Category Archives: Robert E. Howard

Lost Robert E. Howard Manuscript Found

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Workers doing repairs at the Robert E. Howard House in Cross Plains made a startling discovery last week.  While replacing a portion of an outer wall damaged in a  thunderstorm, they found an envelope containing an unknown manuscript.

The manuscript is a rough draft of a Conan story, making it the second novel length Conan yarn.  According to those who have read the manuscript, Conan is robbing a tomb in Stygia when he runs into the sorcerer Thoth-Amon.  They are both after an amulet sacred to the snake god Set.  During the ensuing battle, Thoth-amon casts a spell on Conan that hurls him millennia into the future.  The spell causes Conan to lose his memory.  He wanders Africa, having various adventures, until he runs into Solomon Kane.  With Kane’s help, he returns to the Hyborian Age and defeats Thoth-Amon.

Reaction among Robert E. Howard scholars has been varied.  Rusty Burke says this is the best thing by Howard he has ever read.  Bill “Indy” Cavalier says the discovery will be a game-changer in Robert E. Howard studies.  Mark Finn was speechless.  Speaking by phone from France, Patrice Louinet could only babble excitedly in French.  Jeff Shanks began writing a grant proposal for further archaeological work at the Howard House.  Dave Hardy, on the other hand, is convinced the manuscript is a forgery and has hired retired ADA John Bullard to investigate.  A special edition of The Cromcast will be devoted to the manuscript in the near future.

Remembering Steve Tompkins

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Steve Tompkins (b. 1960) passed away on this date, March 23, ten years ago, i.e., 2009. He was a leading scholar in Robert E. Howard studies, but his interests extended beyond Howard to fantasy in general.  He was Managing Editor of the now defunct The Cimmerian blog at the time of his death.  That being the case, I’m sure he influenced me, indirectly if not directly.  I was a regular reader of The Cimmerian in those days, although I didn’t always pay close attention to who wrote what.  It was the closure of The Cimmerian that motivated me to start blogging myself.  I simply couldn’t find anything similar on the web.

I don’t know if I ever met Mr. Tompkins.  I may have at either Howard Days or the 2006 World Fantasy Convention.  Steve was there.  Regardless, his writing lives on as does his memory.  Howard Andrew Jones and Scott Oden have both posted tributes today.

The following are links to some of Steve’s writings (thanks to Deuce Richardson for the links):

All of his TC posts:
 His REHeapa stuff. Scroll WAY down, links on the left:
This thread has transcriptions of several of his intros etc:

Novalyne’s Birthday

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Novalyne Price Ellis was born on this day (March 9) in 1908.  She passed away in 1999 on March 30.  Novalyne was the author of One Who Walked Alone, a memoir of her relationship with Robert E. Howard during the last two years of his life.  It was based on her diary.

Novalyne Price moved to Cross Plains to teach English in 1934,  She soon met Robert E. Howard, and a tempestuous relationship started.  They had broken up by the summer of 1936, and Novalyne had left Cross Plains to attend graduate school in Louisiana.  She was there when she got the news of Robert’s death.

She wrote One Who Walked Alone as a rebuttal to L. Sprague de Camp’s biography of Howard, Dark Valley Destiny.  If you’ve not read her book, you should.  It’s one of the main sources of information we have about Bob.

The book was filmed in the mid-1990s and starred Vincent D’Onofrio as Robert and Renee Zellweger as Novalyne.

Musings on Robert E. Howard

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Robert E. Howard was born on January 22, 1906.  I’ve been reading through the Conan stories for the series at Black Gate. (The latest post is here.)

I realize a lot of people have favorite Howard characters other than Conan.  Conan was the first Howard I read.  Call it imprinting, but Conan is still my mental template for what a sword and sorcery character is like.  I see more and more things each time I reread one of those stories.

I’m also not into the pastiches very much.  I’m open to reading some, especially some of the ones that will be published this year in the new comics, but to my mind they will never be canonical.  No offense intended to anyone writing them.  I feel the same way about the James Bond books. Continue reading →

Imagining the Horrible with Fritz Leiber

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Horrible Imaginings
Fritz Leiber
Originally published by Midnight House in a limited edition hardcover of 520 copies, of which 500 were offered for sale
Currently available in ebook from Open Road Media, $4.99

I originally intended to read and review only one or two stories from this collection, but I ended up reading them all.  Once I got started, I couldn’t stop.

This book is a mix of early and late horror stories from Leiber’s career.  Midnight House published four collections of Leiber’s work before shutting its doors.  The Open Road edition contains the original introduction where Pelan mentions his plans to publish an alternate version of “Adept’s Gambit” as a Lovecraftian tale, one that (AFAIK still) has never seen print. Continue reading →

Arguments Discussions on the Best Conan Story to Begin at Black Gate

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I mentioned a little while back that I was participating in a series of posts at Black Gate on which Conan story is the best.  Bob Byrne, who is heading up this project, announced the launch date (Monday, January 7).  Bob also posted a list of the authors who are contributing to the series.  I’ll not reproduce it here because I don’t want to steal his thunder.  I’ll just say that I’m honored and humbled to be allowed to participate with this group of writers.

I’d also like to think Bob for this opportunity.

Black Friday, Adventures Fantastic Style

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Here in the States, the day after Thanksgiving has come to be known as Black Friday.  I’m not sure why it’s called Black Friday. The term in the US was originally used to describe the days two different stock market crashes occurred in the 1800s.  In more modern times, it started out as the official kickoff to the Christmas shopping season and has since mutated into something that is taking over the whole season. It’s when women get up before God (or never go to bed) and drag their husbands to mob scenes where they save $128 by spending $583.  Or something like that.

The whole thing is enough to make one want to run up the Jolly Roger and start lopping off heads.

So here at Adventures Fantastic, we’re going to provide an antidote to all that insanity by observing Black Friday our way.  Robert E. Howard wrote a number of stories involving the concept of “black”.  We’re going to look at some of them.  The following list is by no means complete; it’s just the ones I’ve read in the last few days.  Feel free to add others in the comments.  Also, a number of other authors could be included in this post.  I’ll save them for next year, but feel free to add suggestions in the comments. Continue reading →

A Forgotten Pulpster: H. Warner Munn

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H. Warner Munn was born on this date, November 5, in 1903.  Munn passed away in 1981.  He is largely forgotten today, but he wrote for Weird Tales.  Near the end of his life, he returned to writing.

Munn is best known for writing a series known as the Merlin saga.  The first two installments, King of the World’s Edge and The Ship From Atlantis were first published   Merlin’s Ring was to have been published in the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series, but the imprint was canceled.  Ballantine still published the book along with its sequel, Merlin’s Godson.  The latter book combined King of the World’s Edge and The Ship From Atlantis.

Neither of these books (Merlin’s Ring and Merlin’s Godson) are currently available in electronic format in English.  My understanding is that there were other books planned in this series, but Munn died before he could write them.  King of the World’s Edge was favorably compared to the works of Robert E. Howard when it was serialized in Weird Tales.

Munn’s other series involved werewolves.  It was also started in Weird Tales.  When he returned to writing, Munn was convinced by Robert Weinberg to write more stories, which Weinberg published.  These are available in electronic format.

I have to confess I’ve not read much of Munn’s work.  I need to correct that.

Of Editorial Greatness

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Earlier today I was reading a post on a site I don’t normally read these days (I was lured by the temptation of a free ebook).  The post made the argument that John Campbell was the greatest editor the science fiction and fantasy fields have seen.

That got me to thinking, which usually gets me in trouble.  I began wondering who would be the greatest editor, greater being defined as having the most impact over time.  The original post didn’t include fantasy other than a passing reference to Unknown.  So I thought I’d throw the question open to anyone who wanted to voice an opinion.  Below is a list I compiled off the top of my head.  I didn’t include any living editors.  If I had, Ellen Datlow would be on it.  My rationale is that the impact of living editors on the can’t be accurately assessed because they are still having an influence and their greatest influences may still be to come.

 

So in alphabetical order are ten editors.  I’ll provide a brief explanation as to why they have been included.  Some will be quickly eliminated.  Others, not so much. Continue reading →

I’m on the Cromcast

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First, I need to apologize to Josh, Jon, and Luke for failing to mention in my report on Howard Days 2018 that they had interviewed me.  I plead fatigue and lack of sleep.  Age had nothing to do with it, really.

I’d also like to thank them for having me on the show.  It was great to visit with them in front of a microphone.  The episode went live the day I left on an extended trip, which is why I’m just not mentioning it.  Again, apologies for the delay in promoting it, guys.

For those of you who don’t know, the Cromcast is a podcast focusing on weird fiction.  It’s one you’ll want to listen to.

Over the weekend, the Cromcasters discussed amongst themselves how they thought Howard Days was going and interviewed a number of people.  In addition to me, they also talked with David J. West, Ty Johnston, Jason Waltz, Mark Finn, Indy Cavalier, Jeff Shanks, and Rusty Burke, just to name a few.  This episode is two hours long.  I come in at 11:18.  But don’t check it out just to hear me.  All of the guests, along with the hosts, have something interesting to say.

Listen to it here.  You’ll be glad you did.