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The Howard Collector
A Collector's Item
The World of heroic fantasy suffered a tragic loss with the passing of Robert E. Howard. But "REH" left behind a vast body of work displaying a breadth of vision only to be expected from the creator of Conan the Barbarian and his fabled Hyborian Age. Lovingly and painstakingly collected over the years by editor Glenn Lord, these astonishing works were presented to the world in the magazine The Howard Collector.
Now the best of that collection appears here for the first time in book form. Here are the many facets of Howard's glittering worlds:
* Visions, Howard's view of Hell
* Marching Song of Connacht, the battle-cry of a race of heroes
* The Beast from the Abyss, the truth behind the cat
* Solomon's Kane Homecoming, the stirring return of the Puritan crusader. And more...
Now, you too can become a HOWARD COLLECTOR
Contents:
"Preface" by Glenn Lord
Section I - Fiction & Verse
"Two Against Tyre"
"Sea Curse"
"The Curse of the Golden Skull"
"Death's Black Riders"
Untitled fragment ("Beneath the glare . . .")
"Spanish Gold on Devil Horse"
"The Heathen"
"The Thessalians"
"Ye College Days"
"Cupid vs. Pollux"
"Musings of a Moron"
"Sunday in a Small Town"
"West Is West"
"Knife, Bullet and Noose"
"Sentiment"
"Midnight"
"Kelly the Conjure Man"
"With a Set of Rattlesnake Rattles"
"The Beast From the Abyss"
"Hope Empty of Meaning" (poem)
"Life" (2, "They bruised my soul . . .") (poem)
"Solomon Kane's Homecoming" (poem) Variant version
"Visions" (poem)
"Harvest" (poem)
"On With the Play" (poem)
"Roads" (poem)
"The Bar by the Side of the Road" (poem)
"Marching Song of Connacht" (poem)
"The Legacy of Tubal-Cain" (poem)
REH Letters
To Clark Ashton Smith, postmarked 5 March 1933
"I hardly know how to thank you . . ."
To H. P. Lovecraft, ca. August 1933
"I am sending on to you . . ."
To August Derleth, ca. July 1933
"Thanks immensely for the opportunity . . ."
To R. H. Barlow, 1 June 1934
"Concerning the illustrations . . ."
To R. H. Barlow, 14 June 1934
"If I ever decide to dispose . . ."
To Emil Petaja, 17 December 1934
"Thank you very much . . ."
To Farnsworth Wright, dated 6 May 1935
"I always hate to write a letter . . ."
To Clark Ashton Smith, 23 July 1935
"I'm ashamed of my long delay in answering . . ."
To August Derleth, 9 May 1936
"I am indeed sorry to learn of the deaths . . ."
Section II - About REH
"Robert Ervin Howard" by E. Hoffmann Price
"Burkett News" by Mrs. T. A. Burns
"Perhaps for Howard"
by W. Fraser Sandercombe (poem)
E. Hoffmann Price to H. P. Lovecraft, 25 June 1936
"Last page your letter hit me between . . ."
Dr. I. M. Howard to H. P. Lovecraft, 29 June 1936
"It is barely possible through some other source . . ."
"Around the Supper Table" by James C. White
Dr. I. M. Howard to E. Hoffmann Price, 21 June 1944 "Just received your copy of . . ."
"The Warrior" by Emil Petaja (poem)
"R. E. H." by R. H. Barlow (poem)
E. Hoffmann Price to Francis T. Laney, 22 July 1944
"I have the clippings from the Cross Plains . . ."
"I Speak of Shattered Spring"
by Dale Harding Exum (poem)
E. Hoffmann Price to THE ACOLYTE, 1945
"Stuart Boland in re. Lovecraft has something . . ."
"To Robert Ervin Howard" by Wade Wellman (poem)
Harold Preece to Lenore Preece, 16 January 1965
"Here you and Glenn Lord have gotten me in a . . ."
Harold Preece to Glenn Lord, 11 January 1966
"Thank you very much for the latest issue of . . ."
Section III - Essays
"Acheron - a Revisionary Theory" by Robert Yaple
"Arenjun" by Ed Lesko, Jr. (poem)
"Howard's Cannibalizing" by Fred Blosser
"Dust" by Bryce D. Thompson (poem)
"Conan's Parents" by Fred Blosser
"Nameless Cults: A History" by Charles O. Gray
"After Recompense" by Wade Wellman (poem)
The World of heroic fantasy suffered a tragic loss with the passing of Robert E. Howard. But "REH" left behind a vast body of work displaying a breadth of vision only to be expected from the creator of Conan the Barbarian and his fabled Hyborian Age. Lovingly and painstakingly collected over the years by editor Glenn Lord, these astonishing works were presented to the world in the magazine The Howard Collector.
Now the best of that collection appears here for the first time in book form. Here are the many facets of Howard's glittering worlds:
* Visions, Howard's view of Hell
* Marching Song of Connacht, the battle-cry of a race of heroes
* The Beast from the Abyss, the truth behind the cat
* Solomon's Kane Homecoming, the stirring return of the Puritan crusader. And more...
Now, you too can become a HOWARD COLLECTOR
Contents:
"Preface" by Glenn Lord
Section I - Fiction & Verse
"Two Against Tyre"
"Sea Curse"
"The Curse of the Golden Skull"
"Death's Black Riders"
Untitled fragment ("Beneath the glare . . .")
"Spanish Gold on Devil Horse"
"The Heathen"
"The Thessalians"
"Ye College Days"
"Cupid vs. Pollux"
"Musings of a Moron"
"Sunday in a Small Town"
"West Is West"
"Knife, Bullet and Noose"
"Sentiment"
"Midnight"
"Kelly the Conjure Man"
"With a Set of Rattlesnake Rattles"
"The Beast From the Abyss"
"Hope Empty of Meaning" (poem)
"Life" (2, "They bruised my soul . . .") (poem)
"Solomon Kane's Homecoming" (poem) Variant version
"Visions" (poem)
"Harvest" (poem)
"On With the Play" (poem)
"Roads" (poem)
"The Bar by the Side of the Road" (poem)
"Marching Song of Connacht" (poem)
"The Legacy of Tubal-Cain" (poem)
REH Letters
To Clark Ashton Smith, postmarked 5 March 1933
"I hardly know how to thank you . . ."
To H. P. Lovecraft, ca. August 1933
"I am sending on to you . . ."
To August Derleth, ca. July 1933
"Thanks immensely for the opportunity . . ."
To R. H. Barlow, 1 June 1934
"Concerning the illustrations . . ."
To R. H. Barlow, 14 June 1934
"If I ever decide to dispose . . ."
To Emil Petaja, 17 December 1934
"Thank you very much . . ."
To Farnsworth Wright, dated 6 May 1935
"I always hate to write a letter . . ."
To Clark Ashton Smith, 23 July 1935
"I'm ashamed of my long delay in answering . . ."
To August Derleth, 9 May 1936
"I am indeed sorry to learn of the deaths . . ."
Section II - About REH
"Robert Ervin Howard" by E. Hoffmann Price
"Burkett News" by Mrs. T. A. Burns
"Perhaps for Howard"
by W. Fraser Sandercombe (poem)
E. Hoffmann Price to H. P. Lovecraft, 25 June 1936
"Last page your letter hit me between . . ."
Dr. I. M. Howard to H. P. Lovecraft, 29 June 1936
"It is barely possible through some other source . . ."
"Around the Supper Table" by James C. White
Dr. I. M. Howard to E. Hoffmann Price, 21 June 1944 "Just received your copy of . . ."
"The Warrior" by Emil Petaja (poem)
"R. E. H." by R. H. Barlow (poem)
E. Hoffmann Price to Francis T. Laney, 22 July 1944
"I have the clippings from the Cross Plains . . ."
"I Speak of Shattered Spring"
by Dale Harding Exum (poem)
E. Hoffmann Price to THE ACOLYTE, 1945
"Stuart Boland in re. Lovecraft has something . . ."
"To Robert Ervin Howard" by Wade Wellman (poem)
Harold Preece to Lenore Preece, 16 January 1965
"Here you and Glenn Lord have gotten me in a . . ."
Harold Preece to Glenn Lord, 11 January 1966
"Thank you very much for the latest issue of . . ."
Section III - Essays
"Acheron - a Revisionary Theory" by Robert Yaple
"Arenjun" by Ed Lesko, Jr. (poem)
"Howard's Cannibalizing" by Fred Blosser
"Dust" by Bryce D. Thompson (poem)
"Conan's Parents" by Fred Blosser
"Nameless Cults: A History" by Charles O. Gray
"After Recompense" by Wade Wellman (poem)
268 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published April 1, 1979
About the author
Robert E. Howard
3,116 books2,709 followersRobert 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.
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.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
October 18, 2021
This is an interesting collections of scraps and miscellany by and about Howard, including fragments, poems, non-fiction, and quite a few letters, both from and to Howard. There are a lot of topics, not just his fantasy or historical adventure works. The pieces come from a small circulation magazine that Lord edited for several years and is obviously a labor of love. Some of the attitudes are badly dated and will be found offensive by some; small-town Texas attitudes of a century ago are prevalent. It's an interesting book, particularly after having read de Camp's biography, but I believe it would be of interest only to hard-core fans or completists.
October 23, 2014
I'm not sure how to shelve this book here. It is full of short stories, letters & poems by him as well as essays, poems & other trivia about REH & his works. I gave this 4 stars simply because it was such a comprehensive view of him, although I thought most of the stories - what I really enjoy - weren't the best, but the more obscure. Reviewing them individually would be too exhausting.
The "Preface" by Glenn Lord was very interesting. His knowledge of REH's works is fantastic & he dedicatedly printed the Howard Collector magazine for a dozen years. What he collected here is what he considers the best of what he published, save other works that were recently published about the same time. IMO, that left some of the more obscure pieces. Some I found very interesting (even the verse) while some left me bewildered.
"The Heathen"
"The Thessalians"
"Ye College Days"
"Cupid vs. Pollux"
"Musings of a Moron"
"Sunday in a Small Town"
"West Is West"
were all humorous in nature. Except for the first, they missed my funny bone. All were short & there were dated references.
"Sentiment" was a very short essay that railed against insensitivity.
"The Beast From the Abyss" is a personal essay about his life with cats. It's wonderful! 5 stars. Why I've never seen this printed before is beyond me.
Other fiction included some horror, historical & "Spanish Gold on Devil Horse" which could have been a self-fantasy of REH's. All of it was quite good.
The poems weren't bad - more to my taste than most, but still I just skimmed them. Poetry just isn't my thing.
The letters were interesting, if only because they were sent to some legends in the industry such as Clark Ashton Smith, H. P. Lovecraft, August Derleth, & more.
At the end is a handful of essays about Howard & his writing. Again, I only skimmed them.
If you're a serious REH collector, I think this is a must-have book, even if you've got every issue of the magazine that led to its publication. I'm only interested in reading most of his stories & I found it wonderful.
The "Preface" by Glenn Lord was very interesting. His knowledge of REH's works is fantastic & he dedicatedly printed the Howard Collector magazine for a dozen years. What he collected here is what he considers the best of what he published, save other works that were recently published about the same time. IMO, that left some of the more obscure pieces. Some I found very interesting (even the verse) while some left me bewildered.
"The Heathen"
"The Thessalians"
"Ye College Days"
"Cupid vs. Pollux"
"Musings of a Moron"
"Sunday in a Small Town"
"West Is West"
were all humorous in nature. Except for the first, they missed my funny bone. All were short & there were dated references.
"Sentiment" was a very short essay that railed against insensitivity.
"The Beast From the Abyss" is a personal essay about his life with cats. It's wonderful! 5 stars. Why I've never seen this printed before is beyond me.
Other fiction included some horror, historical & "Spanish Gold on Devil Horse" which could have been a self-fantasy of REH's. All of it was quite good.
The poems weren't bad - more to my taste than most, but still I just skimmed them. Poetry just isn't my thing.
The letters were interesting, if only because they were sent to some legends in the industry such as Clark Ashton Smith, H. P. Lovecraft, August Derleth, & more.
At the end is a handful of essays about Howard & his writing. Again, I only skimmed them.
If you're a serious REH collector, I think this is a must-have book, even if you've got every issue of the magazine that led to its publication. I'm only interested in reading most of his stories & I found it wonderful.
January 3, 2009
Contains some good stories and also some of Howard's letters, which have since appeared in other forms.
January 4, 2023
Definitely one for the Howard completist rather than the casual reader. This collection of miscellaneous stories, poems, letters and post-passing remembrances by other writers gives an insight into Howard’s life, views and his not inconsiderable talent. Knowing him mainly for Conan and Kull, it was good to see other dimensions to his writing: Texan two fist cowboy tales, comedy writings (his essay on he evil of cats ‘The Beast From the Abyss’ was a particular highlight), a great historical adventure ‘Two Against Tyre that could easily have been reworked to a Conan tale, and short slice of life passages reveal there was much more to Howard than his lumbering battle machines maybe let on.
The saddest parts for me are the letters around his suicide in 1936. Reading actual correspondence from his father to authors of note was heartbreaking and taught me a lot about who Howard really was; sadly a more troubled soul than any knew, his seemingly spur of the moment decision robbed the world of many more tales from his weird and wonderful mind.
The saddest parts for me are the letters around his suicide in 1936. Reading actual correspondence from his father to authors of note was heartbreaking and taught me a lot about who Howard really was; sadly a more troubled soul than any knew, his seemingly spur of the moment decision robbed the world of many more tales from his weird and wonderful mind.
November 4, 2020
Some of REH's unpublished works, a few published, and some fragments. The second part contains letters from REH to such writer as E. Hoffman Price and H.P. Lovecraft. The final section is a collection of letters and poems following REH's death. Very sad, including some letters from his father. An interesting selection of REH's lesser known works, and the letters show what a tremendous influence he had on those he came in contact with. Important addition to any REH collector.
February 23, 2013
Glenn Lord, who just passed away a couple of year's ago, did an excellent job of bringing REH's lesser known works to the reading public. The Howard Collector is for those die hard fans who have to have everything. This doesn't necessarily make this a bad book as much as it makes it a bit of a mixed bag. There's a few good poems, a couple of fragments of discontinued works, a whole slew of very interesting letters, 3-4 good essays about Howard and his work, and a terrific historical yarn entitled "Two Against Tyre". All in all a good but not perfect book.
March 27, 2026
This is not a book to be read straight through. It is a collection of stories, letters and poems by and about REH that appeared in a fan magazine that ran from 1961 to 1973.
A few of the stories have appeared in other editions since, notably, “Kelly the Conjure Man” and “Knife, Bullet and Noose.” “Two Against Tyre” seems to be familiar, maybe reworked into an El Borak story?
There is E. Hoffman Price’s letter about his visit to REH, Dr. Howard’s letter to H.P. Lovecraft after his son’s death and a poem about REH by Manly Wade Wellman.
A few of the stories have appeared in other editions since, notably, “Kelly the Conjure Man” and “Knife, Bullet and Noose.” “Two Against Tyre” seems to be familiar, maybe reworked into an El Borak story?
There is E. Hoffman Price’s letter about his visit to REH, Dr. Howard’s letter to H.P. Lovecraft after his son’s death and a poem about REH by Manly Wade Wellman.
December 16, 2013
This is a must-read for any fan of a Robert E. Howard. It includes a wide range of short stories, poems, essays and letters that illuminate Howard's character and approach to fiction. Some of the stories I liked, some fell short. The letters, many written in the wake of Howard's suicide by other writers who knew him, put this collection on the top shelf, in my opinion.
August 21, 2014
Howard, brilliant, collection a bit completest but one of those completest editions well worth having for the surprising and unusual material - letters. poems and extraneous works including some wonderful tales of miners and cowboys told in the inimitable overblown and gorgeous style of the master
November 4, 2014
Not top-drawer REH, but interesting REH stories nonetheless.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews