32 replies to this topic

[CJH]

This should be a good start for Breckinridge Elkins:

http://rehoward.com/humor.htm

http://www.amazon.co...669747?v=glance

http://www.nebraskap...kinfo/4779.html

[Pontifex]

I'm not sure what my thoughts on Breck are. I'm on the 3rd or 4th story in The Riot at Bucksnort and Other Stories book. Its somewhat funny. Not usually laugh out loud funny though, except for a few parts that made me chuckle. I'm not sure i like how he and pretty much everyone else is almost invincible.

i'm also not sure how long i'll be able to stand the way he wrote the stories too. hehe, its definitely different. Trying to figure out what he means sometimes is hard. For instance, one of the characters said "to perjuice" something. I finally realized he meant "produce" after a few minutes of thinking.

is there another book of REH's serious western stories out there other than End of the Trail & Other Stories?

[terryallenuk]

I found the Brek Elkins stories extremely entertaining but I too found them a bit much in one go . I mixed them up while reading some of his other stories .

Terry

[Mark Finn]

Hmm...where do I start? lol

I'm not sure what my thoughts on Breck are. I'm on the 3rd or 4th story in The Riot at Bucksnort and Other Stories book. Its somewhat funny. Not usually laugh out loud funny though, except for a few parts that made me chuckle. I'm not sure i like how he and pretty much everyone else is almost invincible.

i'm also not sure how long i'll be able to stand the way he wrote the stories too. hehe, its definitely different. Trying to figure out what he means sometimes is hard. For instance, one of the characters said "to perjuice" something. I finally realized he meant "produce" after a few minutes of thinking.

is there another book of REH's serious western stories out there other than End of the Trail & Other Stories?

Maybe this will help you: try to imagine the thickest, drawliest Texas accent you can summon up. That's the voice of these stories. Slim Pickens. Sam Elliot. Thick drawl.

Also, try reading them aloud--okay, maybe not where other people can hear you. But think of these as oratory exercises. REH's funny stuff, the first person angle, begs to be read aloud.

Finally, as Terry suggested, don't read more than one in a sitting. These were originally published in Action Stories, many times the ONLY funny story in a mag full of gunfights and punches. It's kinda a breath of fresh air when taken that way.

I love them, but then again, I grew up hearing that accent, and the dumb-arse telling the story. Breck reminds me of several of my father's and grandfather's friends.

[Rosen]

Among my very first encounters with REH back in the 70s was a short story in a Western setting. I was pretty young when I read it so I don't remember all that much of it, but I recall it was pretty humorous (unusually so for REH, I realized years later) and the protagonist was big and strong but not particularly bright.
One of his last lines, after a big fight toward the end, was that he'd be on his way once he'd found someone who could sew his scalp back on.

Does this ring a bell with anybody?

[terryallenuk]

Among my very first encounters with REH back in the 70s was a short story in a Western setting. I was pretty young when I read it so I don't remember all that much of it, but I recall it was pretty humorous (unusually so for REH, I realized years later) and the protagonist was big and strong but not particularly bright.
One of his last lines, after a big fight toward the end, was that he'd be on his way once he'd found someone who could sew his scalp back on.

Does this ring a bell with anybody?

It's Knife River Prodigal which you can find in the Bison Books' The Riot at Bucksnort and other Western Tales . It's a collection of Howard's humourous westerns.

Terry

[Rosen]

Knife River Prodigal does have a familiar sound to it, yes. Thanks a lot!

Edited by Rosen, 10 February 2007 - 07:54 PM.

[Kane]

Just a quick comment. Anyone who has not done so should consider getting The Riot at Bucksnort and other Western Tales .
I got my copy as a present this past Christmas and was surprised to finding myself laughing outloud at some of the dialogue.
If you think of Howard as only a writer of fantasy and horror, then this book is going to plesently surprise you in a number of ways.

[Rusty Burke]

Got a call from the ol' Godzilladude hisself this afternoon saying that I should start spreading the news that, as of yesterday (Thursday, May 21, 2009) the Cross Plains Review is serializing Breckinridge Elkins. Now, I've been corresponding a bit with Dr. Charles Rodenberger, a good friend of ours down in CP who loves REH's westerns and convinced the CP Review editor that they should be serialized in the paper -- but I'm not sure yet whether he decided to go with the magazine version or the book version of the first Breck story, "Mountain Man." I think the idea was to serialize A Gent from Bear Creek, but Paul will have to let us know which version of the first story ended up in the paper. I know that the book Charles gave Vanda (the editor) to sell her on the idea was The Riot at Bucksnort, which had the magazine version of "Mountain Man," but then he was planning to move on to "Meet Cap'n Kidd," which of course had no magazine version, being written especially for the book. I (with the help of my friends) supplied Charles with both versions.

Anyway, those of you with an insatiable thirst for Howard collectibles -- must have everything, must have everything -- might want to call the Review office at 254-725-6111 and inquire about a subscription. And no, they don't have a web site or an email address. If you'd rather write to them than pick up the phone, try PO Box 519, Cross Plains, TX 76443. I wish I could remember how much a subscription is -- I've been a subscriber for years, but Shelly pays all the bills, and I'm not going to ask her to go digging through last year's records to find it. Just call 'em.

And be sure to say you want your subscription to start with the May 21 issue.

Rusty

[godzilladude]

A one-year subscription is $31, six months is $28. It's a weekly. And at the rate they are punching out the stories, and how many stories they could do, a year seems darn reasonable. I just happened to walk into the Cross Plains Review office to shoot the breeze with Vanda for a few, as I had a half hour to kill before the Scholarship ceremony. I saw the REH Days front page article, and proceeded to buy three. I asked about the Breck stories I'd heard about, and she said they were starting with that very issue. So I bought ten. I do that kind of stuff, just me.

Back in the 1960s, the town paper for Breckinridge Colorado did the same thing, it went on for a year or two, and those are now VERY expensive issues. Whether these will be as bad, I dunno, but ya know, they don't exactly print a large stack of these. Little collectors suggestion of the day.

[deuce]

Interesting little write-up by Rob Roehm concerning the "Elkins" and "Elston" names...

http://www.thecimmerian.com/?p=835

[Spacebass]

Hello, all- this is my first post here. I signed up just to ask this:
Is there a place on the net that has lists of REH's creations and the prefered order to read them all in? I mean the order in terms of a logical story arc flow, NOT the order in which REH wrote them. (I can find publication order, but I know that Conan was written with the timeline jumping wildly.)

In particular, I just loaded a bunch of Breckinridge Elkins stories on my Kindle, but I have no idea where to start?

I have the 'A Gent from Bear Creek' book of 13 short stories.
I also have:
The Riot at Cougar Paw
The Conquerin' Hero of the Humbolts
The Apache Mountain War
Sharp's Gun Serenade
Pistol Politics
Pilgrims to the Pecos
No Cowherders Wanted
High Horse Rampage
Evil Deeds at Red Cougar

Any help in this would be GREATLY appreciated! I have read all the Conan & Solomon Kane tales, and I am eager to try out some other REH characters. The only thing that has been holding me back is... what order?!? For some reason, Breckinridge Elkins has been calling me.

[Mikey_C]

I don't claim to be an expert, but the sequence of Heroes of Bear Creek could be a pointer? http://howardworks.com/heroes.htm

[deuce]

I think you might be on to something there, Mikey (or maybe not ). I don't think that I've ever seen a Breck "timeline". This article here might, just maybe, shed a little light: http://www.thecimmerian.com/?p=663


Welcome to the forum, Spacebass!

[godzilladude]

There really is no timeline. The very first published story, "Mountain Man", talks as if it's the first time he goes into the "settlements". So it should go first. The first couple published stories have the mule "Alexander", and the great horse "Cap'n Kidd" shows up later. There are just a couple recurring characters, who show up a couple times. I personally found just reading them in the order published seemed to fit just fine. There just is no other back and forth references in the stories, not like Conan. Each one is pretty much self-contained, and can be read in any order. And it does seem that Action Stories just published them in the order he sent them in.

The published order:

Mountain Man; Guns of the Mountains; The Scalp Hunter; A Gent from Bear Creek; The Road to Bear Creek; The Haunted Mountain; War on Bear Creek; The Feud Buster; Cupid from Bear Creek; The Riot at Cougar Paw; The Apache Mountain War; Pilgrims to the Pecos; Pistol Politics; Evil Deeds at Red Cougar; High Horse Rampage; ?No Cowherders Wanted?; The Conquerin? Hero of the Humbolts; Sharp?s Gun Serenade

Of course the novel "Gent from Bear Creek" was created to satisfy a request from a publisher, and REH just took the first nine stories published in Action Stories, added a few lines to each story to string them together as chapters, then added four new chapters to fill it out a bit, (with a beginning, meets his horse, the ending, as well as a rewrite of the meeting the schoolteacher bit). So you might want to start with that book.

The few remaining stories after all that, they don't especially fit anywhere, so I'd just take those last.

[Spacebass]

Mikey_C, deuce, godzilladude- thanks for the warm welcome and also of course the info! (and so fast- gotta love the net!)
I'm glad I finally signed up- been dragging my heels for years. The only reason was that message boards can get out of hand with trolls quickly.

Taking this thread a step further... would you all agree that the reading order for the rest of REH's gallery would be publication order? Steve Costigan, El Borak, etc?

I don't want to beat a dead horse and wear out my welcome, but I think I would have enjoyed reading the Conan tales in a more natural progression instead of the published order in the 3 Wandering Star/Del Rey editions. Meanwhile, the Wandering Star/Del Rey edition for Solomon Kane read very well. I have the Kull & Bran Mak Morn books waiting on my shelf. (Though I am tempted to re-buy them on Kindle- so addicted to it!)

[deuce]

Mikey_C, deuce, godzilladude- thanks for the warm welcome and also of course the info! (and so fast- gotta love the net!)
I'm glad I finally signed up- been dragging my heels for years. The only reason was that message boards can get out of hand with trolls quickly.

Hey Spacebass! You'll find that trolls don't get outta hand here.

Taking this thread a step further... would you all agree that the reading order for the rest of REH's gallery would be publication order? Steve Costigan, El Borak, etc?

If we take things a step further, a title-change would be required. Hundreds of people stop by this forum every day to get information. No other site on the entire Net has as much solid information about REH's creations. Clicking on a Breck Elkins thread and finding that most of it was about Francis X. Gordon would be something of a waste of time. This forum has no policy against thread necromancy, but does take a dim view of thread derailment.

The El Borak thread: http://www.conan.com...h=1

Sailor Steve Costigan: http://www.conan.com...h=1

Conan Chronology Threads:
http://www.conan.com...re&fromsearch=1

Hope that helps.

[Spacebass]

I will check those threads out- thanks, deuce! (I will also return whenever I get through the Breckinridge Elkins tales. They look like fun!)

[deuce]

A nice little review of "Riot" right here:


http://www.sfsite.com/09b/rb208.htm

[drush9999]

A nice little review of "Riot" right here:


http://www.sfsite.com/09b/rb208.htm

That reminds me to grab a copy, last one of the Bison books I need. Quite enjoyed Sharp's Gun Serenade in the Del Rey Best Ofs. Like Pontifex I found Breckenridge Elkins amusing but not laugh out loud funny. Found the Pike Bearfield story Gents on the Lynch really funny and entertaining as well.