REH Bookshelf - APPENDIX ONE

BOOKS MENTIONED BY HOWARD THAT REMAIN UNIDENTIFIED

compiled by Rusty Burke

"...a book about the Pioneer and Cross Plains oilfields..."

REH to Tevis Clyde Smith, 4 August 1923: "I see where a guy has written a book about the Pioneer and Cross Plains oilfields, exposing the graft."

"...the text dealing with a certain Congo queen..."

REH to Tevis Clyde Smith, n.d. (ca. 1929-1930): "I quote word for word from the text dealing with a certain Congo queen - the most sadistic wench of which I ever heard: "Angered at her sister she stripped the girl before the women of the court and pierced the lips of the girl's mon veneris and placed therein a small lock of native manufacture, which procedure effectually put a stop to copulation, as the queen kept the key and only gave it to her sister when she was married to a neighboring chief. On one occasion, one of the women of the court having given her some impertinence, she ran her hand under her skirt between her legs, and thrust her thumb up the offender's vaginal opening with such brutal force that the wretched woman was lifted off her feet and held in mid-air, while she clung to her torturer's arm and screamed with pain.

"Capturing the daughter of King Namba, her most powerful enemy, she plucked out most of her pubic hair with her own hands, and then had her raped. Her privates being almost unbearably sore from the hair-plucking, the pain she felt at intercourse can be imagined. The queen sat by watching, and laughed heartily at her evident discomfort

"But this she-demon, while inflicting pain on others was her favorite pastime, was not immune from the natural masochistic leanings of other women. She indulged in incredible bacchanales, in which men and women turned to ravening beasts under the influence of native ale, dancing and sex-freedom. At the heights of these revels, torturing others failed to give her the sensations she wished and she turned upon her own body. She frequently stripped herself and had her slaves lash her until she fell prone and panting on the earth. While these whippings were going on, she screamed and writhed and cavorted as if in intolerable agony, yet if the lashers faltered before her extreme height of fury was reached, she hurled terrible anathemas and threats at them. During one of these nightmares of licentiousness, a drink crazed giant pinned her down to the earth and ran a skewer through the fleshy part of her buttocks. At this painful piece of sportiveness, she went into absolute frenzies of ecstasies which far outdid all her previous transports. She danced with the skewer still in her buttocks, until she fell exhausted, when she allowed it to be withdrawn, and showered all sorts of kisses and caresses on the man who was responsible for her new thrill. However, next day she was too sore to sit on her teak-wood throne and in a moment of irritation she hung her lover of the night up by his wrists, and removed his testicles with a skill born of long usage."

And on and on, ad infinitum. If you don't believe this stuff, I can show you the books - that's all. Maybe the writers lied, but I doubt it. I don't believe there's any depravity a human being can't or won't descend to."

"British history."

REH to H.P. Lovecraft, ca. January 1932: "Then when I was about twelve I spent a short time in New Orleans and found in a Canal Street library, a book detailing the pageant of British history, from prehistoric times up to -- I believe -- the Norman conquest. It was written for school-boys and told in an interesting and romantic style, probably with many historical inaccuracies. But there I first learned of the small dark people which first settled Britain, and they were referred to as Picts.... The writer painted the aborigines in no more admirable light than had other historians whose works I had read. His Picts were made to be sly, furtive, unwarlike, and altogether inferior to the races which followed -- which was doubtless true."

[One strong possibility is G.F. Scott Elliott, The Romance of Early British Life, From the earliest times to the coming of the Danes (London: Seeley & Co., 1909)]

"Scottish histories."

REH to H.P. Lovecraft, ca. January 1932: "I read of them [the Picts] first in Scottish histories -- merely bare mentionings, usually in disapproval. Understand, my historical readings in my childhood were scattered and sketchy, owing to the fact that I lived in the country where such books were scarce. I was an enthusiast of Scottish history, such as I could obtain... In the brief and condensed histories I read, the Picts were given only bare mention, as when they clashed with, and were defeated by, the Scotch. Or in English history, as the cause of the Britons inviting in the Saxon. The fullest description of this race that I read at that time, was a brief remark by an English historian that the Picts were brutish savages, living in mud huts. The only hint I obtained about them from a legendary point of view, was in a description of Rob Roy, which, mentioning the abnormal length of his arms, compared him in this respect to the Picts, commenting briefly upon their stocky and ape-like appearance."

"Dago Jen."

C.L. Moore to REH, 29 January 1935: "The excerpt from the unknown poet of the pulps -- about Dago Jen with her crucifix -- was really good. I'd like to have read more of that."

"...the early exploits of the Rangers"

One Who Walked Alone, p. 144: "He also hunts through stores for books. He found one the other day in Brownwood that has him in ecstasy. It was written by a captain of the Texas Rangers, and is about the early exploits of the Rangers." [After the Christmas holiday in 1934.]

"...an authentic book about piracy..."

"Some People Who Have Had Influence Over Me": "Captain Kidd, for instance. Reading his biography and fiction based on his eventful life, caused me to determine, at an early age, to lead a life of piracy on the high seas. Tales of Blackbeard and Morgan clinched my resolve. But the influence of another man finally overbalanced this idea. I have forgotten his name but he was an author. He wrote an authentic book about piracy and by some means I secured it, I devoured it with avidity but was shocked to find that it contained a harrowing account of the deaths of Kidd, Blackbeard, and other noted gentlemen.

"These accounts grieved me deeply. I felt as if I had lost some old and trusted friends. Also my determination to follow in Kidd's footsteps was weakened. I began to perceive that there might be disadvantages attached to piracy. At the back of the aforesaid book there was an illustration which shattered my hopes entirely. It portrayed a pirate of my acquaintance just after his execution. He was fastened to the mast of a man-o-war, by a great spike which was driven through his head into the wood. The huge blood spattered head of the spike stood out from the center of his forehead and his villainous features were streaked with blood and twisted with the awful agony that had been his before death came to his release.

"This gruesome picture haunted me for days and caused me once and for all time, to give up any thoughts of sailing the Spanish Main under the skull and crossbones."

REHupa Home Page