Tag Archives: Robert E. Howard

The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard: “Pigeons From Hell”

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“Pigeons From Hell”
The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard
Originally published in Weird Tales, May 1938

And so we come to what is arguably the greatest horror story of Robert E. Howard.  Although it wasn’t published until nearly two years after his death, “Pigeons From Hell” has remained one of Howard’s most popular nonseries stories.

It’s a Southern Gothic that contains some truly chilling scenes. I’ve read it at least twice before, but it’s been probably a decade since the last time. It had lost none of its power when I reread it earlier this evening. Continue reading →

The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard: “The Dwellers Under the Tomb”

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“The Dwellers Under the Tomb”
The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard
Del Rey
Paper $20.00
Ebook $7.99

This is another story that wasn’t published during Howard’s lifetime, but it’s a stronger work than “Dermod’s Bane“.  “The Dwellers Under the Tomb” was first published in 1976 in Lost Fantasies.  It follows a similar pattern to stories such as “The Noseless Thing”, “Dig Me No Grave“, “The Children of the Night”, and “The Haunter of  the Ring”.

The narrator is a man named O’Donnell who is staying with his friend Gordon, who may be the same Gordon as appears in the stories listed above.  They are awakened by a pounding on the door.  It’s Job Kiles, who is in a state of panic, because he saw the face of his dead brother at his window.  The brother had died a few days earlier, but not before swearing he would return from the grave to take vengeance on Job.  The brother had spent his portion of the family fortune, and Job wouldn’t let the brother spend his.  Job has come to Gordon for help.

Mild spoilers below the fold. Continue reading →

The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard: “Dermod’s Bane”

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“Dermod’s Bane”
The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard
Del Rey
Paper $20.00
Ebook $7.99

This is a minor story, apparently written early in Howard’s career, but not published in his lifetime.  It was first published in Magazine of Horror, Fall 1967.

As usual, there will be spoilers.  In this case, it will be hard to avoid them, the story is so short. Continue reading →

The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard: “Rattle of Bones”

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“Rattle of Bones”
The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard
Del Rey
Paper $20.00
Ebook $7.99

This post could just have easily been one of the Solomon Kane posts since Kane is the central character.  It’s not regarded as a major work in either the Solomon Kane series or among Howard’s horror fiction.  Be that as it may, I still like it.  It’s short, creepy, and has a couple of twists, even if you can see the final one coming a mile off.

Spoilers to follow below the “fold”. Continue reading →

I Scored!

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At the Friends of the Library Book Sale.  Why? What did you think I meant?

Some of you people need to get your minds out of the gutter.

Here’s what I picked up (click to enlarge).  Paperbacks were fifty cents (when did keyboards stop containing the cents symbol?) and hardcovers a dollar.

Some of these are duplicates, such has the REH titles, the Frazetta, The Saberhagen Dracula books, the SF Hall of Fame, some of the Bova and Drake.  In some cases I wasn’t sure which ones I had and in others I was upgrading.  The Hecate’s Cauldron was a steal for $0.50; the last time I checked, it was selling for around $20 on ABE.

My main objective was to fill in gaps in Bova’s Grand Tour series, and I managed to pick up a couple I didn’t already have.  Most of them, though, are upgrades or reading copies of titles I have that are signed.  Everything else was gravy.

Not bad for $23.50 total.

Burroughs and Lamb

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Today (September 1) is the birthday of two literary giants, Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875-1950) and Harold Lamb (1892-1962). Continue reading →

A Quick Look at E. Hoffmann Price

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Pulp writer E. Hoffmann Price was born on this date, July 3, in 1898.  He passed away in 1988 at the age of 89 a few weeks prior to his birthday.  Price graduated from West Point, served in the American Expeditionary Force in World War I, as well as in the Philippines and Mexico.  A student of the orient, he drew on these interests for much of his fiction.

Price wrote for a variety of pulps, especially adventure, detective, and western, but he is best remembered these days for his weird fiction.  A correspondent of H. P. Lovecraft, they collaborated on “Through the Gates of the Silver Key”.  I believe he is the only pulp writer to have met Robert E. Howard in person, on two different occasions, IIRC.  He is also the only known person to have Howard, Lovecraft, and Clark Ashton Smith.  Price met many of the pulp writers, including Edmond Hamilton, Jack Williamson, and L. Sprague de Camp.

Price experienced a resurgence in his career in the late 70’s and early 80’s, publishing several fantasy and science fiction novels.

We just got back from vacation last night, so I’m playing catch-up today.  If I get a chance, I’ll read one of his short stories this evening.

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: