The Dark Man and Others

by Robert E. Howard

"Introduction" by August Derleth
"The Voice of El-Lil"
"Pigeons From Hell"
"The Dark Man"
"The Gods of Bal-Sagoth"
"People of the Dark"
"The Children of the Night"
"The Dead Remember"
"The Men on the Ground"
"The Garden of Fear"
"The Thing on the Roof"
"The Hyena"
"Dig Me No Grave"
"The Dream Snake"
"In the Forest of Villefere"
"Old Garfield's Heart"

Genres: Fantasy, Horror, Adventure, Short Stories, Fiction, Mystery, Pulp

284 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1963

About the author

Robert Ervin Howard was an American pulp writer of fantasy, horror, historical adventure, boxing, western, and detective fiction. Howard wrote "over three-hundred stories and seven-hundred poems of raw power and unbridled emotion" and is especially noted for his memorable depictions of "a sombre universe of swashbuckling adventure and darkling horror."

He is well known for having created—in the pages of the legendary Depression-era pulp magazine Weird Tales—the character Conan the Cimmerian, a.k.a. Conan the Barbarian, a literary icon whose pop-culture imprint can only be compared to such icons as Tarzan of the Apes, Count Dracula, Sherlock Holmes, and James Bond.

—Wikipedia

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

The stories collected here first appeared in pulp magazines including Strange Tales, Weird Tales, Argosy, and Oriental Stories in the late 1920's and early 1930's. This collection was originally produced by Arkham House in a small early 1960's edition, and this Lancer paperback was the first exposure to Howard's work (other than the de Camp Conan editions, of course) for most readers of the post-pulp era. (Many of the stories were subsequently re-printed in other collections of Howard's work.) Howard was a product of his place and time and his work shows many traces of racist attitude. He was a great adventure writer and story-teller, though, and his work can still be appreciated. Pigeons From Hell is a true horror classic, and the stories here are among his best.

[Ευθυμία Δεσποτάκη]

Partially read, The Dark Man.

[Matthew J. · Rating 3 out of 5]

On the one hand, Robert E. Howard was a hell of a storyteller. The way he writes is just phenomenal. Rousing tales you might hear around a fire, passed down by generations.
On the other hand, several of these stories are intensely, upsettingly, disgustingly racist. And this is early 20th Century American racism. So of course, there's Confederate apologist and Lost Cause nonsense. But there's also some extreme xenophobia, especially of the "Yellow Peril" variety.
The stories feature the old concepts of race, the kind of thing that led Hitler to cite America as an authority on the subject. Stuff about skull shape and blood and that whole thing. It's gross. And it's not just a one-off. It's featured in several stories and is front & center in more than one.
It pisses me off to no end that an author of such great skill wrote so much that is so ugly. I'm not sure if it was because I read the heavily edited and modified versions of the Conan stories edited by De Camp & Carter or just being a white kid in a super white community that led me to not recognize how f'ing racist Howard's work was. I hadn't read a lot of his 'modern day' stuff, so maybe that's worse? Having recently read the Howard collection Skull-Face which also featured a lot of deeply racist stuff, my enjoyment of Howard is certainly declining.
And look, I know a lot of authors (and film directors, etc.) are or were terrible people. Walt Disney, H.P. Lovecraft, and Agatha Christie are just a few who were profoundly racist people. But man, some of these stories are a bit too much. I can only compartmentalize so much.

[Hank Hoeft · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent, varied collection of Robert E. Howard's non-series short stories. This book was my first exposure to Howard's writing, and opened up the vivid world of his intensely visual storytelling.

[Little Timmy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Robert E. Howard is my all time favorite writer, but for many years much of his work was heavily edited. This is another of the heavily edited collections of Robert E. Howard's stories. I am a purist when it comes to a writers works. I know some of these stories are no longer PC but they should be read as Howard wrote them and understood that he wrote in another time period. Don't read this book unless you just can't find any others of Howard's unedited books to read. Message me if you need a list of what is good from this awesome fantasy and action writer.

[Garick Cooke · Rating 3 out of 5]

First collected in 1963, this is a pretty solid anthology of REH fantasy and horror stories. Besides the titular piece, here are such classics as "The Children of the Night" and "The Garden of Fear." The latter is one of my favorites; the James Allison cycle of stories was an underrated series, and ought to be collected in their own volume some day. Recommended for fans of Howard.

[Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have the paperback version of this, from Lancer, but it has the same stories in it. A very good collection. Be aware that many of these stories can be found elsewhere.