Ultimate Collection

Thank you very much for the copy of The Californian. I feel greatly honored that Miss Wooley should have quoted an excerpt from my serial Beyond the Black River in her article in your fine journal.

Robert E. Howard to Claytons Magazine, Jun 13, 1933

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Gentlemen:

A few weeks ago I wrote you asking a release of the British Empire rights on my stories, "People of the Dark" and "The Cairn on the Headland," published in Strange Tales. I have had no reply from you.

I note that in the Author & Journalist for November, 1932, your company is quoted as buying "all North American serial rights, but do not purchase and have no control over motion picture, radio, book, or dramatic rights."

According to this, I have the right to offer the stories mentioned to the British publishing house which has asked to look at them, with the view of bringing them out in book form. But I would like to have some sort of writing from your company, showing that I own the foreign rights.

Or, in case some special conditions prevailed in the case of Strange Tales, by which you purchased book and foreign rights, I would appreciate a release on them. I see no reason why I should not be given such release, since the magazine has been out of circulation for some months now. I realize that things are not breaking well for your company, and I sympathize with you. But things aren't breaking so good for me, either, and this may be a chance for me to make a little money through British publication. Please answer this letter, one way or another. I enclose an addressed and stamped envelope for your convenience.

Yours,

R. E. Howard

L.B. 313

Cross Plains, Texas

Robert E. Howard to The Fantasy Fan, Dec 1933

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I find the Fantasy Fan very interesting and think it has a good fortune. Anybody ought to be willing to pay a dollar for the privilege of reading, for a whole year, the works of Lovecraft, Smith, and Derleth. I am glad to see that you announce a poem by Smith in the next issue. He is a poet second to none. Weird poetry possesses an appeal peculiar to itself and the careful use of it raises the quality of any magazine. I liked very much the department of 'True Ghost Stories,' and hope you will continue it. The world is full of unexplained incidents and peculiar circumstances, the logical reasons for which are often so obscure and hidden that they are lent an illusion of the supernatural.

Robert E. Howard

Robert E. Howard to The Fantasy Fan, Jan 1934

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I liked the November issue very much and hope you'll publish more of Smith's poetry.

Robert E. Howard to The Fantasy Fan, May 1934

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Smith's poem in the March issue was splendid, as always. By all means, publish as many of his poems as possible; I would like to see more by Lumley, and it would be a fine thing if you could get some of Lovecraft's poetry.

Robert E. Howard to Fort Worth Record, Jul 20, 1928

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Tunney can't win. After the fight, Tom Heeney is going to be heavyweight champion of the world, not through any special virtue of his, but simply because there's a jinx on Tunney that Gene can't whip.

Now get this: Back in 1892 James J. Corbett, a skillful boxer, whipped John L. Sullivan, a superslugger, and then knocked out Charles Mitchell, the only man who'd ever given John L. much of an argument.

Now: Some years later, in 1926, James J. Tunney, like Corbett, an Irishman, whipped Jack Dempsey, a superslugger, after having knocked out Tom Gibbons, the only man who'd been able to stay with Jack—the only difference being that Tunney knocked out Gibbons before he won the title and not after.

Now, that lines Corbett and Tunney up together enough, I guess. Both Irish, both boxers, both named James J., both winning their titles from dark-browed, furious sluggers of Irish blood.

All right: Corbett in 1897 met an ex-blacksmith from New Zealand—Irish and a rugged fighter, named Tom Heeney. Result—? A new champion, I say. Heeney isn't Tunney's equal in speed, punch or cleverness, but then Corbett had it all over Fitzsimmons in the way of speed and skill.

So, just as I predicted Dempsey's defeat by Tunney when I heard Gene's real name was James J., so I now predict defeat for Tunney because of the New Zealnad jinx, a factor to be reckoned with. I hope Tunney wins; I like Heeney, but I like Tunney better. Still, I predict his defeat.

Robert E. Howard to The Ring, Apr 1926

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