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The Last Celt REH Letter Citations

Compiled by Edward Waterman, Rusty Burke, and Patrice Louinet

 

In the section "On Reading – and Writing" found in The Last Celt (ed. Glenn Lord, D.M. Grant, 1976) resides an extraordinary collection of excerpts from a variety of Robert E. Howard’s letters. These excerpts as they stand in the book are, strictly speaking, not quotable for scholarly purposes because the specific sources for these excerpts were never documented. Further, a majority of the excerpts were taken from multiple sources and reorganized into single paragraphs, making it difficult to know when one quotable excerpt begins and another ends. The following list of sources has been assembled to remedy these problems, with the further aim to facilitate the scholar’s search for source material in the realm of literary biography and criticism. 

The following citations are referenced by the page on which the excerpts are found within The Last Celt and the beginning phrase of each relevant excerpt followed by its source. The citation refers to the text quoted here and onward until the next excerpt quoted below.

Page(s)

Excerpt

Source/Citation

p. 41

“The nearest I came to college was the business department…”

To H. P. Lovecraft, dated March 6, 1933 (unpublished)

p. 41

“Things I have discovered to be of the most use…”

To H. P. Lovecraft, circa May/June 1933

p. 43

“Concerning literature, I don’t pretend to be any judge of its merit…”

To H. P. Lovecraft, dated March 6, 1933 (unpublished)

p. 44

“I'm narrow in my literary likings…”

To H. P. Lovecraft, received  November 2, 1932

p. 44

“English poetry is probably the highest form…” 1

To H. P. Lovecraft, circa December 1932 (unpublished)

p. 45

“I wouldn't take anything, though, for my early readings of Scott, Dickens and other English writers...”

To H. P. Lovecraft, received November 2, 1932

p. 46

“I admire many points of the French character, but…”

To H. P. Lovecraft, received November 2, 1932

p. 47

“After wading through a few chapters of French literature…” 2

To H. P. Lovecraft, circa December 1932 (unpublished)

p. 47

“I find the old Scandinavian sagas fascinating…”

To H. P. Lovecraft, received November 2, 1932

p. 47

“Sappho: doubtless the greatest woman poet who ever lived…”

To Harold Preece, circa December 1928

p. 48

“Don’t take MacPherson too seriously…”

To Harold Preece, circa February 1930

p. 48

“Books, books, books – great God, there’s no end to them…”

To Harold Preece, circa March 1929

p. 49

“I remember the first story I ever wrote…”

To H. P. Lovecraft, circa June 1931

p. 49

“I was eighteen when I wrote “Spear and Fang”…”

To H. P. Lovecraft, circa May/June 1933

p. 50

“I was first to light a torch of literature…”

To H. P. Lovecraft, circa May/June 1933

p. 51

“I have lived in the Southwest all my life…”

To H. P. Lovecraft, circa January 1931 (unpublished)

p. 51

“One problem in writing bloody literature is…”

To H. P. Lovecraft, dated August 9, 1932 (unpublished)

p. 52

“I’m provokingly indolent in writing…”

To H. P. Lovecraft, circa August 1931 (unpublished)

p. 52

“I have written 12,000 words in a day…”

To August Derleth, circa August 1933 (unpublished)

p. 52

“I sell so little, though, that I have to produce a great deal…”

To H. P. Lovecraft, circa August 1931 (unpublished)

p. 52

“I know nothing at all about the mechanics of poetry…”

To H. P. Lovecraft, circa August 1931 (unpublished)

p. 52

“I never devoted over thirty minutes to any rhyme in my life…”

To H. P. Lovecraft, circa December 1930

p. 52

“If my verse ever sees the light of day…”

To H. P. Lovecraft, received July 15, 1933 (previously published in Selected Letters as circa May/June 1933)

p. 52

“There is one hobby of mine which puzzles me to this day…”

To H. P. Lovecraft, circa January 1932 (unpublished)

p. 56

“There is no literary work, to me, half as zestful as…”

To H. P. Lovecraft, circa September 1933 (unpublished)

p. 57

“I really should use Texas settings more in my stories…” 3

To Carl Jacobi, circa Summer 1934

p. 57

“While I don’t go so far as to believe that stories are inspired by…”

To Clark Ashton Smith, postmarked December 14, 1933

p. 58

“The last yarn I sold to Weird Tales…”

To H. P. Lovecraft, dated December 5, 1935

p. 58

“Too much raw meat, maybe, but I merely portrayed what I honestly…”

To Clark Ashton Smith, dated July 23, 1935

p. 58

“Though I seem to be fairly versatile in a small way…”

To August Derleth, circa December 1933

p. 59

“What I feel is one of the best stories I’ve ever written was…”

To August Derleth, circa October 1934

p. 59

“I find it more and more difficult to write anything but western yarns…”

To H. P. Lovecraft, dated May 13, 1936 (unpublished)

 

NOTES

1 This passage was edited slightly. The original passage reads:

“English poetry is probably the highest form of English literature. But my favorite writers, both of prose and verse, are British or Americans. They are A. Conan Doyle…”

Further, where the word “Lovecraft” appears in this excerpt, the original reads: “your own”, “yourself”, and “yourself” respectively.

2 Original passage does not include “of French literature.” This phrase was included in the excerpt to retain the original meaning when taken out of context.

3 Although the original meaning is retained, this is probably the most edited excerpt. The original passage (from Runes of Ahrh-Eih-Eche, Jonathan Bacon, 1976) reads:

‘“You ask me why I do not use Texas settings more in my stories. I really should, since Texas is the only region I know by first hand experience. Three of my yarns in Weird Tales have been laid in Texas: "The Horror From the Mound," "The Man on the Ground" and "Old Garfield's Heart." Sometimes too thorough a knowledge of a subject is a handicap [not that I claim to be an authority on the Southwest, or anything like that; but I was born here and have lived here all my life] for fiction writing.”’

 

 

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