REHupan Mark Finn, author of the 2006 biography, BLOOD & THUNDER: The Life and Art of Robert E. Howard, has been honored by Locus Magazine.

Finn’s wonderful biography, the first book-length telling of the life and times of REH in over 20 years, has been nominated for a Locus Award in the Best Non-Fiction category. You can read all about it at http://www.locusmag.com/2007/04_LocusFinalists.html.

If you haven’t already picked up this fine tome about Ol’ Two-Gun, what are you waiting for? Blood & Thunder was arguably the high point for Robert E. Howard publishing in 2006. Get Mark a brewski at Howard Days, and he may even autograph your copy, and if you’re really nice, he might even sign it for free!

 Congratulations to Mr. Mark Finn: fine biographer, stalwart REHupan, and one of those guys you just like hanging out with. Nice job, Finnski!

This year will see the release of two volumes of The Best of Robert E. Howard from Del Rey Books. The first volume is due in July, the second in November. I’ve had quite a few requests to list the contents, and now that the galleys for the first volume are in hand — and the contents thus pretty well set, at last — I can finally do so. My reluctance to do so before now was simply that I am an inveterate tinkerer, and keep making little changes here and there. (I made a small change to the contents of Volume 2 just this week, in fact — the addition of one poem. And no, I’m not ready to announce the contents of Volume 2 yet, that will probably not happen until the fall. I want to be sure that what I tell you is what you will get. Material was added to the Del Rey Bran Mak Morn: The Last King, and to the Bison Lord of Samarcand, almost literally at the last minute.)

So here are the stories and poems you will find in Volume One, Crimson Shadows. Verse is in parentheses:

The Shadow Kingdom
(The Ghost Kings)
The Curse of the Golden Skull
Red Shadows
(The One Black Stain)
The Dark Man
(The Marching Song of Connacht)
Kings of the Night
(Recompense)
The Black Stone
(The Song of a Mad Minstrel)
The Fightin’est Pair
The Grey God Passes
(The Song of the Last Briton)
Worms of the Earth
(An Echo from the Iron Harp)
Lord of the Dead
(Untitled: ‘You have built a world of paper and wood’)
“For the Love of Barbara Allen”
(The Tide)
The Valley of the Worm
(The Dust Dance: Selections, Version II)
The People of the Black Circle
Beyond the Black River
(A Word from the Outer Dark)
Hawk of the Hills
Sharp’s Gun Serenade
(Lines Written in the Realization That I Must Die)

Also included will be a fine essay on Howard by Charles Hoffman, my own Short Biography of Robert E. Howard (with a few modifications based on more recent findings or conclusions), and the usual Notes on the Texts. Unlike other Wandering Star/Del Rey books, there will be no “marginalia” such as fragments, drafts, and so on: this is, after all, a collection of “the best” of REH.

You may notice that the first volume is a little heavy on heroic fantasy, a little light on the Orientals and westerns — for contractual reasons, the latter had to be held over to the second volume. The two-volume set will be a broadly representative sampling of the best stories and verse of Robert E. Howard. I sincerely hope that these books will provide legions of potential new readers with an introduction to Howard, and that they will encourage many of the Conan fans who may be unfamiliar with REH’s other work to join us in becoming Howard fans.

The artwork for these volumes is by Jim & Ruth Keegan, who will be familiar to many from their superb The Adventures of Two-Gun Bob, now featured in all of Dark Horse’s Conan books. I think their illustrations for these books are a revelation, hearkening back to the Golden Age of book illustration — a period that included Howard’s own era. They faced a very different challenge than that of previous Wandering Star/Del Rey artists, in that they did not have a single character to work with, but had to find a style that would provide a unified look to the whole range of Howard’s ouevre. That is no small feat, but the Keegans have pulled it off, bringing not only their outstanding artistic talents but also their meticulous attention to Howard’s own words to the task.

One of my favorite fun sites to surf is a blog called Lair of the Evil DM, and it’s done up by a guy who likes a lot of the stuff we all like: pulps, gaming, comics, sword & sorcery, cool figures and miniatures, hot chicks in their underwear (apologies to any women out there – there’s stuff for you there, too!) along with the ever popular etc. Robert E. Howard is one of his blog’s categories, and he’s constantly giving props to Ol’ Two-Gun.

 Anyway, the following was posted recently on his blog, and as it’s of tantamount interest to anyone coming over here, I thought I’d throw it down for you. It looks like this book will be making its debut at Gen Con, what with the August release date. Piazo Publishing is the gang who puts out The Dragon and Dungeon, the two big gaming mags, and they always have a presence at Gen Con. I’ll for sure be picking this book up there.

For now, though, props to The Evil DM for giving us a heads up. I wanted to do the same.

 By the way, if any of you are heading for Gen Con in August, drop me a line at 2cavaliers@sbcglobal.net.

	Our Price: $12.99 Preorder expected August 2007

 

The creator of Conan looks to the stars in one of fantasy’s most enduring science fantasy classics! Robert E. Howard’s Almuric is a savage planet of crumbling stone ruins and debased, near-human inhabitants. Into this world comes Esau Cairn, Earthman, swordsman, murderer. Only he can overthrow the terrible devils that enslave Almuric, but to do so he must first defeat the inner demons that forced him to abandon Earth. Filled with vile beasts and thrilling adventure in the tradition of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Almuric is one of Howard’s few novels, and an excellent yarn from one of America’s most distinct literary voices.

I received my Howard Days “packet” from Project Pride today, with pertinent info and a send-back form for the Friday night Banquet enclosed, along with a gentle reminder that REHupa is the co-host of this shindig. The fine folk of Project Pride have always been beholdin’ to us REHupers, and we’ve always done right by them.

So, it was with some degree of remorse (I guess that’s the word I’m looking for) that while recently wading through some of the back-and-forth over on the innercircle forum, an idea was presented there that certainly bears repeating here.

The chin music got around to the perpetual fund raising struggles of Project Pride, the Cross Plains civic organization that keeps the Robert E. Howard House & Museum up and running. REHupan Frank Coffman made a suggestion that I hereby papraphrase: if everyone on the innercircle list would contribute $10 to Project Pride, they’d be sitting on a nice little pile of dough. This echoes what Rusty Burke said 18 years ago, when Project Pride just got started and the House was just purchased: (again, I paraphrase): If everyone who has ever read a Robert E. Howard Story would donate a dollar to the preservation of this house, they would have no money problems ever.

In a little over two months, June 8th and 9th to be exact (plus the 7th if you come early!), the House will be opened up as the main attraction of Robert E. Howard Days. The preliminary schedule for this event has been posted over at the Cimmerian Blog, with more detailed info forthcoming here on the REHupa site. Howard Days is the big yearly fund-raising endeavor for this small dedicated group – the same people who work year-round to preserve something that really belongs to them, but they know that the Robert E. Howard House really belongs to the whole wide world. And they do this work entirely for the benefit of strangers from all over that whole wide world.

It’s all part of that wonderful Texas hospitality that I personally have come to know and love about my yearly trip to Cross Plains. The people of Project Pride have placed importance on where REH came from, on where he was when he became important, and when he left us, they decided upon the importance of what he left behind, which has now become the tenant of some of the folks of Cross Plains.

So, if you’re planning on coming to Howard Days this year, you’re already helping: buying a ticket to the banquet, donating a few bucks at the luncheon or for the Sunset BBQ, purchasing Howard items from the House or taking part in the Silent Auction/Dealer’s Room – it’s all part of contributing to Robert E. Howard Days. And you can contribute even if Texas is not on your itinerary this year: donate some items to the Silent Auction or crack open that checkbook and send Project Pride a coupla pazoors. It’s even tax deductible, so you can catch a break and still feel good that you’re both honoring and supporting the Legacy of Robert E. Howard.

Mail your contributions or donations to the Silent Auction to: Project Pride, POB 534, Cross Plains, TX 76443. Trust me when I say there is nothing quite as nice as the good wishes from all the fine folk at Project Pride, and it’ll make your day seem nicer, too.

Thanks, and I hope to see a passle of you’uns in Texas in a couple of months.