A Possible New Photo of Tevis Clyde Smith from the Herbert Klatt Photo Album by Todd B. Vick

Back on April 9, 2017, I posted an article/interview about contacting a family member of Herbert C. Klatt, one of Robert E. Howard's friends, regarding Klatt’s personal photo album. The album was a collection of pictures from various friends around the country who were members of the organization the Lone Scouts of America (LSA). All the photos (except two) in the album were labeled, either on the back of the photo or underneath the photo in the album. One of the photos that was unlabeled was on a page with another friend of Klatt’s and Howard’s—Truett Vinson. The Truett Vinson picture was labeled underneath the picture (with a date on the back), but the unidentified picture, the label had come off or had been removed over the years.

The unlabeled photo next to one of Truett Vinson’s picture had no writing on the back. In fact, the backside had what looked like a label removed from it, or something removed from the back that was perhaps glued there. So, there is no label indicating that this picture is of Tevis Clyde Smith. That being the case, what clues are there that this might be a photograph of Smith? Before I answer, let’s take a very brief look at the history of Herbert Klatt’s eventual meeting of Truett Vinson, Tevis Clyde Smith, and Robert E. Howard.

 Without going too far back (I recommend reading Rob Roehm’s Lone Scout of Letters for a more in-depth look into Klatt’s life), let’s begin where Klatt joined the LSA. The LSA made its debut in 1915 for boys in rural areas that did not necessarily have access to a Boy Scouts of America branch near them. Shortly after the beginning of the LSA, the organization created a magazine called Lone Scout. Just like most other magazines, Lone Scout had a section for their readers who wanted to message or correspond with other Lone Scouts (readers) across the country, some in quite isolated areas. This section was called "Lone Scout Messenger Department," and "Herbert Klatt made his debut in this department in the July 10, 1920 issue."[1] It was through the "Lone Scout Message Department" that Klatt began collecting names of boys with whom to correspond, and by March of 1923, Klatt began corresponding with Truett Vinson. It was through Vinson that Klatt became acquainted with Tevis Clyde Smith, who eventually asked Klatt to contribute to his April edition of the All-Around Magazine Smith and Vinson created while at Brownwood High School. And then, of course, through Vinson and Smith, Klatt met Robert E. Howard.

Over the years, as Klatt corresponded with the various boys he met through the Lone Scout Messenger Department, he exchanged photographs with a few and collected them in a photo album. And thus, we get to our mystery photograph.

In an attempt to possibly find out if Smith mentions a photo that he intends to send Klatt in one of their letters, I read Rob Roehm’s book, Lone Scout of Letters, but found nothing. So, back to the initial question: What clues do we have that this might be a photograph of Smith?

First, the person in the picture looks like Tevis Clyde Smith (at a mid-teenaged year). The facial features, ears, lips, and dimpled (cleft) chin are all similar facial features of Smith seen in other photos.

Photo from Smith's book,
Images Out of the Sky

The "mystery" photo from Klatt's album

Second, the placement of the picture in the photo album, on the same page as one of the pictures of Truett Vinson. The Vinson picture (which will be published in my upcoming biography about Robert E. Howard) is dated December 28, 1924. My guess is the mystery picture is dated sometime that same year (or maybe even earlier), or possibly sometime in 1925.

Third, some of the people in the photo album sent Klatt two photos of themselves in various settings and poses, making it easy (despite their being labeled) to see that these are the same people (e.g. same facial features, etc.). There is no one else from any of the other pictures that look like the person in the mystery photo. And while that’s not a definitive factor, it is something to consider.

With no hard and fast evidence, I can’t say definitively that this is Tevis Clyde Smith, but it does seem highly probable. Moreover, the fact that the picture is in Klatt’s personal photo album is certainly strong provenance that it could be Smith. All these factors tend to make me think that this is, in fact, a picture of Tevis Clyde Smith.

---

[1] Roehm, Rob. "Introduction: Herbert C. Klatt." In Lone Scout of Letters, x. Lancaster, CA: Roehm's Room Press, 2011.

A New Discovery: Herbert Klatt's Personal Photo Album by Todd B. Vick

A few months ago, I received a message from a reader of this blog regarding Robert E. Howard and a friend of his named Herbert Klatt. Of course, I’ve written about Herbert Klatt here at On An Underwood No. 5 since he was not only a friend of Robert E. Howard’s but also of Tevis Clyde Smith's, Truett Vinson's, and Harold Preece's. It turns out the person who contacted me, Christopher Oldham, is a relative of Herbert Klatt’s. Christopher contacted me because he had recently come into possession through his great aunt Oleta Klatt (a sister of Herbert’s), Herbert Klatt’s personal photo album.

When Christopher mentioned the photo album, the only thought in my mind was that there might be a potential picture of Robert E. Howard no one had seen. Through correspondence, Christopher began to tell me some of the names of the photos that were labeled in the book. I recognized several of these names, especially Truett Vinson. I asked Christopher if any of the pictures were labeled Tevis Clyde Smith or Harold Preece. “No,” he said, “but there are a few photos that are not labeled.” So, there was hope. Out of sheer kindness and a tremendous amount of trust, Christopher offered to mail the photo album to me so I could scan the pictures. This, of course, made me a little nervous. What if the pictures were lost in the mail? A question that was in the forefront of my mind. We arranged a plan: send the pictures first class priority with delivery confirmation, then I’ll scan them and return them the same way. That way we could track the package as it was in transit between the two of us, both ways. The plan worked without a hitch. I received the package, scan the pictures, and sent them back. No issues.

What was the result? Several new pictures that have never surfaced have been discovered. Unfortunately, none of the pictures were of Robert E. Howard. Even so, two new pictures of Truett Vinson were present, and a possible picture of Tevis Clyde Smith. These will be revealed in my upcoming biography about Robert E. Howard. Moreover, several pictures of Lone Scouts who were also participants in The Junto—an "amateur press association created by his [Howard's] friends Harold Preece and Booth Mooney, both ex-Lone Scouts, which they had cooked up after a meeting in San Antonio."—surfaced. For the picture that is potentially Tevis Clyde Smith, I got Howard historian and scholar, Rob Roehm involved. After comparing the photos Roehm had on file of Smith, he agreed that the picture was likely Smith. Unfortunately, the picture of Smith is not labeled, but it was placed on the same page with one of Truett Vinson’s photos (the only two on that page), and the fact that it is in Herbert Klatt’s personal photo album gives it strong provenance.

Now that everything is said and done, I asked Christopher if he’d be willing to participate in a small interview about his family and the photo album. He graciously agreed and what follows is our discussion about Herbert Klatt and the photo album. (U5 - On an Underwood No. 5 & CO - Christopher Oldham)

U5: How are you related to Herbert Klatt?

CO: He was my Grandfather’s brother which makes him my Great Uncle.

U5: How did you end up with the photo album?

CO: It belonged to my Great Aunt, Herbert’s sister, Oleta Klatt.

U5: When did you realize that your great uncle, Herbert Klatt, was a friend of Robert E. Howard's?

CO: When I read Lone Scout of Letters – Herbert C Klatt by Rob Roehm

U5: How did you discover Robert E. Howard?

CO: I discovered Howard when I read Rob Roehm’s book, which piqued my curiosity and caused me to read works by and about Robert E. Howard.

U5: Oh, so you did not know about Robert E. Howard before reading Rob’s book?

CO: No, I was not familiar with him like I am now. Rob Roehm contacted my family but the other branch. He contacted my mother’s cousins and they gave him some information. My mother mentioned it to me but her information may not have been consistent and I thought she might be mistaken. So, at first I was a little skeptical. But, that’s how I found out about Lone Scout of Letters – Herbert C Klatt.
U5: What made you want to get in touch with me regarding the photo album?

CO: I found the album in my aunt’s things last year and thought someone might be interested in the pictures and of his fellow Lone Scouts and friends he corresponded with.  I reached out to you via your website. I believe we have a responsibility when we discover these things to do what we can to share them with those that are interested.

U5: Can you recall and share any family stories about Herbert Klatt?

CO: Unfortunately, I cannot remember any. My great aunt spoke of him, but my memory fails me. She wished she had his creative writing ability. I believe his illness and untimely death inspired her to follow a career path which lead her into Cancer Research at MD Anderson in Houston Texas.  I would say that was highly unusual for a woman born in 1914. My great aunt and grandfather seemed to be profoundly affected by the loss of their older brother. They were 7 to 8 years younger, so I imagine that would have fostered a different relationship than if they were closer in age, less completion and perhaps more mentoring?  I knew Herbert planned to be a lawyer, and my grandfather wanted to study law as well.  Sadly, my grandfather was not able to finish high school, because Herbert passed, and his father became too ill to farm and tend livestock, so my grandfather had to work on the farm to support the family.

U5: Do you have anything else you would like to add?

CO: My aunt passed in 2006. It’s hard to believe it’s been was 11 years since then. Time passes faster and faster. She would have delighted in speaking to you about her brother.

I’m so thankful Christopher contacted me regarding the photo album. His eagerness to share helps us add new information to our studies of Robert E. Howard. Thank you Christopher.

Below are photographs (not scans) of a few of the pictures from Herbert Klatt's photo album. More of these pictures will be revealed in my upcoming biography about Robert E. Howard. Several of the pictures are people Howard knew either personally or through The Junto.

J. Leland Gault, two poses

Roy W. McDonald (a Lone Scout &
a member of The Junto)

Various Lone Scouts
(each marked except the upper right picture)

On the Trail of Grotz: A Lone Scout, A Picture, and a Road Trip by Todd Vick

If you've heard of Herbert C. Klatt then you might have a decent grasp of Robert E. Howard (hereafter REH) history. Klatt is one of REH's lesser known friends, which is unfortunate given the amount of information REH scholars can draw from Klatt's life to aid them in gaining a better understanding of REH. Here's what I mean.

Herbert C. Klatt

Herbert C. Klatt was born in Bosque County, Texas and with his family moved to the next county over—Hamilton—with the idea of cultivating a bit of land they had purchased near the town of Hamilton, in Aleman, Texas. Klatt lived his entire short life in Aleman, TX. As a boy he joined the Lone Scouts of American organization. Founded by William Dickson "W. D." Boyce, The Lone Scouts were organized for boys who, more or less, lived in rural areas where a Boy Scout troop was not available in their area. [Note: There were boys who had joined the Lone Scouts who lived in areas where the Boy Scouts were established. Yet, for various reasons these boys decided to join the Lone Scouts. In 1924, the Lone Scouts of America joined with the Boy Scouts of America.]

It was through the Lone Scouts that Klatt became acquainted with another of REH's friends, Truett Vinson. Klatt and Vinson began corresponding with one another in early 1923, and a friendship ensued. The correspondence between Klatt and Vinson can not be understated because it was through this early correspondence that both Vinson and Howard (and eventually Tevis Clyde Smith) ultimately met and befriended not only Klatt but Harold Preece.

Klatt was a year younger than both Vinson and Howard, and attended school in nearby Hamilton, TX (just up the road from Aleman, TX). Like Cross Plains, Hamilton's school progressed to the tenth grade, so Klatt had to go one county over to Ireland High School to complete his high school education. Even though Klatt's family found success cultivating the land they purchased in Aleman, Klatt was quite poor as a teen. The only job he ever had was working on the family's land for room and board at his own home. Even so, like Howard, Vinson, Smith, and Preece, Klatt had aspirations to be a professional writer. And for a brief stretch he received a small sum of money from various newspapers/journals to which he would submit.

Through several years of correspondence, Klatt became well acquainted with Howard, Vinson, and Smith, whom he later dubbed "The Rollo Boys." The week after Christmas in 1925, Klatt was able to take a train to a town "40 miles" outside Brownwood, TX (according to the semi-autobiographical work by Howard titled Post Oaks and Sand Roughs (POSR)). Traveling back toward Brownwood, the group stayed the night on a ranch owned by Smith's family. You can read about the evening in REH's correspondence as well as the fictional semi-autobiographical POSR (Hubert Grotz was the fictional name given to Klatt in POSR).

For several years, Klatt contributed articles to Southland Farmer, Lone Scout (the organization's official organ), Dixie Eagle, Hamilton Herald-Record, among others. Unfortunately, Klatt died at the young age of 21. He suffered the last few months of his life from complications due to pernicious anemia.

A few years back, Rob Roehm published a book through his own press, Roehm's Room Press, titled Lone Scout of Letters. The book is a collection of various writings from Herbert C. Klatt, with historical information about Klatt, his family, etc. It also features some writings by Truett Vinson. In fact, this book is one of the very few places a researcher can turn to get the writings of Vinson and Klatt.

Klatt's picture of the Brazos river from
Lone Scout of Letters (p. 98)

For my current research, I recently read Lone Scout of Letters from cover to cover. Throughout the book Roehm placed pictures of Klatt, his home, Klatt and his friends, and several pics of places Klatt visited. One such place was the Brazos river. The Brazos is one of the more famous rivers in Texas that runs through a large portion of the state. It is also the 11th longest river in the U.S. As I was reading through Rob's book, on page 98, there was a picture of the Brazos river taken by Klatt (according to the back of the photo). The backside of the photo indicated that the picture was taken near Walnut Springs, Texas.

So, like a good researcher, I got on my computer, pulled up Google Maps and typed into the search engine "Walnut Springs, Texas." I used the map to see if a portion of the Brazos rivers was close to Walnut Springs. Sure enough, just north east of Walnut Springs, about 24 or so miles, is the Brazos river. I clicked on the Google Earth portion of the map to get the exact satellite image, zoomed in on the river and followed it for a stretch until I found a crossing just Northeast of Brazos Point, TX & Eulogy, TX. Zooming in on that crossing I saw two bridges, side by side. One is the newer, paved highway (Farm Market Road 1175 which connects with Farm Market Road 1118 just the other side of the Brazos). The second bridge is older, and almost looks like a railroad bridge across the river. I zoomed in as close as Google allowed, then hit the street level and voilà, an older street bridge.

So what does this mean? Well, the cover of Rob Roehm's book is a photo of Herbert C. Klatt on a bridge. And if you take a close look at the structure of the bridge, you can see some distinctive features in the steel work (grid patterns, etc.). Additionally, the picture (see above) of the Brazos river is a picture that would have been taken from a bridge; the view in the picture is such that the photograph is out over the middle of the river. What little of the steel work that can be seen in the photo cover of Rob's book matches quite nicely with the street image of the second Brazos river bridge from Google maps at the street level (see picture below).

After comparing the two (Google's street level picture & the picture of Rob's book) I did what any sane REH nerd would do and google mapped my home address (I live in Texas, the D/FW area) with the bridge. It was only one hour away from my house. Time for a road trip. Dragging my wife into the matter—I had to have someone take a picture of me on the bridge, right?—I convince her to drive with me to the bridge. This past Sunday morning (7/17/2016) we did just that.

Google street level pic of the bridge

After an hour of travel down various back roads, we finally arrived at the location of the bridge. We parked the car and walked out onto the bridge. It was quite worn out. In fact, just prior to walking onto the bridge, tied to two opposite trees were yellow warning tape with ends that had been clipped and left hanging. Once out on the bridge, I wondered if law enforcement (or the Texas Highway Department) had placed the tape across the road in order to warn people to stay off the bridge, and someone had clipped the tape at both ends. I could see why that might have been the case once we were on the bridge.

Me in the presumed spot where
Herbert Klatt stood in his pic

The bridge itself had been paved, and re-paved over the years. At several connecting points between one portion of the pavement to the next, several holes had been worn through the road and the bridge itself. Undeterred, my wife and I, with Rob's book in hand, ventured farther out on the bridge. The steel structure certainly matched that of the bridge in the front cover photograph of Herbert Klatt.

Naturally, the shrubs and trees with years of growing freely were much thicker than they were in Klatt's photograph. But, here we were standing on a bridge near Walnut Springs, TX that looked exactly like the bridge in Klatt's photograph. I am convinced that this is the location (and bridge) where Herbert C. Klatt stood and had his photograph taken. I took another photograph similar to the view of Herbert's picture (above) of the Brazo's river. Obviously, the river waters were substantially higher the day Klatt took his photograph. Additionally, this is the only crossing over the Brazos river that is remotely close to Walnut Springs, TX. All this certainly seems to substantiate that this is, in fact, the bridge Klatt was standing upon in the cover photograph, and is more than likely the bridge from which he took the Brazos river picture.

A picture from the bridge similar to Klatt's above
as seen in Lone Scout of Letters

Now, here's a little bit of history I managed to find online about the bridge:

In the late 1850s business partners Charles W. Smith and Tom Willingham saw the Brazos River and saw opportunity. They built a gin, mill and store for their own interests and in 1860 a school was built followed by the Brazos Point Community Church nearby. The community was granted a post office in 1873 and the 1880s seems to have been the town's high-water mark. The population reached 200 and besides the gin, store and gristmill, they gained their very own physician. But a few years later (1896) the population had declined to 75 and the post office had closed its doors. 

The community moved to FM 56 and in 1914 the county contracted with the Austin Bridge Company to erect a bridge across the Brazos (which still stands alongside a modern bridge). The population was estimated at only 50 from 1933 through WWII. No figures were available after 1947.

_________________

View on the bridge

The closest towns to the bridge are Walnut Springs, Glen Rose, and somewhat farther than the first two, Waco, TX. If you are interested in a little more history about Robert E. Howard and his friends, then I highly recommend Rob's book, Lone Scout of Letters. I have used his book in the research for my upcoming book project for The University of Texas Press. It provides great insight into REH's circles of friends, how they interacted with each other, and how they influenced each other. And, of course, it helps REH nerds like myself to find wonderful places like this bridge!

Robert E. Howard and the Amateur Press (Part 3) by Bobby Derie

3: The Junto

I feel that it gave Bob a specialized, intimate, if small, sort of audience that he need. Most of its readers were rebellious young intellectuals in that epoch of the depression. Bob’s fire and spirit symbolized all sorts of protests—expressed and inchoate—that we felt, though only in a very limited sense was he any kind of political rebel nor at all any sort of slogan shouter or cliche monger. (BT 177)

After graduating from Howard Payne, Robert E. Howard was drawn into a new amateur press association created by his friends Harold Preece and Booth Mooney, both ex-Lone Scouts, which they had cooked up after a meeting in San Antonio. They called the venture The Junto, after Benjamin Franklin’s paper; contributors would send their material to the editor (initially Mooney), who would prepare a single typewritten copy that would be circulated to each the first member on the mailing list, who would add their comments and send it to the next, and so on. Contributors included Harold Preece and his sisters Lenore, Katherine, and Louise; Booth Mooney and his brother Orus; Robert E. Howard and his cousin Maxine Ervin; Tevis Clyde Smith, Truett Vinson, Herbert Klatt, and others. (BT 129, TJ 22) Given the circulation system, the fact that so few “issues” of the Junto survive should not be surprising.

The Junto Vol. 1 No. 7
Image supplied by Howardworks.com

The contents of the Junto included poems, fiction, essays, sketches, and rants—the typical bread-and-butter for any APA—with subjects including women, politics, and religion, all of, which served as fodder for Howard’s growing correspondence with various members of the Junto gang. Howard recruited Smith (“I’m going to give your name to Booth Mooney as a possible subscriber to The Junto; a pretty good paper for that type.” CL1.190; see also “A Pretty Good Paper” - The Junto, Part 1), was glad to see things by his friends in an issue (CL1.219, 231), and was disappointed when they didn’t (CL1.197, 231, 247-248). It also proved an occasional source of argument.

One of the early controversies involved “One of the Hell Bent Speaks” signed by “A Modern Youth” (A.M.Y.), in the October 1928 issue (vol. 1, no. 7). This fostered a great response from the Juntites, with Howard himself stirring the pot (CL1.231, 239-40, 244, 253; Rob Roehm goes into greater detail of the affair in “A Pretty Good Paper” - The Junto, Part 2 and Part 3). In one issue, the Junto gang had decided to have some fun writing each other’s biographies, but Bob wrote to Clyde Smith begging off:

I have forgotten whether you or Truett were to write my biography but at any rate I’ve decided I don’t care to have mine appear in the Junto. There are several reasons, the main one being that as several of my cousins receive it, my mother would be pretty near bound to hear about it and there are a good many things in my life that I don’t want her to know about. Another thing, I don’t care to have my inner self bared before the readers of the Junto because I have decided that some of them are crumbs. Understand, you have my permission to write anything you want about me in a novel, biography or anything that comes under the title of professional art, and that you will get money for, but I don’t wish to drop my mask before the Junto readers as I have dropped it before you and Truett. (CL3.487)

This was probably in reference to Mooney’s call for autobiographies from the Juntites. (see “A Pretty Good Paper” - Part 3 and Part 4). Lesser arguments concerned a “pornographic” turn—apparently James S. Strachan included a study of a “naked negress” (CL1.355, Part 5).  The Junto continued under Mooney’s editorship from April 1928 to spring 1929, when he no longer had time for it, and the position was picked up by Lenore Preece. (TJ 22-23, Part 6)

The first issue under Preece’s editorship was to have been the June 1929 number (vol. 2, no. 1), but a new Juntite lost the issue (and was quickly expelled), so the first proper issue of her run was July 1929. (TJ 23) This issue included Harold Preece’s article “Women: A Diatribe,” about how there was no such thing as intellectual women; it was designed to get a rise out of Bob Howard—Bob and Harold had been arguing about the same subject in his letters (CL1.287-292)—and apparently worked. (BT 176-177, Part 7)

By spring 1930, reports of the Junto were fewer in Howard’s letters (CL2.17, 30), and apparently feedback from the Juntites was poor, so Preece decided to discontinue the paper. (TJ 23-24) For the nature of its composition and the period in which it was published, the Junto had provided a valuable resource for Howard, not so much in refining his prose or poetry, or even as a creative outlet, but simply for the connection with a wider group of writers, even amateurs, which provided him much-needed encouragement, criticism, and companionship.

The final echo of the Junto saga was a proposal by Juntite Alvin P. Bradford to self-publish a small collection of their poetry, under the proposed title Virgin Towers. (TJ 24, CL2.195) Howard sent Bradford copies of his poems, but ultimately nothing came of the endeavor. (CL2.198) In 1932, Lenore Preece, Clyde Smith, and Robert E. Howard approached Christopher House to publish a collection of poems to be titled Out of the Sky, but asked for the return of the manuscript. (SFTP xxvi, CL2.245)

As the business with The Junto wound down, however, Howard began to correspond with someone who would bring him into touch with the burgeoning fan press for science fiction and fantasy: H. P. Lovecraft. In an early letter to Lovecraft, who had responded positively to one of Howard’s poems, Bob modestly replied:

I am glad you liked “Reuben’s Brethren”. It has never been published save in a small privately circulated paper. (CL2.126)

The original publication for “Reuben’s Brethren” was The Junto as “The Skull in the Clouds.”

The Junto (not counting comments by Robert E. Howard):

  The Junto (vol. 1, no. 6) - Sep 1928 - “Age”, “Surrender--Your Money or Your Vice”, “Them”

  The Junto (vol. 1, no. 7) - Oct 1928 - “A Hairy Chested Idealist Sings”, “More Evidence on the Innate Divinity of Man”

  The Junto (vol. 1, no. 8) - Nov 1928 - “To A Man Whose Name I Never Knew”, “Swings and Swings”

  The Junto (vol. 1, no. 9) - Dec 1928 - “A Song For Men That Laugh”, “To the Evangelists”, “The Galveston Affair”

  The Junto (vol. 1, no. 10) - Jan 1929 - “Ambition in the Moonlight”

  The Junto (vol. 2, no. 2) - Jul 1929 - “Hate’s Den”, “The King and the Mallet”, “Singing in the Wind”

  The Junto (vol. 2, no. 3) - Aug 1929 - “Heritage”, “Surrender”

  The Junto (vol. 2, no. 4) - Sep 1929 - “Nectar”, “Etched in Ebony”, “Midnight”, “Sentiment”, “Musings”

  The Junto (vol. 2, no. 8) - Jan 1930 - “The Skull in the Clouds”

  The Junto (vol. 2, no. 9) - Feb 1930 - "Feach Air Muir Lionadhi Gealach Buidhe Mar Or"

_______________________

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

Robert E. Howard and the Amateur Press (Part 1) by Bobby Derie

I am neither a novice nor an amateur at the writing game; I have been a regular contributor to Weird Tales Magazine, for some five or six years. My stories have also appeared in Ghost Story Magazine, a Macfadden Publication, Fight Stories and Argosy.

— Robert E. Howard to Thrills of the Jungle Magazine, 1929, CL1.361

Weird Tales July 1925

Robert E. Howard made his first professional sale in 1924, when he sold “Spear and Fang” and “In the Forest of Villefere” to Weird Tales, and for much of his adult life Howard was determined to earn his living as a professional writer. Before he began selling his fiction, however, and continuing on through much of his life Howard was also involved in the amateur press, from school newspapers to the small magazines of the burgeoning science fiction and fantasy fan movement. This involvement in the amateur press, while not lucrative, helped establish and foster some of the most important personal relationships of Robert E. Howard’s life, and the fiction and poetry he saw published in these amateur publications are as important to his body of work as anything published in paying magazines.

1: School Papers: The Tattler, The Progress, The Yellow Jacket and The Collegian

Have you been reading Robert Howard’s short stories in The Tattler for several issues back? If you haven’t you are missing a treat. His Christmas story received commendation from the edition of the Brownwood Bulletin and his later stories are just as good.
            We are fortunate in having such a good writer here in our school and hope he will keep up his contributions. The stories are mostly written in the style of O’Henry, Bret Harte, and Mark Twain, and are just as interesting as their stories. His stories have plenty of action and are spicy with near-cuss words and slang. If for nothing else The Tattler is worth a dime and over if it has a story by Robert Howard.
— The Tattler, March 15th 1923 (BT 85)

Tevis Clyde Smith

In 1922 at the age of sixteen, Robert E. Howard transferred to Brownwood High School, where he made the acquaintance of Truett Vinson and Tevis Clyde Smith, and the three of them would go on to become lifelong friends and correspondents. Howard became involved with the school paper, The Tattler. Howard graduated high school in May 1923, having published seven short stories and poems in The Tattler; two more would appear in the Jan 1925 issue—Smith, who was two years younger than Howard, had continued on at Brownwood High and contributed stories to and became editor of the school paper, and Howard continued to show an interest in the paper and his friend’s work. (CL1.24, 25, 41)

After graduating, Howard worked at a number of different jobs, while submitting to (and receiving rejections from) paying magazines; during this period he also landed a poem with the Cross Plains High School paper, The Progress in 1924. In June of that year, Howard took a stenographer’s course at the Howard Payne College in Brownwood (BT 106), and began writing material for the school paper, The Yellow Jacket, which was edited by a friend of Howard, C. S. Boyles. (CL1.22) Howard continued to submit material for the paper, with a dozen stories, plays, and poems published in those pages between 1924 and 1927 (“Private Magrath of the A.E.F.” was also reprinted in the November 1934 issue).

In 1925, Tevis Clyde Smith graduated Brownwood High School and enrolled at Daniel Baker College in Brownwood, where he was elected as editor of the school paper, the Daniel Baker Collegian for the 1925-1926 school year. (BT 118, LSL 32n13, cf. CL1.94) In 1926, five of Robert E. Howard’s poems were published in the Collegian, and in 1927, Howard finished his courses at Howard Payne, and returned to Cross Plains, largely ending his association with the school papers.

The Yellow Jacket from 1927

Howard’s scholastic journalism efforts from 1922 to 1927 were limited, the stories decidedly amateurish, with the Yellow Jacket tales more closely resembling the slang-laden, jocular pastiches that peppered his letters to Clyde Smith and others than anything he submitted to a paying magazine. Ridiculous pastiches like “The Fastidious Fooey Mancucu” (CL1.139-142) by Howard are exactly the same sort of effort as Smith’s “Twenty Years of Sticking Plaster” from The Tattler (SFTP 20-23), lampooning the same authors and hackneyed writing tropes. These raw efforts, however, were steps in the path to more refined efforts that would come as Howard pursued professional success.

Brownwood High School

 The Tattler (vol. 3, no. 7) - December 1922 - “West is West”, “Golden Hope Christmas”

 The Tattler (vol. 3, no. 10) - Feb 1923 - “Aha! Or the Mystery of the Queen’s Necklace”

 The Tattler (vol. 3, no. 11) - Mar 1923 - “Unhand Me, Villain!”

 The Tattler (vol. 3, no. 12) - Mar 1923 - “The Sheik”

 The Tattler (vol. 5, no. 7) - Jan 1925 - “The Ideal Girl”, “The Kissing of Sal Snooboo”

Cross Plains High School

  The Progress (vol. 1, no. 2) - Feb 1924 - “The Maiden of Kercheezer”, “Rules of Etiquette”

Howard Payne College

  The Yellow Jacket (vol. X, no. 13) - Mar 1924 - “Letter of a Chinese Student” (1)

  The Yellow Jacket (vol. X, no. 17) - May 1924 - “Letter of a Chinese Student” (2)

  The Yellow Jacket (vol. XI, no. 4) - Sep 1924 - “Halt! Who Goes There?”

  The Yellow Jacket (vol. XIII, no. 7) - Oct 1926 - “After the Game”, “Sleeping Beauty”

  The Yellow Jacket (vol. XIII, no. 8) - Nov 1926 - “Weekly Short Story”

  The Yellow Jacket (vol. XIII, no. 10) - Nov 1926 - “For the Honor of the School”

  The Yellow Jacket (vol. XIII, no. 15) - Jan 1927 - “His War Medals”, “The Rivals”

  The Yellow Jacket (vol. XIII, no. 16) - Jan 1927 - “The Thessalians”, “Private Magrath of the A.E.F”

  The Yellow Jacket (vol. XIII, no. 17) - Jan 1927 - “Ye College Days”

  The Yellow Jacket (vol. XIII, no. 20) - Feb 1927 - “Cupid vs. Pollux”

  The Yellow Jacket (vol. XIII, no. 25) - Mar 1927 - “From Tea to Tee”

  The Yellow Jacket (vol. XIII, no. 29) - Apr 1927 - “The Reformation: A Dream”

  The Yellow Jacket (vol. XXI, no. 8) - Nov 1934 - “Private Magrath of the A.E.F.” (reprint)

Daniel Baker College

  The Daniel Baker Collegian (vol. 21, no. 10) - Mar 1926 - “Illusion”, “Fables for Little Folks”

  The Daniel Baker Collegian (vol. 21, no. 11) - Apr 1926 - “Roundelay of the Roughneck”

  The Daniel Baker Collegian (vol. 21, no. 12) - May 1926 - “Futility”, “Tarantella”
__________________________

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)

Jim & Ruth Keegan's Two-Gun Blog: The Mystery of the Lincoln Stones [UPDATED]

Jim & Ruth Keegan's Two-Gun Blog: The Mystery of the Lincoln Stones [UPDATED]

Here's a very interesting article on Jim and Ruth Keegan's blog about a trip that Robert E. Howard and Truett Vinson took to Lincoln, NM. If you read their article you'll see that it pivot's around their recreating that trip in their The Adventures of Two-Gun Bob. Stone markers were never mentioned in Robert E. Howard's accounts of that visit. If you're interested in reading REH's account there are two places you can currently read it: The Collected Letters of Robert E. Howard and/or A Means to Freedom: The Letters of H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard.

The account is relayed by Robert E. Howard to H.P. Lovecraft. I'll be discussing that account in some detail in an upcoming article I'm writing for REHupa. 

On that trip Howard mailed a postcard of the famous Billy the Kid picture to August Derleth and wrote on the postcard: "This card was purchased in Lincoln, N.M. from a descendant of a participant in the Bloody Lincoln County War."

Robert and Truett pretty much walked the entire area of the twon of Lincoln, NM. Had those stones from the Keegan article been there, I'm quite convinced Howard would have mentioned them in his correspondence.

Anyway, if you have the time, click on the link above and read the Keegan article. It's quite fascinating.