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.” (CL 3.287)
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| Solomon Kane (Ken Kelly) |
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 Renegades
and Rogues. 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?
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 (CL
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.” (CL 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.
Recently, Kurt B. Shoemaker’s zine, “The Happiest Blue Elephant,” was published in PEAPS (The Pulp Era Amateur Press Society). In Shoemaker's zine there is a section titled “‘Sir Piegan Passes’ by W.C. Tuttle.” (PEAPS #31, 15 June 2020) In this section Shoemaker discusses Tuttle’s story (“Sir Piegan Passes”) that was published in Adventure 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.” (Adventure XLII.1.121)
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| Adventure (10 August 1923) |
When
Tuttle’s story was published in the August 10, 1923 edition of Adventure
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 Adventure
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
Adventure.
Howard loved Adventure, 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 Adventure: 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 (Talbot Mundy and Harold Lamb) appeared in the August 10 1923 Adventure 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.
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 Adventure magazines. So, lifting the name
of a character used in a story from Adventure 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.
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| Adventure cover (10 Aug. 1923) |
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 Adventure. 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 Weird Tales, how
is it that Tuttle never said anything about Howard’s Solomon Kane? It is
possible that Tuttle never read Weird Tales 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.
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 where Howard discovered
the name Solomon Kane, Tuttle’s story certainly plays an integral if not the
pivotal part.
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.
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Works Cited
CL Collected Letters
PEAPS The Pulp Era Amateur Press Society
ADV Adventure
[Special thanks to Bobby Derie for his input on this article]
