets: Tennyson, Browning and Keats. Several of these same poets, along with Robert W. Service played an integral part in influencing Howard’s verse. Service eventually moved to Canada, and settled in the Yukon territory. It took Service a bit of time to get his poetry published. Frankly, most poems and/or poets never make a living at their craft. With little success as a writer, to support himself Service took a job as a banker in the Pacific Northeast at the Canadian Bank of Commerce. All the while, he continued to write. Eventually Service managed to secure a publisher in London for his first collection of verse (<i>Songs of Sourdough</i>), published in 1907.<br /><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 16px;">In the United States, Edward Stern and Company of Philadelphia published the same volume under a different title, <i>The Spell of the Yukon and Other Verses</i>. This volume gained a large amount of readers in the early twentieth century. Robert E. Howard owned the United States edition of Service’s first collection, and he particularly enjoyed “The Shooting of Dan McGrew.” In fact, this poem eventually became one of the most memorized in the United States a few years after its publication. A few years later another collection by Service, <i>Ballads of a Cheechako</i>, garnered almost equal success as <i>The Spell of the Yukon and Other Verses</i>, and Service was able to quit his job at the bank, write full-time and travel.<br /><br /></span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmAm7w-fNVge7u0FhOMWhoc7M0UTMXmUnF36B99WRAH3M4VlynTOvbCsI0GFOaE_w4Uy1ftOLLxy6Bpvw9CjJfuFGY0c45xzClJ7S-0Cyrjlm0lfXYZ1Nrf8dDa35lKRYV1dNDkL-r4oMD/s1600/The+Spell+of+the+Yukon.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="391" data-original-width="638" height="122" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmAm7w-fNVge7u0FhOMWhoc7M0UTMXmUnF36B99WRAH3M4VlynTOvbCsI0GFOaE_w4Uy1ftOLLxy6Bpvw9CjJfuFGY0c45xzClJ7S-0Cyrjlm0lfXYZ1Nrf8dDa35lKRYV1dNDkL-r4oMD/s200/The+Spell+of+the+Yukon.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Spell of the Yukon <br />and Other Verses<br />1907 edition</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 16px;">Robert W. Service’s influence can clearly be seen in many of Howard’s own poetry. Their rhyme and meter, heavily influenced by the Victorian poets, was similar. And among Howard's close friends, in particular Tevis Clyde Smith, Service's poetry was highly praised. According to <i>Post Oaks and Sand Roughs</i>, [Tevis Clyde Smith] Clive, considered Robert W. Service the greatest poet of all-time. Steve [Robert E. Howard] declared that Service was second only to Rudyard Kipling. [<i>POSR</i>, 74] Due to its content, Service’s poetry was ripe for the working class. This is likely one of the reasons Howard and Smith liked it. Without much sophistication, Service was able to delineate the common man and their struggles in his verse. Moreover, the content of many of Service’s verse was about frontier life in the Canadian Yukon, gold rushes, and man’s toil to survive. Of course, Howard loved those topics making Service’s verse resonate in his own imagination. Service’s poems were about the simple, ordinary life, and Howard especially liked this. In fact, on one occasion Howard told Lovecraft: “My tastes and habits are simple; I am neither erudite nor sophisticated. I prefer jazz to classical music, musical burlesque to Greek tragedy, A. Conan Doyle to Balzac, and [Robert] Bob Service’s verse to Santayana’s writing, a prize fight to a lecture on art.” [<i>CL</i> 3.66]<br /><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 16px;">After his death, several of Service's books were present in Howard's personal book collection and donated to the Howard Payne College library; titles such as <i>The Pretender</i>, <i>Ballads of a Bohemian</i>, <i>Rhymes of a Red-Cross Man</i>, and <i>The Spell of the Yukon and Others</i>. Some of these books are now displayed in a bookcase at the Howard House and Museum in Cross Plains, Texas.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><b>Works Cited</b><br />CL <i>Collected Letters</i><br />POSR <i>Post Oaks and Sand Roughs</i> (Grant edition)</span></div>
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Todd B. Vickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09458339485515819645noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7281203981310562736.post-79090975091868770592020-04-04T14:31:00.001-05:002020-04-05T13:39:19.461-05:00Know your Henry Whiteheads by Karen Joan Kohoutek<br />
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Readers of classic pulp literature, particularly in the
world of <i>Weird Tales</i>, may be familiar with the tales of Henry S.
Whitehead, collected by Arkham House in <i>Jumbee and Other Uncanny Tales</i>
(1944) and <i>West India Lights </i>(1946). Researchers should note that there
were two Henry Whiteheads writing and publishing in the same time-frame, and
it's easy to mix them up in casual searches. Both were clergymen in the
Anglican (U.K.)/Episcopalian (U.S.) church, who traveled to far-off countries,
then considered "exotic," as part of their religious duties, and are
best known for their work on the local customs and perceived superstitions that
they observed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitWvGivsyuZIp6iCSw1TtTcMQqwHIpGG-KlpArfAv4EcWr7tVENfmO_qfPX5oa9-SAnEUYdRAgxDv-mRX-6tDXgjQMO3dNLylOjw5zTMPugGmroD-FUnRCPvaJckNAMJeY6A9fgvqwVsnx/s1600/Henry_S_Whitehead.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="459" data-original-width="307" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitWvGivsyuZIp6iCSw1TtTcMQqwHIpGG-KlpArfAv4EcWr7tVENfmO_qfPX5oa9-SAnEUYdRAgxDv-mRX-6tDXgjQMO3dNLylOjw5zTMPugGmroD-FUnRCPvaJckNAMJeY6A9fgvqwVsnx/s200/Henry_S_Whitehead.jpg" width="132" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Henry S. Whitehead</td></tr>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN;">The <i>Weird Tales </i>Whitehead, Henry S. (St. Clair),
lived from 1882–1932. Born in New Jersey and educated at Harvard, he went to
the Virgin Islands, where he became an archdeacon. He began publishing fiction
in 1923, often based on his impressions of voodoo and supernatural beliefs in
the West Indies. Like most <i>Weird Tales</i> writers, he eventually
corresponded with H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard, as described in Bobby
Derie's valuable essay "Conan and Canevin: Robert E. Howard and Henry S.
Whitehead." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN;">His father was another Henry, Henry Hedden Whitehead
(1846–1937), who mainly appears in the public record as a naval veteran of the
American Civil War, and as a member of the New York Society of the Sons of the
Revolution (Henry S.'s great-great-great-grandfather, Sergeant Joshua Marsh,
served in the War of Independence).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidqMxaBW50h8nGXWyEjX8Qh8tAj5jGlr2XDUJH7hjdW3PSY-MTPESmCnKYp7OK5VSo8U_XFr0RRq90H4PuzoJLbcmW2RxbbigX5VqBcqPBMp1zTnmUYBN8gu0hYAg3JhNk4diDek8kgONe/s1600/Henry+Whitehead.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="460" data-original-width="320" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidqMxaBW50h8nGXWyEjX8Qh8tAj5jGlr2XDUJH7hjdW3PSY-MTPESmCnKYp7OK5VSo8U_XFr0RRq90H4PuzoJLbcmW2RxbbigX5VqBcqPBMp1zTnmUYBN8gu0hYAg3JhNk4diDek8kgONe/s200/Henry+Whitehead.jpg" width="138" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Henry Whitehead<br />(1853-1947)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN;">The elder contemporary, Henry Whitehead (1853–1947), was
a British Anglican who emigrated to India, first to Calcutta, and then to
Madras, where he served as Bishop for many years. His book <i>The Village Gods
of South India</i>, originally published in 1916 and expanded in 1921, is still
referenced in modern scholarship. This is a valuable early resource for his
first-hand observations of South Indian religious practices, if you can squint
around the framing prejudices and obvious misconceptions. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN;">This Henry Whitehead came from a notable family: the
philosopher Alfred North Whitehead was his brother, and his son, J.H.C.
Whitehead, also known as Henry, became a well-known mathematician. J.H.C.
Whitehead lived from 1904-1960, and moved to Princeton, New Jersey, to attend
the university in 1929. While born in New Jersey, Henry S. had moved several
times, and in this same year was settling for good in Dunedin, Florida, where
he'd be visited by H.P. Lovecraft, so the two Henry Whiteheads wouldn't have
crossed paths.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHq0ZegNkkMW_IEqrnuz8STxhpFO99dfDjc8DJmGoO5MHALj1YDAOGUtM0G5tREwt-zPC3XyuEy3owSlwkmG192E8dykGbhnBX87p3YuBXFB5FhiYgn6VAge6EvmD6rWLqxcaLF35na9PC/s1600/Henry+Whitehead+Anglican.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="220" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHq0ZegNkkMW_IEqrnuz8STxhpFO99dfDjc8DJmGoO5MHALj1YDAOGUtM0G5tREwt-zPC3XyuEy3owSlwkmG192E8dykGbhnBX87p3YuBXFB5FhiYgn6VAge6EvmD6rWLqxcaLF35na9PC/s200/Henry+Whitehead+Anglican.jpg" width="137" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Henry Whitehead<br />(Anglican)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN;">A Google search will likely bring to the top another,
even more acclaimed Henry Whitehead, who was, yes, yet another Anglican clergyman.
He lived from 1825-1896, and was featured in Steven Johnson's 2006 bestseller <i>The
Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic, and How it Changed
Science, Cities and the Modern World</i>. Serving a parish in the London
slumbs, this Whitehead became invovled in researching the cause of a cholera
outbreak. Converted by evidence -- grudgingly -- to the contamination theory,
his painstaking documentation of cases and deaths, used to track the course of
the disease, is considered an important milestone in the development of
epidemiology.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN;">I have been unable to find evidence that any of these
three Henry Whiteheads were related, although it's possible there's a
connection I haven't come across. If you have information, please pass it
along!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Derie, Bobby. "Conan and Canevin: Robert E. Howard
and Henry S. Whitehead." <i>Weird Talers: Essays on Robert E. Howard and
Others</i>. Hippocampus Press, 2019.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN;">"Henry Hedden Whitehead." Find a Grave. <a href="https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/51003130/henry-hedden-whitehead"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/51003130/henry-hedden-whitehead</span></a>
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN;">"Reverend Henry Whitehead." UCLA Department
of Epidemiology, Fielding School of Public Health. <a href="http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/snow/whitehead.html"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/snow/whitehead.html</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Todd B. Vickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09458339485515819645noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7281203981310562736.post-10263142691657444422020-03-29T11:51:00.001-05:002020-04-01T08:01:17.361-05:00The Literary Influences of Robert E. Howard: James Branch Cabell by Todd B. Vick<br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Now that I have a bit
more time to blog, I’ve decided to do a series about certain writers Robert E.
Howard encountered in his life. Each post will cover one author whose work had
some kind of influence on Howard’s life (as a reader) and/or his own work (as a
writer). To inaugurate this series, I’ve chosen James Branch Cabell. <br /><br /><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-05dhXvSR7n5i-4OWpzzc1vxr3XcpuqWj1DgccrdRCoqABFSUZBGPhoeMla7uVKUL9tTTc03FqjHlSr72QhwFbVSShBspULun3MntBTTjCg3hpta8vKxCZOxPZ5OCjSppcOst7ymjkiCn/s1600/CABELL_portrait.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="414" data-original-width="794" height="166" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-05dhXvSR7n5i-4OWpzzc1vxr3XcpuqWj1DgccrdRCoqABFSUZBGPhoeMla7uVKUL9tTTc03FqjHlSr72QhwFbVSShBspULun3MntBTTjCg3hpta8vKxCZOxPZ5OCjSppcOst7ymjkiCn/s320/CABELL_portrait.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">James Branch Cabell</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Cabell
was born April 14, 1879 in Richmond, Virginia, to an affluent family of medical
doctors and politically connected Virginia ancestors. Because of this, Cabell
was raised in what many believed to be an aureate environment. At fifteen,
Cabell was enrolled in the prestigious College of William and Mary. He
graduated four years later at age nineteen. Even then, Cabell was a master
wordsmith and linguist, with a strong command of several languages. So much so,
he taught French and Greek courses as a nineteen-year-old. He later became a
journalist and began writing short stories and essays for <i>Harper’s</i> and
the <i>Saturday Evening Post</i>. The latter being the most likely place Howard
first encountered Cabell’s work. Cabell would eventually write novels, of which
<i>Jurgen: A Comedy Of Justice</i> (1919) would be one of his most popular.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Cabell’s
work has ebbed and flowed in popularity over the past century. W</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px;">hen Cabell was alive and writing, </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">H. L. Menken and
Sinclair Lewis held the esteemed writer in
high regard. Predominantly popular with the reading public of the 1920s and
1930s, Cabell wrote fantasy fiction, fictional satire, and was a master writer
of essays written primarily for their aesthetic effect.; the latter likely
being the main reason Menken enjoyed Cabell. Simply stated, Cabell was a
wordsmith of the highest order. To be such and reach the masses required a near
perfect balance between the common and highly sophisticated, a balance not
easily reached by too many writers in literary history. This is also probably
the reason Robert E. Howard enjoyed Cabell’s work, though the two writers are
diametrically opposite in their styles and interests. Cabell’s sophisticated
humorous sexual innuendos are what Howard most likely enjoyed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Cabell had little
influence over Howard as a writer. Howard's humorous fiction was never as
elaborate or as sophisticated as Cabell's, but much more low-brow and jocular;
a slapstick style like the vaudevillian performances. The only time Howard ever
emulated Cabell’s style was when he wrote his so-called book review of Cabell’s
<i>Something About Eve</i> for The Junto. Besides the Junto, other places
Howard’s review can be found is <i>Amra</i> volume 2, number 47 (August 1968), <i>The
Conan Grimoire</i> (Baltimore: Mirage Press, 1972), and <i>The Spell of Conan</i>
(New York: Ace Books, 1980).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the
Junto review, Howard assumes that the other Junto participants may have not
heard of James Branch Cabell. He wrongly assumes this because he thinks that
Cabell is not widely read. That might have been the case in the central Texas
area of Cross Plains, but it was certainly not the case among the broader
population of readers in the United States and around the world. Cabell was, in
fact, a quite popular author at the time Howard wrote his review of <i>Something
About Eve</i>. <br /><br /><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9pBOegcrkvoX6_IOf0sU7hJt20UG9HmhRAo3eZUclnEKIqkqUaKEKoRdqMCZ1D7AH4l484Z7t6dOS0cCTBC6atyh1Df8-7mankCbjN_YGIdsls3fZI9C7DoZj092O8C_r5LFf26iEiycc/s1600/1927+Illustrated+Something+About+Eve.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1092" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9pBOegcrkvoX6_IOf0sU7hJt20UG9HmhRAo3eZUclnEKIqkqUaKEKoRdqMCZ1D7AH4l484Z7t6dOS0cCTBC6atyh1Df8-7mankCbjN_YGIdsls3fZI9C7DoZj092O8C_r5LFf26iEiycc/s320/1927+Illustrated+Something+About+Eve.JPG" width="218" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1927 edition, illustrated by<br />
Frank C. Papé</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">In
his review, Howard calls Cabell the ablest writer of the present age. Along
with many other readers back then, Howard was seized by Cabell’s command of the
English language. <i>Something About Eve</i> is Cabell at his finest. But
Howard is especially attracted to Cabell’s cynicism, something to which Howard
could relate. Cabell pokes fun at his own art, his readers, and the world in
general. In <i>Something About Eve</i>, his sardonic humor is communicated
through a nineteenth century romance gone awry that bores the protagonist so
much he quickly acquiesces to the devil’s invitation of a wild promiscuous
adventure elsewhere. In his Junto review, Howard’s focus is not on the plot or
events of the Cabell’s novel so much as on the sexual innuendos, the way women
are presented in the story, and Cabell’s linguistic prowess. In his review of <i>Something
About Eve</i>, Howard attempts to emulate Cabell’s linguistic style. As far as
I’ve been able to determine, this is the only place Howard does this. It’s
uncertain which edition Howard reviewed. If it was the Robert M. McBride &
Company 1929 edition, illustrated by Frank C. Papé, Howard would have delighted
in the illustrations and likely mentioned those in his reviews. But he did not,
so there’s no telling which edition he read.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">In
reading Howard’s collected letters, there are two letters where Cabell is
mentioned. The first, is a humorous poem (“A Fable for Critics”) Howard sent to
his Brownwood friend, Tevis Clyde Smith (<i>CL</i> 1:272). In it, several
writers are mentioned in a comical way. Cabell is mentioned, knees knocking,
embarrassed at the modern school (of writers) who drank and whored. On a second
occasion, in a February 14, 1936 letter (Valentine’s Day) to Novalyne Price,
Howard responds to Price’s struggle with a Cabell book she was reading. Howard
indicates that he has not read that particular work by Cabell, but asks her to
wait a few days until he can visit and go through the book with her. (<i>CL</i>
3:420). The title of Cabell’s book Price is struggling with is not mentioned.
But it is interesting that Howard is confident that he can help her understand
its contents. This would imply that he believed he had read enough of Cabell’s
work to communicate confidently his ability to understand its contents. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In late 1934 or early 1935, Howard was still
buying Cabell’s work. In fact, on a date with Novalyne Price, they drove to
Brownwood to visit Dublin’s Bookstore. Howard had his eye on a different
edition of Omar Khayyam's <i>The Rubáiyát</i>. Being one of his favorite
stories, he already had one copy, but this edition offered something the other,
perhaps, did not. In addition, Price indicated that Howard also had his eye on
a book by Cabell (<i>OWWA</i>, 92). She does not indicate the title of Cabell’s
book, but this tells us that Howard was still actively buying and reading
Cabell. Price was introduced to Cabell’s work through Howard and, on one
occasion, she was apparently arguing with her cousin Mary Enid Gwathmey, likely
about the sordid content of a Cabell book, which was interrupted by Gwathmey’s
realization that Price was ill and had no business teaching that day. (OWWA,
123) Nothing else is said about Cabell, but this indicates that Price, probably
because of Howard, was reading Cabell’s work.<br /><br /><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1hJIG4OJvrMaA115vXOtv-aEX3xlS_AZeMUjx8WTf1YKyivAlMWVTp_899Tzt8zkno2sPNm_GxWXPEsW1MTIpbQ_k2-_ycZ4NShSOMM59yfpvzQ7N0m8uchtd_-CfqLVZlFJv2AXpdtoT/s1600/Something+About+Eve.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="670" height="208" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1hJIG4OJvrMaA115vXOtv-aEX3xlS_AZeMUjx8WTf1YKyivAlMWVTp_899Tzt8zkno2sPNm_GxWXPEsW1MTIpbQ_k2-_ycZ4NShSOMM59yfpvzQ7N0m8uchtd_-CfqLVZlFJv2AXpdtoT/s400/Something+About+Eve.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1927 illustration by Frank C. Papé for "Something About Eve."</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">I
have not been able to ascertain any indication that Howard was so influenced by
Cabell that his own writing style and sentence structure changed in any of his
own stories. Even so, Cabell did play an important role in Howard’s passion for
literature, at least of a certain kind. The strongest indication of this is
clearly seen in his review of <i>Something About Eve</i>. After Howard’s death,
Cabell’s popularity slowly waned, especially once the second world war began.
However, by the late 1960s and early 1970s, with the advent of The Ballantine
Adult Fantasy series, spearheaded by Lin Carter, James Branch Cabell made a
brief but relatively strong resurgence in popularity. The Cabell titles chosen
by Carter for The Ballantine Adult Fantasy series included: <i>The Silver Stallion</i>
(August 1969), <i>Figures of Earth</i> (November 1969), <i>The High Place</i>
(February 1970), <i>Something About Eve</i> (March 1971), <i>The Cream of the
Jest</i> (September 1971), <i>Domnei: A Comedy of Woman-Worship</i> (March
1972). Though there are likely other titles by Cabell that Howard read, the
titles we know he read include: <i>Something About Eve</i> and <i>The Cream of
the Jest</i>. The latter book was part of the Howard Payne University holdings,
books from Robert’s personal collection given to the college by Dr. Howard
after his son’s death.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I
can’t help but wonder if Howard, despite his claims that he wrote for a paycheck,
and the restrictive markets he was (in a sense) chained to, secretly desired to
write on a level equivalent to Cabell. Among other authors, Howard pays Cabell some
of his highest praise. And though Howard, likely to save face for some silly
argument, disagreed with H.P. Lovecraft's opinion that writing could be considered a form
of art, Cabell was probably the one writer who might have changed Howard’s mind
on that opinion.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px;"><br /><b>Works Cited</b><br />CL <i>The Collected Letters of Robert E. Howard</i><br />OWWA <i> One Who Walked Alone</i></span></span></div>
Todd B. Vickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09458339485515819645noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7281203981310562736.post-91787010081369502092020-03-22T11:10:00.000-05:002020-03-22T11:14:39.448-05:00A Letter From Seabury Quinn by Bobby Derie<br />
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<span lang="EN">Seabury Quinn—whose longer tales I simply
cannot wade through—is the perfect popular ideal—those who differ from him have
just so much less chance of suiting cheap editors.<br />
—H. P. Lovecraft to Emil Petaja, 4 Dec 1934, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">LWP </i>390<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN"><span style="color: #1155cc;"><a href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fonanunderwood5.blogspot.com%2F2017%2F10%2Fweird-talers-robert-e-howard-and.html%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR1M0zo1PzJ_QE9sp4H4MSPuVP0ODCdq9Db-i2zBuZY_G6y6mJdrc-IEMJ8&h=AT1P9q3Z1C2f-QlGCbhGWjo1HU_8S-VC-IRwwjmKyMVzdCQTSYOdBqRJVTWkmn7buMQ5lvWLuAHlVP-JVqE7-6XL4gt8ojAQ-By8Xa810cAhF-s2d7euU-NXVIJAFUsBJWQrWO3yq_KBlMAHNtg" target="_blank">Seabury Quinn</a></span> was the most popular writer at <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Weird Tales</i> during his lifetime, and his sales eclipsed those of
Robert E. Howard, H. P. Lovecraft, and Clark Ashton Smith. Where those later
writers have gained greater respectability in death, and their work published
and republished, adapted to comics, film, music, and other media, Quinn’s
fiction has only partially and periodically regained the notice of the public,
and the study of his life and works largely neglected. In part, this is because
unlike Lovecraft, Howard, and Smith, there are very few surviving letters from
Quinn’s pen or typewriter, and those are mostly in private hands, unpublished,
or lingering in obscure fanzines.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN">This is one such letter, a relative rarity
both in length and content. It was written to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Weird Tales </i>fan <span style="color: #1155cc;"><a href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fonanunderwood5.blogspot.com%2F2018%2F02%2Ffirst-fans-robert-e-howard-and-emil.html%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR2Gbghads92BOUyCHZGfvIbSLDwf9ZY4qa1VCrG9Jmlgkfc0eJ1Slpwosk&h=AT1P9q3Z1C2f-QlGCbhGWjo1HU_8S-VC-IRwwjmKyMVzdCQTSYOdBqRJVTWkmn7buMQ5lvWLuAHlVP-JVqE7-6XL4gt8ojAQ-By8Xa810cAhF-s2d7euU-NXVIJAFUsBJWQrWO3yq_KBlMAHNtg" target="_blank">Emil Petaja</a></span> in December 1934. Around this period, Petaja had also written
to and received letters back from both H. P. Lovecraft, recently collected in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #1155cc;"><a href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.hippocampuspress.com%2Fh.p-lovecraft%2Fcollected-letters%2Fh.-p.-lovecraft-letters-to-donald-wandrei-and-others%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR2d_Myyj-SRs8TGsyXrE79iJIOsBQqxZ5zrLb68y9kC7Ll1Tp9GU3ZZ_rg&h=AT1P9q3Z1C2f-QlGCbhGWjo1HU_8S-VC-IRwwjmKyMVzdCQTSYOdBqRJVTWkmn7buMQ5lvWLuAHlVP-JVqE7-6XL4gt8ojAQ-By8Xa810cAhF-s2d7euU-NXVIJAFUsBJWQrWO3yq_KBlMAHNtg" target="_blank">Letters with Donald and Howard Wandrei and to Emil Petaja</a></span></i>
from Hippocampus Press; and Robert E. Howard, the latter incident appearing in
Novalyne Price Ellis’ memoir <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">One Who
Walked Alone.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN">[Address - Seabury Quinn]<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN">24 Jefferson Avenue,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN">Brooklyn, N.Y.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN">December 6, 1934.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN">Dear Mr. Petaja:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN">Thanks a lot for the mighty good letter you sent me November 25. I’ve
been intending to get an answer off ever since I received it, but the
necessity of making a trip over to Cincinnati upset all my plans, and this is
my first opportunity to attend to any personal correspondence for some time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN">About a Ms. I’m sorry, but I haven’t got such a thing around the
house.[1] You see, I’m mos casual in my work. My stuff is roughed out in
longhand---and very rough it is, too, being little more than a series of
notes, set down for the most part in my own private system of shorthand. Then
it’s typed, and I make only one copy---no carbons. They are a damned
nuisance, and when one is an inexpert typist, such as I, the necessity of
doubling all corrections makes the work too heavy for a lazy man. Too, the
fact that I’m pretty much a one-magazine man, writing only for W.T., and then
only as occasion, inclination and pressure of work permits,[2] I have a
rather small output. In 1934, for instance, I wrote only three stories.[3]
“The Jest of Warburg Tantavul” was published in September, in January will be
another de Grandin yarn, and the last of the year’s output comes out in
February, I think. I called it the Web of Bondage, but only God and the
NRA[4] know what Farnsworth Wright will decide to call it when he prints it.
However, it’s a departure---for me, at any rate. Not about Jules de Grandin
--- but I hope you like it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN">Several of my readers have been kind enough to ask for Mss. and I
have suggested that they write to Editor Wright and ask him for his copy when
the printers are done with them. He’s a good scout, Wright is, and will let
you have a Ms. if he has one available. Then, if you’ll trouble to send me
the title page of the thing, I’ll be mighty glad to put my John Hancock on it
and mail it back to you and <u>voila</u>, as we occasionally say in Brooklyn,
you’ll have the autographed Ms. though only Secretary Wallace and the AAA
know what you want of the damned thing.[5] Me, I always want to get rid of
‘em as fast as I can.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN">Just at present I’m seething to go on some more yarns, but just
haven’t been able to find time to put ‘em down on paper. I’ve a notebook full
of new plot situations, and if I can get around to it, I can turn out a
year’s supply for W.T. in a couple of months. The job is to get started,
however. I’m not a slow workman. Two thousand words a sitting is my usual
stint, and generally a story takes only about a week (evening work) from
inception to mailing. Typing is the hardest work of all. If I could bawl ‘em
out to a stenographer it would be a lot simpler, but I’ve tried it a couple
of times with disastrous results. The darn girls all think they now what I
wanted to say better than I did, with the result that dictation meant double
duty--- one job of making notes and dictating, a second one of revising and
“restoring” the typist’s ms. No luck in that.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN">During October I was down in New Orleans and had a great time poking
around a lot of out of the way places. Tried to drink up all the licker in
town, too, but failed miserably in the effort.[6] But I came back with a lot
of plot suggestions, and 1935 should see some of them germinating into real
stories. An afternoon spent in old St. Louis cemetery, reading and coping the
French epitaphs was an inspiration in itself.[7] Yeah, I surely feel the
birth-pains tearing me right now.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN">Have you read Price’s latest?[8] That feller is surely one great
writer, as is Hamilton.[9] I’m a great admirer of Greye La Spina, too. She’s
a hot number, and one of my greatest pleasures is to have her over to my
place for dinner and a chat. How about Lovecraft? He, personally, is a
delightful chap, but I don’t go for his writing in such a big way.[10] Like
Hamilton better. Or Price, or Kline.[11]<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN">If you’d really like to have one of my Mss. just drop a line to
Farnsworth Wright, tell him your desire, and I know he’ll be glad to let you
have one. He’s might decent and accommodating that way.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN">And thanks again for your kind criticisms of my work. I’m going to
try to merit some more from you and the other W.T. readers in the coming
year.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN">Cordially yours,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN">Seabury Quinn [12]<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN">[1] Petaja, like <span style="color: #1155cc;"><a href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fonanunderwood5.blogspot.com%2F2017%2F12%2Fthe-two-bobs-robert-e-howard-and-robert.html%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR2mRAZnaoF9SQ_PURVSbn_7Zp-zZID_Z1DT-urzkH7WnyRFEC0a4HWMMWs&h=AT1P9q3Z1C2f-QlGCbhGWjo1HU_8S-VC-IRwwjmKyMVzdCQTSYOdBqRJVTWkmn7buMQ5lvWLuAHlVP-JVqE7-6XL4gt8ojAQ-By8Xa810cAhF-s2d7euU-NXVIJAFUsBJWQrWO3yq_KBlMAHNtg" target="_blank">R. H. Barlow</a></span>, wrote to pulp writers asking for
the manuscripts of their stories that appeared in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Weird Tales</i>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN">[2] While not always a “one magazine man,” <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Weird Tales </i>was the main outlet for
Wright’s pulp fiction in this period, as<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">
The Magic Carpet Magazine</i> had ceased publication in 1934.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN">[3] Probably “The Jest of Warburg Tentavul” (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Weird Tales </i>Sep 1934), “Hands of the
Dead” (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">WT </i>Jan 1935), and “The Web of
Living Death” (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">WT </i>Feb 1935).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN">[4] The National Recovery Administration.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN">[5] Henry Agard Wallace, Secretary of
Agriculture and a supporter of Roosevelt’s New Deal administration, including
the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN">[6] Prohibition was repealed in December 1933.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN">[7] New Orleans formed a backdrop to several
of Quinn’s stories, the French epitaphs may have been a possible inspiration
for “Pledged to the Dead” (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">WT </i>Oct
1937). In a letter to Virigl Finlay in 1937 about illustrations for the story,
Quinn wrote:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN">To walk through old
St. Louis Cemetery is to turn the clock back two centuries. Even in broad
daylight, ladies arrayed as Julie was [...] St. Louis Cemetery in the moonlight
--- how H. P. Lovecraft would have reveled in it! (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">FCA </i>25)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN">[8] E. Hoffmann Price, probably “Queen of the
Lilin” (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">WT </i>Nov 1934) starring Pierre
d’Artois, his own occult detective. This was the last of the d’Artois stories,
and Price wrote in the introduction to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Far
Lands and Other Days:<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span lang="EN">Quinn and I
conferred. Although my Pierre d’Artois was coeval with his Jules de Grandin, so
that neither could be considered as having influenced the other, Quinn’s hero
had won such tremendous applause, and had appeared so many times, that I told
him I did not wish to be in the position of doing pastiches. I dumped d’Artois.
(xvii)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN">In his memoir of Quinn in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Book of the Dead</i>, Price expanded on
this:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN">Seabury and I
exchanged letters, and I said to him, “This is not a matter to debate. As a
matter of self protection, I am killing the Pierre d’Artois series, lest
someone fancy that I am imitating you. Not that I would not—it is that I could
not do a good job of it!” (164)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN">[9] Edmond Hamilton, better known for his
space opera stories, but a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Weird Tales </i>regular.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN">[10] Quinn and Lovecraft had met in 1931;
neither was particularly fond of the other’s approach to fiction, though they
recognized their respective talents.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN">[11] <span style="color: #1155cc;"><a href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fonanunderwood5.blogspot.com%2F2017%2F06%2Fconan-and-oak-part-1-1933-by-bobby-derie.html%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR0k0jrrqXS6AQXJZo6dog7K-VcXx0fOe4rEnTCGY_DemOS-GQP3TB02vxo&h=AT1P9q3Z1C2f-QlGCbhGWjo1HU_8S-VC-IRwwjmKyMVzdCQTSYOdBqRJVTWkmn7buMQ5lvWLuAHlVP-JVqE7-6XL4gt8ojAQ-By8Xa810cAhF-s2d7euU-NXVIJAFUsBJWQrWO3yq_KBlMAHNtg" target="_blank">Otis Adelbert Kline</a></span>, who had some early
success with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Weird Tales</i> and by the
1930s had largely turned to being an agent, working with E. Hoffmann Price,
Frank Belknap Long, and Robert E. Howard among others.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN">[12] Quinn had a habit of drawing a smiley
face (and, less often, a frownie face) in the culminating Q of his signed
letters; this is very typical of the signatures in his letters to Virgil
Finlay, published in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Fantasy
Collectors Annual 1975.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN">Works
Cited<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN">FCA<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Fantasy Collectors Annual 1975<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span lang="EN">LWP<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Letters with Donald and Howard Wandrei and
to Emil Petaja<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<br />Todd B. Vickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09458339485515819645noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7281203981310562736.post-6104669443683519432020-02-02T10:59:00.001-06:002020-02-02T11:00:34.304-06:00Farnsworth Wright’s Favorite Weird Tales by Bobby Derie<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZP7xy1oRiOKgv2bCHGaYGxqshhQ84BNgRaGx8vJKKdvjoe3mFmYLhWfaaoiTJhlBwPP7vrnvxqWxSN44fP50vMhHlnPzwCIsGHN1xmcW8GPD1RSzVh8dNP_bX6Trg6MZZPL_MhI7u0LCv/s1600/Julius+Schwartz.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="782" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZP7xy1oRiOKgv2bCHGaYGxqshhQ84BNgRaGx8vJKKdvjoe3mFmYLhWfaaoiTJhlBwPP7vrnvxqWxSN44fP50vMhHlnPzwCIsGHN1xmcW8GPD1RSzVh8dNP_bX6Trg6MZZPL_MhI7u0LCv/s200/Julius+Schwartz.jpg" width="152" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Julius Schwartz</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span lang="EN">In 1932, teenage fan Julius Schwartz became
involved with the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Science Fiction Digest</i>,
a high-end fanzine (which in 1934 would become <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Fantasy Magazine</i>). One of the features of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">SFD </i>was a series titled “Titans of Science Fiction,” short
biographical pieces based on interviews with the subject. The last such piece
before <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">SFD </i>changed its name concerned
Farnsworth Wright, editor of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Weird Tales </i>from
1924 to 1940. In that piece, Schwartz reports:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN">Thinks the following
stories are the best he has published, not in order: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN">The Stranger from
Kurdistan—E. Hoffman Price; <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span lang="EN">The Phantom
Farmhouse—Seabury Quinn; <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span lang="EN">The Outsider—H. P.
Lovecraft; <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN">The Werewolf of
Ponkert—H. Warner Munn; <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span lang="EN">The Shadow Kingdom—Robert
E. Howard; <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span lang="EN">The Canal—Everil
Worrell; <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span lang="EN">The Wind that Tramps
the world—Frank Owen.<br />
—“Farnsworth Wright” by Julius Schwartz, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Science
Fiction Digest</i>, March 1933<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN">A year later in another fanzine called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Fantasy Fan</i>, Schwartz and his
frequent collaborator Mort Weisinger (who also wrote in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">SFD </i>and would be the editor of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Fantasy
Magazine</i>) wrote a column titled “Weird Whisperings,” containing factoids
and scuttlebutt about weird and fantasy pulp writers and editors. One detail
was apparently taken straight from the Wright interview:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN">Farnsworth Wright
says the best stories he’s printed in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Weird
Tales </i>are (not in the order listed): “The Stranger from Kurdistan” by
Price, “The Phantom Farmhouse” by Quinn, “The Outsider” by Lovecraft, “The
Werewolf of Ponkert” by Munn, “The Shadow Kingdom” by Howard, “The Canal” by
Worrell, “The Wind that Tramps the World” by Owen…</span>—“Weird Whisperings”
by Schwartz & Weisinger, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Fantasy
Fan </i>June 1934</div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwgNG3tp3qDEvfFYScw_xflIse0yg-YQ7bLfdBH_2KqKDzKojAue9oyFUzRa5yFVRQNZJOxXN_FqApSoKI6evE2nmQNEA85WgMl_c3gBQHYAl93n3J1chihRf81zlNeCLE7kjlF1kyQA3y/s1600/farnsworth-wright-q1zziedkjpg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="650" data-original-width="500" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwgNG3tp3qDEvfFYScw_xflIse0yg-YQ7bLfdBH_2KqKDzKojAue9oyFUzRa5yFVRQNZJOxXN_FqApSoKI6evE2nmQNEA85WgMl_c3gBQHYAl93n3J1chihRf81zlNeCLE7kjlF1kyQA3y/s200/farnsworth-wright-q1zziedkjpg.jpg" width="153" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Farnsworth Wright</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span lang="EN">It isn’t clear why this particular list came
out at this time; Farnsworth Wright was not normally in the habit of naming
favorites. But the list may or may not have been influenced by a conversation
among the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Weird Tales </i>circle a few
years earlier. In 1930, August Derleth was working on his B.A. thesis at the
University of Wisconsin, on weird fiction, and had sent a long list of what he
considered the best stories in the Unique Magazine to H. P. Lovecraft. The Old
Gent from Providence went through his own archive of the magazine, and sent a
letter to Wright with his own list:<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span lang="EN">Last week I went over
my whole file of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Weird Tales </i>in an
effort to check up a list of best stories prepared by young Derleth and came to
the conclusion that, of everything published since the first number, the
following items have the greatest amount of truly cosmic horror and macabre
convincingness. I don’t know whether Derleth will agree with me or not, but
these are all on his vastly longer list of superior tales. They are:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br />
<a name='more'></a></div>
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<span lang="EN">“Beyond the Door” —
Paul Suter<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span lang="EN">“The Floor Above” —
M. Humphreys<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span lang="EN">“The Night Wire” — H.
F. Arnold<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span lang="EN">“The Canal” — Everil
Worrell<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span lang="EN">“Bells of Oceana” —
Arthur J. Burks<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span lang="EN">I’d include [Frank
Belknap Long’s] “Black Druid” if it were published—the Child has improved
steadily since the “Death Waters” period when the impress of the artificial
Kipling convention was on him. The authors producing the best and most
consistent average of high-grade material (not necessarily the most poignant in
sheer horror) are Henry S. Whitehead, Arthur J. Burks, E. Hoffmann Price,
Belknap, Munn, Frank Owen, and Clark Ashton Smith. Quinn probably <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">could </i>make the grade if he (a) wouldn’t
try to write so much, and (b) would write seriously for persons of adult mental
age (as in “The Phantom Farmhouse”) instead of frankly catering to the
microcephalic rabble. Hamilton has great stuff in him, but like Quinn has
become the slave of the herd and of his one recurrent plot formula. Robert E.
Howard is on the up-grade. If he will avoid popular catering, he will turn out
important stuff in future. Little Derleth, too, is growing-though his most
marked improvement is in his non-weird work….reminiscent stuff in the Proust
vein. Klarkash-Ton’s future prose work will be worth watching, and Wandrei is
always splendid when he writes at all.</span>—H. P. Lovecraft to
Farnsworth Wright, Jan? 1930, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">LA</i>8.22-23
(cf. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ES</i>1.247)</div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">The lists are far from identical, in part
because Wright was looking principally at the stories he had published as
editor of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Weird Tales </i>from Nov 1924
to 1933—which would rule out “Beyond the Door” (Apr 1923) and “The Floor Above”
(May 1923)—and should, arguably, rule out “The Phantom Farmhouse” (Oct 1923), except
that Wright had <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">reprinted </i>that story
in the March 1929 issue, possibly in part because of Lovecraft’s praise.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN">Indeed, most of the stories on Wright’s list
ended up reprinted in the magazine. Wright had initiated the “Weird Tales
Reprint” feature in the July 1925 issue of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Weird
Tales</i>, publishing classic and often out-of-print weird fiction (which
happened to be in the public domain), but in January 1929 he relented and began
republishing stories from the magazine’s earliest issues—which the magazine often
had purchased complete rights to, allowing them to publish the reprints without
paying any fee or royalty (or obtaining permission from) the original author.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxb_a3C607ufth6oP5BA5K2_bZtgGQfu0p1-bSYnxge2HNUeVbXfj9Mttjc4pNw3cbU3W25ZGu8xhCxvSMZvSE_QEv7aPAa1rE1BYXZYeU4l2qY0Ai0aluejuAA4Fco3_xU2qws8X7_Wph/s1600/The+Moon+Terror.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="382" data-original-width="300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxb_a3C607ufth6oP5BA5K2_bZtgGQfu0p1-bSYnxge2HNUeVbXfj9Mttjc4pNw3cbU3W25ZGu8xhCxvSMZvSE_QEv7aPAa1rE1BYXZYeU4l2qY0Ai0aluejuAA4Fco3_xU2qws8X7_Wph/s200/The+Moon+Terror.jpg" width="156" /></a></div>
<span lang="EN">This practice was not without its risks. In
1927, Wright had edited together a short anthology of some of the best pieces
from the magazine’s first year. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Moon
Terror and Other Stories </i>was a dud; copies remained advertised for sale in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Weird Tales </i>into the 1940s. Lacking any
“name” authors, the lack of sales discouraged further attempts at weird
collections or anthologies during Wright’s editorship—though the success of the
British <a href="about:blank"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #1155cc;">Not at Night </span></i></a><a href="about:blank"><span style="color: #1155cc;">series</span></a> and its competitors at reprinting
stories from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Weird Tales </i>must have
told him there was some value in reprints.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">In this way “The Wind That Tramps The World”,
first published in April 1925, was reprinted in June 1929; “The Stranger from
Kurdistan” of July 1925 reappeared in December 1929; Lovecraft’s “The Outside”
from April 1926 reappeared in the June-July 1931 issue; and “The Canal” first
published in December 1927 was reprinted in April 1935. The success of the
reprinting of these classic weird tales can be seen in the tallies of votes
from the readers that Wright kept for the most popular stories in each issue;
several times the reprints beat out original fiction—such was the case for “The
Phantom Farmhouse.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN">“The Werewolf of Ponkert,” which originally
appeared in July 1925, was reprinted too—but under a different editor. Dorothy
McIlwraith on taking over the editorship of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Weird
Tales </i>in May 1940 discontinued the feature, advertising the magazine as
“All Stories New—No Reprints” (which put <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">WT
</i>in opposition to its science fiction pulp competitors). The policy was
eventually rescinded with the May 1951 issue as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Weird Tales </i>declined; Farnsworth Wright did not survive to see “The
Werewolf of Ponkert” published again in the January 1953 issue.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN">Wright’s affection for these stories and
authors can be seen in one of the editorials he wrote discussing the reprint
feature:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN">The magazine, we
believe, has lived up to the aims of the founders, and has provided a feat of
imaginative literature that has entrenched it thoroughly in the affections of
its readers, and assured its continued success as long as we continue to play
fair with you by printing superb weird tales such as we have given you in the
past—stories that reach out into the depths of space and picture such beings as
Donald Wandrei describes in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Red Brain</i>;
stories of such cataclysmic horror as H. P. Lovecraft depicts in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Rats in the Walls</i>; stories that
sound the abysses of physical suffering as H. Warner Munn does in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Chain</i>; fantastic tales surcharged
with beauty and sweetness and light, such as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Wind That Tramps the World</i>, by Frank Owen; epochal masterpieces
such as E. Hoffmann Price's sublime little tale of devil-worship, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Stranger From Kurdistan</i>, with its
audacious close; superb imaginative master-works of literary craft such as A.
Merritt's tale of the revolt of the forest, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Woman of the Wood</i>. It is our aim to continue to give you such marvelous
weird tales as these; for it is on these stories, and others like them, that
the brilliant success of WEIRD TALES has been built.—Farnsworth Wright, “The Eyrie” in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Weird
Tales, </i>May 1929<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN">The one story from Wright’s list that hasn’t
been mentioned—and was never reprinted in the pages of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Weird Tales</i>—was “The Shadow Kingdom” (Aug 1929). Why is not exactly
clear. In part, it was probably because of age; most of the stories reprinted
in the “Weird Tales Reprint” were from the earliest days of the magazine,
1923-1927. Reprint rights do not appear to have been an immediate issue either;
when Howard, Lovecraft, E. Hoffmann Price, & others were attempting to
publish <a href="about:blank"><span style="color: #1155cc;">an anthology of their
best </span></a><a href="about:blank"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #1155cc;">Weird Tales </span></i></a><a href="about:blank"><span style="color: #1155cc;">stories</span></a>, Wright apparently gave Howard the
go-ahead to use “The Shadow Kingdom” in March 1933 (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">CL </i>3.41). Perhaps it was simply that Howard appeared so often in the
magazine already (and that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Weird Tales</i>
was so far behind in paying him), that Wright did not wish to reprint any of
his work in that fashion—nor rile Howard’s father after his death by using his
fiction without composition. We can only speculate.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN">What is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not
</i>speculative is that Farnsworth Wright made no secret of the regard he had
for the story. In recalling Howard’s death, and other authors that had passed
away, he noted:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN">The necrology of
WEIRD TALES authors is altogether too long. Beginning with the tragic death of
Alanson Skinner (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Tsantsa of Professor
Von Rothapfel</i>, etc.), who was killed in an automobile accident several
years ago, WEIRD TALES has lost by death Henry S. Whitehead (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Jumbee</i>, etc.), S. B. H. Hurst (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Splendid Lie</i>, etc.), Edward Lucas
White (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lukundoo</i>), Robert E. Howard (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Shadow Kingdom</i>, etc.), Arthur B.
Reeve (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Death Cry</i>); those two fine
English authors, G. Appleby Terrill (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Supreme Witch</i>, etc.) and Arlton Eadie (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Eye of Truth</i>, etc.); the Mexican poetess Alice I’Anson, and the young
Illinois poet Robert Nelson. New authors are coming into their maturity and
stepping into the places of those who have gone, but we hope it will be a long,
long time before any more of our writers will be added to the necrology of this
magazine.</span>—Farnsworth Wright,
“The Eyrie” in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Weird Tales, </i>Jan 1937</div>
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<span lang="EN">Later that same year, Wright was once again
asked to put down his favorite stories from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Weird
Tales </i>in print; he begged off, to a degree, but pointed to the stories that
were most popular among the readers. Unsurprisingly, there was some
considerable overlap with his 1933 list:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN">WE ARE often asked
what are the best stories that have appeared in WEIRD TALES. To answer this <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ex cathedra</i> would be arbitrary, because
the only test of a story’s greatness would be the editor’s own preference.
There is another test, however — the popularity of a story with our readers.
When a story in the magazine so grips the imagination that votes continue to
pour in for it months and even years later, then it is safe to assume that the
story possesses what is generally known as "It.” By such a test, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Woman of the Wood</i> by A. Merritt
leads the field. Other stories that have piled up an impressive total of votes
throughout the years are <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Outsider</i>
and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Call of Cthulhu</i> by H. P.
Lovecraft; <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Shambleau</i> by C. L. Moore; <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">When the Green Star Waned</i> by Nictzin
Dyalhis; <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Last Horror</i> by Eli
Colter; <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Wind that Tramps the World</i>
by Frank Owen; <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Tenants of Broussac</i>
and several other tales of Jules de Grandin by Seabury Quinn; <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Revelations in Black</i> by Carl Jacobi;<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> The Werewolf of Ponkert</i> by H. Warner
Munn; <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Skull-Face</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Shadow Kingdom</i> by Robert E. Howard.
And there are others.</span>—Farnsworth Wright,
“The Eyrie” in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Weird Tales</i>, Sep 1937</div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQnWqRMz8rj3ueDy8J0TRI8_ydM6_FXMFDMasumYveusoicnTs_VjF0u0_C7db_KmZxsWPEs1AeO1zdbBXwi23XLb9Seyje1F4PvcE7rg2ldHfP3-kwSpKny-oUqmF7HpTh6z0rIJAbqQI/s1600/Edmond+Hamilton.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="394" data-original-width="300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQnWqRMz8rj3ueDy8J0TRI8_ydM6_FXMFDMasumYveusoicnTs_VjF0u0_C7db_KmZxsWPEs1AeO1zdbBXwi23XLb9Seyje1F4PvcE7rg2ldHfP3-kwSpKny-oUqmF7HpTh6z0rIJAbqQI/s200/Edmond+Hamilton.jpg" width="151" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Edmond Hamilton</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span lang="EN">Edmond Hamilton, who visited Wright shortly
after his firing from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Weird Tales </i>but
before his death in 1940, reports:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span lang="EN">I recall that on that
last occasion, Wright, though busy with a new project, did talk for a while
about all the years of Weird Tales. He expressed a hope that some of the
stories he had published in it, which he thought were good, would someday be
reprinted. And how that had come true! I wish he could have been here to see
it.—Edmond Hamilton, “He That Hath Words”, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Deeper
Than You Think </i>#2<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">While some of Wright’s favorites have faded
into obscurity outside of the most hardcore of pulp and weird fiction fans, the
general sentiment is accurate. Whatever his skill or arbitrariness as an
editor, at least two of the writers that Wright counted among his favorites—H.
P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard—have passed into the canon of American
fiction. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">History seldom records such justification of
an editor’s personal taste.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN">Abbreviations<br /><br /><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">CL<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The
Collected Letters of Robert E. Howard<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">ES<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Essential
Solitude: The Letters of H. P. Lovecraft and August Derleth<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">LA<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Lovecraft
Annual<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Todd B. Vickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09458339485515819645noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7281203981310562736.post-5324905470103349872020-01-22T23:38:00.000-06:002020-01-22T23:38:12.586-06:00Happy 114th Birthday, Robert E. Howard<div style="text-align: center;">
Happy birthday, Robert E. Howard!</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Born January 22nd, 1906 in Peaster, Texas. </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgalbyc6gYlGx2p6ToC8beybKSlZ741EZPgf9a7_mlckKsrsto8XoQ8eOXVqy-h8y8T3qGs8lEFlvv5ZZoDUhZrjBnbAb9qB_yJUKlDPvidHyHnBjQSKZT31qwGyXeEJVcovowUNpKdZ5s4/s1600/REH+with+patch.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="281" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgalbyc6gYlGx2p6ToC8beybKSlZ741EZPgf9a7_mlckKsrsto8XoQ8eOXVqy-h8y8T3qGs8lEFlvv5ZZoDUhZrjBnbAb9qB_yJUKlDPvidHyHnBjQSKZT31qwGyXeEJVcovowUNpKdZ5s4/s400/REH+with+patch.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 16px;">REH with Patches</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Robert E. Howard is 114 years old today! </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
The general tradition in Howard fandom is to read a story by Howard and while doing so, imbibe your favorite beverage!</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
So . . . Here's to the first of all dog brothers . . . Cheers!</div>
Todd B. Vickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09458339485515819645noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7281203981310562736.post-73172985755984907052019-12-22T10:40:00.000-06:002019-12-22T10:40:10.425-06:00The Best Robert E. Howard Christmas Ghost Story by Bobby Derie<div style="text-align: center;">
Now I remember those old women’s words,</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Who in my wealth would tell me winter’s tales,</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
And speak of spirits and ghosts that glide by night</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
- Christopher Marlowe, <i>The Jew of Malta</i> (1589)</div>
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7Nn2n8lhyf38seNLu7_YWVAJgcDRmKzoBA8pNWnwMe20iPHOQtj8HFjGxeEdV5RmsZtzpRoVym32hkVWnVa8-GfsMKdRjdGEuODRjU8KczB_Nvh4gSzs_54BJqPLARLqeOwe8_iz58m7p/s1600/A+Christmas+Carol+illo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="675" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7Nn2n8lhyf38seNLu7_YWVAJgcDRmKzoBA8pNWnwMe20iPHOQtj8HFjGxeEdV5RmsZtzpRoVym32hkVWnVa8-GfsMKdRjdGEuODRjU8KczB_Nvh4gSzs_54BJqPLARLqeOwe8_iz58m7p/s200/A+Christmas+Carol+illo.jpg" width="135" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>A Christmas Carol</i> original <br />illustration by John Leech</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The Christmas ghost story was more of a British than an American tradition, but one that is still remembered in the lyrics of "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" (1963) when Andy Williams sang "There'll be scary ghost stories and tales of the glories of the Christmases long, long ago." The most famous Christmas ghost-story is Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol in Prose, Being a Ghost-Story of Christmas" (1843), which has been adapted innumerable times for the stage, radio, television, film, etc., but the tradition was alive in well into the 20th century with the likes of M. R. James, whose volumes <i>Ghost Stories of an Antiquary</i> (1904), <i>More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary</i> (1911), <i>A Thin Ghost and Others</i> (1919), and <i>A Warning to the Curious and Other Ghost Stories</i> (1925) all follow the same pattern of Christmas Eve entertainments. James himself wrote in the introduction of the first volume that most of the stories "[...] were read to friends at Christmas-time at King's College, Cambridge[.]"<br />
<br />
In the United States in the 20th century, readers might well trace the tradition in the pages of Weird Tales, with entries such as H. P. Lovecraft's "The Festival" (Jan 1925) and Seabury Quinn's novel <i>Roads</i> (Jan 1938)—it being remembered that the January issues actually hit the stands in mid-December. Not all every "Christmas ghost story" had to be set at Christmas, nor involve an actual ghost. The point was not any specific formula, but as James put it in his essay "On Ghost Stories": "...written with the sole object of inspiring a pleasing terror in the reader[.]" To recall the thrill of a weird tale told on a cold winter night, perhaps facing a fire, the wind howling out of doors; yes, pulp writers fall well into that category.<br />
<br />
It might well be asked then...what would be the best Robert E. Howard ghost story to read at Christmas-time?<br />
<br />
<i>Weird Tales</i> and <i>Strange Tales</i> were two of the Texas pulpster's steadier markets, so there is no shortage of raw material to choose from. Even as Ebenezer Scrooge received a ghostly visitation, so too did Conan of Cimmeria in "The Phoenix on the Sword" and "Queen of the Black Coast"; ghostly aid supports the black boxer Ace Jessel in "The Spirit of Tom Molyneaux"; Solomon Kane faces eerie spirits in stories such as "Skulls in the Stars," "The Right Hand of Doom," and "The Footfalls Within." All of these contain passages and scenes that can raise a shudder, though far from the rather sedate horrors of M. R. James.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6OukT2vRUGDd0hOhA8ntL1zHUKAlI-23j9huz3T_dVO5-liUi3wolUx_AravCv9PuQSLR76UYi3eupeIa84mKKX-pRjsZMtSg5IVxN7JV-rIuHg7X1l3m97hT3xvOFlqsHsFNl5-vVLLD/s1600/The+Spirit+of+Tom+Molyneaux.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="395" data-original-width="650" height="121" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6OukT2vRUGDd0hOhA8ntL1zHUKAlI-23j9huz3T_dVO5-liUi3wolUx_AravCv9PuQSLR76UYi3eupeIa84mKKX-pRjsZMtSg5IVxN7JV-rIuHg7X1l3m97hT3xvOFlqsHsFNl5-vVLLD/s200/The+Spirit+of+Tom+Molyneaux.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Spirit of Tom Molyneaux<br />Illustration by Greg Staples</td></tr>
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Tales closer to that older tradition but with a Southwestern setting include some of Howard's best work; classic stories such as "Old Garfield's Heart," "The Dead Remember," and "Pigeons from Hell." Those stories written in the style of the Cthulhu Mythos such as "The Black Stone," "The Hoofed Thing," "The Thing on the Roof," and especially "Dig Me No Grave" definitely echo at least a touch of Jamesian horror, with their scholarly protagonists and more subtle horrors (by Howardian standards, at least), and might well fit a Yuletide mood.<br />
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What most of Howard's ghost stories lack is that particular aspect of reticence so characteristic of James' stories—yet neither does Howard ever attempt anything quite so staid as a traditional haunting, even in "The Haunter of the Ring" or “The Cairn on the Headland” which are perhaps as close as Howard gets. There is one story though, oft-neglected among Howard's weirder and more graphically fantastic stories, which nevertheless has my vote for the most fitting to read on a Christmas holiday, either aloud to listeners or alone to oneself.<br />
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"For the Love of Barbara Allen" was never published during Howard's lifetime, and more rarely anthologized than many of his better-known stories, though it can still be found in <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Best-Robert-Howard-Crimson-Shadows/dp/0345490185/" target="_blank">Crimson Shadows: The Best of Robert E. Howard Vol. 1 (2007, Del Rey)</a>, and in <a href="http://www.rehfoundation.org/2018/05/25/pictures-in-the-fire/" target="_blank">Pictures In The Fire (2018, The Robert E. Howard Foundation Press)</a>. It is not quite a haunting, at least not in the traditional sense, though it deals with life and death, love and loss. Nor is it as supremely weird as "Worms of the Earth" or "The Shadow Kingdom," or as epic as "The Grey God Passes."<br />
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It is a small, intensely personal story set in the world of only a few generations ago, and in the Texas that Robert E. Howard knew and loved so well. There is something inexpressible in the pages of "For the Love of Barbara Allen," a process to experience, an ending as inevitable as it is fitting. While it may not deliver much of creep, if the story does not shift your heart as the nights stretch longer and the dawn is far away...well, it is a story of giving that final gift that may be given, when and where it is needed most.<br />
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If that isn't appropriate for the holiday, I don't know what may be.<br />
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Todd B. Vickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09458339485515819645noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7281203981310562736.post-2141970870630915892019-11-17T12:41:00.001-06:002019-12-24T15:27:04.770-06:00El Borak the Swift & The Iron Terror by Todd B. Vick<div style="text-align: center;">
"Listen while I tell you the secret of the Iron Terror." [<i>ASF</i> 232]</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Vintage Robot</td></tr>
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In a 1935 letter to Alvin Earl Perry, Robert E. Howard explained that Francis Xavier Gordon (a.k.a El Borak), was the first character he ever created. Howard admitted that he could not recall the character's genesis, but declared that the character came to his creative mind at the age of 10. It would be years later before the character would ever see the printed page. Though it wouldn't be due to a lack of trying.<br />
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Howard began submitting stories to magazine as early as 1921, at the age of 15. He mostly submitted stories to the pulps he was reading at the time: <i>Adventure</i>, <i>Western Story</i>, <i>Argosy All-Story</i>, and even <i>Weird Tales</i> (as early as 1922). This was, to say the least, quite ambitious for a 15 year old. Especially considering that several of these magazines published seasoned writers like H. Rider Haggard, Arthur O. Friel, Harold Lamb, H. Bedford-Jones, Talbot Mundy, and Rafael Sabatini. But Howard didn't stop there. Shortly before "Spear and Fang was published in 1924, Howard sent a story titled "The Iron Terror," to <i>Cosmopolitan</i>, one of the well-known slick magazines of the day. The story was rejected, Howard couched it and, as far as we know, never submitting it again to another magazine.<br />
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This was the first El Borak story Howard submitted for publication. During this early stage of story submissions (and rejections), Howard really did not know what he was doing. He would write a story, place it in an envelope and mail it off. It's likely that he never considered the type of story that a magazine like <i>Cosmopolitan</i> considered for publication. In those early days, Howard's publication behavior was like a kid tossing wet paper towels against a wall and hoping one stuck. "The Iron Terror," was simply tossed at the wrong wall.<br />
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At this stage in his writing/publishing career, Howard was honing his writing skills in school newspapers. In fact, he was receiving a strong local following in those papers, along with much praise. And while I am speculating here, had "The Iron Terror" been submitted to <i>Weird Tales</i>, even under the watch of then hard-nosed editor, Edwin Baird, it's quite possible the story might have been picked up by the magazine. I suggest this because during this time the magazine's founder J. C. Henneberger was keeping a fairly close eye on what was being submitted. I find it difficult to imagine that even if Edwin Baird might have rejected the story because he did not care for science fiction, had Henneberger caught sight of it, it might have landed a spot in one of those early issues. Of course, we will never know.<br />
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"The Iron Terror" is a nice work of historical science fiction. In my estimation, it is one of Howard's more mature early stories. It is a much better story than "Spear & Fang." Closer examination of "The Iron Terror" reveals that Howard put a lot of thought into its contents and plot. Between 1922 and 1924, Howard was perfecting his ability to control the pace of his narrative. "The Iron Terror" is a wonderful example of this. Howard also sets the tone of the story by beginning the narrative in a storm. While this practice has become pedestrian in today's literature and is now frowned upon, back in 1922, almost 100 years ago, that was not the case. In the opening paragraph, Howard's use of imagery is fantastic. <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Outside the wind roared, snatching up the snow, whirling the flakes high in the air. The streets were deserted except for a few belated pedestrians hurrying home, heads bowed against the gale." [<i>AFS</i> 225]</blockquote>
The reader is drawn into the struggle of the weather, and understands that it is snowing without being told it is snowing. This is a nice demonstration of showing and not telling in the narrative. Moreover, whether this was deliberate on the part of Howard or not, he bookends this story with struggles: one is the weather, a common phenomena, the other a man-made inadvertent antagonist gone awry. The former helps serve to heighten the intensity the latter. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's jump back to the story's narrative and content.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Vintage weapons</td></tr>
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The reader of "The Iron Terror" is slowly lured into the plot by Howard's progressive development; he revealed what needed to be revealed without hurrying the reader along. The protagonist is finally named after several pages of narrative. This helps to stir the reader's curiosity, and keeps their sense of wonderment about the story. The reader is then guided through the narrative along with the protagonist, who through tumultuous weather, makes his way to a "bleak and dark" house in New York: a laboratory. An Asian (hired help) answers the door, the mysterious visitor hands over a card. Immediately, the visitor is told he is expected, and invited in. After this scene is presented, and the visitor begins perusing weapons on a large table, "an old, wrinkled man, small and withered, stooped with age, wearing a dressing gown, bedroom slippers and a red Turkish fez . . ." [226] appears in the room. The stranger rises and greets the old man and a dialogue ensues. Though the story was written in the early 1920s, the opening scene feels like it is from an early 1930s Universal motion picture. One can picture the stranger, the old man, and the room. The scene is verbally painted well. The ensuing dialogue, its brief and chopped sentences, quickens the pace of the narrative, pulling readers into the strange circumstances.<br />
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Gordon is finally revealed, and the reader now understands that he is at this old man's laboratory/home to examine weapons, one of which is the actual dagger carried by Genghis Khan. Over the table of weapons, the old man and Gordon chat about the vanity of life. The old man opines that people pass, but science does not. What man has created, especially through science, lives on. He points out that Genghis Khan has long since passed, but 1000 years later, here is his blade which still survives. Science is what matters, and through science this old man has created the ultimate weapon. This ultimate weapon is the real reason Gordon was invited and is one that the old man keeps well hidden, in a secret room.<br />
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The old man explains that he has perfected a machine that "makes all others seem as grains of sand to a mountain!" [<i>ASF </i>229] He now has Gordon's attention. Howard now has his reader's attention. The old man takes Gordon into the secret room, which is enveloped in heavy steel. No one can enter or leave the room without knowing the secret to open the door, something only the old man knows. Gordon is now locked in this room with the old man. The suspense builds.<br />
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Finally, the old man reveals his invention, which is covered with a large cloth. Pulling away the cover, Gordon sees what looks like a massively large and tall metal statue. Initially, in terms of it being a "weapon," Gordon is unimpressed. However, he is impressed with the steel statue as a piece of art. The old man reveals that the steel used to create the metal statue is his own invention, stronger than Harvard Steel (the strongest known material back in the 1920s), and that his steel, which is radium folded a thousand times over, is actually indestructible.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUGmlVAu5owcsk1mqMjTpL5_T8nyBWnRAWnwvZ2H8WR_O1HQRGAgf307HhR0WTK96VX0J8LGKBJ2z8IjxboEkkSrOyZbFKJ5jY5do1sybdHP1ubp95dXxiSeqQMTyAZdJdnGV8Si_xgXsX/s1600/automaton.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="501" data-original-width="750" height="132" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUGmlVAu5owcsk1mqMjTpL5_T8nyBWnRAWnwvZ2H8WR_O1HQRGAgf307HhR0WTK96VX0J8LGKBJ2z8IjxboEkkSrOyZbFKJ5jY5do1sybdHP1ubp95dXxiSeqQMTyAZdJdnGV8Si_xgXsX/s200/automaton.jpg" width="200" /></a>Howard uses radium in the story, discovered in 1898 by Marie Sklodowska Curie. Radium is a brilliant silvery-white, luminescent, rare and highly radioactive metallic element. It wasn't until around a decade or so later that it was introduced to the rest of the world, and began to be used in watches, air crafts, etc. Howard cleverly uses it in this story, and the narrative explains that the old man used it to develop the strongest metal known, his own secret formula. A good example of science fiction using current scientific discoveries to bolster the fiction.<br />
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Another scientific element to this story is the statue itself. In the story, it is called an automaton. Automatons were early machines created to appear human and mimic human movement. Automatons were self-operating, usually by cranking a wind-up device built into the machine. These devices were imagined in early Greek mythology. They were discussed in print (but not yet invented) as early as circa 800 (e.g. <i>Book of Ingenious Devices</i> by the Banu Musa brothers). French engineer, Jacques de Vaucanson is believed to have created the first automaton in 1737, called The Flute Player. However, Howard's automaton may actually stem from Da Vincin's Knight. It is possible that Howard read Da Vinci's works in school or at a public library. Da Vinci's works are littered with descriptions of automatons and other mechanical devices. If not Da Vinci, there was certainly not a shortage of material written about automatons for Howard to read. Though Howard never reveals his inspiration for "The Iron Terror," the most promising source for the story (and its title) was likely a Harry Houdini film released in 1919.<br />
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Unlike other automatons, the one in Howard's story is massive and controlled wirelessly (remote control). It is here that Howard's story is decades ahead of its time. In fact, this idea is also 3 or so years prior to Tesla announcing the idea of wireless devices being used to connect the world. The advent of "wireless" occurred in the late 19th century. Guglielmo Marconi, an Italian inventor was the first to use radio to send a message. Telegraphs were eventually replaced by radios, but the actual use of a wireless (remote control) device to control a machine was still 40 plus years in the making. But here it is in Howard's story.<br />
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The old man, who calls his device an iron terror, demonstrates what this iron terror can do, and explains that an army with a thousand of these is invincible. Gordon, seeing the iron terror's abilities is impressed. The old man begins to taunt Gordon with the iron terror, and Gordon grows skeptical that the old man (or anyone else) could maintain control over it from the remote control device. Balking at Gordon for doubting him, the old man assures he can maintain total control and starts to demonstrate how. Gordon's worst fears then become a reality. Reaching for a specific level, the old man accidentally activates a different lever and the automaton quickly shifts movements and smacks the old man in the head, knocking him out and over the controls. The automaton has killed the old man and is now out of control. Gordon is locked in a steel reinforced room with this iron terror and must save himself. The steel room becomes a trap and the iron terror moves like a storm around the room. Gordon must now use his combat and survival skills to save himself from the iron terror.<br />
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Submitted around late summer of 1923, "The Iron Terror" is a clever early 20th century science fiction story that utilizes a wonderful mixture of mystery, suspense and action. As we've seen, Howard utilizes cutting edge science and creates remarkable (for that time) tech ideas. However, a close examination of the story makes one understand why <i>Cosmopolitan</i> rejected it. The plot and narrative, while they show excellent promise for a story written by a then 17 year-old, were not of the caliber of an H.G. Wells story, a writer who had published in <i>Cosmopolitan</i> around that same time.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1910s Cosmopolitan</td></tr>
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<i>Cosmopolitan</i> was launched in 1886 as a family literary magazine that published high quality fiction, children's stories, and homemaking tips. It struggled its first few years, and in 1889, entrepreneur John Brisben Walker, saved the magazine from bankruptcy. Walker introduced illustrations to the magazine and attracted writers like Mark Twain, Willa Cather, and H.G. Wells to its pages. By the 1920s, the magazine published fiction by leading writers such as Sinclair Lewis, Theodore Dreiser, and William Somerset Maugham. 17-year old Robert E. Howard barely stood a chance. However, during those early years, <i>Weird Tales</i> published a stack of poorly written and quite low brow fiction. Pound for pound, "The Iron Terror" was better than much of what <i>Weird Tales</i> was publishing in the early to mid 1920s. <br />
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Due to Howard's lack of experience, when <i>Cosmopolitan</i> rejected "The Iron Terror," he may have thought the story was not publishable. In the beginning of his publishing attempts, instead of re-writing and perfecting his stories, Howard developed a bad habit of couching them, especially if they were rejected by multiple magazines. There were exceptions to this, but Howard himself admitted this habit to several friends. Unfortunately, Howard never submitted "The Iron Terror" to any other magazine (according to his own letters anyway). And, had he worked on it a little longer, perfected its contents and narrative, it could have certainly been published in <i>Weird Tales</i>. Had that happened, it would have been a pristine example of early cutting-edge science fiction work by Howard. Instead, it was lost in the cracks of time.<br />
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As far as I can determine, the story never saw publication until 1987 when Robert M. Price edited a limited number of self-published copies of a 60-page chapbook titled, <i>The Coming of El Borak</i>. Of course, this chapbook had a very limited run and very few people other than perhaps hardcore fans knew about it. The story would not reappear again until The Robert E. Howard Foundation Press published <i>The Early Adventures of El Borak</i>. Another volume with a limited press run, and only a handful of fans buying it. Two years later, "The Iron Terror" appeared in a second REH Foundation anthology titled, <i>Adventures in Science Fantasy. </i>Once again, this work had a limited press run and a handful of hardcore Howard fans bought the book. In 2018, Bobby Derie (along with Chris Gruber) released a privately pressed anthology titled <i>A Robert E. Howard Sampler</i> that contained "The Iron Terror." This anthology was handed out at the 2018 Howard Days, once again to a very limited number of fans.<br />
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I mention all the above to declare that the "The Iron Terror" has suffered from publishing obscurity. Hardly anyone except for hardcore Howard fans knows about the story. And yet it is a wonderful early 20th century example of science fiction, decades ahead of its time. For this reason, the story warrants closer scholarly examination. If you have not read it, I highly recommend it.<br />
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Works Cited:<br />
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ASF <i>Adventures in Science Fiction</i> (The Robert E. Howard Foundation Press. Plano: 2012)</div>
Todd B. Vickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09458339485515819645noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7281203981310562736.post-47370448000374901432019-10-27T10:12:00.001-05:002019-10-27T10:12:32.814-05:00Ervin Family Research by David GarrettThree of my grandparents died in rather quick succession: my mom’s mother in 1978, my dad’s father in 1980, and my dad’s mother in 1982. I was eight, ten, and twelve. This left my only grandparent, Loyd Linton Brantley. Loyd worked for the Hercules Powder Plant and delivered dynamite for a living.<br />
<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Loyd came to live with us after the death of my grandmother and he would reside with us until his death in 1994. I recall that on numerous occasions, when people would ask him about his mother’s family, he would always declare that his mother’s name was Maud Ervin. He would then go on to explain that it was spelled with an “E” and not an “I”. His Ervins were proud of that spelling and any Ervin who spelled their name that way was related.<br />
<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The only information I ever received about Maud’s family of Ervins was that her father was Joseph Newton Ervin and that Maud’s mother was Laura Adelaide Cathcart. Addy Ervin had died when Maud was still young and Joseph got remarried and had several more children.<br />
<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>I had always wondered about whether or not my Ervins were the same Ervin family from which Robert Ervin Howard (REH) was related. Over the years doing genealogical research I had never been able to discover anything about either mine or REH’s Ervins.<br />
<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>It wasn’t until I found an entry on the Find A Grave website that I even considered it a strong possibility. The entry listed my great grandfather as being a brother to a Robert Newton Ervin. Those not familiar with the various comments made by REH concerning his Ervin forebears will be filled in later, but this Robert would be the second cousin of Hester Jane Ervin, REH’s mother.<br />
<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>It was at this time that I decided to dig a little deeper and try to unravel these Ervin families.<br />
<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>One of Loyd’s younger siblings was his sister Mag. She lived well into her 90’s and she gave my mother a document to give to me because she knew I was doing genealogical research on the Brantley and Ervin families. This document turned out to be a very important key in me being able to prove that Joseph Newton Ervin’s father was James William Ervin – not Robert Ervin; and thus, Joseph is not a brother of Robert’s son Robert Newton Ervin.<br />
<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The document was a remembrance written by Eula Erin Ervin, a daughter of Joseph Newton Ervin by his second wife, Samantha Elizabeth Smith. This would be Maud Ervin’s younger step-sister. Eula died in 2014 and left this document for her grandchildren.<br />
<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Here is what Eula knew about her father:<br />
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<ul>
<li>“When I was born our family included Mama, Papa, Maud (married with three children), Buddy (was gone to war), Gordon, and L.D.; Kenneth came two years later.”</li>
<li>“Maud Ervin and Buddy Ervin were my daddy’s children by a former wife. He and my mother married when they were small. I think she died when Buddy was born and he and my Mama married when they were like two and four. They never knew any mother but mine and no difference was ever made in all of us.”</li>
<li>“My father’s full name was Joseph Newton Ervin. He died December 25th, 1943. He was born in America (I think) on September 23rd, 1861.”</li>
<li>“Father has been said to resemble the Dutch people and Irish people because he was of Dutch/Irish descent. He had clear complexion, blue/green eyes and wore a heavy mustache, and his hair was snow white when I was born. He was 53 the year Mama was 39.”</li>
<li>“They raised four of their own and lost four by death [not counting Maud Ervin and James Larkin ‘Buddy’ Ervin]. Douglas Cobern lived to be a toddler, and three little girls were stillborn and never named. One of them was a twin to me.”</li>
<li>“For a living my father farmed and sawmilled or hauled logs for and with his brother-in-law. I was small but I remember Uncle Joe Sanders. But I never remembered Aunt Ellen. She was my daddy’s half-sister, and he had a half-brother, too, Uncle Frank Sims. I knew his family well. I saw two of Uncle Frank’s grandsons at Mars Hill at the homecoming this year (1993). They were born and still are all in Georgia (Rockmart).”</li>
</ul>
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It was the last item that gave me the information which resulted in finding a family tree online that finally answered the question of who Joseph Newton Ervin’s family was. Joseph Newton appears as just Newton under the first child of Joseph and Eleanor Sanders:<br />
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SANDERS, Joseph – b. 31 Aug 1812 – d. 1 Oct 1903 AL. Moved to Perry County, AL about 1830<br />
+ WILLIAMS, Eleanor Mary – b. 15 Mar 1814 – d. 28 Oct 1897 married 12 Dec 1834<br />
1.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>SANDERS, Mary Elizabeth – b. 29 Sep 1835 married 1st to Joseph William ERVIN on 7 Sep 1856; child Newton ERVIN. Married 2nd to Benjamin Sims.<br />
2.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>SANDERS, Thomas Alexander – b. 26 Jun 1837<br />
3.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>*SANDERS, Margaret Louisa – b. 27 Jun 1839<br />
4.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>SANDERS, John Danford – b. 23 Oct 1841<br />
5.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>SANDERS, Joseph, Jr. – b. 28 Dec 1843<br />
6.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>SANDERS, Benjamin F. Twine – b. 28 Dec 1843<br />
7.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>SANDERS, George Washington – b. 5 Jun 1846<br />
8.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>SANDERS, Rebecca Ann – b. 23 Aug 1849<br />
9.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>SANDERS, Hiram Newton – b. 2 Apr 1854<br />
10.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>SANDERS, William Jefferson – b. 23 Nov 1854<br />
+ BAKER, Mary Fowler – (widow of Newell Baker (she had 2 children already by Newell and one with Joseph SANDERS)<br />
11.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>SANDERS, Eleanor Parinet – b. 20 Oct 1871<br />
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* Family tree provided by great grandchild of Margaret Sanders.<br />
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There was quite a bit more to this family tree. For example, the children of Benjamin Sims and Mary Sanders are Elizabeth Sims, Ellen Sims, and Frank Sims, making them Joseph Ervin’s half-siblings. One of the children of Thomas Sanders is Joseph “Joe” Sanders. Joe Sanders and Ellen Sims married so that Eula’s last statement helps show that Joseph Newton Ervin’s brother-in-law was indeed Joe Sanders, but he was also Joseph’s first cousin. Ellen died in 1918 and Eula was born in 1914 so it shows that Eula wouldn’t have any memories of her Aunt Ellen.<br />
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This family tree helped fill in a few other things, as well. It appears Joseph Newton Ervin was named for his maternal grandfather Joseph Sanders. He also had an uncle named Hiram Newton Sanders, so the Newton likely was a family name at least that far back. Finally, it seems that he went by the name of Newton, at least in his younger years. These clues helped me to find the census records where Joseph Newton Ervin appears as Newton Sims until he was old enough to establish his own household. The following records establish a timeline for Joseph’s life:</div>
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Before turning to the Ervin family research of Robert Ervin Howard, it should be noted that the Sanders, Williams, and Lee families were recorded in the above mentioned family tree as coming from Union County, North Carolina to Alabama. This doesn’t prove that James William Ervin also came from Union County, North Carolina, but the possibility is certainly strong.</div>
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>It is difficult to determine just how REH came by his family history as some of the claims are quite dubious. For example, his grandfather is claimed to be George Washington Ervin. While it is true that his grandfather was George W. Ervin, his middle name of Washington has been contested. REH also Claimed his grandfather was a cavalry officer under Nathan Bedford Forest. This, too, seems to be erroneous. George W. Ervin was most likely an enlisted soldier who took on the sobriquet of Colonel after the Civil War.</div>
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>We’ll begin with quotes from L. Sprague de Camp, Catherine Crook de Camp, and Jane Whittington Griffin’s Dark Valley Destiny where the citation is referenced to the Ervin family Bible of Mrs. Virginia Sargent:</div>
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<li>“The Ervin family had been established since 1724 in the northeastern part of North Carolina near the Virginia line. Here in 1801, Howard’s great grandfather, the first Robert Ervin, was born on a plantation close to the shores of Currituck Sound. At the age of twenty three, Robert Ervin married Jane Tennyson, also a member of an old Tidewater family. The couple settled on a plantation near Raleigh where, in 1830, George Washington Ervin first saw light of day.”</li>
<li>“Caught in the westward movement of the 1840s Robert Ervin took family to Tennessee and thence, in 1842, to a farm near Iuka in Tishomingo County at the northeastern corner of Mississippi. Here George Washington Ervin grew to manhood and here, on July 26th, 1849, in his twentieth year, he married Sarah Jane Martin, the daughter of Dr. Thomas Martin, who had recently come to Tishomingo County from Tennessee.”</li>
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The next two of REH’s quotes are taken from the two-volume set of his and H. P. Lovecraft’s letters published as <i>A Means to Freedom, Volume 1, 1930-1932</i>:</div>
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September 1930</div>
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<li>“Behind my English name are lines of purely Gaelic Eirbhins . . .”</li>
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October 1930</div>
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<li>“The Eirbhins, or Ervins, to give the name its present Anglicized spelling, came to America a very long time ago; just when I am not sure, but it was before 1700. The family was originally Scotch and there is a legend to the effect that the name was once ‘Mac Conaire’. How that name came to be Eirbhin is more than I can say, but descent from Conaire, ard-righ of Erin is claimed, which, if true, shows that the clan went into Scotland at a comparatively late date.”</li>
<li>“At any rate, it was a wild Highland clan in the days of Robert Bruce and because they followed him and were granted favors by him, it is tradition in the family that a male child in every generation be named Robert. My great grandfather was Robert Ervin, and my great-great grandfather the same; my grandfather by some chance, was named George Washington Ervin [his brother was named Robert Newton Ervin], but he named his youngest son Robert, and I have several cousins of that name.”</li>
<li>“However, the Eirbhins went westward early, and had been in Ireland for generations, before they came to America. My grandfather Colonel G. W. Ervin highly resented any attempt to attribute Scotch characteristics to him.”</li>
<li>“In 1800 the family was well established on [a] large plantation in North Carolina, but moved to Mississippi in the early 1840’s. The Civil War ruined the plantation system and Colonel Ervin came to Texas in 1866.”</li>
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Finally, the next couple of pieces of information come from Rob Roehm who has done extensive research on REH and the Howard family. I contacted him and asked him if he knew about REH’S Ervins:</div>
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<li>“No. All I’ve got is Howard’s claim that the Ervins were in Currituck Precinct, NC, as early as 1724. He doesn’t mention any names, and I’ve been unable to find any. Even this information is sketchy. Here’s what REH told Clyde Smith: ‘I also came upon the first evidence of the Ervin family in America – a will made by a slave-holder in North Carolina and witnessed by one Robert Ervin; date, 1724. That was kin of mine I know, because the Ervins settled in North Carolina and lived there until 1840, and only my branch spells the name that way.’ If that’s all he had . . .”</li>
<li>“He spent some time in San Antonio doing research in 1931. In his ‘The Wandering Years’ he says that his branch of the Ervins ‘are not to be confused with the late Scotch-Irish drift into North Carolina from Mecklenburg County, Pennsylvania, in the early 1760’s. Robert Irwin, signer of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, was no kin of mine.”</li>
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First, it should be noted that there is no Mecklenburg, Pennsylvania. There are only two counties in the United Stated with this name and they are Mecklenburg County, Virginia and Mecklenburg County, North Carolina.</div>
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Our focus will now turn to these early immigrant Ervin families and the counties of Currituck County, North Carolina; Union County, North Carolina; Mecklenburg County, North Carolina; Rowan County, North Carolina; and Williamsburg County, South Carolina. All of these counties can be found in the three circles on the following map.</div>
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To begin with, there are numerous variations on how the surname of Ervin has been spelled over the years, especially before spelling became standardized. The Irwin Clan homepage lists 240 variations! REH’s idiosyncratic spelling of Eirbhin is not listed, though. But it is clear that he was taken by the etymology being a reference to “a great man of the West”, typically understood to be Ireland. Still, there are other etymologies that differ from this, the standard one of the Irwin clans and their kin.</div>
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Regardless, it should be noted that the Irwins, Irvines, Irvings, Ervins, and virtually all of the spelling variants claim a similar lineage to that which REH espouses about the connection to Scotland, Robert Bruce, and a legendary tie to a remote progenitor of both Irish and Scottish kings.</div>
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>REH is wrong, however, in claiming these were wild Highlanders. The Irwins were Lowland Scots and their family seat is in an area of the Scottish Lowlands between Carlisle and Lockerbie close the Debatable Lands. The exact location is Bonshaw Tower, which was supposedly the area where Robert Bruce took rest in his flight.</div>
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>There is also a connection of the Irwins to Aberdeen, Scotland and the area of Drum Castle. One thing that seems to be another common thread is that members of the family fled Scotland after the unification of the crowns and went to Ireland. After almost a hundred years of living in Ireland, numerous branches came to the American colonies. We’ll look at some of the earliest ones in North and South Carolina. REH was adamant that his Ervins arrived quite early.</div>
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>For more information about the Irwin Clan, see the following pages:</div>
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•<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span><a href="http://clanirwin.org/">http://clanirwin.org</a></div>
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•<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span><a href="http://www.clanirwin-dna.org/">http://www.clanirwin-dna.org/</a>genealogical-background</div>
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In my search for early Ervins of the Carolinas, I tried to restrict myself to just those who spelled their name as Ervin. This wasn’t easy as virtually all of the families that used Ervin, also used Irwin/e or Irvine/g variations. I also don’t claim to have been exhaustive; if there are more that I overlooked, I’d be thrilled to learn more about other Ervins in other Carolina counties.</div>
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To begin with, let’s take a look at REH’s discovery that he was convinced was his direct ancestor – the will dated February 2nd, 1724/5 that was witnessed by Robert Ervin.</div>
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I easily found this will by going directly to the Currituck County website. I also discovered the will of what I believe to be this same Robert Ervin, plus one additional will worth noting.</div>
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The will that Robert Ervin witnessed was indexed as Ervin, but his will was also indexed as Irving and was found on the “I” tab of their “Wills & Estates” page. The witnessed will is that of William Williams. Could this be the same Williams family in my own Joseph Newton Ervin’s family tree? There is no clue that would show how. There is nothing else to give us any clues about Robert on this document.</div>
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I did find the will of Robert Irving/Ervin dated February 16th, 1735/36. In this we learn that Robert was a merchant tailor. A merchant tailor was a person who dealt in the transportation and trade of fabric and/or clothes.</div>
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The most frustrating thing, though, is that Robert leaves his estate in the hands of George Powers and names absolutely no one else.</div>
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Finally, I found what appears to be the will of this same George Powers dated March 27th, 1754. George leaves his estate to his wife and children without any naming of an Ervin or Irving. His son George inherits land adjacent to a Joseph Sanderson. Could that be Joseph Sanders – the grandfather of Joseph Newton Ervin? Again, we are left with more questions than answers.</div>
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And certainly it would be difficult to connect this Robert to REH with no more information than this. With just this evidence, it appears Robert had no wife or children, though.</div>
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Chronologically, the next family of Ervins are the pioneer settlers of Williamsburg, South Carolina at the famous pioneer settlement at the King’s Tree. This migration was led by Roger Gordon and the colony was named for William of Orange.</div>
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The source for this family is two-fold. Before his death in 1810, Col. John Ervin, who fought under Francis Marion, the Swamp Fox of the Revolutionary War, left a family history in his Bible. The Bible of Col. Ervin was inherited by his great-great grandson, North Carolina Senator Sam Ervin, Jr. Senator Ervin published the history along with further information in an article entitled “Entries in Colonel John Ervin’s Bible” that was published in 1978 in The South Carolina Historical Magazine.</div>
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Recounted in this family lineage is the same tradition of the Scottish Border Reiver family that once served Robert Bruce and trace their lineage to Scottish nobility. They too fled Scotland to Ireland and, finally, to America.</div>
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According to this line, though, their name was Irvine and was changed to Ervin when the family settled in America. There are no names that could be tied directly to either REH’s or my line of Ervins. The names of Robert, James, William, John, and Hugh are used frequently in this family.</div>
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The most conspicuous thing to me, though, is the prominence of this family. Both REH and my Ervins seem have come from lesser means than these South Carolinian Ervins. I’m quite sure that if REH’s family knew they were descended from a prominent officer who fought alongside Francis Marion, REH would have certainly boasted of it.</div>
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The next family is more frequently known as Irwins, but they do have branches that adopted the spelling of Ervin. These are the same Irwins who REH seemed to find reprehensible for signing the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence and emphatically affirm that they were not kin. Maybe REH felt the controversy surrounding the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence and its possibility of being a forgery cast a unpalatable stain on the family.</div>
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In reality, modern-day scholars believe that the citizens of Mecklenburg did write a forerunner of the Declaration of Independence called the Mecklenburg Resolves. It is still questionable whether they went ahead and declared full independence. The problem was that the original document was lost to history.</div>
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Mecklenburg County sits beside Union County, North Carolina; however, these counties are not very close to either Currituck County, NC or Williamsburg County, SC. The Irwins came from Ireland to Pennsylvania in 1730 and then relocated to Mecklenburg in 1763 after General Robert Irwin’s father died.</div>
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General Robert Irwin, serving as a Colonel, fought in the Revolutionary War and won a battle at Hanging Rock in South Carolina while serving as cavalry commander under General Thomas Sumter.</div>
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Again, I wasn’t able to find any clues that would help in my Ervin search other than the close proximity of Union County.</div>
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Finally, I was able to find a will from Rowan County, North Carolina of one Joseph Ervin dated June 20th, 1793. In the document, the “1793” might be construed as a “1743”, but this is impossible as Rowan County wasn’t created until 1753. In the will Joseph names his two sons William and Joseph, but there is nothing that would connect them with either REH’s Robert Ervin or my James William Ervin.</div>
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One corner of Rowan County touches Mecklenburg County. While it doesn’t prove anything, the proximity is still noted.</div>
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In the final analysis, I wasn’t able to find any concrete proof that connected either my Ervin family or REH’s Ervin family to their colonial roots. It wasn’t without reward, though, and I hope that other researchers may take up the standard and add to either branches knowledge of the Ervin family.</div>
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David Garrett was born near Birmingham, Alabama and joined the United States Air Force after high school. He served as an enlisted medic in Desert Storm, attended Officer Training School in 2002, served in Iraq in 2010, and retired as a Major in 2016. Since retiring at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, he and his wife remained in The Springs and currently run First Light Home Care of Colorado Springs, a company specializing in in-home care for the elderly and disabled.</div>
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Todd B. Vickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09458339485515819645noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7281203981310562736.post-12725345176836228712019-10-20T09:58:00.003-05:002019-10-20T09:58:45.759-05:00Review: Weird Tales of Modernity<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>Weird Tales of Modernity: The Ephemerality of the Ordinary in the Stories of Robert E. Howard, Clark Ashton Smith and H. P. Lovecraft</i> by Jason Ray Carney. 197 pages. McFarland & co., 2019. $39.95<br />
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Four score and two years, hundreds of essays and articles, and at least a dozen full-length books later, academia is still struggling to come to grips with H. P. Lovecraft and the remarkable posthumous success of the man and his fiction. The same can be said for Robert E. Howard and Clark Ashton Smith, who if they have achieved less name recognition, are nonetheless incredibly influential writers in contemporary fantasy, horror, and pop culture who are still read, referenced, parodied, and pastiched today. Together, these three writers form a node of association, both in terms of literary output (all three contributed to what has become the Cthulhu Mythos) and their market (all three wrote for <i>Weird Tales</i>).<br />
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Jason Ray Carney’s interest is less on the shared mythology of their fiction than the shared context that Howard, Smith, and Lovecraft were operating within and influenced by. Literary immortality is not the usual fate for Weird Talers. Pulp authors are generally forgotten. Pulp fiction is popular, ephemeral, and by many critical standards contains no more literary value than the cheap pulpwood paper it was printed on. Serious authors generally did not write for the pulp magazines; gaining academic attention for what made <i>Weird Tales</i> different has been an uphill battle for decades.<br />
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Which is as close to the central tenet or take-away of <i>Weird Tales of Modernity</i> as anything else: academics should turn their critical gaze to pulp fiction, and not reserve judgment or analysis only for “artistic literary fiction.”<br />
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This is an <i>academic</i> text, and the intended audience are not necessarily pulp scholars, who might quibble over certain fine points of dialogue and approach and get lost in the four-dollar-words and have to pause to remember what <i>ekphrasis</i>, <i>imbrication</i>, and <i>de-reification</i> mean. This is aimed primarily for professors and graduate students, the kind of folk that might need an introduction to pulp fiction in terms they understand—the technical language of folks that earnestly read and discuss philosophy and literary criticism.<br />
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There are three essential points on this book, which are woven together rather than addressed as three distinct and self-contained ideas: 1) Howard, Smith, and Lovecraft were influenced by modernism in their contemporary culture; 2) the three authors expressed this interaction in their fiction in <i>Weird Tales</i> as a form of “shadow modernism”; and 3) Weird Tales was uniquely suited as a vector for this kind of fiction.<br />
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Carney does not attempt an exhaustive proof of any of these particular points via minute survey of the existing literature; <i>Weird Tales of Modernity</i> is more of a conversation, expressing general ideas and then following them up with specific examples in the life and fiction of the “<i>Weird Tales</i> three.” His particular interests focus on <i>ekphrasis</i> (the vivid description of an object or work of art) which is characters of their work and <i>modernity</i> (the particular re-examination of form and technique in music, art, and literature that occurred around the turn of the 19th century to the mid-20th).<br />
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There is certainly meat for such work: Lovecraft et al. specifically discussed various modernist writers and artists in their letters, they had brushes with various contemporary artists, writers, and publications associated with modernism. That these remarks and encounters were often critical is not damaging to Carney’s thesis; a writer can be shaped by what they react against as much as any other influence. A useful companion work for this kind of analysis is Graham Harman’s <i>Weird Realism: Lovecraft and Philosophy</i> (2012).<br />
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Whether the readers will whole-heartedly agree with Carney’s critical analysis is another matter. Carney’s individual takes on specific works or perceived themes in Howard, Smith, and Lovecraft have to be evaluated and digested. Some assertions like “Cthulhu Is Beautiful,” which comes at the end of a brief analysis regarding Lovecraft’s ekphrastic efforts in “The Call of Cthulhu” and a discussion of Kant and Burke’s definitions of beauty and the sublime are fairly easy to accept. The assertion in “Sword and Sorcery and Anti-Intellectualism” that Howard’s heroes are deliberately anti-intellectual, by contrast, feels like it needs more nuanced treatment—Conan the Cimmerian being, as Frank Coffmann put it, a “<a href="http://robert-e-howard.org/ShadowSingerSS12.pdf" target="_blank">Bright Barbarian</a>” who can speak multiple languages, fills in the lonely hours by drawing in the borders of far countries on maps, knows the works of sages dead for 1,500 years, and holds poets as greater than kings—and that’s before getting into the conversations between Howard and Lovecraft in their letters on the exact subject.<br />
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I’m quibbling. That’s a pulp scholar approach, trying to nail specifics down to a line in a letter somewhere. There isn’t much in the book to quibble with; break through the ice of literary theory and its vocabulary and the actual points Carney makes are fairly succinct and largely inarguable. There is definitely more to be said about how each of these writers (and <i>Weird Tales</i> as a whole, which consisted much more of these three writers) interacted with modernism, but this is an introduction to the subject, not an end-point.<br />
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<i>Weird Tales of Modernity</i> sits comfortably on a shelf next to <i>The Unique Legacy of Weird Tales</i> (2015), <i>Conan Meets the Academy</i> (2013), and <i>New Critical Essays on Lovecraft</i> (2013). These are all works that speak to the same audience, trying to bring academic insight and attention to bear on the enduring popularity of ephemeral fiction. Whether it will find an audience only the future can tell, but it certainly deserves one.<br />
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—Bobby DerieTodd B. Vickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09458339485515819645noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7281203981310562736.post-24772753017402752422019-10-13T11:16:00.002-05:002019-10-13T13:41:13.950-05:00The Cthulhu Mythos and Space Opera by Bobby Derie<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">H.P. Lovecraft</td></tr>
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<span lang="EN">As a young man H. P. Lovecraft would have
thrilled to the sword-and-planet adventures of John Carter in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Under the Moons of Mars </i>(1912), and the
intimation of ancient alien presences on Earth in A. Merritt’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Moon-Pool </i>(1918); but by the time he
was writing his own adult material he had largely turned to fantasy—but it was
the fantasy of the pre-Atomic age. E. E. “Doc” Smith’s Lensmen policed the
galaxy in the pages of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Amazing Stories</i>,
Robert E. Howard’s Hyborian Age city of Xuthal was lit by radium lamps, Leigh
Brackett imagined a solar system full of habitable planets, C. L. Moore’s
Northwest Smith was an outlaw on many planets with ray-gun in hand, Clark
Ashton Smith’s last survivors of Atlantis and Hyperborea journey to far
Sfanomoë (Venus) and Cykranosh (Saturn), and Lovecraft’s monsters were not the
typical witches and vampires, but stranger, alien entities.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>A
keen amateur astronomer, Lovecraft largely eschewed the dynamics that made
space opera feasible. In his 1935 essay “Some Notes on Interplanetary Fiction”
he railed:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN">A good
interplanetary story must have realistic human characters; not the stock
scientists, villainous assistants, invincible heroes, and lovely
scientist’s-daughter heroines of the usual trash of this sort. Indeed, there is
no reason why there should be any “villain”, “hero”, or “heroine” at all. These
artificial character-types belong wholly to artificial plot-forms, and have no
place in serious fiction of any kind. The function of the story is to express a
certain human mood of wonder and liberation, and any tawdry dragging-in of
dime-novel theatricalism is both out of place and injurious. No stock romance
is wanted. We must select only such characters (not necessarily stalwart or
dashing or youthful or beautiful or picturesque characters) as would naturally
be involved in the events to be depicted, and they must behave exactly as real
persons would behave if confronted with the given marvels. The tone of the
whole thing must be realism, not romance. [...] Hoary stock devices connected
with the reception of the voyagers by the planet’s inhabitants ought to be
ruled rigidly out. Thus we should have no overfacile language-learning; no
telepathic communication; no worship of the travellers as deities; no
participation in the affairs of pseudohuman kingdoms, or in conventional wars
between factions of inhabitants; no weddings with beautiful anthropomorphic
princesses; no stereotyped Armageddons with ray-guns and space-ships; no court
intrigues and jealous magicians; no peril from hairy ape-men of the polar caps;
and so on, and so on. [...] It is not necessary that the alien planet be
inhabited—or inhabited at the period of the voyage—at all. If it is, the
denizens must be definitely non-human in aspect, mentality, emotions, and
nomenclature, unless they are assumed to be descendants of a prehistoric
colonising expedition from our earth. The human-like aspect, psychology, and
proper names commonly attributed to other-planetarians by the bulk of cheap
authors is at once hilarious and pathetic. Another absurd habit of conventional
hacks is having the major denizens of other planets always more advanced
scientifically and mechanically than ourselves; always indulging in spectacular
rites against a background of cubistic temples and palaces, and always menaced
by some monstrous and dramatic peril. This kind of pap should be replaced by an
adult realism, with the races of other-planetarians represented, according to
the artistic demands of each separate case, as in every stage of
development—sometimes high, sometimes low, and sometimes unpicturesquely
middling. Royal and religious pageantry should not be conventionally overemphasised;
indeed, it is not at all likely that more than a fraction of the exotic races
would have lit upon the especial folk-customs of royalty and religion. It must
be remembered that non-human beings would be wholly apart from human motives
and perspectives.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">In his own fiction, Lovecraft largely kept to
these principles, the main exception being “In the Walls of Eryx” (1936),
written in collaboration with Kenneth Sterling and published after Lovecraft’s
death. In his own fiction, Lovecraft allowed horrors from the stars to come to
Earth—most notably Cthulhu in “The Call of Cthulhu” (1926), “The Colour Out of
Space”<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>(1927), the Mi-Go in “The
Whisperer in Darkness” (1930), the K’n-Yans of “The Mound” (1930), the Elder
Things in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">At the Mountains of Madness </i>(1931),
and the Yithians in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Shadow Out of
Time </i>(1935), with passing references in other tales; he also touched on
interplanetary fiction in “Through the Gates of the Silver Key” (1932) with E.
Hoffmann Price and in his part of the round-robin “The Challenge from Beyond”
(1935).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMkC93WGQajpq3J1ey6004DRHqRAHO2dtGaERcPecQrt2xdSl_-iwlNcJtGgtlB-5R0qGWjLOP2nqgBsXL-SLCBCwGTIXAbFBH-tf4mU9S5Dm24p5xOMw3E-WS0nlmIavTUkXq5903cGWA/s1600/Clark+Ashton+Smith+photo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="236" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMkC93WGQajpq3J1ey6004DRHqRAHO2dtGaERcPecQrt2xdSl_-iwlNcJtGgtlB-5R0qGWjLOP2nqgBsXL-SLCBCwGTIXAbFBH-tf4mU9S5Dm24p5xOMw3E-WS0nlmIavTUkXq5903cGWA/s200/Clark+Ashton+Smith+photo.jpg" width="167" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Clark Ashton Smith</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span>Lovecraft’s
friends and compatriots had no such qualms, and followed their own muse. Clark
Ashton Smith set stories on Mars, Venus, and Saturn, blending cosmic horror
with space opera. Robert E. Howard occasionally dropped Lovecraftian monsters
from “the Outer Dark” into his Hyborian Age setting for Conan to face, and
wrote the sword-and-planet novel <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Almuric</i>,
published after his death. C. L. Moore, who was part of the Lovecraft circle
and major contributor to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Weird Tales </i>from
1933-1937, was not a direct contributor to the Mythos, but her space opera
outlaw Northwest Smith faced monsters no less Lovecraftian for their lack of
direct ties to the Cthulhu mythology.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In
the decades since then, many writers have expanded on the creations of
Lovecraft and his friends, taking them into every conceivable setting—including
space—such as Richard A. Lupoff’s classic “The Discovery of the Ghooric Zone”
(1977). In the late 80s a short-lived magazine focused on tales of
scientifiction called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Astro-Adventures </i>(1987-1989),
which included tales both old and new worth seeking out and reading. The best
of the new tales might be Elizabeth Bear & Sarah Monette’s Boojumverse
(“Boojum,” “Mongoose,” and “The Wreck of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Charles Dexter Ward</i>”) full of space pirates and living ships which
are fantastic.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Lovecraft
himself never gave a single, consistent approach to the Mythos he created—nor
did he require his friends and co-creators to adapt themselves to his
philosophies of writing. The Mythos of his stories takes place in a dark and
strange cosmos, where beings from distant stars and planets had visited Earth
in the distant past...and some of them still survived, or their relics at
least. The different approaches that the creators of the Mythos took, the occasional
contradictions and fans’ efforts to reconcile disparate representations of the
Mythos and its relationship to space, are all part of the fun of the setting.
Mythology need not be consistent, and it need not all be true...lies,
distortions, omissions, and forgotten truths underlay the mythology of Cthulhu
and Hastur, Shub-Niggurath and Tsathoggua. It is up to the readers to decide
where exactly is the cold planetoid Yuggoth from whence the Mi-Go come, or
whether Mars and Venus ever bore life and were habitable by human beings.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In
the decades before humanity split the atom, they looked up at the stars at
night and dreamed of walking on other planets—not knowing what they would find
there. There was a sense of limitless possibilities, with their feet upon the
dusty earth, and their imaginations flying through Venusian skies, disturbing
the dust in some million-year-old ruin on Mars. It was an age when solar
empires were planned out with pencil and paper, and realized on typewriters.
Much of it never happened, and what did happen not the way they thought it
would—but it’s a fun dream to visit sometimes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<h3 style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 8.0pt;">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_if5v5a3vtn42"></a><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Suggested Reading<o:p></o:p></span></b></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span lang="EN">Elizabeth Bear &
Sarah Monette: “Boojum,” “Mongoose,” “The Wreck of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Charles Dexter Ward</i>”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span lang="EN">Ramsey Campbell: “The
Insects from Shaggai,” “The Mine on Yuggoth”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">Robert E. Howard: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Almuric, </i>“The Vale of Lost Women,” “Xuthal of the Dusk”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span lang="EN">H. P. Lovecraft: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">At the Mountains of Madness, </i>“The Call
of Cthulhu,” “The Colour Out of Space,” <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Shadow Out of Time, </i>“The Whisperer in Darkness”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">H. P. Lovecraft & Hazel Heald: “The Horror
in the Museum,” “Out of the Aeons”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">H. P. Lovecraft & Zealia Brown Reed
Bishop: “The Mound”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">H. P. Lovecraft & E. Hoffmann Price:
“Through the Gates of the Silver Key”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">H. P. Lovecraft & Kenneth Sterling: “In
the Walls of Eryx”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span lang="EN">Richard Lupoff: “The
Discovery of the Ghooric Zone,” “Documents in the Case of Elizabeth Akeley”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span lang="EN">C. L. Moore: All of
the Northwest Smith stories, but especially “Shambleau,” “Julhi,” “Yvala,” <br />
“The Cold Grey God,” and “Lost Paradise.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span lang="EN">C. L. Moore, A.
Merritt, H. P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, & Frank Belknap Long: <br />
“The Challenge from Beyond”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span lang="EN">Clark Ashton Smith:
“A Voyage to Sfanomoë,” “The City of the Singing Flame,” “The Demon of the
Flower,” “The Door to Saturn,” “The Dweller in the Gulf,” “The Immortals of
Mercury,” “Master of the Asteroid,” “Mnemoka,” “The Plutonian Drug,” “Seedling
of Mars,” “The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis,” “Vulthoom”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span lang="EN">E. E. Smith: The
Lensman series, especially the core four novels (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">First Lensman, Galactic Patrol, Grey Lensman, Second Stage Lensman</i>)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">Bobby Derie’s latest work is <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/288662"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #1155cc;">Space Madness!</span></i></a>, a
roleplaying game of adventure & horror in an atompunk future inspired by
the works of H. P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, & other Mythos writers.</span></div>
Todd B. Vickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09458339485515819645noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7281203981310562736.post-1428191864693577022019-10-06T10:38:00.000-05:002019-10-06T10:38:24.461-05:00The Carnival, The Girl, and The Smitten Teenager by Todd B. Vick<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“There
were many women in the brief life span of Robert Ervin Howard. And yet there
were few.”—Harold Preece, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Fantasy
Crossroads</i>, vol.1, no. 3, May 1975</span></blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz7nCmDnai9_k1NZh86ojWSuGpW6l1lfo8w0RvvoIJib0oitmaY-eqjfOgMAt2S-wgoRZblEvcGmNMxRMJXzsXdLcE5TwhAiSTVUtr-TXDHILTvbtiILhvwIyhuVY-jwpI4af-rh7LwYjV/s1600/Novalyne+Price+1927.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="227" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz7nCmDnai9_k1NZh86ojWSuGpW6l1lfo8w0RvvoIJib0oitmaY-eqjfOgMAt2S-wgoRZblEvcGmNMxRMJXzsXdLcE5TwhAiSTVUtr-TXDHILTvbtiILhvwIyhuVY-jwpI4af-rh7LwYjV/s200/Novalyne+Price+1927.jpg" width="151" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Novalyne Price<br />
1927 yearbook photo<br />
Daniel Baker College</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Often when fans think of
Robert E. Howard and women, images come to mind of Bêlit, Valeria, Yasmina, or
any other number of female characters Howard created. Some may think of his
mother, who devoted her time and life supporting her son. Perhaps more ardent
fans (and Howard scholars) wonder if the notion that he had relations with a
prostitute in Mexico is, in fact, true. There does seem to be strong evidence
for such. There is also the “Sunday school girl” Howard discussed with his
colleagues in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Junto</i>. Someone
Preece admits they all were worried could possibly have tied Howard to a
conventional “churchy woman.” (Preece 21) Maybe some fans think of Novalyne
Price Ellis, who dated Howard for several years toward the end of his life. Whatever
the case, perhaps only a handful of Howard aficionados and scholars recall the
carnival girl whom a smitten Howard encountered at the tender age of 15.<br /><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">There
is next to nothing written about the events of Howard’s life at age 15, when he
visited a carnival, perhaps local to Cross Plains but maybe elsewhere, and
encountered a female carnival worker. Apparently, she was like a strong west
Texas dust devil scurrying across the plains, who immediately swept Howard up, if
only from a distance. Howard never mentioned this girl in his letters, to
anyone. Moreover, one of his closest friends, Tevis Clyde Smith, who had
written somewhat extensively on Howard’s life, never mentioned her in any of
his writings. In fact, none of Howard’s closest friends or correspondences who
have written anything we have copies of (e.g. essays, letters, interviews, articles,
etc.) ever mention this girl, except one—Harold Preece. </span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2WBmO1YEAXpX_rH92mtgHMxg7PA4BJoSEXBENxQaP-IBsXIv9l-KAnCM4fS5LeEyAiB4RUC1WVj09fxOU_4721mIEF9MTPtCWkEg-2hlGv39XuqNsaBLGitoT2UYTJREj35psmVWq336p/s1600/Carnival+reptile-girls-1920s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="626" data-original-width="501" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2WBmO1YEAXpX_rH92mtgHMxg7PA4BJoSEXBENxQaP-IBsXIv9l-KAnCM4fS5LeEyAiB4RUC1WVj09fxOU_4721mIEF9MTPtCWkEg-2hlGv39XuqNsaBLGitoT2UYTJREj35psmVWq336p/s200/Carnival+reptile-girls-1920s.jpg" width="159" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">In
the May 1975 issue of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Fantasy Crossroads</i>
(book three volume 1), contains an article by Harold Preece titled, “Women and
Robert Ervin Howard.” In this article, Preece discusses a private conversation
he had with Howard in Cross Plains when Preece visited the Howards at their
home, just six or so years after the carnival experience. Preece explains: <br /><br /><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The full—yet awfully thin, story—came out during the
one weekend that I spent with the Howard family. The year was either ’28 or
’29. I can remember the fondness with which Mrs. Howard gazed at her maverick
son—but, also, the graciousness with which she treated me as a guest knowing
her Dallas nieces, Maxine and Lesta Ervin. She would have undoubtedly known the
nice Sunday school miss. But probably this conventional matron had never heard
of the carnival girl. (Preece 21)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-right: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The idea that Mrs. Howard
likely knew nothing about the carnival girl is probably correct. There were
various things Howard kept from his mother, some out of embarrassment to
himself, and others if for no other reason than she might get upset.<a href="file:///C:/Users/TBV/Documents/The%20Carnival,%20The%20Girl,%20and%20The%20Smitten%20(REH%20and%20Women).docx#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> And like all of us do, he
experienced things he simply wanted to keep to himself. Even so, Howard
confided in his friend regarding the carnival girl.<br /><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSdcRbH5gIjeQQ5L07eer7Gpx4-nARpAvSrzez9AYQ1jq2c2FY3nHO14pOnf1NfKeDe44N_pahwCEd30ZycDv1ZVQsyaNB2h6IOyAEC9UUSIKYBecUOjnGYBSoyz3IvZlXNMntmXFHw8x5/s1600/Harold+Preece.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1077" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSdcRbH5gIjeQQ5L07eer7Gpx4-nARpAvSrzez9AYQ1jq2c2FY3nHO14pOnf1NfKeDe44N_pahwCEd30ZycDv1ZVQsyaNB2h6IOyAEC9UUSIKYBecUOjnGYBSoyz3IvZlXNMntmXFHw8x5/s200/Harold+Preece.jpg" width="134" /></a></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Preece provides no description of the girl, which likely
means Howard may have never given one. So, what she looked like is lost. In
Preece’s article, he attempts to interpret why Robert may have been smitten
with this girl. “Carnies—a wild breed—interested him because they lived free of
the rules that govern solid home folk.” (21) At its core, this idea is very
Howardian, but its not likely the whole reason Howard may have been taken in by
her. “He stood there spellbound when he saw her moving around the midway.” (21)
Other than a particular beauty that a 15-year-old Howard may have favored, how
could this carnie girl have captured young Howard’s immediate attention? Preece
surmises that, “she would have been easily identifiable as a ‘despised show
woman’ in any of the little towns played by the rambling carnival. By her
cosmetics and her hairdo —eyed jealously by inhibited local ladies—by her
lascivious walk and her general air of not giving a damn about not being a nice
girl.” (21) Preece certainly paints an interesting picture of Howard’s telling
of the circumstances. One can easily see why Howard might like her since she
smacks of everything he may have found appealing: different, mysterious, free,
beautiful, and an uninvited kind of character that Howard was fond of incorporating
into many of his stories.<br /><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It is not known whether this carnival (or fair as the
case may have been) was a local event or an itinerant show. It is not likely
that the show was local, like the annual fair and rodeo held in Cross Plains
nearly every summer and typically sponsored by someone such as the local Fire
Department. If that were the case, this carnival girl may have been a local
girl, unless they hired outside workers to come in and help. There was such an
event in Cross Plains on July 21-22, 1921 and a write up about it in the July
29, 1921 <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Cross Plains Review</i>. But
Preece’s retelling of Howard’s experience does not seem indicative of a local
event. No, it seems closer to an itinerant carnival or an out of town event. It
is also possible that this carnival may have been in a larger town, like
Abilene or Brownwood, and the Howards traveled to attend it. In fact, back in
1921, both Brownwood and Abilene hosted various carnivals and fairs in their
respective towns. The American Legion held several rodeos/carnivals in
Brownwood,<a href="file:///C:/Users/TBV/Documents/The%20Carnival,%20The%20Girl,%20and%20The%20Smitten%20(REH%20and%20Women).docx#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> and Abilene hosted a
traveling carnival that is still in existence today.<a href="file:///C:/Users/TBV/Documents/The%20Carnival,%20The%20Girl,%20and%20The%20Smitten%20(REH%20and%20Women).docx#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn3;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> It would not have been
unusual for the Howards to have traveled to either town, especially since Mrs.
Howard had at one time lived in Abilene and the Howards also knew people in
Brownwood.<br /><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Whatever the case may be, a 15-year-old Howard spotted
this girl, and being taken in by her, he watched her until she “disappeared
behind a tent with a man—likely another carnie—for whom she had probably been
waiting.” (22) According to Preece’s recollection, the girl’s occupation at the
carnival was not known. She was likely spotted by Howard somewhere on the
midway, perhaps close to the gaming or show booths. <br /><br /><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">She may have been a dancer—maybe the mistress of the
character who “barked” the show. Or she could have been a shill for one of the
“pitches” stepping up to make a fake purchase of some dubious ware to attract
customers not getting their money back. She might have been a gypsy or just
some Midwest girl gone wrong.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Whoever or
whatever this sensuous wench, she made a lifelong impression on an already
impressionable 15-year old boy. (22)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3p5ciNf6kLPxN3dahWxQODmhYDaIA0shBVRzeDIUEFrdwipjL0yVutS8RVp8_jVBlvzf6R5e9f_cGht8tX8feVJNAozFQgH0y4kFvwKQKHC_Oe39qVKzPR4qUo0Eu7IOQgcq0-0FTaO7C/s1600/Carnival+1920s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="345" data-original-width="600" height="184" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3p5ciNf6kLPxN3dahWxQODmhYDaIA0shBVRzeDIUEFrdwipjL0yVutS8RVp8_jVBlvzf6R5e9f_cGht8tX8feVJNAozFQgH0y4kFvwKQKHC_Oe39qVKzPR4qUo0Eu7IOQgcq0-0FTaO7C/s320/Carnival+1920s.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">After she disappeared
behind the tent with one of her fellow carnies, Howard did not see her again. Taking
this account into consideration and given the fact that Preece recalls that
Howard was quite taken by this girl, one wonders whether he incorporated her
into any one of his numerous female characters. Preece thought Howard might
have done just that. “Subconsciously or otherwise this actual maverick woman
may have been his model for all the fantasized ones due to be born of his
ripened talent, years later.” (22) <br /><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It is at least interesting to imagine that Howard may
have used his memory of her for a female character for, perhaps, one or more of
his Conan yarns. Could she have been the model for a blonde-haired mercenary
named Valeria? Or could she have been the woman in “The Frost-Giant’s
Daughter,” whose “body was like ivory to his [Conan’s] dazed gaze . . .”
(Howard 32) Perhaps Howard used her as the model for Bêlit, who was “untamed as
a desert wind, supple and dangerous as a she-panther.” (127) There are any
number of possibilities where Howard may have used her. Or it may be that he
simply kept her to himself, choosing to tell only his friend, Harold Preece,
perhaps in an attempt to make her real again in the telling. Whatever the case
may be, she certainly left an indelible impression, and I for one, am glad that
Harold Preece chose to share Howard’s experience with his fans.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Works
Cited<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Howard, Robert E. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian</i>. New
York: Del Rey, 2003.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Preece, Harold.
"Women and Robert Ervin Howard." Edited by Jonathan Bacon. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Fantasy Crossroads</i>, May 1975, 20-22. (Volume
1, Number 3)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="mso-element: footnote-list;">
<!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<br />
<div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/TBV/Documents/The%20Carnival,%20The%20Girl,%20and%20The%20Smitten%20(REH%20and%20Women).docx#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> In
one of Howard’s letters to Clyde Smith, Howard attempts to avoid writing a
biography about himself for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Junto</i>,
for fear certain things about himself might get back to his mother (CL3.487-488)<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn2" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/TBV/Documents/The%20Carnival,%20The%20Girl,%20and%20The%20Smitten%20(REH%20and%20Women).docx#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
See The Cross Plains Review, Vol XII, No. 11, May 20, 1921.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn3" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/TBV/Documents/The%20Carnival,%20The%20Girl,%20and%20The%20Smitten%20(REH%20and%20Women).docx#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn3;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> In
Abilene, Texas a city fair was established in 1881, which later became a county
fair, and eventually became The West Texas Fair and Rodeo. By 1921, this fair
in Abilene would have been a county fair with an itinerant carnival coming in
to set up its show.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
</div>
<br />
This article was originally posted at James R. Schmidt's blog: <a href="https://mightythorjrs.wordpress.com/2018/04/13/reh-guest-blog-series-the-carnival-the-girl-and-the-smitten-teenager-by-todd-b-vick/?fbclid=IwAR3dqmFbp2PZEsSvwbit75Ns8Td1ZmGF487EnkWd9pwAFRlWwQGnH-q-jN4" target="_blank">MightyThorJRS</a>Todd B. Vickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09458339485515819645noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7281203981310562736.post-71560890526216984872019-07-28T10:00:00.000-05:002019-07-28T10:00:02.747-05:00“Black Canaan” vs. “Black Cunjer” by Bobby Derie<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvpkngpUzKBQbq_Rc46bHkWIqGhnzRtWTD2t-uoEJhG7FMe7I1g6csmQ7Mp1V_MiCqIY-mRlLIUDwAgl5FZSiTCAEhyphenhyphenUnj-a3h_fm5NwcuWudo2y1Cu84TwQv6ekQhKNeXknQ46tayUrzf/s1600/Black+Canaan.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="403" data-original-width="407" height="315" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvpkngpUzKBQbq_Rc46bHkWIqGhnzRtWTD2t-uoEJhG7FMe7I1g6csmQ7Mp1V_MiCqIY-mRlLIUDwAgl5FZSiTCAEhyphenhyphenUnj-a3h_fm5NwcuWudo2y1Cu84TwQv6ekQhKNeXknQ46tayUrzf/s320/Black+Canaan.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Black Canaan, from WT June 1936<br />
Illustrated by Harold S. Daley</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Robert E. Howard’s “Black Canaan” has almost become the go-to reference to the writer’s racism. Paul Shovlin describes the story as “the most contentious example of racial stereotype in the Howard corpus” (Pridas 95). Timothy Jones wrote: “There is no describing the crude racism of the tale.” (Jones 92). Even Howard biographer Mark Finn describes the story as “blatantly offensive” and adds:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Robert's treatment of Southern black culture is discussed mostly from the point of view of "Pigeons From Hell" and "Black Canaan." Howard fans have a hard time defending the latter against post-modern critical interpretation. But viewed within the context of Robert's canon, it's hard to condemn the story outright, even as it's easy to judge or misjudge it. (Finn 100)</blockquote>
While some critics have sought to place “Black Canaan” within the context of Howard’s fiction, few have sought to place it within the context of when and where it first appeared: Weird Tales. Issues of race and prejudice were no stranger to “The Unique Magazine,” which had published stories such as Eli Colter’s “The Last Horror” (<i>WT</i> Jan 1927) and numerous voodoo yarns by writers like Henry S. Whitehead, Arthur J. Burks, and Seabury Quinn which feature racial discrimination prominently. Yet one of the best stories to compare and contrast with “Black Canaan” is a story in the same setting, and dealing with the same subjects: voodoo, a conjure-man, & racism in the piney woods—Isabel Walker’s “Black Cunjer” (<i>WT</i> Jul-Aug 1923).<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
No other story in <i>Weird Tales</i> is associated with Isabel Walker, though she has a handful of contributions to other pulps; “Black Cunjer” might have been her first and last sale, or perhaps it was a pen-name for another writer. Whatever the case, the story has some peculiar similarities to Howard’s tale, in terms of language and setting. Given the date, there is even the chance that Robert E. Howard may have read “Black Cunjer” on its first and only publication; though in his letters Howard makes no reference to the magazine, and beyond that the background of “Black Canaan” is better-attested than most Howard tales. It began with a letter to H. P. Lovecraft:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Probably the most picturesque figure in the Holly Springs country was Kelly the “conjer man”, who held sway among the black population in the ‘70s. Son of a Congo ju-ju man was Kelly, and he dwelt apart from his race in silent majesty on the river. He must have been a magnificent brute, tall and supple as a black tiger, and with a silent haughtiness of manner that included whites as well as blacks. He had little to say and was not given to idle conversation. He did no work, nor did he ever take a mater, living in mysterious solitude. He always wore a red shirt, and large brass ear-rings in his ears added to the color of his appearance. He lifted “conjers” and healed disease by incantation and nameless things made of herbs and ground snake-bones. The black people called him Doctor Kelly and his first business was healing Later he began to branch into darker practices. Niggers came to him to have spells removed, that enemies had places on them, and the manner of his removal must have been horrific, judging from the wild tales that circulated afterwards. Consumption was unknown there, almost, among whites, but negroes had it plentifully and Kelly professed to cure such victims by cutting open their arms and sifting in a powder made of ground snake-bones. At last negroes began to go insane from his practices; whether the cause was physical or mental is unknown to this day, but the black population came to fear him as they did not fear the Devil, and Kelly assumed more and more a brooding, satanic aspect of dark majesty and sinister power; when he began casting his brooding eyes on white folk as if their souls, too, were his to dandle in the hollow of his hand, he sealed his doom. There were desperate characters living in the riverlands, white folks little above the negro in civilization, and much more dangerous and aggressive. They began to fear the conjure man and one night he vanished. Nor is it difficult to picture what happened in that lonely cabin, shadowed by the pine forest—the crack of a shot in the night, the finishing stroke of a knife, then a sullen splash in the dusky waters of the Ouachita—and Kelly the conjure man vanished forever from the eyes of men. —Robert E. Howard to H. P. Lovecraft, Dec 1930, <i>MF</i> 1.109-110, <i>CL</i> 2.134</blockquote>
Lovecraft’s response does not survive, but in the next letter it becomes apparent that the Yankee pulpster was encouraging his Texan peer to turn the anecdote into a full-fledged story. Howard would write in reply:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Kelly the conjure-man was quite a character, but I fear I could not do justice to such a theme as you describe. I hope you will carry out your idea in writing the story you mention, of a pre-negroid African priest reincarnated in a plantation negro. As for me handling this theme better than yourself, it is beyond the realms of possibility, regardless of any first-hand knowledge of background which I might possess. [...] I hope you will write this story some time, and if any of my anecdotes of pine land and negro lore can be used in any way, or give you any ideas, you are more than welcome to them.—Robert E. Howard to H. P. Lovecraft, Jan 1931, <i>MF</i> 1.129-130, <i>CL</i> 2.157-158</blockquote>
Lovecraft wrote back to Howard:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I don’t agree that you couldn’t do justice to Kelly, the Conjer-Man, and his Atlantean antecedents, in a story—and you will try it some day. I have a whole book full of idea-jottings which I could never write up if I lived to be a thousand [...]—H. P. Lovecraft to Robert E. Howard, 30 Jan 1931, <i>MF</i> 1.144</blockquote>
Lovecraft’s Commonplace Book includes two entries along these lines, although they date from 1923:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
108: “Educated mulatto seeks to displace personality of white man & occupy his body”<br />
109: “Ancient negro voodoo wizard in cabin in swamp—possesses white man.”(<i>CE</i> 5.225)</blockquote>
Although he would never attempt either of these stories, the idea of mental possession and personality displacement would be prominent in several of Lovecraft’s later stories, especially "The Shadow Out of Time" (Astounding Jun 1936) and “The Thing on the Doorstep” (<i>WT</i> Jan 1937).<br />
<br />
Howard appears to have been inspired by Lovecraft to write up an article on the subject, titled “Kelly the Conjure-Man,” which he submitted to the Texaco Star (<i>MF</i> 1.114n7). The text is an expanded version of the anecdote in Howard’s original letter, adding more detail and atmosphere, and prefaced with a bit of verse:<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
There are strange tales told when the full moon shines<br />
Of voodoo nights when the ghost-things ran—<br />
But the strangest figure among the pines<br />
Was Kelly the conjure-man. (<i>HS</i> 376)</blockquote>
After this rejection, the idea appears to have been shelved. At some point Robert E. Howard reworked the basic idea and reworked and expanded it into a 12,400 word novella. Kelly the Conjure-man is the archetype for the conjer-man Saul Stark—but instead of a simple anecdote of a conjer-man living alone in the piney woods who disappears, Howard makes Stark the focus of a cult, in league with an unnamed mixed-race woman, who threatens an uprising in the racially divided Canaan. Opposing him is Kirby Buckner, a white man who aims to stop the uprising before it starts—and is weirdly attracted to Stark’s partner. The combination of racial tensions and voodoo culminate in a violent end.<br />
<br />
In September 1934, he submitted “Black Canaan” to his agent Otis Adelbert Kline. Two months later, the story was rewritten, but rejected by publishers (<i>IMH</i> 367). As was common with Howard, he saved paper by writing the drafts of stories on the back side of pages, so when he sent a manuscript to fan Emil Petaja in early 1935, Howard later had to explain:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The yarn on the back of the pages is — if I remember correctly — a weird story called “Black Canaan” based on a real life character with a realistic background (though the latter considerably altered) the region actually known as “Canaan” in southwestern Arkansas, between Tulip Creek and the Ouachita River, not far from the ancestral home of the Howards. The story hasn’t found a market so far —Robert E. Howard to Emil Petaja, 6 March 1935, <i>CL</i> 3.304</blockquote>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXVIc8eqWDWJF10_hgVK6ebanAqd1Gh0HUtDqv40D4qlmyd4QSS59ohzZlGg8RctC3ekF2XrNEbvL-gQR-N8KtRU256elaWUZhOMTR_Xx3wkptrAjCF8riB6Y4MhMghx76ek3pGGvTlwLR/s1600/Black+Canaan+Weird+Tales.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="707" data-original-width="471" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXVIc8eqWDWJF10_hgVK6ebanAqd1Gh0HUtDqv40D4qlmyd4QSS59ohzZlGg8RctC3ekF2XrNEbvL-gQR-N8KtRU256elaWUZhOMTR_Xx3wkptrAjCF8riB6Y4MhMghx76ek3pGGvTlwLR/s320/Black+Canaan+Weird+Tales.JPG" width="212" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">WT June 1936</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i>Weird Tales</i> accepted the story for publication in August 1935 (<i>IMH</i> 367). Two versions of “Black Canaan” are thus known: what is believed to be the earlier version, and the revised version which features more supernatural elements (and thus a better fit for Weird Tales). Howard would comment on the latter:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Ignore my forthcoming “Black Canaan”. It started out as a good yarn, laid in the real Canaan, which lies between Tulip Creek and the Ouachita River in southwestern Arkansas, the homeland of the Howards, but I cut so much of the guts out of it, in response to editorial requirements, that in its published form it won’t much resemble the original theme, woven about the mysterious figure of Kelly the Conjurman, who was a real character, back in the seventies — an ebon giant with copper rings in his ears and a gift of magic who came from nowhere and vanished into nowhere one dark night when the owls hooted in the cypresses and the wind moaned among the nigger cabins.—Robert E. Howard to August Derleth, 9 May 1936, <i>CL</i> 3.437-438</blockquote>
The degree to which the early draft and the final published version differ can be seen by comparing one of the first paragraphs in the early version:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Understood? How could any man raised between Tularoosa and Black River fail to understand that tense mumble? To such a man it could have but one meaning—old hates seething again in the jungle-deeps of the swamplands, dark shadows slipping through the cypress, and massacre and rape stalking like monstrous phantoms out of the black, mysterious village that broods on the moss-festooned shore of sullen Tularoosa. (<i>BCE</i> 1)</blockquote>
To the equivalent paragraph in the final version:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Understood? How could any Black RIver man fail to understand that warning? It could have but one meaning—old hates seething again in the jungle-deeps of the swamplands, dark shadows slipping through the cypress, and massacre stalking out of the black, mysterious village that broods on the moss-festooned shore of sullen Tularoosa. (<i>HS</i> 379)</blockquote>
Later changes would be more extensive, but in general, the edits are designed to make the prose tighter, to play down some of the histories of racial strife and tension which underlie the whole story, and especially to tone down suggestions of sex, though it was not absent from the final draft.<br />
<br />
“Black Cunjer” opens much more slowly than “Black Canaan,” having more in common with Howard’s original anecdote of Kelly the “conjer-man”:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Black Cunjer’s cabin was in the thick of the pine woods where the saw-mill had been located for a month. It had proved difficult to find any negroes in that vicinity willing to work there; money was no object when they feared Black Cunjer’s wrath.<br />
<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>They believed he exercised a sort of proprietorship over the forest—a claim much stronger than that of the actual property owners, a corporation which knew nothing and cared less about local superstition. Certain it is that from time immemorial Black Cunjer had lived in the heart of the woods, where the pines grew closest and the shadows made twilight of midday. There, it was whispered, within a semi-circle of tall trees he worshipped his god, and burned fire before him on black nights.<br />
<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>It was a mystery how the ancient negro managed to subsist, for there was no garden, nor cultivated acres about his dilapidated cabin. It was rumored that he ate bats and moles and that this repulsive fare gave him “night eyes,” so he could see in the dark. His eyes did have a curiously blank expression, imparting to his wizened face an unearthly aspect.<br />
<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>No one knew Black Cunjer’s age; the negroes thought he came straight from Africa two hundred years ago. Judge Blake said he remembered when the old man had been a boy on his father’s plantation, and that he clung to the cabin in the pine woods now, because his young wife had died there years ago and was buried in the semi-circular space of trees. Because they guarded her rest, and witnessed his religious rites for her soul, he had grown to regard the pins as sacred. (<i>WT</i> Jul-Aug 1923, 46)</blockquote>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg54w5Yyjs1IngFt27dbzcBK1b8BtBZhySSz4N1lAja9wEEJFvswFq9JUX0GHLDe9YDuJy6c2873GuFRmofnMeX37VtJWe2B12PsJ3If59amNpVgVBX8jT_8Zl8c9aUD2NZaqNnyiaffz8I/s1600/Black+Conjurer.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="597" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg54w5Yyjs1IngFt27dbzcBK1b8BtBZhySSz4N1lAja9wEEJFvswFq9JUX0GHLDe9YDuJy6c2873GuFRmofnMeX37VtJWe2B12PsJ3If59amNpVgVBX8jT_8Zl8c9aUD2NZaqNnyiaffz8I/s320/Black+Conjurer.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From WT Jul-Aug. 1923</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Black Cunjer’s peace is invaded by Hock Oberman, white foreman of a crew of black loggers. The strip the forest bare—but none of the the crew will cut down the trees around Black Cunjer’s cabin, and when they try accidents begin to befall them.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Well, Hock Oberman would show then—he’d give these niggers a lesson they’d never forget! (<i>WT</i> Jul-Aug 1923, 47)</blockquote>
Oberman murders Black Cunjer in a fit of anger...but dies himself soon after, boot welling up with blood where he touched the old man’s body. Nor would the trees around his cabin ever be cut down.<br />
<br />
The two stories share common elements: while “Black Cunjer” has no specifics as to what state or region it is set in, the references to plantation, slavery, and the piney woods all place it in roughly the same Southern milieu as “Black Canaan,” both in terms of geography and culture. The racial tensions in “Black Cunjer” are less pronounced but still very much the core of the narrative. Stereotypes of Southern black culture are shared as well: black people are presented as superstitious, often ignorant, always speaking in a local dialect; Africa is presented as a place of mystery and dark menace, its affiliation with black people strong even for those who have never been there. Racial epithets are in common parlance, not even remarked upon by characters in the story.<br />
<br />
What has changed from 1923 to 1936 is not the essential racism that underlies both tales. The black conjure-man is a figure of fear to white men for their power: refusal to submit to a white man is considered a challenge of his authority, a dangerous precedent which is met with violence and death. Reader sympathies may shift because Saul Stark is openly villainous while Black Cunjer is the victim, but the same tensions and attitudes are consistent across the decade-plus from when “Black Cunjer” was published and “Black Canaan” was submitted for publication.<br />
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The major difference between how these stories approach these attitudes is that Robert E. Howard’s narrative in “Black Canaan” places the racial conflict and its long and ugly history very much upfront and as the crux of the story. In contrast to “Black Cunjer,” the plot in “Black Canaan” is more complex and takes longer to work out—but the very focus and attention that Howard gives to the racial dynamics in the story, both internal to Kirby Buckner and external to how the peoples of Canaan are divided and react to one another—set the tales apart.<br />
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“Black Cunjer” is crude racism; crude in the sense that the background is, for the most part, understood and remains unspoken, aside from casual use of the N-word. There is no deep psychology to Hock Oberman’s hatred or overbearing attitude toward and derision of the black men who labor under his command. With the exception of Black Cunjer himself, the black characters in Walker’s story are little more than stereotypes, with only one given a name or any hint of personality:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Tom, a strapping, light-colored negro, who the foreman said was the only one with a spoonful of brains, spoke in a vibrant undertone that sent an electric tenseness through the group: </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“Dyah he now,” Tom said—”dyah ole Black Cunjer comin’ up de road straight to’ard dis camp! Lordy, lordy, he gwine truck as all...he say nobody cyant cross his threshold—he gwine cross ourn now”—his voice died in a sort of wail. (<i>WT </i>Jul-Aug 1923, 46)</blockquote>
This is the context in which Howard’s “Black Canaan” should be understood, if not appreciated. The subject matter is unpleasant, today as it was when it was first published in 1936. Yet the racial attitudes laid bare in “Black Canaan” are not hidden or ignored; they drive the characters, white, black, and mixed-race. Through Howard’s narrative, the race-conflict is presented starkly, at both an individual and a group level. Many of the unspoken thoughts and ideas present in “Black Cunjer” are spoken outright in “Black Canaan.”<br />
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More than “Black Cunjer,” “Black Canaan” crosses the line between realistic portrayal of the bone-deep racism of the post-Reconstruction South into racial fantasy. Neither story portrays a simple picture of race where members of one race are “good” and another “bad,” but in “Black Cunjer” there is no effort to take racism beyond simply prejudice. The story is isolated, plays into no larger fears—the only thing at stake is a lumber contract. By contrast, the fear in “Black Canaan” is “uprising” before all else—the fear that haunted plantations before the war, that lay behind Jim Crow laws and segregation—and the often unspoken sexual appeal of breaking the taboo against miscegenation. Paul Shovlin argues:<br />
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[...] "Black Canaan" offers a parallel that might be read as a fantasy version of the reality that surrounded Howard, the murky life and race relations after the imagined certainties of the frontier were gone and settlement led to decay rather than the development of truly "civil" society. (<i>Prida</i> 99)</blockquote>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUBU8ACGy1y5KyNv2FNgdTzqKrHjRm4cUpdOABs85soDyukEdOJRVttwwzyILgDo_dLAyf7DnHgL22OeHpAIyullkDtAUyUBzUOiJa-oX2wbua-Y57dH5O9pP_oDiO4NtFj_Uod1hmh4uu/s1600/Black+Canaan+Kirby+Buckner.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="713" data-original-width="521" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUBU8ACGy1y5KyNv2FNgdTzqKrHjRm4cUpdOABs85soDyukEdOJRVttwwzyILgDo_dLAyf7DnHgL22OeHpAIyullkDtAUyUBzUOiJa-oX2wbua-Y57dH5O9pP_oDiO4NtFj_Uod1hmh4uu/s320/Black+Canaan+Kirby+Buckner.JPG" width="233" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kirby Buckner, "Black Canaan<br />
Illustrated by Greg Staples</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
In this fantasy, Kirby Buckner is no literal white knight riding in to the rescue. Canaan is a moral swamp as much as a physical one, and the characters live in that world of degrees of separation between white and black—and brown—and “swamp niggers” versus “town niggers.” A place where extralegal violence is common and expected. The pine woods of “Black Cunjer” are not much different; the racism is simply more implicit than explicit.<br />
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The fantasy of “Black Canaan” is marked by the realism of the racism that Howard portrays. The depths to which every character in the story seems to know and accept and live the reality of it, which is most offensive—but in that, how is it different from “Black Cunjer”? Where Howard crosses the line is, perhaps, when “Black Canaan” hints at the outright supernatural:<br />
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Sick with horror, I watched her whirl reelingly into the mazes of a dance that was ancient when the ocean drowned the black kings of Atlantis. (<i>BCE</i> 33)</blockquote>
Readers of Howard might see a call back here to the Solomon Kane story “The Moon of Skulls” (WT Jun-Jul 1930) It is the African connection, touched on so very briefly by Isabel Walker, which Howard develops just a little more to suggest something older and unnatural, to hint at something that goes beyond the history of slavery and the Civil War and Reconstruction in the US. It is the touch of outsideness which Lovecraft would praise when he wrote of the story, shortly before hearing of the death of Robert E. Howard:<br />
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His “Black Canaan” is likewise magnificent in a more realistic way—reflecting a genuine regional background & giving a clutchingly powerful picture of the horror that stalks through the moss-hung, shadow-cursed, serpent-ridden swamps of the far south.—H. P. Lovecraft to Henry Kuttner, 15 Jun 1936, <i>LCM</i> 245</blockquote>
So when readers and critics consider “Black Canaan” in the context of Weird Tales—it is well to remember “Black Cunjer” as well. Racism and prejudice in all its forms were not foreign to the pulps, but it was a rare pulp writer could delve into the psychology of race in the Deep South and take that somewhere new. The subject is horrific, but it is portrayed as horrific. Howard makes it as horrific as he can. Which may be why “Black Canaan” is still remembered and republished, while “Black Cunjer” lies mostly neglected and forgotten—Howard comes to grips with his subject that remains vital to life today.<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN">Abbreviations<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN">BCE<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Black Canaan Early Version<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN">CE<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>H. P. Lovecraft: Collected Essays </span></i><span lang="EN">(5 vols.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN">CL<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The Collected Letters of Robert E. Howard
</span></i><span lang="EN">(3 vols. + Index & Addenda)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN">HS<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN">IMH<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The Collected Letters of Dr. Isaac M.
Howard<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN">LCM<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Letters to C. L. Moore and Others<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN">MF<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>A Means to Freedom: The Letters of H P.
Lovecraft & Robert E. Howard </span></i><span lang="EN">(2 vols.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN">Other
Works Cited<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<span lang="EN">Finn,
Mark (2013). <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Blood & Thunder: The
Life and Art of Robert E. Howard. </i>The Robert E. Howard Foundation Press.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<span lang="EN">Jones,
Timothy (2015). <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Gothic and the
Grotesque in American Culture</i>. Cardiff, Wales, UK: University of Wales
Press.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<span lang="EN">Prida,
Jonas, ed. (2013). <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Conan Meets the
Academy: Multidisciplinary Essays on the Enduring Barbarian. </i>Jefferson, NC:
McFarland & Co.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Todd B. Vickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09458339485515819645noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7281203981310562736.post-41476136470612254112019-07-14T11:25:00.001-05:002019-07-14T12:16:47.172-05:00A Tale of Two Letters by Bobby Derie<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfRZ0ONoplewppLq6bKwEvf6kvvVvZvQcs2CXvOKp26ydtwsDsTb5DjXXUvs3A9lj9VjBqVaicXP-hD5GAXFPQUZ6-kGkCjgXTTIFTtCc1TMTFPDn5ssPDqhRQ4UQjLCM_yj6Fy5Om42VR/s1600/Bobby_Letter+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1224" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfRZ0ONoplewppLq6bKwEvf6kvvVvZvQcs2CXvOKp26ydtwsDsTb5DjXXUvs3A9lj9VjBqVaicXP-hD5GAXFPQUZ6-kGkCjgXTTIFTtCc1TMTFPDn5ssPDqhRQ4UQjLCM_yj6Fy5Om42VR/s400/Bobby_Letter+1.jpg" width="305" /></a></div>
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Not every letter from every pulp writer that survives has been published; many remain on the open market and in private hands, coming up for sale from time to time...and they have stories to tell about Robert E. Howard.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4fRQjjLKaUXa-pmtXJqJnZ6V6EzGnlhwNuGzRNjban7hsiLbO2djM0HcRkPGC5Ju3gHSRDq9cQ4pqfI617fA9CNgHVEeoL1jxCC0emV_7F6qZfgKiDU8uwbNJZukyTCPMMaXNl05GVpmK/s1600/Bobby_Letter+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="387" data-original-width="802" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4fRQjjLKaUXa-pmtXJqJnZ6V6EzGnlhwNuGzRNjban7hsiLbO2djM0HcRkPGC5Ju3gHSRDq9cQ4pqfI617fA9CNgHVEeoL1jxCC0emV_7F6qZfgKiDU8uwbNJZukyTCPMMaXNl05GVpmK/s400/Bobby_Letter+2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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The letter was posted on Facebook in Sep 2016 by Bob Meracle, who wrote of the acquisition: </div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="clear: both;">
One of the "lots" August Derleth Offered to sell to me (and I gladly snapped it up) was a collection of manuscripts which included 3 signed typewritten Conan stories. I sold the 3 a couple decades ago, but held onto this cool note that was sandwiched between them.</blockquote>
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While not explicitly stated, these typescripts were likely originally from the collection of R. H. Barlow. In 1932, Barlow solicited manuscripts and typescripts from Robert E. Howard, H. P. Lovecraft, C. L. Moore, and other pulp writers, and Howard responded by sending several early typescripts for stories. Barlow’s receipt of these typescripts is mentioned in his 1933 diary, as well as in surviving letters from Howard. (<i>CL</i> 2.519; 3.47, 219) After Barlow’s death, his mother sold his collection.</div>
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The identity of the recipient is unknown; the name on the letter, although effaced, is too long to be "Barlow," and we know Howard sent Barlow a letter dated the very next day (14 June 1934, <i>CL</i> 3.215), so it is unlikely that Barlow was the recipient. So we are left with only the internal evidence of the letter. The reference to a request for a snap-shot recalls Barlow’s correspondence with H. P. Lovecraft in late 1933, although this might be coincidental. (<i>OFF</i> 78, 81) The reference to turpentine camps and voodoo is thus the primary clue.</div>
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“Turpentine camps” were work camps, largely employing black labor, including leased convict labor and sometimes workers held in debt bondage (i.e. charging them for food, clothing, etc. more than their wages could supply). These workers distilled turpentine from the resiny pine forests in the southern United States; during the 1930s their geographic range extended from North Carolina to Louisiana near the Texas border, with notable operations in Georgia and Florida. Zora Neale Hurston visited such camps to collect folk songs, magical recipes, and stories, some of which were published in academic articles and her collection Mules and Men (1935).</div>
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This was part of a general trend of anthropologists and collectors of ethnic music and folklore visiting prisons, work camps, and remote communities in the 1930s to record this material before it was lost—including a friend of R. H. Barlow.</div>
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Well, well—& so a friend of yours, like William B. Seabrook, has come into first-hand contact with the horrors of Damballa & his serpents. Who knows what waddling nigger washerwoman may not be a potent & dangerous mamaloi with power to evoke nameless horrors & send hideous zombis stalking through the land!—H. P. Lovecraft to R. H. Barlow, 21 Oct 1933 (<i>OFF</i> 83)</blockquote>
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Thanks tremendously for the voodoo report, which I've read with extreme interest. your friend seems to have been quite an amateur Wm. B. Seabrook—& the experience must have been powerfully moving in its way. Later on, if you ever make a copy, I certainly wouldn't mind a spare carbon. Those "geachi" blacks must be rather an interesting study.—H. P. Lovecraft to R. H. Barlow, 13 Nov 1933 (<i>OFF</i> 85)</blockquote>
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That voodoo encounter surely was picturesque—I'd hardly care to get into such close quarters with a crowd of excited blacks, but anthropological zeal will carry one far. So the "geechis" owe their superiority to insular isolation! I believe that, in general, all the Carolina island negroes are called "gullahs", & that their dialect differs from that of the mainland blacks. No doubt the geechis are a variety of these.—H. P. Lovecraft to R. H. Barlow, 29 Nov 1933 (<i>OFF</i> 88)</blockquote>
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William Seabrook was a notable writer; works like The Magic Island (1929) concerning Haitian vodou, which Lovecraft read while visiting Henry S. Whitehead in Florida in 1931, helped popularize voodoo in the United States (and among the readers of Weird Tales); Robert E. Howard also referred to Seabrook in his letters (<i>CL</i> 3.444). The Gullah (also Geechee, etc.) are distinct African-American communities in South Carolina and Georgia who speak a creole language and have a creole culture.</div>
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Barlow’s friend is unidentified in the surviving letters, nor is there a specific mention of turpentine camps; the correlation of reference to snap-shots and study of voodoo in 1933 could be coincidental—as could the location of the note among a parcel of typescripts probably once owned by Barlow. Still, it is not unreasonable to conjecture that Barlow might have encouraged his friend to write to Robert E. Howard asking for a snapshot, and to share his experiences with the Texas pulpster.</div>
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Whether there was any more to this correspondence is unknown; there are no references to turpentine camps in Howard’s other correspondence, and references to voodoo are few and do not appear to be related. Likewise, we have no evidence of any direct influence on Howard’s life or writing—thought it is perhaps notable that in late 1934 Howard wrote “Pigeons from Hell,” his story which most prominently features voodoo, including reference to Damballah and zombies.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU_Yp_9CiIzt922ld9O1E-7OFk4yFsWV1ZPj3tafhM5DvZq_UrncbPMyEo3ktGTrfjxzUW73sNMpbKEZIYhIMj06GOH1NvAT4Yy6PdDQmQlUMB5Fu_Dt2QwtRKt08URQpnVqBPIUhLMMCh/s1600/Bobby_Letter+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="186" data-original-width="810" height="91" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU_Yp_9CiIzt922ld9O1E-7OFk4yFsWV1ZPj3tafhM5DvZq_UrncbPMyEo3ktGTrfjxzUW73sNMpbKEZIYhIMj06GOH1NvAT4Yy6PdDQmQlUMB5Fu_Dt2QwtRKt08URQpnVqBPIUhLMMCh/s400/Bobby_Letter+3.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Sold on eBay in early 2019, this note is brief but interesting. While the last digit of the year is undiscernable, Lovecraft gives his address on the back of the envelope as 66 College St., where he moved in May 1933 (OFF 61-63), setting one boundary; the other is a little tricky, as there is no reference to this note in the published correspondence of Lovecraft to R. H. Barlow, Donald Wandrei, or Bernard Austin Dwyer.</div>
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However, we do know that the contents were presumably sent in early or mid January, and included two unpublished works—Robert E. Howard’s “The God in the Bowl” presumably being one of them, since it was not being published during the Texan’s lifetime. Lovecraft acknowledged receipt of C. L. Moore’s unpublished typescript for “Werewoman” in a letter dated 2 January 1936, so it is possible that he included Howard’s typescript or manuscript at the same time, though Lovecraft failed to mention this. (<i>OFF</i> 313) In a letter dated 29 Jan 1936, Lovecraft mentions both visiting with Donald Wandrei over the holiday and had heard from Dwyer. (<i>OFF</i> 314, 316) This note, postmarked the day after, could be a brief follow-up to that letter.</div>
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At the time, Barlow was compiling material for his amateur publication The Dragon-Fly, the second (and final) issue of which was published May 1936; a few years later Barlow would publish “Werewoman” in the second issue of another amateur magazine, Leaves (Winter 1938). “The God in the Bowl” was written by Robert E. Howard in 1932 and rejected by Weird Tales (<i>CL</i> 2.315n196, 329n209), just the kind of material that Barlow was looking for (and perhaps the reason Barlow sent Howard a copy of The Dragon-Fly in winter 1935, CL 3.417). Howard allowing a fan to have an unpublished and rejected story was not out of character: he had done the exact same thing when he allowed Charles D. Hornig to have “Gods of the North”/“The Frost-Giant’s Daughter” for The Fantasy Fan in 1934—and Barlow as a subscriber to TFF would have known that.</div>
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Whether Howard had lent Barlow the typescript for this purpose or simply for his collection as with the previous typescripts that Barlow had solicited from Howard is unclear, as there is no mention of it in the surviving correspondence. Ultimately the story was not published by Barlow. No surviving draft or typescript for “The God in the Bowl” is known to have been associated with Barlow either, which raises the possibility that an unknown draft of “The God in the Bowl” might exist or have existed at some point—imagine a version of the story starring Amra of Akbitania, following the same convention of renaming Conan as in “Gods of the North!”</div>
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This brief note is the only reference that shows Barlow or Lovecraft were aware of or had read “The God in the Bowl”—a very untypical Conan story, to say the least, whose reference to law, justice, and police work echoes Lovecraft and Howard’s correspondence on those subjects in the early 1930s. If the typescript had been sent to Barlow some period of time after the teenager’s initial correspondence with Howard in 1933, in response to a solicitation for unpublished material, it might explain why there is no reference to it in Howard’s earlier letters.</div>
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Both letters are ultimately ciphers: there is more to conjecture about than any hard facts to go by, other than the apparently indisputable facts that Howard received a letter from someone who claimed to have witnessed voodoo at a turpentine camp, and that Lovecraft had received “The God in the Bowl” from Barlow and apparently read it.</div>
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Works Cited</div>
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CL<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> The Collected Letters of Robert E. Howard</div>
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OFF O Fortunate Floridian! </div>
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Todd B. Vickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09458339485515819645noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7281203981310562736.post-90669872795076208022019-03-31T08:18:00.001-05:002019-03-31T08:18:37.977-05:00Robert E. Howard’s Cow by Bobby Derie<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Yes, there was a cow. I saw the critter. Her name was Delhi, and hump shouldered to suggest Indian blood—Asian-Indian, I mean.—E. Hoffmann Price to L. Sprague de Camp, 11 Feb 1977 (IMH 297)</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
LT: A Guernsey milk cow, named Delhi (pron. dell-high). I think I told you about that one time.—Lindsey Tyson, interview with L. Sprague & Catherine Crook de Camp, 7 Mar 1978</blockquote>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Howard House date unknown</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The Howard House in Cross Plains, Texas sits on a grassy lot, some ways away from Main Street (Highway 206) and the downtown district, with a field behind it. When the Howards lived there, the property included a barn, and though not rural in any real sense—the Howards could easily see their next door neighbors—the country was not far off, and they had space to grow vegetables and keep a few animals. H. P. Lovecraft, a native to cities, was under the impression that they lived on a small farm (ES2.523-524, LFB 32), but Robert E. Howard declared:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
We are not farmers. We live in a small town and have only a very small piece of land, but we have enough to keep a little stock and raise a garden. Right now we have far more than we need of greens, radishes, turnips, and the like. We have been taking cattle, hogs and canned stuffs on debts, as well as grain and feed. We have a good supply of hay, oats, cotton-seed, maize, and corn, and we have meal and flour ground from corn and wheat we got the same way. We have milk from our own cow, and plenty of meat. We had a whole calf canned — it’s surprizing how much meat a good fat calf makes — cans of steak, roast-beef, soup, hash, chili, liver, heart, tongue — everything but the hoofs.—Robert E. Howard to H. P. Lovecraft, Jan 1932 (CL2.297, MF1.259)</blockquote>
<br />
This was the first reference to the Howards owning a cow, possibly taken in trade by Dr. Howard, as the Great Depression made itself known and cash was in short supply. Novalyne Price recalled: “A lot of people couldn’t pay a doctor bill, but they could give a dozen eggs.” (DS 10) and observed that Dr. Howard took payment in meat and vegetables. (OWWA 167, cf. CL2.450, MF1.396)<br />
The Agricultural Outlook for 1932 produced by the U. S. Department of Agriculture noted that in the face of weakening demand the price of beef—and cattle—had declined; average price per head had dropped from $56.69 in 1929 to $26.64 in 1931, for a national loss in value of $730 million dollars. (31) The response from the government was the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933, a New Deal program under which the government purchased millions of stock animals, not to butcher or process, but simply to kill them and reduce the supply. Milch cows (or milk cows, the terms were used interchangeably) were often advertised for sale and trade in the local newspapers—there are many advertisements thus in the Cross Plains Review, Brownwood Bulletin, and Abilene Morning Reporter—but cash prices are difficult to come by.<br />
How long the Howards kept this cow, or even its name and breed, is unknown. Presumably it was this cow or a successor to which Howard refers when he wrote:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Nip suckles all impartially, with the possible exception of the stray kitten, who however, seems quite capable of taking care of itself, and which I’m trying to teach to stand on its hind-legs and drink milk squirted from the cow’s teat into its mouth. I haven’t had a cat that did that since Bebe.—Robert E. Howard to H. P. Lovecraft, May 1935 (CL3.323-324, MF2.850)</blockquote>
Nip and Bebe were two of the many cats around the Howard house. Dr. Howard would later recall:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
At the time of Robert's death, there were thirteen cats who had gathered up around the house. They were strays. I had spoken to him about carrying them away myself. He discouraged this, and continued milking his goats and feeding his cats. (IMH 269, WIW 151)</blockquote>
The ‘32 cow may or may not have been Delhi; Lindsey Tyson in a letter to L. Sprague de Camp dated 18 Feb 1977 claims the Howards owned the cow “4-5 years” before Robert E. Howard’s suicide in 1936, which would place ownership back to 1931 or ‘32. However, Delhi was not the Howard’s first cow, which Robert E. Howard described as:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
[...] a Jersey, and wild as a kite. Her teats were small, and she kicked and tossed her head and hooked, and raised hell generally and her calf was worse than she was. If she got through eating before I got through milking she’d turn her head, stare at me in feigned amazement as if she never saw me before and wondered what the hell I was doing there, and then kick out with both hind legs and go careering off around the lot, and sometimes I’d have to lasso her before I could catch her again. She was mean and vicious, and hooked me every chance she got, to say nothing of kicking the milk bucket out of my hand and stamping on my foot. Once I was leading her in at the lot gate, and she hooked me in the back, hooked me in the face when I turned, and an instant later hooked me beneath the heart and tore some skin off my ribs. This irritated me, and I gave her a bust on the jaw with my fist that knocked all the fight out of her and nearly broke her jaw. After that she never attempted to hook me again, but pulled all her other tricks, and her infernal calf nearly cost me an eye. Just a few days before it was traded off, along with her, I went into an adjoining lot to catch it and bring back to feed, and it refused to be caught, racing around wildly all over the lot, as big a fool as the old cow, and even meaner. I never could throw a rope worth a hang, and after a few attempts I lost patience, and ran at it and made a sort of flying tackle, aiming to grab it around the neck with my arms. Which I did, but it threw up its head just in time to spike me on its short, sharp horn. It caught me on the brow and instantly my eye was full of blood, but I hung on to the wretched beast, and got the rope on it and dragged it home — dragged is the word, because it always braced its legs and fought back every step of the way. All the time I was feeding the stock blood kept running into my eyes so I could hardly see, and when I got through and went into the house and looked into a glass, I found the horn had struck me just over my left eye, making a deep gash which penetrated to the bone. A fraction of an inch lower and it would have destroyed my eye, past doubt. I put some rub alcohol on it and it healed quickly, leaving only another scar of the many which decorate my features and body.—Robert E. Howard to H. P. Lovecraft, May 1935 (CL3.323-324, MF2.851)</blockquote>
<br />
The Howards traded this animal for Delhi, although it isn’t clear when. In April 1934, E. Hoffmann Price and his wife left his job in a garage in Oklahoma for his native California, and stopped in Cross Plains on the way—and by then, the Howards definitely had Delhi, which he described to Lovecraft:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
We have plenty of milk for them, because our cow came in fresh recently, but with a bull calf, to my disgust. I’d hoped for a heifer. The cow, Delhi, otherwise called the Begum, is a fine milch-cow, Guernsey with a touch of Brahma, or Holy Cow of India, which gives her more poise and a better temper than a Jersey cow generally possesses. She was bred with a registered Jersey bull, and I hoped much for the result, if it happened to be a heifer. But a mixed-breed milk bull is no good; all you can do is can him, so we gave him away. That is to say, you can’t make any money out of him, because everybody wants to breed their cows to a pure-bred registered animal. Price was much interested in Delhi’s Indian blood, and found her milk much to his liking. Indeed, her milk does taste better than any I ever drank, and tests out a very high percentage of butter fat; almost the maximum. On good grass she gives about four gallons a day, and in a dry lot, when well fed, she gives two to three gallons, enough for a medium sized family. I like her better than any cow I ever tried to milk. She has a splendid bag, and large teats, easy to juice, and she’s sensible, gentle and not nervous, as so many Jerseys are. [...] You have no idea what a relief it is to have a cow like Delhi.—Robert E. Howard to H. P. Lovecraft, May 1935 (CL3.323-324, MF2.850-851)</blockquote>
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The average pregnancy for a cow is 280 days; if Delhi gave birth around April or May, and the Howards had bred her, then it was impregnated around August 1933, so the Howards must have owned her since at least that time.<br />
<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>European colonizers brought their cattle (Bos taurus taurus) to the Americas in waves; including English breeds like the Jersey and Guernsey. Beginning in the late 19th century, however, some ranchers imported zebu, or Indian cattle (Bos indicus), to interbreed with their stock. The Indian breeds Nellore, Gir, Guzerat, and Krishna Valley were favored for their tolerance to heat, ability to withstand drought, and resistance to insects—traits that were passed down to offspring when crossbred with the European-derived cattle stock. (Parr 20) Cattle with significant zebu heritage are usually discernible by the characteristic hump on their back and dun color to their coat, as was the case with Delhi.<br />
In America, these cattle were called Brahma or Brahman, after the Hindu deity Brahma (and, by extension, the Brahmin varna which specialized in priests and teachers), and Robert E. Howard’s characterization of her as the “Holy Cow of India” portrays the common misconception of Hinduism’s complex relationship with cattle. Cattle feature prominently in Vedic literature, and an overall trend in Hindu religion promoted by the Brahmins since that period was for the cow to be held in higher esteem for its production of ritual offerings particularly ghee (clarified butter), and symbolic of various goddess-figures, and subject of various religious festivals, celebrations, and ceremonies. In some sects, penalties became associated with killing a cow or eating beef, and the doctrine of ahmisa (non-injury of living creatures) became a communal point for Buddhism, Jainism, and Hinduism. (Brown)<br />
The name “Delhi” likely comes from the famous Indian city; Lindsey Tyson’s pronunciation suggests either he or Robert E. Howard had never heard the city’s name spoken aloud. The nickname “Begum” comes from Turkish, the wife of the beg (or bey, baig, beig, begh, etc.), usually translated as “lord” or “chieftain”; “Lady,” in the sense of a title, would probably be a fair approximation of how Howard ment it. The term was used thus for several characters in Harold Lamb’s stories of the Middle East and Asia, which Howard read and borrowed terminology from, and it may be so again here.<br />
Lovecraft, as a cat-lover, was more enthusiastic about the Howard felines than bovines, but wrote to his Texas friend about his cattle:<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Your cows are likewise an interesting lot—and the touch of HIndoo ancestry adds picturesque atmosphere. Sorry the calf didn’t turn out to be a heifer—but better luck may occur next time. The vicious Jersey surely was a termagant, and your fight with her might have been an even more serious matter than it was. Glad you traded her off—I fancy she’ll be more useful as beef than as a milk factory!—H. P. Lovecraft to Robert E. Howard, 11 Jul 1935, MF2.856</blockquote>
The description of Delhi emphasizes her connection with the visit by the Prices to Cross Plains in ‘34 (Price and his wife would be through again later in 1935). E. Hoffmann Price was something of an Orientalist, fond of everything from the Middle East to the Far East, where he set many of his stories. Anecdotes of his life often involve his fondness for Persian rugs, Turkish coffee, using a Chinese chop to sign his name, Indian curry, and other exoticisms; all material he drew on for his contributions to Oriental Stories, a market he shared with Robert E. Howard. On his visit to Robert E. Howard in ‘34, Price noted:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
In our correspondence, Robert and I had, following our play of whimsy, placed much emphasis on the nomad's preference for sour rather than sweet milk; and because of my association with a good many Syrians in New Orleans, I had developed a genuine taste for leban, so Mrs. Howard never failed to set out a pitcher of buttermilk or "clabber" with each meal. (IMH 259, WIW 143)</blockquote>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">E. Hoffmann Price</td></tr>
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Leban (labneh) is a strained yogurt dish, often used as a dip or dessert, whose characteristic sour taste comes from the lactic acid produced by bacteria as the milk product ferments. In the United States before pasteurization or refridgeration were common, the unpasteurized milk could be churned for butter and cream, and the liquid left behind (often a bit sour, as the milk had already begun to ferment) would be buttermilk. Clabber is another sour milk product, where the milk was allowed to curdle until it thickened like yogurt.<br />
Sweet or sour, Robert E. Howard like his dairy:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Milk — I see people coaxing children to drink milk, and I can’t understand their dislike for it. I always drank it in huge quantities, and believe it’s one reason I was always so healthy. Cheese—give me limburger cheese, German sausage and beer and I’m content—yes, and a bit of what they call “smear-cake”—a rather unsavory name, for what we call cottage- or cream-cheese.—Robert E. Howard to H. P. Lovecraft, 2 Nov 1932 (CL2.458-459, MF1.436)</blockquote>
Neither Price nor Howard mention one of the more famous sour milk products—kumis. Any sugar can potentially be converted into alcohol, including lactose—the sugar expressed in milk.<br />
Kumis (also commonly kumiss or koumiss) is a fermented dairy product, traditionally created from fermented mare’s milk, although it can also be made from any other milk (the Cross Plains Review dated 31 Dec 1926 actually contains a recipe for it). A culturally important in the cultures of many Central Asian peoples, kumis was an appropriately exotic element of the alien cultures that Howard was fascinated with, and crops up a few times in his fiction, notably “The Sowers of the Thunder,” “The Daughter of Erlik Khan,” and “The Garden of Fear.”<br />
<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Price reflected on Delhi more than once in his recollections of the visit with the Howards, recalling:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
[...] the cottage near the outskirts, convenient to the pasture where Delhi, the little dun cow, grazed between milkings. (IMH 259-260, WIW 144)</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
How we led the Sacred Cow to pasture [...] (WIW 220)</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The home churned butter was only a start: there was also clabber. Thanks to Delhi, the little hump-backed cow who divided her time between her back yard shelter and the grazing areas of a number of vacant lots, dairy products were plentiful. (BOD 75)</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
In view of my fondness for pitchers of clabber and buttermilk, he knew that I was always interested in Delhi's well being. (IMH 265, WIW 148)</blockquote>
<br />
Robert E. Howard’s conscientiousness in the regard to keeping Price informed of Delhi’s health involved part of a letter:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I had occasion to occasion to suspect someone else wrongly, as it turned out. Delhi fell off in her milk so, that I became convinced somebody was milking her on the sly, a custom far from uncommon in these part. So I set a trap with her as bait, and hid myself in the barn with a shotgun, where I lurked broodingly for some time. But no sinister figure, armed with a milk pail, come sneaking in, yet at the next milking time her output was still scanty. So I made an estimate of her pregnancy and discovered it was time for her to go dry naturally. I suppose I should have apologized to somebody for thinking him a milk-thief, but I didn't know who to apologize to, as my suspicions had been rather sweeping.—Robert E. Howard to E. Hoffmann Price, 15 Feb 1936 (CL3.423, IMH 286-287, WIW 165)</blockquote>
<br />
Price later repeated this anecdote in his own words, using it as further evidence for his report that his Texan friend reported “enemies,” real or imagined. (BOD 83, IMH 265, WIW 140) When exactly this incident occurred is unclear; cows provide milk for about 10 months after giving birth. If Delhi calved around April 1934, her milk would probably give out around December of the same same year. The Howards may have bred her again—Price’s story of his brief visit in c. Nov 1935 do not explicitly mention Delhi or her milk—but it seems unlike the Texas pulpster would mention Delhi in early 1936 unless she was still present.<br />
<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>However, early 1936 also occasioned a long visits to Marlin, San Angelo, and Carlsbad, Texas, where Robert E. Howard’s mother was taking medical treatment for weeks at a time. (CL3.459, MF2.921) It may be they had difficulty looking after a cow when one or both of Robert E. Howard and Dr. Howard were away for such periods. In any event, shortly after they returned home in February, the Howards appear to have gotten goats:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
We got goats and for weeks she lived mainly on their milk.—Robert E. Howard to H. P. Lovecraft, 13 May 1936 (CL3.459, MF2.952, cf. OWA 280)</blockquote>
Howard had to learn how to milk goats (CL3.461, MF2.953), but seems to have treated them not too different from cows. In a letter to Weird Tales composed around this time, he noted:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Enthusiasm impels me to pause from burning spines off cactus for my drouth-bedeviled goats long enough to give three slightly dust-choked cheers for the April cover illustration. (CL3.462)</blockquote>
<br />
This practice appears to be one that the Texas pulpster had referred to earlier:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
A lady in Mission, near which Garner owns a good deal of land, told me last winter that many a time she’s seen him out in the pastures burning stickers off prickly pears for his cattle during drouths. A homely touch that I appreciate highly, because that’s all that kept the cattle in this section alive during the big drouth of ’17 and ’18.—Robert E. Howard to H. P. Lovecraft, 13 Jul 1932 (CL2.375, MF1.317)</blockquote>
<br />
Eating cacti might have saved the goats, but not even goat milk could save Mrs. Howard. No record has yet come forward as to what happened to the Howard’s livestock after the death of Robert E. Howard and his mother in July 1936. It appears that after their deaths, Dr. Howard sold the cow to the father of one of his son’s friends, Lindsey Tyson:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
This cow you spoke about, I believe was a resident of their place about 4 or 5 years before Bob's death, she was a Gurnsey Milchcow, I knew about her, as a matter of fact my father bought the cow from Dr. Howard, Bob had named the cow Delhi.—Lindsey Tyson to L. Sprague de Camp, 18 Feb 1977</blockquote>
Vinson was about seventy at the time, and his recollections slightly confused, but in this particular there is no reason to doubt his memory.<br />
<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Little enough remains of Delhi, between Howard’s letter to Lovecraft and Price’s recollection. A crossbreed milch cow isn’t likely to be registered; how much Brahma cattle was in her background is hard to say, though the dun color of her coat and the distinctive hump that Price recalled suggest more than the “touch” that Robert E. Howard reported...yet she would live on in Price’s memory for a long time, “Delhi, the Brahma-Jersey cow” (WIW 222), as would Howard’s mother, so that decades later he would write:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Mrs. Howard always gracious, always had clabbered milk (in lieu of the leban which Syrians offered me)—E. Hoffmann Price to L. Sprague de Camp, 2 Sep 1979 (IMH 332)</blockquote>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hester Jane Ervin Howard</td></tr>
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<br />
<br />
<b>Abbreviations</b><br />
<br />
<i>BOD Book of the Dead: Friends of Yesteryear</i><br />
<i>CL<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> The Collected Letters of Robert E. Howard</i><br />
<i>DS<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> Day of the Stranger</i><br />
<i>ES<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> Essential Solitude: The Letters of H. P. Lovecraft and August Derleth</i><br />
<i>IMH The Collected Letters of Dr. Isaac M. Howard</i><br />
<i>LFB Letters to F. Lee Baldwin, &c.</i><br />
<i>MF<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> A Means to Freedom: The Letters of H. P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard</i><br />
<i>WIW West Is West and Others</i><br />
<br />
<b>Other Works cited</b><br />
Brown, W. Norman (1964). “The Sanctity of the Cow in Hinduism.” Retrieved from:<br />
https://www.epw.in/system/files/pdf/1964_16/5-6-7/the_sanctity_of_the_cow_in_hinduism.pdf<br />
<br />
Parr, Virgil V. (1923). Brahman (Zebu) Cattle. Retrieved from: https://books.google.com/books?id=qN_-KqKUDCcC<br />
United States Department of Agriculture (Mar 1932). The Agricultural Outlook for 1932. Retrieved from: https://books.google.com/books?id=j8uA4Tl39hcC<br />
<br />
With thanks and appreciation for the help of Rusty Burke and Dave Goudsward.<br />
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Todd B. Vickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09458339485515819645noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7281203981310562736.post-87112699660370977052019-03-10T09:40:00.000-05:002019-03-10T09:41:06.744-05:00“Perhaps it is my wish to be devoured”: Altha of Almuric by Karen Joan Kohoutek <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLhva6ebg-Kfav2FYHY6tmS4T7XsqvHRwQZ-Mfblv9sSYf1X0DuR9gqE0ZVg2rTKgCfAvvGzIc0GqMuQK5MA-ryHMkd4NWkouYC6GZwjlQMDbiQEMxW8fbdxxMgiajP4FTyVQZvH4rR4qu/s1600/Almuric+in+Weird+Tales.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="321" data-original-width="220" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLhva6ebg-Kfav2FYHY6tmS4T7XsqvHRwQZ-Mfblv9sSYf1X0DuR9gqE0ZVg2rTKgCfAvvGzIc0GqMuQK5MA-ryHMkd4NWkouYC6GZwjlQMDbiQEMxW8fbdxxMgiajP4FTyVQZvH4rR4qu/s200/Almuric+in+Weird+Tales.jpg" width="136" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">WT May 1936</td></tr>
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The strong swordswoman characters created by Robert E. Howard (like Bêlit, Valeria, Dark Agnes, and Red Sonya of Rogatino) garner a lot of attention, and deservedly so. But his work also features a completely different, but equally distinctive, mode of strong female character, as found in his science fiction novel, <i>Almuric</i>.<br />
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The textural history of this novel is complex, as it was unfinished at the time of his death, and first published in 1939. The current available evidence suggests that it was finished by <i>Weird Tales</i>’ editor Farnsworth Wright, who “pieced together an ending from the first draft and used it to complete the second draft to make a complete story” (quoted by Douglas A. Anderson). In exploring the novel’s characters and their development, it should be kept in mind that certain elements may not have been Howard’s ultimate intent, although, as Anderson points out, “there is no actual evidence that Wright wrote or tampered much with the text.”<br />
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<i>Almuric</i> is the tale of Esau Cairn, a man "transported … from his native Earth to a planet in a solar system undreamed of by even the wildest astronomical theorists" (55). He was a man "born outside his epoch," with enormous physical strength, and "impatient of restraint and resentful of authority" (56). Struggling for survival on a bizarrely primitive alien world, full of giant beasts of prey, he finds himself for the first time "alive in every sense of the word," free from "the morbid and intricate complexes and inhibitions which torment the civilized individual" (74).<br />
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This story reflects statements Howard made in his letters to H.P. Lovecraft, about the invigorating effect of struggle and labor, and musing on what life would be like for a modern person thrust into a barbaric world. Notably, he says in such a primal, materially-oriented world, he’d prefer to be a true barbarian, "never troubling his head about abstractions, and really living his life to its fullest extent" (507).<br />
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Carin falls from this Eden of direct physical experience when he learns there are other people on the world, who seem to speak English. Unexpectedly, "a desire for human companionship" overtakes him (77), and he ventures to a walled city, where he is quickly captured and imprisoned although his strength and endurance will win him a place with the warriors of the tribe. Here he meets Altha, a young woman immediately associated with “some gentle and refined civilization” in the narrator’s mind (82). Previously, Cairn hadn’t seen refined civilization as a good thing, but it seems like a more positive thing when represented by a pretty girl with "lissome limbs" (ibid).<br />
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She re-enters the story when he’s held as a prisoner, and speaks in Cairn's defense with a strong sense of justice that is unusual in her society, otherwise so focused on physical might and the struggle for survival. At the idea that they are brutally treating a man who "came alone and with empty hands," she cries out, “It’s beastly!” (89-90)<br />
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Beastliness is a significant attribute: a few pages later, Cairn will explain that he came to this city because "I was tired of living among wild beasts" (91). By opposing what's "beastly," Altha is in a sense speaking up for the higher values, including the sense of right and wrong, that separate humanity from animals.<br />
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Eventually Cairn's exposition tells us more about the world where Altha has grown up. With their harsh existence, the men are "ape-like" (82), rough and physical, without any “superficial adjuncts of chivalry” (107). The women, however, are sheltered and protected, “carefully guarded and shielded both from danger and from the hard work that is the natural portion of the women of Earthly barbarians” (106). In their intimate relationships, the women are treated with "savage tenderness" by their men, who "assume all authority. The Gura woman has no say whatsoever in the government of the city and tribe … Her scope is narrow; few women ever set foot outside the city in which they are born" (ibid).<br />
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Despite their limited, even cloistered existence, Cairn (or the author) stresses that "time does not seem to drag for them. The average woman could not be persuaded to set foot outside the city walls … they are content" (107). Within this society, generally treated like an over-protected child, a woman like Altha can still be whipped until she’s bloody for disobedience, which is mentioned as a possibility (90, 112, 113), an adjunct to the fact that she’s considered more a possession than a human being with moral agency.<br />
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As Altha becomes more strongly contrasted to the "average woman" within her society, her story takes on more the nature of an allegory. The primitive peoples of Almuric are contrasted to the "civilized" people of Earth, but at the same time, their everyday unconsciousness evokes the similar complacency of many civilized men and women. Taking their existence and the kind of society they live in for granted, the "average" person isn’t expected to question his or her lot in life.<br />
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Before long, Cairn, hunting in the dangerous wilds miles outside the city walls, discovers how strong her difference is from the average woman her society expects her to be, when he finds her running from one of the planet's monstrous birds.<br />
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“You are not like the other women,” he tells her. "Folk say you are willful and rebellious without reason. I do not understand you" (111). She ignores this statement, but lets him know that if he brings her back, all she will do is "run away again--and again--and again!" (112). She is compelled to do something which is considered unthinkable among the women of her tribe, but which is a marker of just how discontent she is with her life.<br />
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When Cairn points out the danger that "some beast will devour you,” she responds with defiance: "So! … Perhaps it is my wish to be devoured” (ibid).<br />
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Since Altha has every privilege in her world, Cairn is puzzled by this, and she responds by posing a philosophical dilemma: “To eat, drink, and sleep is not all … The beasts do that.” And then she explains herself in a powerfully articulate speech: "Life is too hard for me. I do not fit, somehow, as the others do. I bruise myself on the rough edges. I look for something that is not and never was" (ibid).<br />
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This statement is again reminiscent of comments in Howard’s letters to Lovecraft, describing how the shaman of a barbaric time would suffer as "a distorted dweller in a half world, part savage and part budding consciousness" (507). This aptly describes Altha’s position as a thoughtful, reasoning person, who is not socialized to the environment of savagery where she has always lived.<br />
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When she continues to question. "What constitutes life? … Is the life we live all there is? Is there nothing outside and beyond our material aspirations?" (113), Cairn tells her that on his home world, "there is much grasping and groping for unseen things," adding that "I met many people who were always following some nebulous dream or ideal, but I never observed that they were happy" (ibid).<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1964 Ace Books Almuric<br />
cover illustration by<br />
Jeff Jones</td></tr>
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As is the situation for people back on planet Earth, Altha's "groping for unseen things" is not something she can truly control, which sets her apart, feeling isolated and alone, as the only one questioning anything within this stagnant society, which has been described as "stationary, neither advancing nor retrogressing" (105). Her interest in the story’s lug of a hero lies in the fact that, like her, he’s different from the average person in her society, and his isolation makes him seem like a kindred spirit.<br />
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At this point, Cairn, who is not himself much of a thinker, completely misunderstands her. He thinks she’s looking for “more superficial gentleness,” or conventional chivalry, from him (113). Looking at her through the distorted lens of his own expectations, he deeply misunderstands her perspective. She has been talking seriously about far-reaching, existential concerns – questioning the point of being alive -- and has not suggested anything about a romantic connection between them, much less expressed any desire for him to treat her with “gentleness.” But while Cairn as the narrator is clueless about this, the author who put the words in her mouth clearly isn’t.<br />
<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
In the end, after the two have become as a couple, they work to bring “culture” to the planet (193). It’s possible that this wasn’t the ending Howard envisioned, but as Anderson points out, it does seem fitting for a work influenced by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Working together, Altha and Esau Cairn operate as a synthesis of opposite approaches to life, showing that a society needs places for both the body and the mind. Altha was miserable on Almuric, and Cairn was a freak on Earth, because her world treated the material as all, and his devalued the material too much, but the two complement each other, which could easily have a symbolic meaning.<br />
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With her desire for things that never were, the idea of bringing culture to Almuric seems likely to have been Altha’s. Women are often talked about as a civilizing influence on a society, a common trope when talking about, say, the American frontier. Here, that role is taken not by women as a general class, but by one individual woman whose philosophical bent makes her an outsider among her own people, but also makes her a potentially elevating force. <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
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Cairn still attributes this quality to her having "the gentler instincts of an Earthwoman" (193), which doesn't quite describe a girl who'd rather be torn apart by wild animals than live a dull and sheltered life with a narrow scope.<br />
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<b>Works Cited</b><br />
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Anderson, Douglas A. “New Evidence on the Posthumous Editing of Robert E. Howard’s ALMURIC.” A Shiver in the Archives. http://ashiverinthearchives.blogspot.com/2016/03/new-evidence-on-posthumous-editing-of.html<br />
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Howard, Robert E. Adventures in Science Fantasy. The Robert E. Howard Foundation Press, 2012.<br />
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Howard, Robert E. and H.P. Lovecraft. A Means to Freedom: The Letters of H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard. Two Volumes. Edited by S.T. Joshi, David E. Schultz, and Rusty Burke. New York, NY: Hippocampus Press, 2011.Todd B. Vickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09458339485515819645noreply@blogger.com1