Unspeakable! The Secret History of Nameless Cults by Bobby Derie

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.

Farnsworth Wright to H. P. Lovecraft, 2 Apr 1934

Dear Mr. Lovecraft: I just received your letter of last Friday, and hasten to answer it. 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". 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. I envy him his trip. 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. 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... 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. I was surprized, when I read the page-proofs of THROUGH THE GATES OF THE SILVER KEY, to find no mention whatever of Unaussprechlichen Kulten. So there was nothing to change. In the typescript of Mrs. Heald's story, OUT OF THE EONS, Unaussprechlichen Kulten is mentioned twice; and I have changed this in the typescript (following Howard's example) to Nameless Cults. Thanks again for your promptness. Regards to both you and Barlow. Cordially yours, Wright.

 

Farnsworth Wright

[[ Link to letter, with images: https://repository.library.brown.edu/studio/item/bdr:423149/ ]]

The beginning and the end of the letter concern Robert E. Howard’s creation Unaussprechlichen Kulten, which first appeared in “The Black Stone” (Weird Tales Nov 1931) and “The Thing on the Roof” (WT Feb 1932) under the English title Nameless Cults. The book, inspired by works such as Lovecraft’s Necronomicon, was well-received by HPL:

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.

—H. P. Lovecraft to Robert E. Howard, 16 Jan 1932, MF 1.264

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:

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.

—H. P. Lovecraft to August Derleth, 28 Jan 1932, ES 2.446

 

Thanks for the original title of the Black Book. I feel sure that Unausprechlichen Kulten is the correct version!

—H. P. Lovecraft to August Derleth, 2 Feb 1932, ES 2.448

Neither phrase is grammatically correct German, but Lovecraft passed the title on to Robert E. Howard.

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.

—Robert E. Howard to H. P. Lovecraft, Apr 1932, MF 1.279

The new title did not make an “official” appearance immediately, although Lovecraft began to make reference to it in his letters (cf. DS 367, MF 1.308, etc.) Lovecraft would first make reference to the book under its German title in “The Horror in the Museum” (WT Jul 1933), ghostwritten for Hazel Heald. Farnsworth Wright, however, was not in on the joke, as was apparent when he wrote:

The Two Bobs: Robert E. Howard and Robert H. Barlow by Bobby Derie

[...] & I will ask you to pass it along—after as long a reading as you care to give it—to Robert E. Howard, Lock Box 313, Cross Plains, Texas. When many people want to see the same story, it is most convenient to start it circulating in this way.

— H. P. Lovecraft to R. H. Barlow, 17 Sep 1931 (OFF 8)

The two tales safely arrived, & I am glad the “Mts. of Madness” duly reached you. When you are entirely through with the latter, I would appreciate your sending it on to Robert E. Howard, Lock Box 313, Cross Plains, Texas.

— H. P. Lovecraft to R. H. Barlow, 25 Sep 1931 (OFF 10)

R.H. Barlow

By the time Robert Hayward Barlow first wrote to H. P. Lovecraft in June 1931, Lovecraft had already been corresponding with Robert E. Howard for a year. Barlow was 13, the precocious younger son of a retired army lieutenant colonel who lived with his family at Fort Benning, Georgia. A devoted fan of Weird Tales, Barlow had written to Lovecraft looking for an autograph and more of his stories (OFF 3)—a correspondence which soon brought the young fan into contact with Robert E. Howard:

This morning I took out a big registered envelope with a “War Department” letter-head. I had visions of me shouldering a Springfield already, but it was from a gentleman named Barlow, at Fort Benning, Georgia, asking me for my autograph, for which purpose he enclosed a blank sheet of paper and a stamped self-addressed envelope. He also enclosed a 115 page ms. which he said Lovecraft had instructed him to forward me. It’s the Antarctic story which Farnsworth rejected, and which Lovecraft promised to let me read in the original.

— Robert E. Howard to Tevis Clyde Smith, Oct 1931 (CL2.273)

Which was followed shortly after by the first mention of Barlow in Howard’s letters:

Robert E. Howard and the Amateur Press (Part 5) by Bobby Derie

5: Fan Mail and The Hyborian Age

This morning I took out a big registered envelope with a “War Department” letter-head. I had visions of me shouldering a Springfield already, but it was from a gentleman named Barlow, at Fort Benning, Georgia, asking me for my autograph, for which purpose he enclosed a blank sheet of paper and a stamped self-addressed envelope.  (CL2.273)

Robert E. Howard’s interaction with the burgeoning science fiction fandom went beyond praising his friend’s stories or receiving the occasional solicitation for material from for inclusion in a fanzine. In “The Eyrie” of Weird Tales and “The Cauldron” of Strange Tales, Howard was often picked out as a favorite by the readers who wrote in, but now that his name (and, perhaps more importantly, his mailing address) was being spread about by Lovecraft, E. Hoffmann Price, and others, Howard began to interact with his fans directly.

Robert H. Barlow was perhaps the first to get in touch, having already been a correspondent with H. P. Lovecraft and part of the circulation list for Lovecraft’s stories. As a fan, Barlow was an avid collector who seems to have seldom flinched from asking for autographs, original manuscripts, and art from various writers, and a surprising amount of the time seems to have gotten them. Howard sent Barlow typescripts of “The Phoenix on the Sword”, “The Scarlet Citadel”, “Black Colossus”, “Iron Shadows in the Moon”, and “A Witch Shall Be Born” (CL2.519, 3.219), as well as a letter from Henry S. Whitehead (CL3.47), but begged off parting with his collection of Hugh Rankin illustrations (CL3.212-213, 215).

Robert H. Barlow

Their correspondence seems to have been mostly slight but cordial, with Howard praising Barlow’s fiction in The Fantasy Fan (CL3.215), and thanking him for the output of the young fan’s own amateur press: Frank Belknap Long’s The Goblin Tower (CL3.394), Lovecraft’s The Cats of Ulthar, and Barlow’s own amateur journal, The Dragon-Fly (CL3.417). Barlow in turn seems to have appreciated Howard’s generosity as well as his writing ability; collaborating with Lovecraft on The Battle That Ended The Century that included “Two-Gun Bob” (authored anonymously and circulated privately among Lovecraft’s correspondents, CL3.248), and authored the touching elegy R.E.H., which appeared in Weird Tales.

Emil Petaja appears to have contacted Howard through The Fantasy Fan, or possibly a common correspondent like H. P. Lovecraft, in late 1934. Petaja dedicated his poem “Echo from the Ebon Isles” (also published as “The Warrior”) to Howard, who replied:

I feel deeply honored that a poem of such fine merit should be dedicated to me. You seem to grasp the motif of my stories, the compelling idea-force behind them which is the only excuse for their creation, more completely than any one I have yet encountered. This fine sonnet reveals your understanding of the abstractions I have tried to embody in these tales. The illustration fits the text splendidly, and partakes of its high merit. I foresee an enviable future for you as a poet and artist. (CL3.259-260)

A commendation and encouragement that Petaja would remember decades later, and quote in the introduction to his poetry collections As Dream and Shadow (1972). For his own part, in response to requests for manuscripts Howard sent Petaja a copy of his poem “Cimmeria” (CL3.260), as well as an unknown manuscript, on the back of which was written the draft to “Black Canaan” (CL3.304). Their correspondence lasted at least a year, with Howard offering general praise, encouragement, and thanks, adding in their final extant letter:

I am much interested in the magazine you and Mr. Rimel are contemplating launching; I wish you the best of luck with it, and would be more than glad to contribute to it. (CL3.369)

Such offers to fanzines were genuine, though Howard continued to focus on paying markets, and Howard seemed just as happy to answer questions as he was to provide rejected stories. One fan, Alvin Earl Perry, was a regular reader of Weird Tales and a great fan of Conan the Cimmerian, who landed several letters in “The Eyrie” which Howard could not have missed, particularly one plaudit from the October 1934 issue:

Robert E. Howard held me enthralled throughout his masterpiece, The Devil in Iron. With each succeeding tale Howard becomes better; his unique character, Conan, is the greatest brainchild yet produced in weird fiction, even overshadowing Moore’s Northwest Smith and Quinn’s dynamic little Frenchmen, Jules de Grandin. Yet, despite Howard’s fine work, I believe that the best tale in the current WT is The Three Marked Pennies. (WGP 60)

In 1935, Perry wrote to Howard, as well as E. Hoffmann Price and A. W. Bernal, seeking biographical information for a series in the Fantasy Magazine, and Howard obliged with a letter of his own, which became “A Biographical Sketch of Robert E. Howard”, published in July 1935.

The final, and arguably the most important, fans to contact Robert E. Howard were P. Schuyler Miller and Dr. John D. Clark, who had collaborated on “A Probable Outline of Conan’s Career”, one of the premier efforts in Howard studies. Miller had written Howard in early 1936, and the Texan replied in a letter dated 10 March 1936, providing many additional details and ruminations regarding the Cimmerian, as well as a copy of Howard’s own essay, “The Hyborian Age,” which the Phantagraph had begun to serialize in February. (CL3.428-431)

Howard’s death in June threw off the serialization of “The Hyborian Age,” which was never completed. Donald Wollheim and Wilson Shepherd planned to issue the complete “The Hyborian Age” as a separate booklet (LRBO 280, 334, 338, 353), and then considered a book publication of Howard’s fiction, which Lovecraft provided advice on until shortly before his own death in 1937. (LRBO 362, 364, 365, 367, 370) Finally, Wollheim collaborated with John Michel, Forrest J. Ackerman, Russell Hofkins, and Myrtle R. Douglas to published the whole of “The Hyborian Age” as a chapbook, including Miller and Clark’s “A Probable Outline of Conan’s Career.” (THA viii)

Bob Howard was survived by his father, who seemed to be little aware of his son’s dealings with fandom. In 1943, a copy of The Hyborian Age was provided to Howard’s father by E. Hoffmann Price, who noted:

The publishers, Hodgkins, Wollheim, Ackerman, Michel, are—at least, Wollheim and Ackerman were—leading fantasy fans, outstanding collectors and fanciers of weird fiction. Probably all or most of them are now in the army. I no longer hear of them, or from them. But the opinions these people have assembled in this booklet regarding Robert’s work are widely share; this is a fair & representative expression of esteem. So I am happy to offer it to you. (CLIH 188)

Robert E. Howard’s death was not the end of his appearance in the fan papers; his posthumous career began with a memorial from H. P. Lovecraft in the Fantasy Magazine and the installments of “The Hyborian Age” in the Phantagraph, but came to include previously unpublished poems, letters, and stories. In the decades to come, an amateur press association and fanzines dedicated to Howard and his creations appeared, and would proliferate, continuing to the current day. In a real way, Howard’s involvement with amateur journalism, culminating in his association with the growing fandom community, would help to establish his legacy as much as his professional fiction.

Works Cited

AMTF  A Means to Freedom: The Letters of H. P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard (2 vols., Hippocampus Press, 2009)

BT       Blood & Thunder: The Life and Art of Robert E. Howard (REH Foundation, 2013)

CL       Collected Letters of Robert E. Howard (3 vols. + Index & Addenda, REH Foundation, 2007 – 2015)

CLIH    Collected Letters of Dr. Isaac M. Howard (REH Foundation, 2011)

HAJ     The History of Amateur Journalism (The Fossils, 1957)

LC       The Last Celt: A Bio-Bibliography of Robert E. Howard (Berkley Windhover, 1976)

LRBO  Letters to Robert Bloch and Others (Hippocampus Press, 2015)

LRS     Letters to Richard F. Searight (Necronomicon Press, 1992)

LS        “Robert E. Howard and the Lone Scouts” by Rob Roehm, in The Dark Man (vol. 7, no. 1; 2012)

LSL      Lone Scout of Letters (Roehm’s Room Press, 2011)

PWM   Robert E. Howard: The Power of the Writing Mind (Mythos Books, 2003)

SFTP   So Far the Poet & Other Writings (REH Foundation, 2010)

THA     The Hyborian Age Facsimile Editions (Skelos Press, 2015)

TJ        “The Junto: Being a Brief Look at the Amateur Press Association Robert E. Howard Partook In as a Youth” by Glenn Lord, in Two-Gun Bob: A Centennial Study of Robert E. Howard (Hippocampus Press, 2006)

UL       Uncollected Letters (Necronomicon Press, 1986)

WGP   Robert E. Howard: World’s Greatest Pulpster (Dennis McHaney, 2005)

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4