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REHeapa Summer Solstice 2021

THE RISE OF THE NEW HYBORIAN LEGION, PART TWELVE

By Lee A. Breakiron

As we saw in our first installment [1], the Robert E. Howard United Press Association (REHupa) was founded in 1972 by a teen-aged Tim Marion as the first amateur press association (apa) devoted to Howard. By early 1990, the regular membership stood at only 16, but Mailings ran from about 100 to over 300 pages in length. L. Sprague de Camp, , Charlotte Laughlin, and were honorary members.

Former, longtime REHupan James Van Hise wrote the first comprehensive history of REHupa through Mailing #175. [2] Like him, but more so, we are focusing only on noteworthy content, especially that relevant to Howard. Here are the highlights of Mailings #101 through #105.

Mailings in the #80s and #90s were often distinguished by the long contributions of Rusty Burke, Vern Clark, and Steve Trout, whose zines boasted many long, thought-provoking Mailing Comments. Howard content was steadily growing and improving.

Mailing #101 (Jan., 1990) sports a cover by Bruce Timm supplied by L. Sprague de Camp, who says it caricatures Robert E. Howard, H. P. Lovecraft, and as the “Three Musketeers of .” The drawing first appeared in Robert M. Price’s HPL zine #66 (Aug., 1989). [Incidentally, CoC #68 (Oct., 1989) contained a letter from de Camp that went into detail about REH’s supposed motivations for his suicide.]

Honorary member Laughlin willingly leaves the apa in order to make room for Howard’s sometime girlfriend Novalyne Price Ellis, but not before submitting a delightful letter of reminiscences and humor. It is also announced that the former Howard residence has been purchased by Project Pride of Cross Plains in order to restore and open it as a museum. Official Editor Bill Cavalier reports that REHupans Garry Adrian, Tim Arney, Burke, Cavalier, Clark, and Trout visited Cross Plains on 4 November, 1990, the first such commemoration of Howard since 1986, and once again donated REH-related books to the town’s library. Librarian Billie Ruth Loving said, “These are professional men with Howard in common, who appreciate him for the fantastic imagination, the poetic language, the adventure of his poetry and his tales, and who have a feeling for the captive that he was in a world that understood him not at all. We would like for Cross Plains people to know these men as we expect to see more of them in years to come.” [3] [They would indeed.]

© 2021 by Lee A. Breakiron

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Glenn Lord contributes his EOD apazine Zarfhaana #35 [4], which details what he was able to find out about Howard’s short-lived friend Herbert C. Klatt. [REHupan Rob Roehm would later publish a book about him: Lone Scout of Letters (Roehm’s Room Press, 2011).] Burke, Cavalier, and Ben Indick review the recently published book, Shadows of Dreams (Grant, 1989) of 47 poems culled by Lord from REH’s correspondence with his friend Tevis Clyde “Clyde” Smith.

Cover by

Bruce Timm

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Don Herron takes more swipes at Clark and Trout’s compilation of books owned or read by Howard. Cavalier reviews Robert E. Howard: Selected Letters 1923-1930 ( Press, 1989) compiled by Lord and footnoted by Burke. Cavalier reports on his Cross Plains visit, quoting former Cross Plains Review editor Jack Scott as saying “Robert E. Howard was a combination of Jack London and Edgar Allan Poe (Doc Howard wasn’t afraid of the Devil himself, and neither was Robert! The only people they were afraid of was each other!).” (p. 7)

Burke comments to Leonard Carpenter that, in regard to de Camp’s footnotes in , “I’ve gone back into those footnotes. Funny thing, many of them don’t offer any support for his comments at all. Bad habit the man has of tossing off four or five statements as facts, footnoting the last of them, seeming to think that somehow lends legitimacy to the others, as well. You want to believe DVD is the last word on REH biography, and that Sprague withheld his own opinions, presenting only fair, objective facts, fine, think that – there’s obviously lots of room in this world for people without any sort of critical faculties. The sort of people, for instance, who believe that the theories of Dr. Freud are self-evident explanations for human behavior.” (p. 4) Burke then reprints his review of Howard’s semi-autobiographical novel Post Oaks and Sand Roughs (Grant, 1989) in Studies in Weird Fiction #6 (fall, 1989). “Though he occasionally stretches facts or juggles a sequence of events, on the whole the book stands as an important document for those who seek to understand Howard as a writer.” (p. 8)

At 59 pages, Mailing #102 (Mar., 1990) is the shortest Mailing since #25 (aside from the belated #84/85) and up to the present as well, but understandably, since so many members had put such effort in their contributions to #100. The sizes of the Mailings and the membership would start rebounding. Terry Lawson has more recollections of pulp writer E. Hoffmann “Ed” Price, who had died in 1988 at age 89. Price met Howard twice and wrote similar memoirs about him in letters to Weird Tales (1936) [5], Francis T. Laney (1944) [6], The Acolyte (1944, 1945) [7,8], (one undated, two in 1945 [9-11]), and Cross Plains #2 (1974) [12]; in articles in Magazine (1936) [13], Diablerie (1944) [14], and The Ghost #3 (1945) [15]; in the introduction to (1976) [15]; and in his The Book of the Dead (2001) [15].

To Mailing #103 (May, 1990), Ellis submits a letter saying she is finishing up the writing of a novel using her grandmother’s old ghost and witch stories, as REH had encouraged her to do. [It would never be published. Does anyone know if the manuscript is extant?] Arney reports on the November, 1989, trip of REHupans to Cross Plains. Herron reprints three of writer David C. Smith’s personal newsletters.

Tom Munnerlyn, an Austin collector, book publisher, and bookseller specializing in history, debuts his zine. He is a friend of Clyde Smith’s nephew Roy Barkley and helped him sell or donate Smith’s limited collection of books, pulps, and fanzines. Barkley also had acquired the Smith-Howard correspondence and provided copies of the letters for publication in Robert E. Howard: Selected Letters 1923-1930, as well as REH’s poems that appeared in Shadows of Dreams. He later sold the letters to Texas A & M (aside from a couple unsigned ones, one of which I bought). Other items in Smith’s collection were two books with REH inscriptions (duplicated below), a complete set of Smith’s zine The All-Around Magazine containing the incomplete tale “Under the Green Tiger” by Howard, and REH’s and Smith’s collaboration Red Blades of Black Cathay (Grant, 1971). [All-Around Magazine (May/Jun & Jul 1923) sold on eBay for $911 in 2005 to Dave Kurzman.]

Burke mentions his work editing the new Howard journal The Dark Man #1 (we covered the TDM zines previously in this series [16-18]) and Robert E. Howard’s Fight Magazine () of his humorous boxing stories, a series that was projected to last eight issues, but only four would be published (between 1990 and 1996). Burke also reprints newspaper articles on Ellis, including one about her induction into the National Forensic League’s Hall of Fame of speech coaches for the many competition awards that she had led her students to achieve.

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Chuck Hoffman reviews Post Oaks and Sand Roughs [reprinted in The Dark Man #1], which he opines was inspired by Jack London’s Martin Eden. He also presents a list of all REH books published in the US, updating Lord’s list in The Last Celt (Grant, 1976). Clark reviews ’s memoir Howard Phillips Lovecraft: Dreamer on the Nightside (, 1975), which included the first appearance

Cover by Rick McCollum

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of the postcard photo of REH at Fort McKavett, Tex. [19], reproduced below, that was reprinted in The Last Celt. Clark also reprints an essay on Doc Savage, from Dave Pettus’s zine The Creative Spirit, which contains Doc Savage creator Lester Dent’s formula for generating pulp story plots, as well as information about the author and character. McCollum submits seven pages from his Wulfgar the Mercenary strip.

Mailing #104 (July, 1990) opens with a cover photo of the Howard House, which had just been acquired for restoration, and newspaper articles on de Camp, his wife Catherine, and their recent visit to Cross Plains promoting the Howard Museum. De Camp reveals that he got into fiction writing by accident after being laid off from two engineering jobs and then couldn’t find a job doing anything else. One article’s claim that REH’s poem “The Tempter” was the last poem he ever wrote is most likely not true, Burke remarks in the next Mailing. It was probably written before 1930. Dr. Howard seemed to be in the habit of making the claim. New member Patrice Louinet from France summarizes the history of REH publications in his country and provides a five-page bibliography of them. Lawson has one final set of recollections of Ed Price. Burke notes that Roy Barkley is selling off remaining copies of his late uncle Clyde Smith’s self-published books, which consisted of poetry (which Howard admired), short stories, and local histories, most notably Pecan Valley Days [20] and Frontier’s Generation [21], which contained reminiscences about and three photos of Howard [22-24]; the photos are reproduced below. Burke also comments that David Anthony Kraft’s zine Oak Leaves, on author Otis Adelbert Kline, contained letters from Kline (as REH’s agent), both to Howard and, after his death, to Dr. Howard and from writer Otto Binder to OAK (some relating to the history of Weird Tales and some to REH stories that Binder sold or tried to sell to Jack Byrne, editor of Argosy). [The 12-issue run of Oak Leaves was collected in The Compleat Oak Leaves (Fictioneer, 1980).]

Burke warns the members that his analysis of the various texts of Howard’s stories has forced him to conclude that the Science Fiction Book Club reprints of the Berkley/Putnam series (edited by Karl Edward Wagner) are so full of typos, dropped lines, etc., that they are worthless to Howardists. He observes that the three unsold Conan tales were “The Frost-Giant’s Daughter,” “The God in the Bowl,” and “The Black Stranger.” De Camp found these among the typescripts that were in the possession of Oscar Friend, Kline’s successor as REH’s agent. De Camp then unnecessarily changed them well beyond mere editing, as Burke demonstrates by comparing excerpts from Howard’s and de Camp’s versions. The changes are no real improvements, so Burke concludes that they were done so that de Camp could claim copyright of the finished work.

Then Burke focuses on the origins of de Camp’s posthumous psychoanalysis of Howard: In his introduction to “Shadows in the Moonlight” (orig. title “Iron Shadows in the Moon”) in Swords and Sorcery: Stories of Heroic Fantasy (Pyramid Books, December 1963, p. 31), de Camp says: “For vivid, violent, gripping, headlong action, the stories of ROBERT ERVIN HOWARD (1996-1936) take the prize among heroic . Howard was born and lived in Cross Plains, Texas, attended Brownsville College, and during his short life turned out a large volume of general pulp fiction: sport, detective, western, and oriental adventure stories besides his fantasies. Although a big, powerful man like his heroes, he suffered delusions of persecution and killed himself in an excess of emotion over his aged mother’s death.” (p. 10)

De Camp never says where he got these “delusions of persecution,” but his later pieces tend to indicate they are from Ed Price’s various memoirs, which include an instance when REH pulls a gun out of his car’s glove compartment and scans the area for supposed enemies, though it is quite possible he was simply putting Price on. As another indication of de Camp’s flimsy research, Burke traces his assertions of

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[19]

Bob at Fort McKavett McKavett Fort Bobat

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[23]

Cap Bobwith

[22]

Patch Boband

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Bob with Hat [24]

Howard’s alleged immaturity and social and sexual maladjustment to his friend ’s suggestion that REH was “tied to his mother’s apron-strings” and Preece’s lamentation “if only he’d gone out with girls the way other boys did ...” [15], and to speculations by de Camp’s friend and fellow author Alan Nourse. Nourse was no psychologist, but a physician who had the audacity to claim that “Howard’s history provided a classic case of sexual maladjustment, such as is often initiated by the combination of a domineering, coldly hostile father and an overprotective mother. ‘[His] sleepwalking alone,’ he said, ‘indicates a profoundly neurotic personality – probably hysteric and hypersuggestible. You add to these other factors the fact that he was only starting to take an interest in women when he was nearly thirty, and that exaggerated interest in manly sports – well, it’s obvious that here was a fellow who wasn’t wired up just right in the matter of sex …’” (pp. 11-12) [25] This is in spite of the fact that REH did indeed date women. Even before this conversation with Nourse, de Camp said: [W]ithout a doubt … Howard was a psychological case study ... Howard suffered from delusions of persecution … and his end constituted a classic case of Oedipus complex” [26] and “Although a big, powerful man like his heroes, he suffered delusions of persecution and killed himself in an excess of emotion over his aged mother’s death.” [27] Three months after his talk with Nourse, de Camp stated: “Unfortunately, Howard was maladjusted to the point of psychosis.” [28] Burke asks, “Do we have here … a researcher who only sees what he is looking for – and who never fails to see what he is looking for?” (p. 12), and asserts that de Camp is not the unbiased, impartial reporter many think he is. De Camp had previously indulged in the same sort of posthumous psychoanalysis in a much-criticized biography of Lovecraft. [Burke’s comments on de Camp were later expanded and published in Van Hise’s The Fantastic Worlds of Robert E. Howard. [29]] Burke also says he disagrees with de Camp in seeing any parallels between the fiction of REH and that of William Morris.

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Cavalier reprints Bernard A. Drew’s eight-page article “Conan the Librarian,” which contains a bibliography of Conan tales by Howard and others. [30] #105 (Sep., 1990) is a Lovecraft-themed Mailing, starting with a cover drawing of HPL by Robert H. Knox occasioned by the Necronomicon convention at Providence in August celebrating the centennial of Lovecraft’s birth there. De Camp submits a floor plan of the Howard House in REH’s time, reproduced below, that he and Catherine had drawn in 1980. Hoffman reminiscences about his interactions with HPL scholars and fans, and reports on his trip to Necronomicon. Rich Jervis presents an essay on Howard’s Conrad/Kirowan/O’Donnel story cycle about these supernatural investigators. Bo Cribbs quotes Lovecraft’s 1936 letter in Weird Tales about what he thought of REH’s writing:

The tragic death of Robert E. Howard has called forth a chorus of praise from discerning critics who have appreciated the genuine literary value of his work. H. P. Lovecraft, one of the acknowledged masters of weird fiction, whose keenly analytical mind has started many young writers on literary careers, makes the following comment on Howard’s work: “Howard’s death forms weird fiction’s worst blow since the passing of good old Canevin (Henry S. Whitehead) in 1932. Scarcely anybody else in the pulp field had quite the driving zest and spontaneity of Robert E. Howard. He put himself into everything he wrote – and even when he made outward concessions to pulp standards he had a wholly unique inner force and sincerity which broke through the surface and placed the stamp of his personality on the ultimate product. How he could surround primal megalithic cities with an aura of aeon-old fear and necromancy! And his recent “Black Canaan” (WT’s best story in the last three or so issues) is likewise magnificent in a more realistic way – reflecting a genuine regional background and giving a clutchingly powerful picture of the horror that stalks through the moss-hung, shadow-cursed, serpent-ridden swamps of the farther South. Others’ efforts seem pallid by contrast. Weird fiction certainly has occasion to mourn. [31]

Cribbs also reprints Steve Mariconda’s “Places Lovecraftian” (about the buildings in Providence that have HPL connections) from Etchings & Odysseys #5 (1984).

Louinet runs an essay on the best of Howard’s serious western stories, namely “The Vultures of Wahpeton” (originally) or “The Vultures of Whapeton” (as published in Smashing Novel Magazine, Dec., 1936). Louinet points out that REH’s protagonist Corcoran was based on a real person, Hendry Brown, who was a member of Billy the Kid’s gang. Cavalier has a trip report on the GenCon gaming convention held in August in Milwaukee and reviews Howard’s Shadows of Dreams (Grant, 1989), Post Oaks and Sand Roughs (Grant, 1990), and Selected Letters 1923-1930 (Necronomicon Press, 1989).

Burke begins his 64-page Lovecraft-themed zine by spotlighting HPL’s letters, especially those written to REH. Lovecraft scholar S. T. Joshi echoes de Camp’s estimate that HPL wrote some 100,000 letters during his life, of which perhaps 20,000 survive. Howard began his almost 6-year correspondence with Lovecraft by writing Weird Tales editor Farnsworth Wright about an apparent linguistic error in HPL’s story “”; Wright passed the letter on to Lovecraft.

Howard’s letters to Lovecraft … constitute what I believe to be among the most important of his writings, so far as scholarship and criticism are concerned. For those who wish to enjoy REH as the greatest rough-and-tumble action/adventure writer of this century, his fiction will certainly stand alone. But for those wish to go deeper, to understand what Howard was trying to get at in his fiction, the letters to Lovecraft are must reading. They certainly reveal a keener mind, capable of profounder depths, than has previously been alleged by those who would wish to keep REH no more than an overgrown adolescent hack.

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Floor plan of the Howard House by L. Sprague and Catherine de Camp

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I don’t think the importance of Lovecraft can really be overestimated in Howard’s intellectual life. His earlier letters to Clyde Smith and Harold Preece reveal to us much that had been, prior to their publication, unknown: the breadth of his reading, for instance, and his deep delvings into philosophy and metaphysics. I think it is most interesting that, following the establishment of his correspondence with Lovecraft, Howard’s letters to Clyde Smith gradually taper off, and tend not to concern themselves with the same sort of speculations as formerly. I believe it is quite likely that, in Lovecraft, Howard had at last found someone entirely his intellectual equal, someone who’d read as widely and as deeply as he, and who could give him a tough intellectual challenge as a debater. (p. 3)

…

Joshi, in his “A Look at Lovecraft’s Letters” [32], speaks highly of the HPL-REH correspondence cycle. “Howard [became] a close associate whose own voluminous replies to Lovecraft’s letters would lend themselves ideally to combined publication, as has been done with other figures – notably Alexander Pope and Horace Walpole – where both sides of a correspondence cycle survive. In its own way the Lovecraft-Howard correspondence rivals the Pope-Swift correspondence of the early eighteenth century, and would perhaps be of as much importance to fantasy scholars as the latter is to students of the Augustan age.” [Joshi] notes that Lovecraft took on a different tone to each of his correspondents, and that with Howard (as well as a few others), HPL was “deeply philosophical”: “to no one else could Lovecraft have written the lengthy and stalwart defences of civilisation over barbarism than to the creator of Conan. It is not certain that Lovecraft got the better of this argument.” He goes on a bit later to say that Lovecraft needed the intellectual stimulation he could only get through wide and voluminous correspondence, for he had no real intellectual equals among his circle in Providence. Indeed, few of his correspondents qualified, but at least he could, by having a great many of them, continue to let his mind range in many directions. Only Clark Ashton Smith, Alfred Galpin, Ernest A. Edkins, and “possibly Robert E. Howard could hold a candle to Lovecraft in both intellectual capacity and argumentative skill, and with Smith he rarely disputed.” (pp. 3-4)

Burke says he wished that the surviving HPL-REH letters could be published in their entirety because the world would then be given a truer picture of both men. [Burke would indeed go on to edit such a collection, namely the two-volume A Means to Freedom (, 2009).] Burke proceeds to look at how Howard’s and Lovecraft’s fiction affected each other. REH tried his hand at writing HPL’s style of fiction with such stories as “The Children of the Night,” “The Black Stone,” and “The Thing on the Roof.” Howard also makes scattered references to Lovecraft’s, or Lovecraft-like, deities in his other fantastic fiction. For his part, HPL seems to echo REH’s type of protagonist and style of action in his “The Shadow over Innsmouth.” [An interesting contrast between their two styles is provided by their respective chapters in the round-robin fantasy story “The Challenge from Beyond” (Fantasy Magazine #34, 1935) that they participated in, along with C. L. Moore, A. Merritt, and Frank Belknap Long.]

Burke then relates his experiences and observations at the Lovecraft Centennial Conference, which was also attended by Marc Cerasini, Clark, Hoffman, Joshi, Long, Marc Michaud, Robert M. Price, , and of course many Lovecraftian scholars. “As a fan, I’ve been to many sf and fantasy conventions, great and small. The Lovecraft conference had all the substance one could want from an academic or professional conference, without the pretentiousness and pomposity or long-winded, boring displays of gratuitous erudition that too often mark such affairs. … In short, this was a small convention of people sorta like me, who read their author for sheer enjoyment, but also do him the favor of taking his work and life seriously, seeking to learn more and to share their thoughts and opinions with others. Some day, I vow,

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we shall see such a conference devoted to Robert E. Howard. We are perhaps laying the groundwork with our now-annual REH Gatherings, and I hope that The Dark Man will lend some further impetus to the growth of Howard scholarship and criticism.” (pp. 29-30) [And in fact we have seen that very conference arise in the yearly Howard Days celebration at Cross Plains, in which Burke has been a prominent participant.] Burke reports that former REHupan Nancy Collins won the 1989 Bram Stoker Award for Best First Novel with her Sunglasses after Dark, and reprints a Hoffman interview of her, as well as a review of her next novel, Tempter. Burke also reprints several newspaper articles about HPL; Howard’s letter to Lovecraft about the great Galveston hurricane of 1900, as well as an article about it; and news about Herron’s Dashiell Hammett Tour of San Francisco.

Trout does an essay on HPL. Arney presents historical info on Irish king Brian Boru and his influence on REH.

And so concludes the first five of the second hundred Mailings of REHupa apazines, as this premier organization of Howardist fans and budding scholars attains a noteworthy level of literary expertise and editorial competence, one it would basically maintain till the present day.

REHUPA MAILING MEMBERS (IN JOINING ORDER) AND PAGES MAILING # 101 102 103 104 105 Glenn Lord 6 Ben Indick 4 13 10 9 Don Herron 20 7 1 Steve Trout 8 2 14 Robert Barger 12 17 22 Rick McCollum 1 7 Vernon M. Clark 14 Rusty Burke 8 6 9 30 64 L. Sprague de Camp 1 1 1 Bill Cavalier 11 10 7 13 5 Thomas Kovacs 6 Garry Adrian 3 13 15 Rich Allen Jervis 7 9 20 5 12 Charlotte Laughlin 2 Bo Cribbs 6 4 20 Charles E. Hoffman 14 10 Terry Lawson 6 4 Timothy W. Arney 8 3 6 Novalyne Price Ellis 2 Tom Munnerlyn 3 Patrice Louinet 8 33 OE & Rules Matter 14 6 6 12 6 TOTAL incl. Cover(s) 83 59 141 109 208

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REFERENCES

[1] Breakiron, Lee A., “The Rise of the New Hyborian Legion, Part One” in The Nemedian Chroniclers #23, pp. 1-21 in REHupa Mailing #262 (Dec., 2016)

[2] Van Hise, James, “History of the Robert E. Howard APA” in his The Road to Velitrium #35 [Mailings 1-17], pp. 2-9; #36 [18-49], pp. 1-17; #37 [50-74], pp. 2-32; #38 [75-100], pp. 1-34; #39 [101-125], pp. 1-30; #40 [126-145], pp. 1-34; #41 [146-156], pp. 1-22; #42 [157-165], pp. 1-20; & #43 [166-171], pp. 1-11 in, respectively, REHupa Mailings #161 (Feb., 2000), #163 (June, 2000), #165 (Oct., 2000), #166 (Dec., 2000), #167 (Feb., 2001), #168 (Apr., 2001), #169 (June, 2001), #171 (Oct., 2001), & #172 (Dec., 2001); collected, revised, & extended in his The Road to Velitrium #46 [1-175], 112 pp. in REHupa Mailing #176 (Aug., 2002) & pub. as The History of the Robert E. Howard APA #1-175 (James Van Hise, Yucca Valley, Cal., 2002), 114 pp.

[3] Loving, Billie Ruth, “Howard Fans Hosted Locally” [about visit of 6 REHupans to Cross Plains on 4 Nov., 1989, who gave books to the Library & toured the REH House] in Cross Plains Review, Vol. 81, #32 (Tex., newspaper, 9 Nov., 1989), pp. 1-2

[4] Lord, Glenn, “Herbert Klatt” [a friend of REH; orig. untitled] in Zarfhaana #35, pp.1-6 in Esoteric Order of Dagon Mailing #67 (Nov., 1989); reprinted untitled in Lord’s Costigan #? [sic], pp. 1-6 in REHupa Mailing #101 (Jan., 1990); reprinted as “Herbert Klatt” in The Dark Man #1 (ed. Rusty Burke; Necronomicon Press, West Warwick, R.I., Aug., 1990), pp. 24-27; reprinted as “Herbert Klatt: The Fourth Musketeer” in REH: Two-Gun Raconteur #8 (ed. Damon C. Sasser; The Black Coast Press, Channelview, Tex., fall, 2005), pp. 13-16 & in The Man from Cross Plains: A Centennial Celebration of Two-Gun Bob Howard (ed. Dennis McHaney; Lulu.com, 2006), pp. 189-196 w/photo of REH; reprinted in French as “Herbert C. Klatt: le quatrième mousquetaire” in Échos de Cimmérie: Hommage à Robert Ervin Howard (1906-1936) (ed. Fabrice Tortey; Les Éditions de l’Oeil du Sphinx, Paris, 2009), pp. 103-107 w/photo of REH, Truett Vinson, & Tevis Clyde Smith, Jr.

[5] Price, E. Hoffmann, Letter [says the shock & loss at REH’s death were greater for those who knew him personally than for fans who were just readers] in Weird Tales, Vol. 28, #3 (Popular Fiction Publishing Co., Indianapolis, Oct., 1936), p. 378 & in Rusty Burke’s “The Weird Tales’ Readers View of Robert E. Howard – Comments from ‘The Eyrie,’” in The Fantastic Worlds of Robert E. Howard (James Van Hise, Yucca Valley, Cal., 1997 & 2001), p. 74

[6] Price, E. Hoffmann, Letter to Francis T. Laney, dated 22 July, 1944 [reflects on REH’s sensitivity, emotional immaturity, family ties, & suicide, & his father’s character] in The Acolyte #9, Vol. 3, #1 (Francis T. Laney & Samuel D. Robinson, Los Angeles, winter 1945), pp. 14-16 & in The Howard Collector #9, Vol. 2, #3 (Glenn Lord, Pasadena, Tex., spring, 1967), pp. 4-7 & in The Howard Collector (ed. Glenn Lord; Ace Books, , 1979), pp. 221-224 & in David C. Smith’s Bocere #14, Vol. 3, #2, pp. 6-8 in REHupa Mailing #145 (June, 1997); reprinted with wrong date in Scott Connors’s Dagon Moor, Aug., 2009, pp. 7-8 in REHupa Mailing #218 (Aug., 2009); reprinted in German in Magira #23/24 (Follow, Passau, West Germany, Dec., 1975), pp. 98-99

[7] Price, E. Hoffmann, Letter [announcing death of Isaac M. Howard on 12 Nov., 1944] in The Acolyte #10, Vol. 3, #2 (Francis T. Laney & Samuel D. Robinson, Los Angeles, spring, 1945), p. 33; reprinted in Tim Marion’s The Hyborian Mage, Sep., 1975, p. 1 in REHupa Mailing #17 (Sep., 1975) & in Rusty Burke’s Seanchai, Aug., 1993, pp. 2-3 in REHupa Mailing #122 (Aug., 1993) & in David C. Smith’s Bocere #14, Vol. 3, #2, p. 9 in REHupa Mailing #145 (June, 1997); posted at http://www.fanac.org/ fanzines/Acolyte/Acolyte10-33.html

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[8] Price, E. Hoffmann, Letter [personalities of Lovecraft & REH; REH’s supposed immaturity, relationship with his mother & other women, & suicide] in The Acolyte #12, Vol. 3, #4 (Francis T. Laney & Samuel D. Robinson, Los Angeles, fall, 1945), pp. 31, 32, & 26 [sic]; reprinted in The Howard Collector #5, Vol. 1, #5 (Glenn Lord, Pasadena, Tex., summer, 1964), pp. 32-36 followed by photo of REH &, minus photo, in The Howard Collector (ed. Glenn Lord; Ace Books, New York, 1979), pp. 226-229 & in Bocere #15, Vol. 3, #3 (ed. David C. Smith), pp. 7-9 in REHupa Mailing #146 (Aug., 1997); posted at http://www.fanac.org/fanzines/Acolyte/Acolyte12-31.html

[9] Price, E. Hoffmann, Letter to August Derleth, undated [agrees with Derleth that REH’s best work is distinguished by authenticity, however much the folk dialect may be invented, as in “A Man-Eating Jeopard” in contrast to his stories of the “phoney” Conan, though the latter are more literate; thinks that REH was an “exaggerated escapist” with a persecution complex & was “emotionally unstable,” killing himself out in a fit of despondency, though long in the planning; mentions that he is to get the contents of REH’s trunk] in R. Alain “Randy” Everts’s Cthulhu, May, 1977, pp. 4-5 in REHupa Mailing #27 (May, 1977); reprinted in Everts’s The Dark Man, pp. 3-4 in The Hyperborian League Mailing #8 (July, 1977)

[10] Price, E. Hoffmann, Letter to August Derleth, dated 11 Mar., 1945 [says 4 boxes of REH relics arrived from the late Isaac M. Howard, incl. tear sheets, typescripts, & carbons of stories, incl. A Gent from Bear Creek, fragments, poems, photos incl. ones of a 5- or 6-yr old REH & REH in Lincoln, N.M., letters to him & from him to Lovecraft (but none from Lovecraft, as if Isaac destroyed them), etc.; says Isaac wrote that REH had readied himself for suicide on previous occasions & was apparently spurred to it by a nurse’s statement that his mother wouldn’t recover; says Gent is repetitious & immaturely written, but has splendid characterization, regional lore, & priceless dialog, & is epic in a rudimentary way] in R. Alain “Randy” Everts’s Cthulhu, Apr. 1977, pp. 2-5 in The Hyperborian League Mailing #7 (April 1977) & in his REH, Sep., 1977, pp. 2-5 in REHupa Mailing #29 (Sep., 1977)

[11] Price, E. Hoffmann, Letter to August Derleth, 14 Mar., 1945 [his impressions from the “revelatory” REH-Lovecraft correspondence that he read in the “4 boxes of relics” & his feeling that REH was more serious about & expressive when writing westerns rather than fantasy] in R. Alain “Randy” Everts’s Cthulhu, May, 1977, pp. 2-3 in REHupa Mailing #27 (May, 1977) & in his The Dark Man, pp. 1-2 in The Hyperborian League Mailing #8 (July, 1977) & in James Van Hise’s The Road to Velitrium #35, pp. 10-11 in REHupa Mailing #161 (Feb., 2000)

[12] Price, E. Hoffmann, Letter [sketches his & REH’s careers & interactions] in Cross Plains #2, Vol. 1, #2 (George T. Hamilton, Yorba Linda, Cal., Mar., 1974), pp. 36-37

[13] Lovecraft, H. P.; Kline, Otis Adelbert; Price, E. Hoffmann; & Byrne, Jack, “In Memoriam: Robert Ervin Howard” [bio sketch & encomiums to his attainments, talent, character, & promise] in Fantasy Magazine #38, Vol. 6, #4 (Julius Schwartz, New York, Sep., 1936), pp. 29-32 w/1 p. insert of 6 photos, 1 of REH; Lovecraft portion reprinted as “Robert E. Howard: A Memoriam” in Skull-Face and Others (Arkham House Publishers, Sauk City, Wis., 1946), pp. xiii-xvi & in Skull-Face Omnibus (Neville Spearman, Jersey, Britain, 1974), pp. xiii-xvi & in Skull-Face Omnibus (Panther Books, St. Albans, England, 1976), pp. 13-17 & in Glenn Lord’s The Last Celt: A Bio-Bibliography of Robert Ervin Howard (Donald M. Grant, West Kingston, R.I., 1976; reprinted by Berkley Windhover (New York, 1977)), pp. 67-70 & in Miscellaneous Writings: H. P. Lovecraft (Arkham House Publishers, 1995), pp. 123-126; all reprinted as “Robert Ervin Howard 1906-1936” in Second Anniversary Catalog (Necronomicon Press, West Warwick, R.I.), 21 Jul. 1979, pp. ?-?; all reprinted minus photos in Sword & Fantasy #1 (James Van Hise, Yucca Valley, Cal., Jan., 2005), pp. 5-8; Kline’s, Prices’s, & Byrne’s portions reprinted in Glenn Lord’s Costigan #5, pp. 1-2 in REHupa Mailing #6 (Nov., 1973) & in Rusty

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Burke’s Seanchai, Aug., 1993, pp. 1-2 in REHupa Mailing #122 (Aug., 1993) & as “The Fantasy Magazine Howard Memorial” in The Book of The Howard Review (Dennis McHaney, Lulu.com, Dec., 2010), pp. 166-167; 6-photo sheet reprinted in James Van Hise’s The Road to Velitrium #76, p. 6 in REHupa Mailing #228 (Apr., 2011) & in Lee A. Breakiron’s The Nemedian Chroniclers #19, p. 4 in REHupa Mailing #252 (Apr., 2015)

[14] Price, E. Hoffmann, “Robert Ervin Howard” [personal impressions of REH] in Diablerie #4, Vol. 1, #4 (ed. Bill “Willie” Watson; Diablerist Press, San Francisco, May, 1944), pp. ?-?; reprinted in The Howard Collector #1, Vol. 1, #1 (Glenn Lord, Pasadena, Tex., summer, 1961), pp. 7-13 & in The Howard Collector (ed. Glenn Lord; Ace Books, New York, 1979), pp. 191-195 & in West is West & Others (by REH et al.; ed. Rob Roehm & Joe Marek [latter writing as Alex Runions], Lulu.com, 2006), pp. 176-180

[15] Price, E. Hoffmann, “The Book of the Dead, Chapter 2: Robert Ervin Howard” [reminiscences of & opinions about REH & his family in general from letters & visits in 1934 & 1936; has letters from Isaac Howard to Price, REH to Farnsworth Wright & Price, & from Price to W. Paul Cook, plus REH’s “Some People Who Have Had Influence over Me” & “The Wandering Years”] in The Ghost #3 (W. Paul Cook, May, 1945), pp. 38-54; reprinted in West is West & Others (by REH et al.; ed. Rob Roehm & Joe Marek [latter writing as Alex Runions], Lulu.com, 2006), pp. 139-155; section “Robert E. Howard” revised as “A Memory of R. E. Howard” in Skull-Face and Others (by REH; Arkham House Publishers, Sauk City, Wis., 1946), pp. xvii-xxv & in Skull-Face Omnibus (Neville Spearman, Jersey, UK, 1974), pp. xvii-xxv & in The Last Celt: A Bio-Bibliography of Robert Ervin Howard (ed. Glenn Lord; Donald M. Grant, West Kingston, R.I., 1976; reprinted by Berkley Windhover (New York, 1977)), pp. 81-92 & in Skull-Face Omnibus, Vol. 1: Skull-Face and Others (by REH; Panther, St. Albans, England, 1976), pp. 18-31; same section revised as “Long Ago” in Amra, Vol. 2, #63 (ed. George H. Scithers; Terminus, Owlswick, & Ft. Mudge Electrick St. Railway Gazette, Philadelphia, Apr., 1975), pp. 5-8 & expanded as “Robert Ervin Howard, January 22, 1906-June 11, 1936” = Chap. IV of The Book of the Dead ̶ Friends of Yesteryear: Fictioneers & Others (Memories of the Pulp Fiction Era) (Arkham House Publishers, Saul City, Wis., 2001), pp. 70-93

[16] Breakiron, Lee A., “The Dark Man Men, Part One” [history & contents of that journal #s 1-6] in his The Nemedian Chroniclers #10, pp. 1-34 in REHupa Mailing #232 (Dec., 2011); reprinted at REHeapa (http://www.robert-e-howard.org, summer, 2012, 34 pp.)

[17] Breakiron, Lee A., “The Dark Man Men, Part Two” [history & contents of that journal #s 7-8 & Vol. 2, #1/2] in his The Nemedian Chroniclers #11, pp. 1-20 in REHupa Mailing #234 (Apr., 2012); reprinted at REHeapa (http://www.robert-e-howard.org, autumn, 2012, 20 pp.)

[18] Breakiron, Lee A., “The Dark Man Men, Part Three” [history & contents of that journal Vols. 3-6] in his The Nemedian Chroniclers #12, pp. 1-28 in REHupa Mailing #236 (Aug., 2012); reprinted at REHeapa (http://www.robert-e-howard.org, winter, 2012, 28 pp.)

[19] Long, Frank Belknap, “Robert E. Howard of Crossplains [sic], Texas” [postcard photo only; inscription on copy sent to Lovecraft: ‘Ruins of Fort McKavett, July 9, 1933 …’”] in his Howard Phillips Lovecraft: Dreamer on the Nightside (Arkham House Publishers, Sauk City, Wis., 1975), opposite p. 147; reprinted in Glenn Lord’s The Last Celt: A Bio-Bibliography of Robert Ervin Howard (Donald M. Grant, West Kingston, R.I., 1976; reprinted by Berkley Windhover (New York, 1977)), p. 389 & in Pictures in the Fire: An Index to Robert E. Howard in Photograph (David Gentzel, 31 pp. chapbook in REHupa Mailing #156 (Apr., 1999)), p. 23 & in Edward A. Waterman’s “The Robert E. Howard Collections Found in the University of California at Berkeley’s Bancroft Library” in The Dark Man #7

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(ed. Mark E. Hall; Seele Brennt Publ., New Paltz, N.Y., spring, 2004), wraparound cover & p. 17 & in The Cimmerian, Vol. 1, #4 (Leo Grin, Downey, Cal., Oct., 2004), pp. 26 & 11 & in Howard’s Haunts: A Photographic Journey through Robert E. Howard’s Texas and the Events of the Howard Centennial (by Rob Roehm; Roehm’s Room Press, Lulu.com, 2006), pp. 33 & 43 & in Ambición a la luz de la luna y otros textos autobiográficos por Robert E. Howard (ed. Javier Jiménez Barco; GasMask Editores, Málaga, Spain, 2017), p. 276; posted at https://reh.world/gallery/

[20] Smith, Tevis Clyde, Jr., “Adventurer in Pulp” [reminiscences of REH, incl. The All-Around Magazine, REH’s education in Brownwood, Tex., his jobs, writing ambitions & achievements, his literary characters, his own nature, his favorite writers & other interests, & his love of animals] in Pecan Valley Days (Tevis Clyde Smith, Jr., Brownwood, Tex., 1956), pp. 44-47 w/2 photos of REH; reprinted in Smith’s Report on a Writing Man and Other Reminiscences of Robert E. Howard (ed. Rusty Burke; Necronomicon Press, 1991), pp. 11-12 & his So Far the Poet … & Other Writings (ed. Rusty Burke & Rob Roehm; The Robert E. Howard Foundation Press, Plano, Tex., 2010), pp. 217-219 & in Bill Calier’s Cold Steel #199, pp. 5-8 in REHupa Mailing #277 (June, 2019)

[21] Smith, Tevis Clyde, Jr., “A Friend of Long Ago” [preface] in his Frontier’s Generation: The Pioneer History of Brown County with Sidelights on the Surrounding Territory (Tevis Clyde Smith, Jr., Brownwood, Tex., 2nd, enlarged ed., 1980, p. 140; reprinted in his Report on a Writing Man and Other Reminiscences of Robert E. Howard (ed. Rusty Burke; Necronomicon Press, 1991), p. 13 & in his So Far the Poet … & Other Writings (ed. Rusty Burke & Rob Roehm; The Robert E. Howard Foundation Press, Plano, Tex., 2010), pp. 220-221

[22] Smith, Tevis Clyde, Jr., “Bob and Patch” [photo only, of REH fondling his dog] in Pecan Valley Days (Tevis Clyde Smith, Jr., Brownwood, Tex., 1956), p. 47; reprinted in his Report on a Writing Man and Other Reminiscences of Robert E. Howard (ed. Rusty Burke; Necronomicon Press, 1991), p. 12 & in Pictures in the Fire: An Index to Robert E. Howard in Photograph (David Gentzel, 31 pp. chapbook in REHupa Mailing #156 (Apr., 1999)), p. 15; posted at http://www.robert-e-howard.org/ DwellingDarkValley.html

[23] Smith, Tevis Clyde, Jr., “Bob with Cap; Photo Taken by Tevis Clyde Smith in 1930” [photo only, of REH, eyes shaded] in his Frontier’s Generation: The Pioneer History of Brown County with Sidelights on the Surrounding Territory, 2nd, enlarged ed. (Tevis Clyde Smith, Jr., Brownwood, Tex., 1980), p. 142; reprinted in his Report on a Writing Man and Other Reminiscences of Robert E. Howard (ed. Rusty Burke; Necronomicon Press, 1991), back cover & in Pictures in the Fire: An Index to Robert E. Howard in Photograph (David Gentzel, 31 pp. chapbook in REHupa Mailing #156 (Apr., 1999)), p. 16 & in Ambición a la luz de la luna y otros Textos autobiográficos por Robert E. Howard (ed. Javier Jiménez Barco; GasMask Editores, Málaga, Spain, 2017), p. 271

[24] Smith, Tevis Clyde, Jr., “Bob with Hat; Photo Taken by Tevis Clyde Smith in 1930” [photo only, of REH with fingers in belt] in his Frontier’s Generation: The Pioneer History of Brown County with Sidelights on the Surrounding Territory, 2nd, enlarged ed. (Tevis Clyde Smith, Jr., Brownwood, Tex., 1980), p. 141; reprinted in Pictures in the Fire: An Index to Robert E. Howard in Photograph (David Gentzel, 31 pp. chapbook in REHupa Mailing #156 (Apr., 1999)), p. 18 & in Ambición a la luz de la luna y otros Textos autobiográficos por Robert E. Howard (ed. Javier Jiménez Barco; GasMask Editores, Málaga, Spain, 2017), p. 271

[25] de Camp, L. Sprague, “Memories of REH” [de Camp’s & Alan Nourse’s trip to Brownwood & Cross Plains, Tex., in spring, 1965; sketch of REH’s life; & his relationship with his father, supposedly indicating neurosis & sexual maladjustment] in Amra, Vol. 2, #38 (ed. George H. Scithers; Terminus,

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Owlswick, & Ft. Mudge Electrick St. Railway Gazette, Germany, Feb., 1966), pp. 15-20; reprinted in The Conan Reader (ed. L. Sprague de Camp; Mirage Press, Baltimore, 1968), pp. 12-20 & in (ed. L. Sprague de Camp; Ace Books, New York, 1979), pp. 91-98; incorporated into de Camp’s The Miscast Barbarian: A Biography of Robert E. Howard (1906-1936) (Gerry de la Ree, Saddle River, N.J., 1975); reprinted in German in Conan von Cimmerien (by REH, , & de Camp; Wilhelm Heyne, Munich, 1982), pp. 259-267

[26] de Camp, L. Sprague, Introduction [how he came to extend the Conan stories & how they reflect on REH, who suffered from delusions of persecution & an Oedipus complex; claims REH drove out into the desert to shoot himself] to King Conan: The Hyborean Age [sic] (by REH; Gnome Press, New York, 1953), pp. 7-11

[27] de Camp, L. Sprague, Preface to “Shadows in the Moonlight” [sketches Conan’s stories & REH’s life, saying he “suffered delusions of persecution and killed himself in an excess of emotion over his aged mother’s death.”] in Swords and Sorcery: Stories of Heroic Fantasy (Pyramid Books, New York, 1963), p. 31

[28] de Camp, L. Sprague, Preface to “Shadows in Zamboula” [sketches Hyborian Age & world & REH’s career & style; says REH “was maladjusted to the point of psychosis.”] in The Spell of Seven: Stories of Heroic Fantasy (ed. de Camp; Pyramid Books, New York, 1965), pp. 159-160

[29] Burke, Rusty, “De Camp vs. Howard: Research Methods” [de Camp’s sloppy & superficial investigations doing REH’s biography; initially untitled] in his Seanchai #56, pp. 10-14 in REHupa Mailing #104 (July, 1990); revised in The Fantastic Worlds of Robert E. Howard (James Van Hise, Yucca Valley, Cal., 1997 & 2001), pp. 45-53

[30] Drew, Bernard A., Conan the Librarian [preface on REH’s writings & bibliography of published Conan tales by REH & others, incl. pastiches, comics, LPs, movies, & references] (Attic Revivals Press, Great Barrington, Mass., 1990, 8 pp.; reprinted in Bill Cavalier’s Cold Steel #26 in REHupa Mailing #104 (July, 1990), pp. 5-12

[31] Lovecraft, H. P., Letter [REH’s death is worst blow to weird fiction in years; his style was wholly unique & sincere] in Weird Tales, Vol. 28, #3 (Popular Fiction Publishing Co., Indianapolis, Oct., 1936), p. 378; reprinted in Weird Tales: H. P. Lovecraft in “The Eyrie” (ed. Marc Michaud & S. T. Joshi; Necronomicon Press, West Warwick, R.I., 1979), p. 23 & Bo Cribbs’ Absinthe Pie #8, p. 6 in REHupa Mailing #105 (Sep., 1990)

[32] Joshi, S. T., “A Look at Lovecraft’s Letters” [says REH is possibly one of Lovecraft’s few correspondents who could “hold a candle” to his intellectual capacity] in Selected Papers on Lovecraft (by S. T. Joshi; Necronomicon Press, West Warwick, R. I., 1988), pp. 61, 62, & 69

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