Saturday, July 18 was the day for the first Edmond Hamilton Day held in Kinsman, Ohio. Edmond Hamilton (1904-1977) was a colleague of Robert E. Howard, appearing in Weird Tales from 1936-1948 with 76 stories. There were six multi-part novellas and novels such as “The Lake of Life,” “The Time Raider,” “Outside the Universe,” “Across Space,” “Crashing Suns,” and “The Fire Princess.” Hamilton was the mainstay of science-fiction within “The Unique Magazine.” Hamilton married Leigh Brackett, someone unabashed in her admiration of Robert E. Howard in 1947. They spent their summers in Kinsman, Ohio and winters in southern California.

     Kinsman is 64 miles from my house. It took me about an hour and 15 minutes of driving to get there through the lush, green countryside due to the coolest July on record and plentiful rain this year. I would guess Kinsman to be around 1,000 inhabitants or less. It may be the same size as Cross Plains or a little smaller. Don Sutton of the Kinsman Historical Society sponsered the event at his general store right on the town square. I have to say that the soda bar there serves up about as fine of a milk-shake as I have had anywhere. A few Ohio pulps fans including Dave Scroggs made it there. Steve Haffner of Haffner Press debuted three volumes in the Collected Edmond Hamilton series: The Metal Giants and Others, The Star Stealers: The Complete Tales of the Interstellar Patrol and The Collected Captain Future Volume One. Haffner Press books are nice sized tomes reprinting tons of never before reprinted science fiction on archival quality paper and excellent binding. Don’t let these get away!

     Kay Alderdice and her husband took me over to the Hamilton House outside of town and also to the grave yard at the Presbyterian Church. A number of the locals bought Haffner Press books as many knew the Hamiltons. The slide show and presentation by Don Sutton at the Presbyterian Church was well attended with a display of Hamilton books. I had a chance to talk to Chuck Fenn who used to mow the lawn for the Hamiltons in his younger days. I learned quite a bit about the personalities of both Edmond Hamilton and Leigh Brackett including what cars they drove. The 1964 Corvette for example was Brackett’s and not Hamiltons. She also did the driving. Chuck also brought a painted map of Brackett’s Mars that someone had painted for her.

     After the slide show of Hamilton and Brackett pictures, the group walked to the gravesite of Ed Hamilton and Leigh Brackett and gave a libation. This was a good start for what will be hopefully an annual event. Nice to have something like Howard Days within easy driving distance.

On September 1st, University of Nebraska Press will publish two new collections of Harold Lamb stories– Swords From the West and Swords of the Desert. These two books, especially the first has me excited. I first heard of Harold Lamb in relation to Robert E. Howard. I had found the old paperback collection of cossack stories, The Mighty Manslayer a couple months after I read Hannibal. Over the next few years I sought out and read Lamb’s later bio-dramas.  The later bio-dramas are not the Harold Lamb that Howard read though in magazines.

I read The Curved Saber, Durandal, and White Falcon over 20 years ago thanks to the Cleveland library.  I bought Durandal, The Sea of Ravens, and The Three Palladins. In the 90s, I started picking up issues of Adventure despairing that Harold Lamb’s magazine fiction would ever be reprinted. In this form I got to read ”The Witch of Aleppo” and “The Making of the Morningstar.” In a month and a half, I no longer have to look for Harold Lamb in old magazines. Howard A. Jones has worked for years getting Lamb back into print. He edited the four volume cossack collections that came out a few years back. No he is back with four more volumes. Two will be out this year and two next. It is in Swords From the West that you will meet Nial O’Gordon, a Scottish crusader who is reminiscent of Howard’s crusaders. I believe that Lamb was familiar with Howard’s crusader stories in Oriental Stories and Magic Carpet Magazine as Nial O’ Gordon came along after Howard’s characters. Lamb can be white hot with battle scenes. Over at University of Nebraska Press, there is an excerpt from the upcoming book. Here is a little taste of what’s to come.

“The Swiss came to meet the cavalry, closing together. Against those steel pikes, longer than their lances, the German horses piled up, rearing, the first ranks forced into a mass by pressure from the rear. Into the crush of riders the Swiss poleaxes beat like flails. Steel clanged and roared as if a thousand hammers were beating forges.”

With Lamb, you will meet crusaders, vikings, adventurers, swordsmen and other types that delighted a young Robert E. Howard. Collections like these should have been done in paperback decades ago. At least we will have these stories in book form finally thanks to Howard A. Jones.

Damon Sasser’s latest issue of REH: Two-Gun Raconteur No. 13 debuted at Howard Days in Cross Plains, Texas last month. The magazine continues its 1970s sensibility of mixing articles, fiction, and art together but with 21st Century production. The magazine has been improving the last few years with the addition of  color covers and generally upgraded content. Layout remains good, there is no wasted space on pages as I have seen happen with other small press publications.

Nathan Furman produced the color cover taking a scene from “The Shadow Kingdom.”

Damon gives a recap of the highs and lows in Howard fandom and publishing the past year with his editorial “Brother, can you spare some escapism?” The pearl of the issue is a reprint of the rare Steve Harrison story “The Black Moon.” I had never read this one before and enjoyed it. I happen to like Howard’s detective stories. Three of the contributors in this issue are former regulars of The Cimmerian giving REH:TGR a slight new direction. I come up first with my Hyborian scholarship essay, “The Hyperboreans Re-Imagined.” This came about from my major dislike of what de Camp & Carter did with the Hyperboreans with their Spraguenan stories. I am fortunate in having a great piece of art by Richard Pace accompanying my article.

Rob Roehm’s “The Long and Winding Road: A Poetic History” reads like something right out of The Cimmerian and is Rob’s history of attempts to collect Robert E. Howard’s poetry over the decades. There is a drawing by David Burton that I am not sure what it is supposed to be.  Michael L. Peters has been in TGR in the past and has a portfolio illustrating “Kings in the Night.”  There are two poems by Frank Coffman and a note by Rusty Burke on the writing of the poem “Cimmeria.” Chris Green does a comparison of Robert E. Howard and Jack Kirby. I am not a Kirby fan. I hated Marvel Comics growing up. The fact that Conan was a Marvel character in the 70s actually delayed my reading of Howard.

“Kingdoms of Clouds and Moonmist” by Brian Leno explores the Harold Lamb influence on Robert E. Howard and is a solid contribution. There is another portfolio of Sailor Steve Costigan by Clayton Hinkle.

The last section contains farewells and tributes to Steve Tompkins by Rusty Burke, Mark Finn, Leo Grin, Al Harron, Scotty Henderson, Don Herron, myself, Deuce Richardson, Gary Romeo, Charles R. Saunders, and Damon Sasser.

The inside front and back covers are scenes from “The Vultures of Wahpeton” by Joe Wehrle. The back cover of Cormac FitzGeoffrey by Bob Covington.

So here is a package of fiction, poetry, art, and non-fiction. Cost is $19.50 + shipping. You can order at www.rehtwogunraconteur.com.

In a few weeks, Haffner Press will be unveiling the first three of the Collected Stories of Edmond Hamilton. Hamilton was a heavy hitter for Weird Tales at the same time Robert E. Howard was in the magazine. Hamilton was Farnsworth Wright’s main science fiction writer. The first volume starts right at the beginning with Hamilton’s first published story, “The Monster God of Mamurth” from the August 1926 issue of Weird Tales up through1929. Volume 2 will collect all the Interstellar Patrol stories into one book for the first time. Star Trek is a descendent of the Interstellar Patrol. A favorite story of mine of early Hamilton is the novel “The Time Raider.” “Raider” was four part serial from October 1927 to January 1928. It has a very Merrittesque creature taking men from various times to the far future to a city where they fight in gladiatorial contests. The action doesn’t flag and the story is very imagainative. I am very surprised it was never reprinted as a paperback in the 60s as it was long enough for those little slender paperbacks of the time. I would imagine that Robert E. Howard took notice with Hamilton’s own brand of telescoping history.

There will be a celebration of Edmond Hamilton and his wife, Leigh Brackett in Kinsman, Ohio Saturday, July 18 starting at 2:00 P.M. I attend on attending as I am only 50 miles away and want to support the event. Steve Haffner will be there also. So anyone in western Pennsylvania or Ohio should think of attending.