Robert E. Howard Fiction and Verse Timeline

compiled by Rusty Burke

INTRODUCTION

SOURCES USED

THE TIMELINE: 1921 | 1922-1923 | 1922 | 1923 | 1924 | 1925 | 1926 | 1927 | 1928 | 1929 | 1930 | 1931 | 1932 | 1933 | 1934 | 1935 | 1936 | 1937

INTRODUCTION

The Timeline provides a chronological record of the composition, submission and/or publication of a large part of Howard's fiction and verse. It is culled from a variety of sources: the few surviving records Howard kept of his submissions, his letters to various correspondents (notably Tevis Clyde Smith), and his fictionalized autobiography, Post Oaks and Sand Roughs, were the primary sources. The record, as reconstructed from these sources, is unfortunately incomplete, and there are still a number of Howard's stories and verses for which we can only guess at a date of composition. It is my hope that future versions of the Timeline will be able to include more information: Patrice Louinet, for instance, who provided invaluable assistance to the present listing, is doing very interesting research into the composition of many of Howard's stories (as, for example, in his article "The Birth of Conan" in The Dark Man #4). His continuing researches may enable us to more precisely date the Conan, Solomon Kane and other series.
This Timeline would not have been possible without the generous cooperation of Glenn Lord, who provided copies of most of the submissions records, letters, etc., that were used.

I recognize that it would have been most useful if I had cited the sources for each entry, and if I should find myself with time on my hands, subsequent versions of this listing will attempt to rectify that.

For published stories, the payment REH received is noted. Some magazines paid upon publication (notably Weird Tales), while others paid upon acceptance (such as Street & Smith magazines like Sport Story). For convenience, I've listed the payment in the entry for publication of the story. Where there are discrepancies in the amounts reported in different sources, these are noted.

I have chosen to carry the Timeline through into early 1937, on the assumption that at least the earliest of the stories published subsequent to Howard's death may have been submitted by him before June 11, 1936.

SOURCES USED

Letters from Robert E. Howard to various correspondents. Many of these are yet unpublished; I have them in photocopies or transcripts provided by Glenn Lord, and I have put in many hours, using both internal evidence from the letters and researches at various libraries, to arrange the letters as closely as possible in chronological order (from 1927 until 1935, Howard rarely put a date on a letter). Robert E. Howard: Selected Letters 1923-1930 and Selected Letters 1931-1936, both edited by Glenn Lord and published by Necronomicon Press, are the primary published sources for Howard letters.

Post Oaks and Sand Roughs, by Robert E. Howard (Hampton Falls, NH: Donald M. Grant, 1990). Howard's fictionalized autobiography, covering the years from late 1924 through about mid-1928. In the book, names of persons and places, and titles of stories, poems, and magazines, are very thinly disguised. For the present listing, the actual titles have been used.

One Who Walked Alone, by Novalyne Price Ellis (West Kingston, RI: Donald M. Grant, 1986). A memoir of REH, from diaries kept by Mrs. Ellis during the years 1934-1936.

The Last Celt: A Bio-Bibliography of Robert E. Howard, compiled and edited by Glenn Lord (West Kingston, RI: Donald M. Grant, 1976). Still the most useful reference work in any REH library.

Letters from Otis A. Kline to REH, or from Otto Binder (Kline's New York representative in 1936) to Kline, from The Compleat OAK Leaves (Clayton, GA: Fictioneer Facsimile, 1980). A collection of the first ten issues of OAK Leaves, a fanzine dedicated to Kline, published by David A. Kraft. Issues #1 and 10 contained letters from Kline to both REH and his father, #5 contained letters from Binder to Kline, a few of which discuss Howard or his stories, as well as a listing of Binder's sales for 1936, which includes a number of REH stories. This collection was kindly loaned to me by Richard Moore, upon whom may similar beneficences fall!

A record of payments received by REH for his work, by year, compiled by Glenn Lord and published in Ultima Thule #4, in the 5th mailing of The Hyperborean League, October 1976. In a few instances, the payment noted on Lord's list differs from that given by REH in Post Oaks; in such cases I have given both figures.

A listing of stories and poems, and amounts received, typed out by Robert E. Howard, apparently as notes for his February 1929 letter to Tevis Clyde Smith (Selected Letters 1923-1930, #21) in which he listed all his submissions to that date.

A listing of stories and to whom submitted, apparently kept by REH during 1929.

A listing of stories and the dates they were received by the Kline agency, June 1933 through May 1936, provided by Glenn Lord.

Kline agency submission records for "Sailor Costigan and the Turkish Menace," "Three Bladed Doom," "Swords of the Red Brotherhood," "Hawks Over Egypt," and "The Trail of the Blood-Stained God," provided by Glenn Lord.

Robert E. Howard Fiction and Verse Timeline

1921

"Bill Smalley and the Power of the Human Eye" submitted to Adventure and Western Story

1922-1923

"The Mystery of Summerton Castle" [ms. lost] submitted to Weird Tales & Chicago Ledger

"Lal Singh-Adventurer" ("Lal Singh, Oriental Gentleman") submitted to Adventure

"The Feminine of the Species" ("The Female of the Species") submitted to Argosy-Allstory

"The Phantom of Old Egypt" [ms. lost] submitted to Weird Tales

"The Iron Terror" submitted to Cosmopolitan

1922

22 December 1922

"West is West" published in The Tattler, Brownwood High School

"'Golden Hope' Christmas" published in The Tattler, Brownwood High School

1923

15 February 1923

"Unhand Me, Villain" published in The Tattler, Brownwood High School

1 March 1923

"Aha!, or the Mystery of the Queen's Necklace" published in The Tattler, Brownwood High School

15 March 1923

"The Shiek" published in The Tattler, Brownwood High School

Spring 1923

"The Sea" (verse) published in The Baylor United Statement

May-June 1923

"Under the Great Tiger" printed in The All-Around Magazine [Tevis Clyde Smith's amateur paper]

26 May 1923

"What the Nation Owes the South" (essay) published in Brownwood Bulletin

8 June 1923

"When Napoleon down in Africa" (verse, unpublished)

"Neolithic Love Song" (verse)

22 June 1923

"a poem" sent to The Campus, student paper of Southern Methodist U.

"The helmsman gaily rode down the rickerboo" (verse, unpublished)

"Now bright, now red, the sabers sped among the racing horde" (verse, unpublished)

29 June 1923

"The Sea" (verse) published in Cross Plains Review

July 1923

"Under the Great Tiger" (part two) printed in The All-Around Magazine [Tevis Clyde Smith's amateur paper]

7 July 1923

"The Phantom of Old Egypt" [ms. lost] sent to Weird Tales

"The Dook of Stork" (parody playlet)

30 July 1923

"Bill Boozy was a pirate bold" (verse, unpublished)

"Out of Asia the tribesmen came" (verse, unpublished)

4 August 1923

"I shall write a story entitled 'The Last Man'"

"A clash of steel, a thud of hoofs" (verse, unpublished)

"A hundred years the great war raged" (verse, unpublished)

5 October 1923

"I'm writing a book...for my own amusement.... Some of the characters are Ammon the Amalekite... Swift-Foot...Tostig the Mighty...Hakon...Bran Mak Morn, who was the greatest chief the Picts ever had...."

1924

"Spear and Fang" submitted to Weird Tales

"The Hyena" submitted to Weird Tales

"The Lost Race" submitted to Weird Tales

"The Fightin' Dumbbell" [ms. lost] submitted to Short Story

"44-40 or Fight" [ms. lost] submitted to Western Story

late fall 1924

"Spear and Fang" accepted by Weird Tales (before Thanksgiving)

"wrote 2 stories of prize ring, submitted to sport story monthly," rejected (possibly "The Fightin' Dumbbell"?)

"short tale of the west sent to magazine dealing exclusively in Wild West stories," rejected (probably "44-40 or Fight")

December 1924

"The Hyena" accepted by Weird Tales

"The Lost Race" returned for revision

"2 more stories" submitted with "The Lost Race" when resubmitted

1925

"The Trail of the Single Foot" [ms. lost] submitted to Weird Tales

"The Crimson Line" [ms. lost] submitted to Weird Tales, Adventure

"Windigo! Windigo!" [ms. lost] submitted to Weird Tales, Adventure, Argosy, Tales of Mystery & Magic, Ace-High

"In the Forest of Villefere" submitted to Weird Tales

"The Hand of Obeah" submitted to Adventure

"Drums of Horror" [ms. lost] submitted to Weird Tales

"The Street of Grey-Beards" [ms. lost] submitted to Weird Tales

"The Last White Man" submitted to Weird Tales

"Two Wrongs Make a Wright" [ms. lost] submitted to Police Gazette

"Tom Sharkey - Mankiller" [ms. lost] (no indication to whom submitted)

"Wolfshead" submitted to Weird Tales

early 1925

"several mss. submitted and returned"

"In The Forest of Villefere" written, laid aside and forgotten for "several months"

"five weird tales" submitted to Weird Tales rejected "in a row"

"In The Forest of Villefere" submitted to Weird Tales, accepted

6 January 1925

"The Kissing of Sal Snooboo" (verse) published in The Tattler, Brownwood High School

"The Ideal Girl" (article) published in The Tattler, Brownwood High School

7 January 1925

"The Lost Race" accepted by Weird Tales

"The Hyena" accepted by Weird Tales

"they [Weird Tales] sent back what I consider my masterpiece so far"

30 January 1925

"Hills of the North! Lavender hills" (verse, unpublished)

"Dark are your eyes" (verse, unpublished)

"How your right thudded on my jaw" (verse, unpublished)

"I am the Spirit of War!" (verse, unpublished)

"I lay in Yen's opium joint" (verse, unpublished)

25 February 1925

"The Bombing of Gon Fonfew" (verse, unpublished)

17 March 1925

"The Sappious Few Menchew" (parody)

6 April 1925

"The Post of the Sappy Slipper" (parody)

"The Bore of the Cowed" (sketch)

24 May 1925

"When You Were a Set-Up and I Was a Ham" (verse)

July 1925

"Spear and Fang" published in Weird Tales [$16.00 - POSR; $15.00 - Lord (from REH list)]

16 July 1925

"And Dempsey climbed into the ring and the crowd sneered" (verse, "in Carl S.'s style")

August 1925

"In The Forest of Villefere" published in Weird Tales [$8.00]

6 August 1925

"I tell you this, my friend" (verse, unpublished)

28 August 1925

"Mingle my dust with the burning brand" (verse, unpublished)

"Roses laughed in her pretty hair" (verse, unpublished)

September/October 1925

"The Isle of the Eons" begun (not finished)

"Wolfshead" written

"...wrote a few more short stories and sent 2 of these to" Weird Tales

9 October 1925

"Wolfshead" accepted by Weird Tales

"All the crowd" (verse, unpublished)

Fall 1925

"Many stories which he started, he never finished....He would halt suddenly in the midst of a short story and start writing a serial or a long narrative rhyme; would toil for days on it, afire with enthusiasm, then suddenly abandon it and never write another line on the subject.... he did finish many short stories and a few longer ones, and sent them off. They came back with soul-killing regularity."

"He wrote a great deal of jingling, jangling verse on the order of Robert W. Service...."

After Christmas 1925

Learns "Wolfshead" to be given cover

1926

"Vulture's Roost" [ms. lost] submitted to Weird Tales

"Yellow Laughter" submitted to Weird Tales

"Men of the Shadows" submitted to Weird Tales

"John Morrissey - Adventurer" [article, ms. lost] submitted to Adventure

"No Man Needs Three Hands" [ms. lost] submitted to Weird Tales

14 January 1926

"I've been trying to write poetry all day... I wrote a poem for Ottie's magazine"

20 January 1926

Farnsworth Wright requests carbon of "Wolfshead," as the artist has not returned it and it is not yet typeset

23 January 1926

REH wires Wright re: "Wolfshead"; has no carbon, rewrites from memory and mails the next day

15 March 1926

"Illusion" (verse) published in Daniel Baker Collegian

"Fables for Little Folks" (verse) published in Daniel Baker Collegian

16 March 1926

"Men of the Shadows" rejected by Weird Tales

April 1926

"Wolfshead" published in Weird Tales [$40.00 + $10.00 for rewrite]

14 April 1926

"Roundelay of the Roughneck" (verse) published in Daniel Baker Collegian

"The Dancer" (verse, unpublished) ["A gibbering wind that whoops and drones"]

"Destiny?" (verse, unpublished)

"Laughter" (verse, unpublished)

"We are the duckers of crosses" (verse, unpublished)

"The shades of night were falling faster" (verse, unpublished)

7 May 1926

"I'm sending you [T.C. Smith] a flock of poetry... I'll send you the Mistress poem when I can discover the ms."

25 May 1926

"Futility" (verse) published in Daniel Baker Collegian

"Tarantella" (verse) published in Daniel Baker Collegian

26 May 1926

"What the Nation Owes the South" (essay) printed in The Brownwood Bulletin

23 June 1926

"I think I'll drop my efforts at verse for the present and go back to prose..."

"'Give ye of my best though the dole be meager'" (verse, unpublished)

"Eternity" (verse, unpublished)

"Serpent" (verse, unpublished)

"Shadows" (verse, unpublished)

"Destiny" (verse, unpublished) ["I am a white trail"]

"Adventure" (verse, unpublished) ["I am the spur"]

"Libertine" (verse, unpublished)

"Nun" (verse, unpublished)

"Prude" (verse, unpublished)

"Adventurer" (verse, unpublished) ["My feet are set on the outward trails"]

"Poet" (verse, unpublished)

"Dancer" (verse, unpublished) ["I've caught the rhythm of the universe"]

"Dreamer" (verse, unpublished) ["I live in a world apart"]

"Sailor" (verse, unpublished)

"Cowboy" (verse, unpublished)

"Toper" (verse, unpublished)

"Girl" (verse, unpublished)

"Deeps" (verse, unpublished)

"Thor" (verse, unpublished)

"Mystic" (verse, unpublished)

"Orientia" (verse, unpublished)

"The Mountains of California" (verse, unpublished)

"Monarchs" (verse, unpublished)

"Lust" (verse, unpublished)

"The Alamo" (verse, unpublished)

"San Jacinto" (verse, unpublished)

"Romance" (verse, unpublished)

"Early in the morning I gazed at the eastern skies" (verse, unpublished)

6 August 1926

"Arcadian Days" (verse, unpublished)

21 August 1926

"Twilight on Stonehenge" (verse)

"Ocean-Thoughts" (verse, unpublished)

Fall 1926

"The Shadow Kingdom" started

"He pounded away at his typewriter, deriving more real pleasure out of his rhymes than he did at anything else."

"The Ride of Falume" (verse) accepted by Weird Tales

"The Song of the Bats" (verse) accepted by Weird Tales

sends off poetry to "various magazines," rejected

27 October 1926

"After the Game" printed in Howard Payne College Yellow Jacket

"Sleeping Beauty" printed in Howard Payne College Yellow Jacket

30 October 1926

"The Campus at Midnight" (verse) ("one of my latest")

3 November 1926

Untitled story ("I having been by...") printed in Howard Payne College Yellow Jacket

1927

"The Dream Snake" submitted to Weird Tales

"Sea Curse" submitted to Weird Tales

"The Shadow Kingdom" submitted to Weird Tales

"The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune" submitted to Weird Tales

"The Valley of the Golden Web" [ms. lost] submitted to Weird Tales

"Sanctuary of the Sun" [ms. lost] submitted to Weird Tales, Ghost Story

"Solomon Kane" ["Red Shadows"] submitted to Weird Tales

"Skulls in the Stars" submitted to Argosy-Allstory, Weird Tales

"Footprints of Terror" [ms. lost] submitted to Argosy

January 1927

"The Lost Race" published in Weird Tales [$30.00]

13 January 1927

"Private Magrath of the A.E.F." (verse) published in Howard Payne College Yellow Jacket

"The Thessalians" published in Howard Payne College Yellow Jacket

20 January 1927

"Ye College Days" published in Howard Payne College Yellow Jacket

10 February 1927

"Cupid vs. Pollux" published in Howard Payne College Yellow Jacket

21 April 1927

"The Reformation - A Dream" published in Howard Payne College Yellow Jacket

May 1927

"The Song of the Bats" (verse) published in Weird Tales [$3.00 - POSR; $4.00 - REH list]

Summer 1927

"Remembrance" (verse) accepted by Weird Tales

"The Shadow Kingdom" completed, laid aside

Late summer 1927

"The Shadow Kingdom" rewritten, laid aside

"The Dream Snake" written

"Sea Curse" written

"The Dream Snake" and "Sea Curse" submitted to Weird Tales, "with a number of rhymes"

Circa late August-early September 1927

"Take some honey from a cat" (verse, unpublished)

"The Gates of Nineveh" (verse) accepted by Weird Tales

"Where Strange Gods Squall" ("Yes, I might have learned her..."; "'The blue road!'") (parodic sketches)

"Revenge" (verse)

"The Mottoes of the Boy Scouts" (verse)

"Legend" (sketch)

"Against the blood red moon a tower stands" (verse)

"Toast to the British! Damn their souls to Hell" (verse)

Circa September 1927

"The Shadow Kingdom" submitted to Weird Tales

"The Dream Snake" accepted by Weird Tales

"Sea Curse" accepted by Weird Tales

"Crete" (verse) accepted by Weird Tales

"The Moor Ghost" (verse) accepted by Weird Tales

"The Riders of Babylon" (verse) accepted by Weird Tales

"Easter Island" (verse) accepted by Weird Tales

"The baron of Fenland sat at ease" (verse)

October 1927

"The Ride of Falume" (verse) published in Weird Tales [$4.50 - POSR; $5.00 - REH list]

"The Shadow Kingdom" accepted by Weird Tales

Circa October 1927

"The Fastidious Fooey Mancucu" (parody)

"The Builders" [variant] (verse, unpublished) ["We reared Bab-ilu's towers"]

"The Gods Remember" [variant] (verse, unpublished) ["Lost wonders of the ages"

"Lilith" [variant] (verse, unpublished) ["They hurled me from the mire"]

"Memories" ["Shall we remember, friend of the morning"]

Circa fall 1927

"The Harp of Alfred" (verse) accepted by Weird Tales

"Forbidden Magic" (verse) accepted by Weird Tales

"The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune" accepted by Weird Tales

"Where Strange Gods Squall" ("There it was, the greatest geisha...")

"What's become of Waring" (verse, parody of Browning)

"The Robes of the Righteous" (verse)

"After the trumps are sounded" (verse)

"The Ballad of King Geraint" (verse) probably written

Weird Tales "rejected a short story which he had considered to be a cinch sale" (perhaps either "The Valley of the Golden Web" or "Sanctuary of the Sun," both mss. lost -- the latter was submitted also to Ghost Story, so may be likely candidate)

"Solomon Kane" ["Red Shadows"] written, submitted to Argosy

1928

"Spanish Gold on Devil Horse" submitted to Argosy, Adventure

"The Isle of Pirates' Doom" submitted to Argosy, Adventure, Red Blooded

"The Cat and the Skull" ["Delcardes' Cat"] submitted to Weird Tales

"The Screaming Skull of Silence" ["The Skull of Silence"] submitted to Weird Tales

"The Right Hand of Doom" submitted to Weird Tales

"Out of the Deeps" submitted to Weird Tales, Ghost Stories

"Rattle of Bones" submitted to Weird Tales

"Drums of the Sunset" submitted to Cross Plains Review

"The Spirit of Tom Molyneaux" submitted to Fight Stories, Argosy, Ghost Stories

"The Weepin' Willow" submitted to Fight Stories, Argosy

"The Right Hook" submitted to Fight Stories, Argosy

"The Touch of Death" ["The Fearsome Touch of Death"] submitted to Argosy, Ghost Stories, Weird Tales

"Skull-Face" submitted to Weird Tales

"Skulls and Orchids" submitted to Weird Tales, Argosy

"The Chiming of the Gong" ["The Striking of the Gong"] submitted to Argosy

"The Altar and the Scorpion" submitted to Weird Tales

January 1928

"The Riders of Babylon" (verse) published in Weird Tales [$5.50]

Circa January 1928

"Wolfsdung" (parody)

"Keep women, thrones and kingly lands" (verse, unpublished)

"The world goes back to the primitive, yea" (verse, unpublished)

"I do not sing of a paradise" (verse, unpublished)

"Mother Eve, Mother Eve, I name you a fool" (verse, unpublished)

"The east is red and I am dead" (verse, unpublished)

"Symbols" (verse)

"Romany Road" (verse)

"Love" (verse)

"The Chant Demoniac" (verse)

"A Man" (verse, unpublished) ["I tore a pine from the mountain crag"]

"The Grey Lover" (verse, unpublished)

"Life" (verse, unpublished) ["About me rise the primal mists"]

"King Hootus" (satiric sketch)

February 1928

"The Dream Snake" published in Weird Tales [$20.00]

20 February 1928

"Solomon Kane" ["Red Shadows"] returned by Argosy, submitted to Weird Tales

"A typical small town" (dramatic sketch)

March 1928

"The Hyena" published in Weird Tales [$25.00]

"Solomon Kane" ["Red Shadows"] accepted by Weird Tales, Wright asks Howard to come up with another title

Circa March 1928

"Keresa, Keresita" (verse)

"The spiders of weariness come on me" (verse, unpublished)

"Follow me, oh grim Elijah" ["The Dust Dance," selections: version II]

"Moses was our leader and Moses knew his Hebrews" ["The Odyssey of Israel"] (verse)

"Secrets" (verse, unpublished)

"Grim, grim, grim the elephants were chanting" (verse, unpublished)

"The Chinese Gong" (verse, unpublished)

"How To Select a Successful Evangelist" (verse)

"The Choir Girl" (verse)

"A Song of Cheer" (verse)

"Repentance" (verse)

"I am MAN from the primal, I" (verse)

Circa spring 1928

"deluges" Argosy with stories and rhymes, all rejected

rewrites West of the Rio Grande for Fowler Gafford; work drags on for months

"Moon Mockery" (verse) accepted by Weird Tales

"Dead Man's Hate" (verse) accepted by Weird Tales

"long story" rejected by Weird Tales

"ms. after ms. came back from" Weird Tales and Argosy

"Skulls in the Stars" accepted by Weird Tales

April 1928

"Remembrance" (verse) published in Weird Tales [$3.50]

26 April 1928

Singers in the Shadows (verse collection) rejected by Albert & Charles Boni; included:

"Zukala's Hour"

"Night Mood"

"The Sea Woman"

"The Bride of Cuchulain"

"The Stranger"

"Shadows"

"Rebel"

"White Thunder"

"The Men That Walk With Satan"

"Thus Spake Sven the Fool"

"Sacrifice"

"The Witch"

"The Lost Galley"

"Hadrian's Wall"

"Attila Rides No More"

"The Fear That Follows"

"Destination"

"The Tavern"

"The Road To Hell"

"The Twin Gates"

May 1928

"Sea Curse" published in Weird Tales [$17.00 - POSR (and REH list); $20.00 - Lord]

June 1928

"Kid Lavigne Is Dead" (verse) published in The Ring

Circa June 1928

"The Rump of Swift" (parody)

"A Young Wife's Tale" (verse)

"Lesbia" (verse)

"A Roman Lady" ("There is a strangeness in my soul") (verse)

"They matched me up that night with a bird that was a fright" (verse, unpublished)

"They gave me a dollar and thirty cents when they let me outa my cell" (verse, unpublished)

"A cringing woman's lot is hard" (verse, unpublished)

"Nights To Both Of Us Known" (verse)

Circa first half 1928

"Surrender - Your Money or Your Vice" (movie review) probably written

July 1928

"The Gates of Nineveh" published in Weird Tales [$4.00]

18 July 1928

"Kid Dula Due To Be Champion" (article) published in the Brownwood Bulletin

Circa July 1928

"A Warning To Orthodoxy" (verse)

August 1928

"Red Shadows" published in Weird Tales [$80.00 - POSR (and REH list); $20.00 - Lord]

30 August 1928

Letter from Truett Vinson mentions "your poem on the treatment of whores"

September 1928

"The Harp of Alfred" published in Weird Tales [$4.50]

"Surrender - Your Money or Your Vice" (movie review) appeared in The Junto

"Them" (article) appeared in The Junto

"Age" (verse) appeared in The Junto

13 September 1928

Unnamed book rejected by Dodd, Mead (probably Singers in the Shadows)

October 1928

"More Evidences of the Innate Divinity of Man" (article) appeared in The Junto

"A Hairy Chested Idealist Sings" (verse) appeared in The Junto

20 October 1928

Letter to Harold Preece mentions "a long letter to the editor to whom I sold a tale entitled 'The Shadow Kingdom'," in which he included "all my views" on the subject of Atlantis and Lemuria [lost]

Circa October/November 1928

"Rattle of Bones" accepted by Weird Tales

Post Oaks and Sand Roughs completed and submitted to unnamed publisher

November 1928

"To a Man Whose Name I Never Knew" (article) appeared in The Junto

"Swings and Swings" (verse) appeared in The Junto

"The Spirit of Tom Molyneaux" accepted by Ghost Stories

2 November 1928

"Drums of the Sunset" (part one) published in the Cross Plains Review [$20.00 for story]

9 November 1928

"Drums of the Sunset" (part two) published in the Cross Plains Review

16 November 1928

"Drums of the Sunset" (part three) published in the Cross Plains Review

23 November 1928

"Drums of the Sunset" (part four) published in the Cross Plains Review

30 November 1928

"Drums of the Sunset" (part five) published in the Cross Plains Review

Circa November 1928

"The wine in my cup is bitter dregs" (verse, unpublished)

"Swords glimmered up the pass" (verse, unpublished)

"Rebellion" (verse)

"A Great Man Speaks" (verse, unpublished)

"Yodels of Good Sneer" (verse, unpublished)

"Noah was my applesauce" (verse, unpublished)

"Let me live as I was born to live" (verse, unpublished)

"Adam's loins were mountains" (verse, unpublished)

"The Ballad of Monk Kickawhore" (verse, unpublished)

"A Ballad of Insanity" (verse, unpublished)

"I hate the man who tells me that I lied" (verse, unpublished)

"A Far Country" (verse)

"Scarlet and gold are the stars tonight" (verse, unpublished)

"Old Faro Bill was a man of might" (verse, unpublished)

"Rebel souls from the falling dark" (verse, unpublished)

"My heart is a silver drum tonight" ["The Call of Pan"] (verse)

"A sappe ther wos and that a crumbe manne" (verse, unpublished)

"Flaming Marble" (verse) accepted by The Poets' Scroll if Howard will subscribe

December 1928

"Easter Island" (verse) published in Weird Tales [$3.50] (tells H. Preece it was "written two years ago")

"The Galveston Affair" (article) appeared in The Junto

"A Song For Men That Laugh" (verse) appeared in The Junto

"To The Evangelists" ["The Flood"] (verse) appeared in The Junto

7 December 1928

"Drums of the Sunset" (part six) published in the Cross Plains Review

14 December 1928

"Drums of the Sunset" (part seven) published in the Cross Plains Review

28 December 1928

"Drums of the Sunset" (part eight) published in the Cross Plains Review

Circa December 1928

"Out in front of Goldstein's, over by the Loop" (song parody, unpublished)

"The Deed Beyond the Deed" (verse)

"An American" (verse)

"There's an isle far away on the breast of the sea" (verse, unpublished)

"Stay not from me, that veil of dreams that gives" ["Stay Not From Me"] (verse)

"My Children" (verse, unpublished)

"haven't head from the novel" (probably Post Oaks and Sand Roughs)

"The women come and the women go" (verse, unpublished)

"Silence Falls on Mecca's Walls" (verse, originally untitled)

"The chariots were chanting in the gloom" (verse, unpublished)

"Flappers flicker and flap and flirt" (verse, unpublished)

"I hold all women are a gang of tramps" (verse, unpublished)

"Love is singing soft and low" (verse, unpublished)

Late fall 1928

"The Touch of Death" accepted by Weird Tales

"Skull-Face" accepted by Weird Tales

1929

From REH to Tevis Clyde Smith, ca. February 1929 (Selected Letters 1923-1930, #21):

"The Shadow of the Beast" submitted (no indication to whom submitted)

"The Fear At the Window" ["Restless Waters"] submitted (no indication to whom submitted)

From a list of submissions apparently kept by REH during 1929:

"The Extermination of Yellow Donory": rejected by Adventure, Argosy, and Western Story

"By This Axe I Rule": rejected by Argosy and Adventure

"The Blue Flame of Vengeance": rejected by Argosy and Adventure

"Swords of the Purple Kingdom": no submissions listed

"The Hand in the Dark": rejected by Ghost Stories

"The Mark of a Bloody Hand": rejected by Ghost Stories

"The Nut's Shell": rejected by Liberty

"The Block": rejected by Liberty

"The Voice of the Mob": rejected by True Stories

"Pay Day": no submissions listed

"Dermod's Bane": rejected by Ghost Stories

"The Ghost in the Doorway": no submissions listed

"Black Country": rejected by Thrills of the Jungle

"The Moon of Skulls": accepted by Weird Tales

"Blue River Blues": rejected by Argosy

"The Head in the Hollow Stump": with True Strange Stories

"The Bulldog Breed": accepted by Fight Stories

"The Devil in His Brain": rejected by True Story

"They Always Come Back": no submissions listed

"John Grimlan's Debt": rejected by Ghost Stories [published in Weird Tales, 1937, as

"Dig Me No Grave"]

"The Shadow of Doom": rejected by Ghost Stories

"The Curse of Greed": rejected by True Stories

"Sailor's Grudge": accepted by Fight Stories

"The Isle of Pirates' Doom": rejected by Romance

"The Judgment of the Desert": rejected by Argosy

"Iron Men": with Fight Stories

"Fist and Fang": rejected by Adventure

"The Trail of the Snake": with Fight Stories

January 1929

"Skulls in the Stars" published in Weird Tales [$30.00]

"Flaming Marble" published in The Poets' Scroll

"Ambition In the Moonlight" appeared in The Junto

4 January 1929

"Drums of the Sunset" (part nine) published in the Cross Plains Review

February 1929

"Crete" (verse) published in Weird Tales [$4.00]

"Rebellion" (verse) published in The Poets' Scroll

Circa February 1929

"Ancient English Balladel" (verse)

"At the Inn Of the Gory Dagger" (verse, unpublished)

2 letters to T.C. Smith detailing Howard's writing career to this point

"The Case of the College Toilet" (parody)

"And there were lethal women, flaming ice and fire" (verse, unpublished)

"A haunting cadence fills the night with fierce longing" (verse, unpublished)

"Through the mists of silence there came a sound" (verse, unpublished)

"The Mysteries" (verse, unpublished)

Circa March 1929

"Black Dawn" [variant] (verse)

"The Path of the Strange Wanderers" (verse)

"At the Bazaar" (verse, unpublished)

"'Hatrack! a voice came to me dimly...." (parody)

"By old Abie Goldstein's pawnshop where the ghetto meets the quay" (verse, unpublished)

"Crowd-Horror" returned by Argosy with request to cut length

"Bastards All!" (parody)

"Songs of Bastards" (parody)

April 1929

"The Apparition In the Prize Ring" ["The Spirit of Tom Molyneaux"] published in Ghost Stories, bylined "John Taverel" [$95.00]

"Moon Mockery" (verse) published in Weird Tales [$3.50]

"A Lady's Chamber" (verse) published in American Poet

Circa April 1929

"The iron harp that Adam christened Life" (verse, unpublished)

"On my return here I found a returned mss. from Adventure with a line or two from the assistant editor telling me to submit some more of my work"

"Crowd-Horror" accepted by Argosy ("still too long but they will make necessary changes themselves")

Received advance sheets for "Rattle of Bones" from Weird Tales

"To the Contented" (verse, unpublished)

"High Blue Halls" (verse, unpublished)

"An American Epic" (verse, unpublished)

May 1929

"Skulls and Dust" (verse) published in American Poet

June 1929

"Rattle of Bones" published in Weird Tales [$20.00]

Circa June 1929

"Black Seas" (verse)

July 1929

"The Pit of the Serpent" published in Fight Stories [$90.00]

"Forbidden Magic" (verse) published in Weird Tales [$3.50]

20 July 1929

"Crowd-Horror" published in Argosy [$100.00]

Circa July 1929

"Tides" (verse) accepted for Contemporary Verse

"Red Thunder" (verse) accepted for JAPM: The Poetry Weekly

"Irony" (dramatic sketch)

August 1929

"The Shadow Kingdom" published in Weird Tales [$100.00]

15 August 1929

"The Moon of Skulls" returned by Jungle Stories

September 1929

"The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune" published in Weird Tales [$20.00]

"The Moor Ghost" (verse) published in Weird Tales [$4.00]

October 1929

"Skull-Face" (part one) published in Weird Tales [$300.00]

November 1929

"Skull-Face" (part two) published in Weird Tales

December 1929

"Skull-Face" (part three) published in Weird Tales

1930

January 1930

"Dead Man's Hate" (verse) published in Weird Tales [$7.00]

Circa January 1930

asks T.C. Smith for address of Ten-Story Book

"finally got back my rhymes from the Scroll"

inquired about "Iron Men" to Fiction House

February 1930

"The Bull Dog Breed" published in Fight Stories [$90.00]

"The Touch of Death" (as "The Fearsome Touch of Death") published in Weird Tales [$18.00] [letter to TCS ca. January 1930 [SL 1 #29] says he tried other magazines with this story]

Circa February 1930

Fiction House (Fight Stories) took another Costigan story ("Fist and Fang?")

"Iron Men" located and accepted

Circa March 1930

"The Moon of Skulls" "will appear in June"

"next issue" (of Weird Tales) "appears my 'A Song Out of Midian" (verse)

"The Song of a Mad Minstrel" (verse) accepted by Weird Tales

"Black Chant Imperial" (verse) accepted by Weird Tales

"Shadows on the Road" (verse) accepted by Weird Tales

"Sailor's Grudge" published in Fight Stories [$75.00]

"Whispers" (verse)

"The Dark Man" accepted for Strange Stories (planned companion mag to Weird Tales)

"Kings of the Night" accepted for Weird Tales (submitted to Strange Stories but Wright accepted for WT)

"The Autumn of the World" ["Autumn"] (verse)

"A Tribute to the Sportsmanship of the Fans" (verse, unpublished)

"Aw Come On and Fight!" (verse, unpublished)

"The Song of the Sage" (verse, unpublished)

April 1930

"A Song Out of Midian" (verse) published in Weird Tales [$6.00] (tells T.C. Smith he wrote this "something more than a year ago")

Circa early April 1930

"Ambition" (verse, unpublished)

"Whispers on the Nightwinds" (verse)

"The Gladiator and the Lady" (verse)

"Winner Take All" accepted by Fight Stories

Circa April 1930

"The Mutiny of the Hellroarer" (parody)

"The Return of the Seafarer" [variant] (verse)

May 1930

"Fist and Fang" published in Fight Stories [$100.00]

"Shadows on the Road" (verse) published in Weird Tales [$11.50]

"The Gods of Bal-Sagoth" accepted for Strange Stories

"Waterfront Fists" accepted by Fight Stories

Circa May 1930

"A Stirring of Green Leaves" (verse)

"The Rhyme of the Viking Path" [variant of "Thor's Son"] (verse)

"A Marching Song of Connacht" (verse)

June 1930

"Iron Men" (as "The Iron Man") published in Fight Stories [$200.00]

"The Moon of Skulls" (part one) published in Weird Tales [$200.00]

3 June 1930

"The Night of the Wolf" rejected by Argosy

Circa 9 June 1930

Tells TCS he wants to get started on writing for Oriental Stories

July 1930

"Winner Take All" published in Fight Stories [$80.00]

"The Moon of Skulls" (part two) published in Weird Tales

Circa July 1930

"Lives and Crimes of Notable Artists" (humorous sketch)

"The Voice of El-Lil" accepted for Oriental Stories

"Red Blades of Black Cathay" written (with Tevis Clyde Smith)

"Then Stein the peddler with rising joy" (verse, unpublished)

"Alleys of Peril" sold to Fight Stories

"I was once, I declare, a grog-shop man" (verse, unpublished; "a little parody on one of Soivice's stuff")

"The Fangs of the Copperhead" written ("which I intend to try to sell Fiction House. It took me about three hours to write it...") [No story by this title known]

August 1930

"The Hills of the Dead" published in Weird Tales [$70.00]

Circa August 1930

"Voyages With Villains" (humorous sketch)

"Red Blades of Black Cathay" accepted for Oriental Stories

"Wings in the Night" accepted for Weird Tales

"Waterfront Law" ["The TNT Punch"] sold to Fiction House

"They cast her out of the court of the king" ["Daughter of Evil"] (verse)

September 1930

"Waterfront Fists" published in Fight Stories [$90.00]

"Black Chant Imperial" published in Weird Tales [$6.00]

Circa September 1930

Tells H.P. Lovecraft he plans to take his advice and write a series of stories about Bran Mak Morn

Circa October 1930

"Hawks of Outremer" accepted for Oriental Stories

"The Children of the Night" accepted for Weird Tales

"Reuben's Brethren" (verse) quoted in letter to HPL

October-November 1930

"The Voice of El-Lil" published in Oriental Stories [$90.00]

November 1930

"Champ of the Forecastle" published in Fight Stories [$65.00]

"Kings of the Night" published in Weird Tales [$120.00]

24 November 1930

"Slow sift the sands of Time; the yellowed leaves" ["The Sands of Time"] (verse)

Circa November-December 1930

Working on second draft of collaborative story with T.C. Smith (probably "The Honor of the Game")

Circa December 1930

"The Footfalls Within" accepted by Weird Tales

"The Blood of Belshazzar" accepted for Oriental Stories

"The Black Stone" accepted for Weird Tales

"The Thing on the Roof" complete but not yet submitted

Story rejected by Fiction House ("The fight was simply a dramatic description of the Goddard-Choynsky bout with a few changes"-perhaps "Double-Cross"?)

"I have a number of manuscripts that are practically ready to be sent off, and a number more which lack only a little work to be completed."

"If you haven't sent 'The Honor of the Game' to Argosy, send it first to Street & Smith, Sport Story..."

Received letter from Wilfred B. Talman regarding submission to Texaco company's magazines

1931

January 1931

"Waterfront Law" [as "The TNT Punch"] published in Action Stories [$75.00]

"Alleys of Peril" published in Fight Stories [$80.00]

Abandons sequel to "Skull-Face"

Circa January 1931

H.P. Lovecraft encourages Howard to make fictional use of "Kelly the conjure-man"

29 January 1931

Letter from Wilfred B. Talman states: "About a week ago I learned that an article from you had come into this office" (i.e., the Texaco Star-the article was "The Ghost of Camp Colorado")

Circa January-February 1931

"Sign of the Snake" sold to Action Stories [REH to T.C. Smith, 9 May 1931: "They changed the name of the character-McClarney-to Steve Costigan, though the style of the tale was nothing at all like Steve."]

Street & Smith inquired about taking over Costigan series; Howard offered to create another seri