8 replies to this topic

[deuce]

Just found out on good authority (as in Don Herron, godfather of REH litcrit), that correspondence to/from/betwixt Robert E. Howard and the editor of Adventure magazine (THE pulp that Howard always tried to crack) has been found in the papers/archives of Glenn Lord.

This goes a long way to proving that REH was ready to break into the "big time" pulps (he'd already cracked Argosy) and wasn't in some "literary ghetto" as De Camp and his fellow travelers have tried to say for 60+yrs.

Plus, if some letters in Mr. Lord's collection escaped recognition until now, who knows what other cool Howardian treasures await discovery?

[AndyHolcombe]

Very cool. It's amazing how sometimes a fresh set of eyes can find something that the original set of eyes can miss.

[thatericn]

Exciting - will they be published somewhere?

[Rob Roehm]

I hate to burst your bubble, but letters of that kind have not been found in Glenn's stuff, unless his widow sent something to someone and didn't tell us (REHF) about it. I guess that's possible, but I suspect there's a game of "Telephone" going on, where the actual information gets changed as it is passed from person to person. Having said that, if letters like you mention actually are out there, I'd love to hear about it.

Rob

[godzilladude]

We got everything else in the works. We got slapped around a bit by the Glenn Lord collection, as we wanted to make sure that (1) we actually had EVERYTHING, and (2) we had the best source for everything.

I have heard that we have more than one volume ready to go, just gotta beat the art department into getting the covers ready. I hope soon. Pirates and/or westerns, i think.

[Rob Roehm]

I probably should have mentioned that there are some new letters from the Glenn files, just none to Adventure. The following are all drafts, not actually mailed out: one letter to "Weird Tales editor," one to Alvin Bradford, and one to a gentleman named Wasso (and I've got a story about that one for later). There's also several draft pages of letters to Clyde Smith and Lovecraft, and a few that could be to Smith or Preece. We've also got a carbon of a letter to a Fort Worth bank and a new postcard to Harold Preece; unfortunately, there's no REH writing on the back, just his X triple bar brand. And there's that letter to Dime Sports that I posted on the Two-Gun blog a while ago.

[deuce]

Just found out on good authority (as in Don Herron, godfather of REH litcrit), that correspondence to/from/betwixt Robert E. Howard and the editor of Adventure magazine (THE pulp that Howard always tried to crack) has been found in the papers/archives of Glenn Lord.

This goes a long way to proving that REH was ready to break into the "big time" pulps (he'd already cracked Argosy) and wasn't in some "literary ghetto" as De Camp and his fellow travelers have tried to say for 60+yrs.

Plus, if some letters in Mr. Lord's collection escaped recognition until now, who knows what other cool Howardian treasures await discovery?

Just got off the phone with Don Herron tonight. According to Don, when he and Rusty Burke were on the "Conan" panel at Pulpfest 2012, Rusty pulled up correspondence (on Rusty's laptop) basically corroborating what I said in my initial post. I'm just the messenger here.

[Rusty Burke]

Sorry about the misunderstanding here, gang, but there are no letters between REH and any editor at Adventure that I know of (other than the already-known letters he wrote to the magazine in the early 20s). Here's what happened:

Don and I were discussing REH and the pulp mags -- I don't remember how it came up, but I mentioned that Harold Bloomfield, when he was editor of Adventure, had apparently shown an interest in Howard's work. This was based on comments REH made in several letters, all of which have already been published in Collected Letters: REH to William Kofoed, 8 January 1935 was the first of these. "I feel very gratified that Bloomfield should be, as you say, interested in my work, as that’s a market I’ve tried in vain to make for years." This was in the context that Bloomfield had apparently just accepted "Fists of the Desert": "Glad that Bloomfield can use “Fists of the Desert”, and congratulations on your ability to persuade him to take it without cutting it any. Of coarse you were quite entitled to your commission. You mention that Bloomfield wants some dope about me to use when the yarn is published. Well, there’s not much to tell; I’ve lived a pretty ordinary life; however, I’m inclosing such data as there is on another page."

Unfortunately for Howard, and us, "Fists of the Desert" never got published in the pulps, and REH never had anything published in Adventure. Have no idea why. I cannot say that "Fists" had been accepted for Adventure -- Bloomfield, I think, was editor for other Popular Publications titles as well. (The following year, in a letter dated 8 January 1936, REH informed his agent, Otis A Kline, that his novelette "Iron-Jaw" had been accepted for Dime Sports, one of Popular's magazines. So I'd be more inclined to think that "Fists" was acquired for that title.)

The relevant letters, if you want to know more about this, are: REH to William Kofoed, 8 January 1935; REH to OA Kline, 8 January 1936, 13 January 1936, and 18 January 1936; and REH to E Hoffmann Price, 15 February 1936. All of these are in Collected Letters -- I'd offer the page numbers but I'm at work and my CLs are at home.

I wish I *did* have letters between Howard and Bloomfield, but I imagine the only contact they had was through Kofoed.

Rusty

[deuce]

Sorry about the misunderstanding here, gang, but there are no letters between REH and any editor at Adventure that I know of (other than the already-known letters he wrote to the magazine in the early 20s). Here's what happened:

Don and I were discussing REH and the pulp mags -- I don't remember how it came up, but I mentioned that Harold Bloomfield, when he was editor of Adventure, had apparently shown an interest in Howard's work. This was based on comments REH made in several letters, all of which have already been published in Collected Letters: REH to William Kofoed, 8 January 1935 was the first of these. "I feel very gratified that Bloomfield should be, as you say, interested in my work, as that’s a market I’ve tried in vain to make for years." This was in the context that Bloomfield had apparently just accepted "Fists of the Desert": "Glad that Bloomfield can use “Fists of the Desert”, and congratulations on your ability to persuade him to take it without cutting it any. Of coarse you were quite entitled to your commission. You mention that Bloomfield wants some dope about me to use when the yarn is published. Well, there’s not much to tell; I’ve lived a pretty ordinary life; however, I’m inclosing such data as there is on another page."

Unfortunately for Howard, and us, "Fists of the Desert" never got published in the pulps, and REH never had anything published in Adventure. Have no idea why. I cannot say that "Fists" had been accepted for Adventure -- Bloomfield, I think, was editor for other Popular Publications titles as well. (The following year, in a letter dated 8 January 1936, REH informed his agent, Otis A Kline, that his novelette "Iron-Jaw" had been accepted for Dime Sports, one of Popular's magazines. So I'd be more inclined to think that "Fists" was acquired for that title.)

The relevant letters, if you want to know more about this, are: REH to William Kofoed, 8 January 1935; REH to OA Kline, 8 January 1936, 13 January 1936, and 18 January 1936; and REH to E Hoffmann Price, 15 February 1936. All of these are in Collected Letters -- I'd offer the page numbers but I'm at work and my CLs are at home.

I wish I *did* have letters between Howard and Bloomfield, but I imagine the only contact they had was through Kofoed.

Rusty

Glad you cleared that up, Rusty. I'm disappointed that such letters don't exist, but I'm glad the issue is clarified.