A blog about Robert E. Howard, L. Sprague de Camp, Lin Carter, and Conan the Barbarian…
Tag Archives: Robert E. Howard
Robert E. Howard was first published in WEIRD TALES magazine. Robert E. Howard, H. P. Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith are considered to be the big 3 of WEIRD TALES. Robert E. Howard’s most famous character is CONAN THE BARBARIAN. The Lancer/Ace paperbacks edited by L. Sprague de Camp and featuring covers by Frank Frazetta, John Duillo, and Boris Vallejo sold in the millions turning CONAN into the world’s most famous fictional barbarian.
When L. Sprague de Camp was preparing the Conan series for Lancer Books he had to do his due diligence. Famously, there was the eventually settled dispute between him and Martin Greenberg, and of course de Camp had to create a contract with Howard’s heirs and the newly appointed literary agent, Glenn Lord.
There were also minor things like getting P. Schuyler Miller and John D. Clark’s permission to use excerpts from their “An Informal Biography of Conan the Cimmerian.” I came across this letter from Mr. Clark granting de Camp permission and noticed he mentions borrowing from Robert E. Howard’s The Hour of the Dragon for an article on dimensional analysis.
During the early years of Conan fandom, professional writers, all members of the Hyborian Legion, submitted articles to AMRA and periodically gathered at Science Fiction conventions. Seeing winks and nods toward Robert E. Howard and Conan often appeared in the magazines of those days from writers who were friends of de Camp. Mr. Clark’s article appeared in Analog, November 1966. As a refresher, here is the first page of Howard’s story as presented in Weird Tales:
And now, without further ado, is John D. Clark’s pastiche of Robert E. Howard!
This 417 page Arkham House book was published in a 3,000 copy edition in 2003. I have not read it for a long time so I recently sat down and read the whole book and found it very enlightening and enjoyable. These letters by Clark Ashton Smith give you a real insight into the writer that L. Sprague de Camp perceptively labeled the “Sierran Shaman” and was described as “perhaps the most brilliant single member of the Lovecraft-Weird Tales Circle.”
The book starts with an informative “Introduction” by David E. Schultz and Scott Connors before diving into the 276 reprinted letters. (A mid-section contains 12 photographs.) I have only skimmed the surface of this excellent book to keep this review from getting out of hand.
On page 5 is an October 6th, 1911 letter to Smith’s mentor George Sterling. Smith does not mince words describing what he thinks of Auburn, California: “Auburn is nothing but a cage, and with little gilding on the bars at that.”
In this age of huge entertainment conglomerates with millions and millions of dollars flying around it’s startling and sobering to read Smith’s letter to George Sterling of October 16, 1914 where Smith writes to Sterling that he’s just received a fifty dollar check as royalties for The Star-Treader and that “I’m glad to get this money, since I’ll at last be able to repay the ten dollars which I owe you. I shall enclose a postal money-order with this letter.”
On page 60 is a December 17th, 1921 letter to George Sterling. Smith vents some frustration: “My inability to publish puts me in a false position, and disappoints the few people who care for my work. It has even affected my last love-affair:—the lady accused me of being a failure! If it weren’t for my people, I’d hoof it out of this —!—!—! rotten country to-morrow, and stow away on a steamer for England or France. […] I’ve had nearly all I can stand of Auburn at one stretch.”
Smith was never afraid of hard work. In a June 25th, 1922 letter to Sterling he writes: “The cherry-picking will be over in a few days. I’ve been earning $3.50 per day at it. Plums are the next fruit; and I understand the wages are better for picking them.”
George Sterling committed suicide on November 16, 1926. Smith wrote that “I am desolate and heart-broken over the terrible news.” In a December 6th, 1926 letter to Donald Wandrei he writes: “George’s death was a great shock to me. We were intimate friends, and I have always had the highest admiration for his poetry. But I suppose he took the best way out. As Benjamin De Casseres wrote me: “We are all waiting to get out of the pig sty.”
The first letter in this volume to Lovecraft is dated March 20th, 1925. They soon became great friends and HPL became “Ech-Pi-El” and Smith became “Klarkash-Ton.”
It’s fun to read Smith’s criticisms. In a late October 1930 letter to Ech-Pi-El, Klarkash-Ton wrote: “Wright is certainly capricious in his rejections and acceptances; though I, for one, am the last to blame him for trying to please his public.” Smith commenting on the November 1930 issue of Weird Tales mentions a few authors. He thought there were “one or two fine passages in [“Kings of the Night”] Howard’s tale. I couldn’t stomach this last as a whole—that bloody battle stuff is so stale that it gives me what Sterling called “the Molossian pip.””
I recall that Jack Williamson and Edmond Hamilton used to be known as “World Destroyer” and “World Saver.” (Which was which?) Either way Klarkash-Ton was NOT impressed. He went on to write that Howard’ s story was “better than Hamilton’s current re-dishing of his immemorial moth-eaten plot, and the common place detective thriller by Quinn.”
Again, in a July 20th, 1931 letter to August Derleth, Smith and Derleth both agree that “I agree with you that the current Hamilton (WT, August 1931, “The Earth- Owners”) is undiluted bilge. How does he get by with it? Wright has turned down some of my best work as “unconvincing”; but I don’t see how anything could seem unconvincing after such ridiculous tripe as Hamilton’s.”
In a December 24th, 1932 letter to Derleth, Smith writes: “To me, the tenets of the stream- of-consciousness school have always seemed the absolute negation of art. One can’t have even the rudiments of art without selection and coherent order of some kind. The amazing thing is, that people can be found to swallow such ballyrot as Stein and Joyce and Cummings have perpetrated. Abysmal, indeed, are the sinks of human folly and gullibility.”
Writing to Derleth on February 9th, 1933 Klarkash-Ton relates how Hugo Gernsback’s Wonder Stories crew had “utterly ruined” Smith’s “The Dweller in the Gulf” tale. Gernsback’s “hog butchers” retitled the story and radically rewrote and edited it without Smith’s permission. Smith told Derleth “I have written to tell the editor what I thought of such Hunnish barbarity, and also told him that I do not care to have my work printed at all unless it can appear verbatim or have the desired alterations made by my own hand.”
On a March 1st, 1933 letter to Ech-Pi-El, Smith relates that “I have had a letter of apology from David Lasser, managing editor of W.S. saying that he made the alterations only at Gernsback’s express order. Gernsback must be loco to have a story spoiled in that fashion. I judge that the idiotic revision has cooked it with readers who might have liked it otherwise. Oh, phooey…”
On page 250 we are informed that Klarkash-Ton actually had to hire a lawyer to pry out of Gernsback the $769.00 he owed Smith. E. Hoffman Price referred to Gernsback as that “supreme chiseler” and Ech-Pi-El always referred to Gernsback as “Hugo the Rat” so you can see a pattern there.
Despite these frustrations Klarkash-Ton as this time enjoyed writing. In a letter to Eich-Pi-El he wrote: “As to my appalling prolificality there are doubtless several reasons and explanations. About eighteen months ago, I was taken to task for idleness by a woman-friend, and pledged myself to industry. Once started, the pledge has not been hard to keep. Other reasons are, that it is necessary for me to make a little money; also, that I need an imaginative escape from the human aquarium […]. And beyond all this, I am finding a pleasure in fiction writing, and deriving a mental “kick” from it which I seldom got from poetry.””
As the Thirties wore on Smith’s enthusiasm for fiction writing began to wane. He became much more interested in sculpture. He writes about Robert E. Howard’s death on page 278. “Howard’s death startled and shocked me as it must have shocked everyone else. It is understandable but infinitely tragic and regrettable … Sometimes, though, the anticipation of an event is more unbearable than the event itself; and I wonder if Howard might not have pulled through if the nurse had been less frank.” There no letters to REH reprinted in this collection but there are mentions of him in several of the letters. Then when HPL died the following year that really took the wind out of his sails. Smith felt especially close to Lovecraft and on March 23, 1937 he wrote to Derleth: “The news of Lovecraft’s death seems incredible and nightmarish and I can not adjust myself to it.”
On May 15th, 1937 Smith wrote to Virgil Finlay: “I appreciate deeply the compliments that you pay my stories. It is no compliment at all to say in return that your illustrations are incomparably the best that I have ever had. In fact, I doubt if any living artist could surpass them.” Smith goes on to tell Finlay that “As for my writing, circumstances have made me very unproductive in the last two years. My mother’s illness and death, my father’s growing feebleness, and our virtual isolation with everything devolving upon me, are chiefly responsible for my lapse from the pages of W.T.“
Smith was bitter about the death of Lovecraft. In a May 16th, 1937 letter to Robert Barlow he vented: “Truly, as you suggest, America has killed her finest artists. And when she hasn’t killed them, she has driven them into exile, as in the cases of [Lafcadio] Hearn and [Ambrose] Bierce. Personally I am goddamned sick of the killing process (I seem to die hard) and have fully and absolutely made up my mind to quit the hell-bedunged and heaven-bespitted country when my present responsibilities are over. I haven’t any definite plans, but will probably gravitate toward the orient. Anyway, I shall remove myself from Auburn, California and the USA, even if I have to stow away on a tramp steamer.”
Smith really WAS a nonconformist. In an October 29th, 1941 letter to Derleth he writes that “I refused a Guggenheim scholarship for study at the U.C. through sheer independence and contempt for education institutions. (I would take a fellowship—but I simply didn’t want the obligation to attend any godblasted school.)”
After Smith’s father died he was alone. I think he had become set in his ways so he did not leave Indian Ridge. Fritz Leiber visited Klarkash-Ton in June of 1944 (the month of the Normandy invasion!) and left us a haunting portrait: “Garbed in white suit, Panama hat, and quietly colorful batik shirt, he struck me as a cosmopolitan, bohemian artist of the early century, very much out of place in his rural setting. He seemed to me witty, artistic, cosmopolitan, and very much out of place in Auburn, though content there or at least resigned—the strange chance of a man of the world chained invisibly to an old-fashioned town in the gold-fields of California. Despite his courtesy and humor, there was sorrow about him and loneliness.”
In a July 11th, 1950 letter to a Mr. Samuel J. Sackett, Klarkash-Ton gave his reason for his virtual withdrawal from fantasy writing: “It is hardly true that I was forced to discontinue writing fiction, since there has been no time when my tales were not in request among editors and readers. The chief reason was my own growing disgust with pulp fantasy and with the restrictions imposed upon writers.”
On October 24th, 1950 Smith wrote to L. Sprague de Camp. (There are 3 letters to de Camp reprinted in this book.) He told Sprague: “Incidentally, it should be noted that Zothique as I have conceived it belongs to the future rather than the past, and lies at the other end of the time-cycle from Hyperborea, Mu, etc. The peoples of Zothique, one might say, have rounded the circle and have returned to the conditions of what we of the present era regard as antiquity. The idea of this last continent was suggested by “occult” traditions regarding Pushkara, which will allegedly become the home of the 7th root-race, the last race of mankind. However, I doubt if Theosophists would care for my conception, since the Zothiqueans as I have depicted them are a rather sinful and iniquitous lot, showing little sign of the spiritual evolution promised for humanity in its final cycles.”
In conclusion, try to find this book on Amazon or eBay! It is well worth reading! I was struck by what a hard worker Smith was. His mind and spirit might have roamed between the galaxies but he was always willing to turn his hand to all sorts of hard outdoors work. In one of the letters he casually mentions that he has not answered his correspondent for a while because he had been gone at a neighboring ranch for three weeks picking fruit!
Do find this volume! It will give you real insights into the great fantasist and poet who L. Sprague de Camp described as “this brilliant, erudite, decent, hypersensitive, imaginative, creative and romantic-minded man.”
The latest e-book from Titan doesn’t break any new ground. It is told in the first person and lacks any weird or magical element. Both of these things have been done before. “Wolves Beyond the Border” featured first person narration and was first published in 1967. The only other story that did not have a weird or magical element, that I clearly remember was Jim Zub’s “Sacrifice in the Sand” published in Savage Sword of Conan #1, 2024.
It doesn’t bother me that a writer would choose to tell a Conan story without a weird element. I’m game for change. This story is pretty routine though. Conan is working incognito on a pirate ship and is recognized and taken captive. A cabin boy, the narrator of the story, tried to warn Conan ahead of time but Conan allows himself to be captured.
Conan is taken to Strom’s pirate stronghold on Tortage. (This story is a sequel of sorts to “The Pool of the Black One.”) Conan tries to make a bargain for his freedom by revealing that the cabin boy is actually a Nemedian princess. The story’s suspense, such as it is, is achieved by her narration. She wonders about Conan’s behavior and isn’t sure what to make of him.
Suffice to say, Conan has a plan that works to his advantage and one that treats the girl fairly. It is a mildly entertaining adventure. These e-books resemble prose comic book stories for the most part. They are entertaining enough for the price. There is plenty of blood-letting action and the prose is simple and straightforward.
Robbie MacNiven hails from the Scottish Highlands and has written for the Warhammer series and Marvel Comics. He has a PhD in American Revolutionary War History from the University of Edinburgh.
Given the attention paid here last July to the various biographies of Robert E. Howard published over the years, I thought it might not be amiss to address the very earliest. No, I don’t mean Glenn Lord’s The Last Celt (1976), or even L. Sprague and Catherine Crook de Camp’s Dark Valley Destiny (1983), but rather L. Sprague de Camp’s The Miscast Barbarian: A Biography of Robert E. Howard (1906-1936) (Saddle River, N. J., Gerry de la Ree, 1975). Dr. Darlage’s fairly comprehensive survey notwithstanding, it was this modest forty-four page work, rather than Lord’s bio-bibliographical book, that represents the true “foundational tome” of Howard biographies.
In so saying I in no way intend to overstate the importance of this book, let alone diminish the standing of the greater treatments that followed—merely to note that it was the first of its kind. It was, indeed, a modest contribution, and suffers by comparison. Issued as it was in the immediate wake of de Camp’s magisterial (and massive) biography of H. P. Lovecraft, it suffers by comparison to that book, as well. And yet, at the time, it likely appeared to the author to represent the limit of what could be told of Howard’s then relatively ill-documented life. Because even then there was an embarrassment of sources available on Lovecraft, both primary and secondary. On Howard? Not so much.
De Camp had previously written of Howard’s life in two articles, “Memories of R. E. H.,” in Amra, v. 2, no. 38, February 1966 (reprinted in The Conan Reader, 1968, and The Blade of Conan, May 1979), and “Literary Swordsmen & Sorcerers: Skald in the Post Oaks,” in Fantastic Stories, v. 20, no. 5, June 1971, the first in his series in that magazine on “Literary Swordsmen & Sorcerers” (reprinted in The Spell of Conan, July 1980, and The Treasure of Tranicos, also July 1980). Both of these pieces incorporated some of the earliest serious research ever done into Howard’s life. Oh, there had been earlier attempts to assemble the facts of the man’s existence, but this may well have represented the first involving any real footwork. For “Memories,” as de Camp notes in his Introduction to The Miscast Barbarian; “In 1965, I visited Howard’s home town of Cross Plains, Texas, and interviewed some of those who had known Howard.” (p. [3])
But productive as his trip may have been, de Camp was frustrated in getting this research into print. “Memories” constituted his initial effort, extended and developed more fully in “Skald.” However, “[e]ditorial policies [at Fantastic Stories] made me cut this original article to half its length. Ever since, I have hoped for a chance to publish the entire manuscript, adding such additional facts about Howard as I have picked up in the meantime.” (p. [3]) Gerry de la Ree, publisher of The Miscast Barbarian, gave him that chance.
Gereux de Forrest (“Gerry”) de la Ree (1924-1993) of New Jersey was well known for fine printing. He was an early and prominent speculative fiction fan and fanzine publisher who blossomed into a major collector and dealer in SF and SF art. His de la Ree small press imprint issued numerous art books in the 70s and 80s showcasing the art of Clark Ashton Smith, Hannes Bok, Edd Cartier, and particularly Virgil Finlay (his personal collection of Finlay’s art was unmatched). He had a real life, too, as a sports writer and editor of the Bergen Evening Record from 1944-1972. but that’s quite aside from our focus here.
How did de Camp connect with de la Ree? Well, the two were already on each other’s radar. De la Ree had rendered de Camp some assistance on his Lovecraft biography a couple years before, in return for which he was presented with the “second draft” of the Howard piece. (De la Ree, Gerry, letter to L. Sprague de Camp, January 21, 1975) The context indicates this must have been either the original or a copy of “Skald.” They had also worked together on a project similar to The Miscast Barbarian, only on Lovecraft rather than Howard. This was The Normal Lovecraft (De La Ree, 1973), by H.P.L.’s sometime correspondent and collaborator Wilfred Branch Talman. It was a memoir rather than a biography, and a much shorter piece—de Camp and de la Ree contributed brief pieces of their own to fill it out—but physically, the book was a near twin to the Howard project. Talman’s memoir, incidentally, would later be reprinted in the Peter Cannon-edited compilation Lovecraft Remembered (Arkham House, 1998).
Thereafter, de Camp continued to work on “Skald,” resulting in the “revised and expanded ms.” he wanted to publish, and eventually de la Ree decided he wanted to publish it. The project appears to have crystalized, or perhaps culminated, in a de Camp phone call to de la Ree on the evening of January 20, 1975. (De la Ree, Gerry, letter to L. Sprague de Camp, January 21, 1975.) After that, it was a matter of negotiating the details and making it happen.
De la Ree was likely sold on the prospect on the basis the manuscript he already possessed, to which he assumed the latest version would be “somewhat similar.” In the letter he wrote to de Camp the day after the phone conversation, he estimated “what my printing and other costs would be on a book of this size, [and] concluded I could pay you $200 for the use of your article … and allow to you any future resale of the work or part of it as you might wish once I have sold out 80% of the estimated 600 copies I would produce. I would also supply you with 10 copies of the regular edition and two copies of any bound edition I might do. These would be gratis and could be sold, retained, given away, or whatever you wish.” (ibid.) Not huge, even back in 1975, but at least the book would be out there. De la Ree’s modest desire was to “turn out an entertaining, interesting volume that will sell … make a small profit or, at worst, break even.”
And it would look good. De la Ree went on to project what illustrations he might commission to “dress up the volume,” including “at least three Conan-style drawings [for which] I would probably use Steve Fabian.” He also hoped for “a good photo of Howard” – possibly from de Camp? – to use, or, failing that, “have an artist draw one, but … it would merely be a copy of the standard Howard shot used (in the fedora hat),” as Mirage Press had done for the back of de Camp’s The Conan Swordbook. Alternatively, he might reproduce a signed Howard letter, of which he had a few in his own files. (ibid) Evidently, these missives were between Howard and Talman, copies of which de la Ree shortly afterwards supplied to de Camp.
In a lengthy correspondence continuing through and beyond publication of their book, de Camp and de la Ree negotiated terms, planned, fussed over, and celebrated the project – an exchange of vast interest to those intrigued by the minutiae of such matters, but perhaps best limited to the highlights here. De Camp forwarded his latest version of the article on the 26th, noting it was “over 40% longer than the original long version of the magazine article, or thrice the length of the abridged version in Fantastic.” He wanted copyright “in my own name,” and freedom to contract to include “a rewritten version of this piece as part of a collection of all my Literary Swordsmen and Sorcerers … sketches.” He noted that he had no contract for such a book, and under the most favorable circumstances [it would be] unlikely to appear before 1976; but I want to be free to make such a contract.” (De Camp, L. Sprague. Letter to Gerry de la Ree, January 26, 1975) Which was prescient of him; circumstances were “most favorable” to his wishes, as that collection would appear in 1976.
As for pictures of Howard, de Camp had a number of suggestions, and enclosed one possibility (which he wanted returned). Together, these provided a decent sample of the likenesses known to exist at that time. Ultimately, however, the book used the artistic copy of the fedora picture (minus the actual fedora) that de la Ree had projected.
Another phone conversation ensued on the 30th, followed by de la Ree’s check for the $200 and his signed copy of the agreement. He also asked de Camp to come up with a new title for the book (De la Ree, Gerry. Letter to L. Sprague de Camp, January 30, 1975) De Camp, in response to the same conversation, wrote de la Ree on the 31st noting he had extracted some useful data from the Howard-Talman letters de la Ree had sent, on the basis of which he proposed four corrections to the text of the article. He also suggested as possible titles Robert E. Howard,: Miscast Barbarian, or The Miscast Barbarian: Robert E. Howard. (The manuscript at this time still bore the title The Skald of the Post Oaks.) (De Camp, L. Sprague. Letter to Gerry de la Ree, January 31, 1975) De la Ree, on February 1st, acknowledged the changes and settled on the final title, The Miscast Barbarian: A Biography of Robert E. Howard (1906-1936). (De la Ree, Gerry. Letter to L. Sprague de Camp, February 1, 1975)
There was a side issue involving Glenn Lord, who had aided de Camp on the original Fantastic article, but with whom de Camp was now on frosty terms. Lord placed an advance reservation for a copy of the new book, but guessed he didn’t deserve a gratis copy, feeling like a man in the middle. (De la Ree, Gerry. Letter to L. Sprague de Camp, February 27, 1975) De Camp responded “I haven’t the least objection to Glenn Lord’s getting a free copy.” He had, indeed, just sent Lord two free copies of the Lovecraft biography per a previous agreement, and noted that Lord’s part in the pieces was duly acknowledge in the preface, concluding that “while I find it hard to imagine ever entering into a business connection with him again, I am not wasting my time nursing feuds and grudges.” (De Camp to de la Ree, March 2, 1975) That they continued to be able to cooperate is evidenced by Lord concurring in action to terminate the Conan contracts with Lancer Books in the then-impending de Camp et al. v. Lancer Books trial. (De Camp to de la Ree, April 15, 1975)
There was niggling over the typeface. The bold, heavy font used by de la Ree’s printer Bob Lynn did not allow diacritics, italics or parentheses (it adopted square brackets instead), and de Camp wanted standard practices followed in regard to these, particularly in the citing of book and article titles. (De Camp to de la Ree, March 7, 1975) De la Ree was reluctant to comply; part of his difficulty here was that he was under a hard publication deadline, having promised delivery of the book to dealers and subscribers for April, and resetting so much material would tax Lynn, “already most unhappy with the numerous changes to be made.” (De la Ree to de Camp, March 10, 1975) But he promised to have corrections made when feasible, including inserting diacritics “with pen where possible.” (Ibid) Spot-checking the text, it looks like de Camp largely won out, at the cost of dropping in a different, lighter font for material to be italicized. The square brackets remained in the main body of the text, but were corrected in the beginning and end matter (publisher’s note, end-lists, and notes), which used the alternative font.
Aside from this squabble, news was good. The book was well subscribed; of the 900 copies de la Ree now expected to print, he had already pre-sold about 350 copies to his dealers and subscribers to the hardcover version. (Ibid.) De Camp advised getting the book into the hands of the pre-publication review organs (Kirkus Reviews, Publishers’ Weekly, and Library Journal) if he expected to print more (De Camp to de la Ree, March 7, 1975)
In the event, de la Ree met his publication deadline, and both partners were pleased with the result. De Camp got his author copies, and another check, by mid-April, and wrote “[t]he only thing about it (aside from the brackets) that makes me unhappy is that the printer missed my direction to delete the sentence at the end of page 9 and the beginning of p. 10, which repeats an earlier sentence [from the middle of page 8] verbatim.” (De Camp to de la Ree, April 15, 1975) And before a month was out, del le Ree was sending de Camp yet another check for $200, as The Miscast Barbarian “had to go into a second printing of 500 copies … this little book did quite well, methinks.” (De la Ree to de Camp, May 11, 1975)
It did not, however, have very long to do so, at least as a separate work. All too soon, The Miscast Barbarian was swallowed up by a bigger fish. The following year saw the collected edition of the series on fantasy authors de Camp had written for Fantastic Stories issued by Arkham House, as Literary Swordsmen and Sorcerers: The Makers of Heroic Fantasy (1976). And Howard is duly treated therein, taking up Chapter VI, with credit to de Camp’s earlier articles. In it, the version of the text used is that previously published by de la Ree; the title of the chapter has now become “The Miscast Barbarian: Robert E Howard.” No doubt de Camp fiddled with the writing a bit more, because that’s what he typically did when he republished non-fiction. But, essentially, the de la Ree book is preserved in LSandS like a fly in amber.
There is at least one major change I know of. In the de la Ree publication, the work is itself divided into fifteen numbered chapters or sections, while in LSandS the work is a chapter, and these headers are omitted. The de la Ree version also includes a note by the publisher, an introduction by the author, and a bibliography. Oh, and lots of gorgeous illustrations!
Such differences notwithstanding, it can be argued that the subject of today’s review is just a section of a longer book, rather than an independent one. Which is true! But it did appear as a stand-alone first, and, as such, technically constitutes the very first in the sequence of Robert E. Howard biographies. Glad I got that off my chest!
Little attention is given to this work today, not just because it was subsumed into Literary Swordsmen and Sorcerers, but because it would subsequently be superseded in de Camp’s own corpus by Dark Valley Destiny. It’s easy to view it as a mere place-holder between the early articles and full length tome that would come, as even though The Miscast Barbarian may have appeared to de Camp the best that could be done on Howard’s life in the mid-1970s, that quickly changed. First, Glenn Lord’s The Last Celt, with its miscellany of new material, opened up additional sources to pursue. And secondly, one more crucial resource unexpectedly dropped into the de Camps’s laps. Per Sprague:
“On November 17, 1976, Lin Carter came to Villanova to discuss future Conan stories. The same night, Catherine invited to dinner Dr. Jane Whittington Griffin, a psychologist specializing in child development [who] had once been a teacher of son Gerard. … Carter and I were upstairs, and Catherine was in the living room talking with Jane, when she suddenly called up: ‘Boys! Come down immediately! You must hear this!’
“Catherine had been telling Jane of her problems with Conan and mentioned the Howard heirs, Alla Ray Kuykendall and her daughter, Alla Ray Morris. Jane cried: ‘I went to college with Alla Ray Morris; they lived in Ranger, six miles from Eastland where I grew up!’
“Eastland was less than fifty miles from Cross Plains, the town where Robert Howard was also growing up in the boom days of the early 1920s. Jane was familiar with … central Texas, Howard’s kind of small-town life … and the concerns of the local people …
“A few nights later, … Jane urged that we collaborate on a ‘psycho-biography’ of Howard, combining her psychological insights and familiarity with the Texan scene with our general literary experience and knowledge of Howard’s writings. … We agreed.” (De Camp, L. Sprague. Time and Chance: An Autobiography, 1996, pp. 391-392)
This started the de Camps down the road that would lead to Dark Valley Destiny, entailing additional research trips to central Texas (with and without Dr. Griffin) in July 1977, March 1978, October 1978, and February 1980. That same road led to their reassembly of Howard’s personal library, their acquaintance with Charlotte Laughlin, who became the bibliographer of their own works, and, ultimately, to their own residence in Texas. Dr. Griffin proved a great opener of doors among people who had known Howard but might otherwise have been suspicious of prying outsiders.
But that was all still ahead, and unforeseeable, in 1975, when The Miscast Barbarian was published.
Before I finally bought a copy of The Miscast Barbarian (recently), I thought it was, indeed, an actual book, something like the largish trade paperbacks that have in recent decades mostly displaced that now endangered species, the mass market paperback. Imagine my surprise when what arrived in the mail turned out to be an 8 1/2” by 11” pamphlet, more akin to the fanzines of that same bygone era. Something that would (and now does) fit comfortably on a shelf with my copy of the second edition of Loay Hall’s de Camp fanzine Pusad Revisited.
That said, it’s a well-made work, saddle stapled, with covers of decent card stock, and lavishly printed and illustrated. The front cover sports the previously projected variation on the “hat” portrait of Howard, here executed by artist Charles McGill (who has thoughtfully removed the hat Howard reportedly detested). A decent job is done, though Howard’s face seems unnecessarily bloated, even in comparison to the original photograph. There is also a back cover illustration, consisting of the colophon that appeared on many if not all of de la Ree’s publications. It takes the form of a nude winged (and horned) Victory beneath a full moon, seated with a stack of two books and scrollwork on a pedestal inscribed DE LA REE. It is signed SF, indicating the artist is Stephen E. Fabian.
Inside, there are numerous illustrations of scenes and characters from Howard’s stories and poems by George Barr, Stephen E. Fabian, Virgil Finlay, C. Lee Healy, and Roy G. Krenkel, along with a few oddities such as a reproduction of a printed Weird Tales rejection slip from the 1930s and a blow-up of an illuminated letter N (of which more in a moment). Much of the matter was newly commissioned by de la Ree; only the pieces by Finlay and Fabian having previously appeared elsewhere (in Weird Tales and the Fantastic Stories Sword & Sorcery Annual for 1975). For details, see the contents list below.
In addition, each section of the text begins with an illuminated initial letter, all by Fabian, the letters being A (heading the Introduction and Chapters 2 and 10), D (heading Chapter 15), H (heading Chapters 5 and 8), I (heading Chapters 9 and 14), M (heading Chapters 6 and 13), N (heading Chapter 1, a miniature of the blown-up one noted earlier), R (heading the Publisher’s Note), T (heading Chapters 11 and 12), and W (heading Chapters 3 , 4, and 7). So you can’t quite get a whole alphabet out of these. (Though it wouldn’t surprise me to learn that Fabian might have done the whole alphabet.)
The book was issued in a limited edition, in two printings, both dated 1975. The first printing was issued in two states. First, 130 copies were bound in black cloth, with gold stamping, sans dust cover, all of the copies signed by L. Sprague de Camp. This version does not have the front cover illustration, but is just print on ground. I presume it also lacks the back cover illustration, though the Internet Speculative Fiction database seems to think it has it. The ISFDb doesn’t show the back cover, and I’ve not seen a copy of this state. Laughlin and Levack, who evidently did see one, are silent on the issue. Second, 900 copies bound in paper (card stock), the copies numbered on the back cover. This one does have the cover illustrations.
The second printing is almost identical to the second state of the first printing, consisting of 512 copies bound in paper (card stock); it does not, however, number the copies on the back cover. I presume my own copy, being unnumbered, is from this printing.
The contents are as follows:
[Front Cover] [Illustration] Untitled, a portrait of Robert E. Howard by Charlie McGill, based, as noted above, on the “hat” photograph.
[Page 1] Title page, crediting author L. Sprague de Camp, artists Charles McGill, Virgil Finlay, George Barr, Stephen E. Fabian, C. Lee Healy, and Roy G. Krenkel, publisher Gerry de la Ree, and graphic design to Bob Lynn/Tony Raven. Lynn, as we know, was de la Ree’s printer, but who was Raven? The slash might seem to indicate he was a second “graphic designer,” or perhaps (merely) Lynn’s business partner. The truth is much more interesting: Lynn and Raven were in fact the very same person! Also, a professional magician! We’ll be getting back to this guy…
[Page 2] Copyright page, assigning that of the text to de Camp and that of the artwork to de la Ree. A Publisher’s Note signed by de la Ree occupies the majority of the page, blurbing Howard, his characters, his posthumous success, the journals and publishers responsible for this, the author and the present work, characterized as “the most complete yet published,” and a concluding note on the tragic death of the subject of the work.
One might next expect a contents page, but the book doesn’t have one. Consider this list your handy substitute!
[Page 3] Introduction, signed by L. Sprague de Camp, Villanova, Pennsylvania, January, 1975. De Camp writes of the “Skald in the Post Oaks” article, its original truncation, and the realization of the complete (and somewhat augmented) version issued as the present work. He notes that quotations in it from the letters of Howard and Lovecraft are reproduced by permission of Glenn Lord as agent for the Howard heirs, and Ethel Phillips Morrish, Lovecraft’s cousin and heir.
[Page 4] [Illustration]“The Deathless Queen in a City Old as Death by C. Lee Healy for Howard’s poem, ‘Solomon Kane’s Homecoming’.
Page 5. [Chapter] 1. The Formative Years. Howard is likened to J.R.R. Tolkien as “the most widely-read and influential author of heroic fantasy.” His birth, parentage, early life and education from 1906-1928, and literary interests are covered.
[Page 7] [Illustration] Untitled, a moonlit scene of a sailing craft off a rugged, jungle festooned coast; uncredited, but obviously by Stephen E. Fabian (probably for Howard’s story “Queen of the Black Coast”)
Page 8. [Chapter] 2. The Die Is Cast. Howard’s literary goals and career from 1921-1929 are recounted, along with his early characters (Solomon Kane is highlighted) and markets, his poetry, and poetic models.
[Page 10] [Illustration] “Rejection slips from Weird Tales were not unknown to Robert E. Howard or most other writers of the early 1930s.” (reproduction of a printed slip)
Page 11. [Chapter] 3. Into Manhood. Howard’s life at home as an adult, with physical and emotional descriptions.
Page 13. [Chapter] 4. Literary Influences. These are traced, along with some of their echoes in Howard’s works. His correspondence with H. P. Lovecraft, and the opinions expressed therein, are brought up.
Page 15. [Chapter] 5. Celtic Heritage. Howard’s fascination with the ancient Celts and his own Irish ancestry are covered, along with their expression in his work.
[Page 16] [Illustration] “Virgil Finlay’s striking illustration for Robert E. Howard’s ‘Pigeons From Hell’, published in May 1938 Weird Tales. Drawing from collection of Gerry de la Ree.”
Page 17. [Chapter] 6. A Product of His Times. Howard’s period-typical (if somewhat mitigated) views on ethnic minorities are delved into.
Page 18. [Chapter] 7. His Markets Widen. Howard is shown branching out into different kinds of stories and new markets. His sailor-prizefighter characters, Steve Costigan and Dennis Dorgan, are discussed.
Page 19. [Chapter] 8. Thoughts of Suicide. Problematic aspects of Howard’s personality that may have figured into his eventual actual suicide are explored. Two longish quotes from Howard, and one from E. Hoffmann Price.
[Page 22] [Illustration] “Conan the Conqueror by Stephen E. Fabian done especially for this book”
Page 23. [Chapter] 9. The Arrival of Conan. The crafting of Howard’s most famous character from 1932-1935, along with the fictional Hyborian Age in which his adventures are set.
Page 26. [Illustration] “Artist Roy G. Krenkel’s sketch of Conan drawn for this book.”
Page 27. [Chapter] 10. His Writing Style. Sound, unobtrusive, colorful, spare in adjective and adverb, well-wrought, sometimes hasty, careless and derivative. Some of his stylistic quirks. A natural storyteller. More on Conan.
[Page 30] [Illustration] “Conan the Barbarian, a drawing by George Barr done especially for this volume, and inspired by Howard’s novel[la], ‘Red Nails’, originally published in Weird Tales in 1936.”
Page 31 [Chapter] 11. Into Other Areas. Howard’s widening markets blossom. Detective and (especially) Western stories. He gets an agent.
Page 32 [Illustration] “CONAN By Stephen E. Fabian” [a vignette portrait]
Page 33 [Chapter] 12. Productive Years. These would be 1932-1936. Howard’s income and circle of correspondence grow. Difficulties involving the Great Depression. His interactions with E. Hoffmann Price and Novaline Price (no relation!)
Page 34 [Illustration] “Conan the Cimmerian and Bêlit by Stephen E. Fabian from Howard’s ‘Queen of the Black Coast’. Reprinted from Sword and Sorcery Annual with permission of artist and publisher Sol Cohen.”
Page 35 [Chapter] 13. All Fled – – All Done. The decline of Howard’s mother and the received version of his suicide and its aftermath. Reactions from amid his circle.
Page 36 [Illustration] “Virgil Finlay’s 1936 drawing for Robert E. Howard’s ‘Dig Me No Grave’, published in January 1937 issue of Weird Tales magazine. Drawing from collection of Gerry de la Ree.”
Page 37. [Chapter] 14. Possible Reasons. For the suicide. They are explored. Howard’s fixations are trotted out, along, inevitably, with de Camp’s own psychoanalytical fixation. Something about the life of Howard’s father after his and his mother’s passings.
[Page 39] [Illustration] “The Girl with the Golden Hair from Robert E. Howard’s poem, ‘Rebel’. Drawing by C. Lee Healy.”
Page 40. [Chapter] 15. The Revival. The fate of Howard’s writings in the thirty-odd years after his death is hashed. Arkham House, Gnome Press, the Lancer paperbacks. Why it happened; de Camp’s customary bit about elite vs. exciting modes of writing is trotted out. With an epithetical return to Howard at the end.
Page 41. Hard-Cover Books by or About Robert E. Howard. A bibliography, providing titles and publishers (but not authors!) from 1937-1975. Thirty-one titles are listed (the limitation to hardcovers keeps things in bounds). Books Scheduled. A sort of postscript listing adding seven more books (then) not yet published.
Page 42.Notes. End note citations, keyed to what needed citing in the text. Unusually for de Camp, there are no entertaining comments or ad-libs. However, if you read the versions included in the Literary Swordsmen and Sorcerers version, you will discover more notes, and actual comments. So there’s that. There are thirty-six footnotes here, which increase to forty-seven in LSandS.
[Page 43] [Illustration] “C. Lee Healy’s drawing for the Robert E. Howard poem, ‘The Sea-Woman’.”
[Page 44] [Illustration] Untitled, an illuminated letter N by Stephen E. Fabian, blown up from a smaller version appearing elsewhere in the work.
[Back cover] [Illustration] Untitled, publisher de la Ree’s colophon by Stephen E. Fabian, a nude female winged (and horned) Victory beneath a full moon, seated amid two bound volumes, a partially unrolled scroll, and curlicues atop a monument or pedestal inscribed “DE LA REE.”
And, that’s the book! There is no dedication, so I have no dedicatee to tell you about for a change, and I’ve already discussed the publisher. So I have nothing more to add, right? Wrong! What about the artists? After all, they’re all good ones. I promise this won’t take (very) long.
Bob Lynn (1930-2005). Okay, not an artist, but artist-adjacent; we have already met him (briefly) in his capacity of printer and graphic designer. Lynn also worked in advertising, but most of information out there on him is in regard to his career as a professional performer of magic, both under his own name and his pseudonym of Anthony or Tony Raven, which he commenced at a very early age. Lynn was also part Cherokee (the “Raven” name comes from that portion of his heritage), and he devoted the last decade or so of his life to educating people about Indians. More relevantly here, he’s the guy who, the year after The Miscast Barbarian was published, had his own de la Ree book, The Occult Lovecraft (1976), in which he played much the same role as Wilfred Talman had in The Normal Lovecraft. This 40-page book gathered essays by HPL, Frank Belknap Long, Samuel Loveman and Lynn himself (as Anthony Raven) on Lovecraft and the supernatural, together with illustrations of Stephen E. Fabian. Other publications of interest include The Ruby Toad: A Tale of Fantasy (1973), also under the Anthony Raven name (but with Lynn’s real one as publisher, and Pagan Images (1978), a portfolio of drawings by Fabian. But overall, Lynn’s spec fic work seems to have been very much a sideline to all his other stuff…
Charles McGill (b. 1933). He has just three professional credits in the Internet Speculative Fiction Database, all portraits, and all for Gerry de la Ree, who provided his sole connection to the field. Besides his Robert E. Howard on the cover for The Miscast Barbarian, McGill drew H. P. Lovecraft for the cover on its earlier “twin,” Talman’s The Normal Lovecraft (1973), and an interior illustration of Mary Shelley and her famous monster for de la Ree’s Fantasy Collector’s Annual – 1974. I know of one or two other genre pieces the ISFDb overlooked, but it’s fair to say spec fic work was a minor side gig for McGill. To what? His career as a sports cartoonist in New Jersey, which incidentally explains how he knew Gerry de la Ree, who as previously noted was in real life sports editor for the North Bergen Evening Record. Usually credited as Charlie McGill, he produced nearly 4,000 “Athlete of the Week” drawings for the paper over a period of close to 70 years, from fall 1954 to summer 2024, as well as portraits of public figures. He was kind of a big thing there! He finally retired in 2024 at the age of ninety, and is currently a resident of Closter, New Jersey.
Virgil Finlay (1914-1971). One of the most accomplished fantasy, science fiction and horror artists of the pulp era, whose work appeared in Amazing Stories, Weird Tales, The American Weekly under the editorship of A. Merritt, and many, many other places. He won the Hugo Award for Best Interior Illustrator, 1953, as well as Retro Hugos for best artist, 1944 and 1945 (awarded in 2019 and 1996, respectively), and was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2012. Gerry de la Ree was an avid collector of Finlay’s art, publishing at least eight posthumous collections of his work, and including pieces by him in many of his other publications.
George Barr (1937-2025). An important fantasy and science fiction cover artist and illustrator whose career in the field extended from 1959 into the teens of the present century. He had a delicate, distinctive, magical and unmistakable style. His work appeared in Amra, the Newcastle Forgotten Fantasy Series, Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Fantasy Magazine, and about a zillion different paperback covers, particularly for DAW Books and Newcastle’s Forgotten Fantasy Library.-He won the Hugo Award for Best Fan Artist, 1967, and was a frequent finalist for other genre artistic awards in other years, including the Hugo, Locus, World Fantasy and British Fantasy Awards.
Stephen E. Fabian (1930-2025). His career extended from 1966 into the 2000s as both an illustrator and cover artist; he was pretty much the modern Virgil Finlay, and hence, unsurprisingly, a go-to artist for Gerry de la Ree. His work was amazing, and I could fill pages on what he did and where, but this review is supposed to be about one particular book, so here I’ll just note here that he was a finalist for the Hugo Award for Best Fan Artist , 1970 and 1971, and for Best Professional Artist in every year from 1975-1981. He was awarded the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement in 2006.
C. Lee Healy (b. 1949). The C. stands for Cora. Because gender discrimination was still a thing back then, and women in creative fields could still improve their prospects for work by abbreviating inconveniently feminine names. Hopefully, it did in her case. Of course, gender discrimination is still a thing today, just no longer respectable. Until recently, anyway. (There are other reasons to abbreviate, of course, which is why L. Sprague de Camp’s first name was not, say, Lucy.) Healy keeps a low profile, which is why the most recent portrait I’ve found for her is from 1967. Per the Internet Speculative Fiction Database, her artistic career in speculative fiction extended from the early 1970s through the late 1980s, but as best I can tell she is still active as an artist, and until recently she was co-owner with George Barr of The Enchanted Thingamajig, an online art site, which showcased his work. Since his passing Healy is presumably the sole owner. She lives in California, one town over from me. (No, I don’t know her, this is per research).
Roy G. Krenkel (1918-1983). Comic book artist starting in the 1950s and illustrator and cover artist for numerous fan publications, magazines and paperbacks from the early 1960s onward, including, notably, de Camp’s Great Cities of the Ancient World (1972). Several collections of his own art have appeared. He is perhaps best remembered as an interpreter of the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs and as mentor of and collaborator with some dude named Frank Frazetta. He won the Hugo Award for Best Professional Artist, 1963.
We’re not quite done. Before I conclude, it would also be well to discuss further The Normal Lovecraft, which has already come to our attention as an earlier-appearing companion publication to The Miscast Barbarian. It was, in fact, similar in every respect to the current work—published by Gerry de la Ree with simultaneous black cover hardbound and cardbound editions, the latter with a cover portrait of the subject by Charles McGill, and interior illustrations by prominent speculative fiction artists. Not too much should be made of this, perhaps; de la Ree’s publications tended to conform to a standard “style,” which both of these definitely do, Still, the two books so resemble each other that they could be a matched set. Differences? They are about different authors and by different authors, Normal is a memoir rather than a biography, is padded out with additional material, contains fewer illustrations, and is shorter by eleven pages, consisting of 33 rather than 44.
The Normal Lovecraft (1973) is credited to Wilfred B. Talman rather than L. Sprague de Camp, though de Camp did also have a hand in it. While Talman’s titular memoir on Lovecraft is the main component of the book, it also contains two other pieces, both having to do with Lovecraft’s wife Sonia; “When Sonia Sizzled,” by Gerry de la Ree, and “Sonia & H.P.L.”, by de Camp. Plus three illustrations by Tim Kirk, Virgil Finlay, and Clark Ashton Smith. The main author, incidentally, was the same Wilfred Talman that those Talman letters were written to, and, moreover, a contributor to Weird Tales in the late 1920s and early 1930s. His first contribution, in fact, being the short story “Two Black Bottles” (Weird Tales v.10, no. 2, August 1927) which was actually an uncredited collaboration with H. P. Lovecraft himself! (Meaning, most likely, one of those ghost-rewrites Lovecraft so often performed for otherwise unpublishable pieces by others.) Talman also had two later short stories and three poems in Weird Tales, not to my knowledge ghosted by Lovecraft, but I haven’t delved very deeply, so don’t quote me on that. Oh, and he had one additional short story in a rival magazine called Marvel Tales. “The Normal Lovecraft” was later reprinted in the Peter Cannon-edited compilation Lovecraft Remembered (Arkham House, 1998).
And with that, we can bring our review of The Miscast Barbarian to a close.
The Blade of Conan, Ace Books, 1979 and The Spell of Conan, Ace Books, 1980 feature articles from multiple authors focusing on Robert E. Howard and Conan the Barbarian. L. Sprague de Camp edited the two volumes selecting what he considered the best articles from the fanzine AMRA.
Gnome Press began reprinting Robert E. Howard’s stories of Conan the Cimmerian in 1950. The Gnome Press books were published in editions of 3000-5000 copies. The books were enjoyed by old Howard fans but were not brisk sellers. George Heap (along with L. Sprague de Camp and Gnome Press publisher Martin Greenberg) took steps to create a fan club. (The story of the creation of the Hyborian Legion is covered here.)
The very first issue of AMRA (Volume 1, Number 1, April 1956) was a two (front and back) page newsletter that described the organization and gave a brief history of “Conan and The Hyborian Age.” A new and better AMRA (Volume 2, Number 1, January 1959) was published and edited by George Scithers. Scithers had received notoriety as a member of the World Science Fiction Society and knew how to make great fanzines. The first issue contained articles by Poul Anderson, Glenn Lord, and others. (Scithers preferred spelling “Hyborian” as “Hyborean” following the spelling in the Gnome Press books.)
AMRA ran from 1959 to 1982 reaching a total of 71 issues. AMRA was a subscription based magazine. As such, its circulation was limited. L. Sprague de Camp and George Scithers collected the best articles from AMRA in three hardcover books: The Conan Reader, 1968, 1500 copies, The Conan Swordbook, 1969, 1500 copies, and The Conan Grimoire, 1972, 1500 copies. These were all published by Mirage Press, a small mail order press.
Cover art by Bernie Wrightson
Cover art by George Barr
Cover Art by Bernie Wrightson
These three hardcovers were later paired down to the two mass-market paperbacks, The Blade of Conan and The Spell of Conan. These books were conceived after the formation of Conan Properties Inc. Sprague wrote a letter to the attorney for CPI, Arthur Lieberman telling him of his plans.
The Blade of Conan is a pretty snazzy book. The binding is a textured buff white high grade stiff paper and the cover illustration by Sanjulian is presented in gold coloring. It contains 35 articles by different authors.
All but two of the articles included are from AMRA. The Acknowledgements in the front of the book give bibliographic details. I’m going to try and keep the review at a reasonable length by quickly summarizing or by simply quoting the best lines from each essay. I’m saying just enough to peak your curiosity.
B1 Introduction – Swords & Sorcery by Richard H. Eney
“This tracing of sources is an amusing pastime, but the skill with which Howard performed this sort of literary crosspollination is only a fraction of the explanation for his power as a writer or the zeal with which Amra‘s invincibly numerous contributors exhaust the resources of scholarship in study.”
B2 An Informal Biography of Conan the Cimmerian by John D. Clark. P. Schuyler Miller, and L. Sprague de Camp
This is the often reprinted summary of Conan’s life. Fans continue to nitpick details providing many hours of good reading for those that want to get a crystal clear chronology of events in our favorite barbarian’s life.
B3 Ocean Trade in the Hyborian Age by John Boardman
“Trade in the Western Sea, then, would consist only of coastwise shipping from Zingara and Argos past Shem and Stygia to the Black Kingdoms.”
B4 Hyborian Technology by L. Sprague de Camp
“[…] the technology of the people should be logical. We have some idea of what would be logical from human history.”
B5 The Real Hyborian Age by Lin Carter
“I do not suggest that history will ever find a recognizable Hyperborea or Atlantis or Mu, but surely there were cities older than Ur, and metropolises before Memphis.”
B6 Lord of the Throne by P. Schuyler Miller
“In this book, [Four Thousand Years Ago by Geoffrey Bibby] Bibby gives us a running chronicle of the thousand years between 2,000 and 1,000 B.C. He writes almost with the sweep of “The Hyborian Age” – and what he writes happened, or may have happened.”
B7 The Art of Robert Ervin Howard by Poul Anderson
“[Conan] is brave, honest is his own fashion, steadfast, vaguely conscious of noblesse oblige. Once his juvenile-delinquent phase has been outgrown, he does his dogged best. You can like him, even if you wouldn’t invite him to dinner.”
B8 Memories of R. E. H. by L. Sprague de Camp
“Howard, my informants told me, was just under six feet tall in his maturity. In youth he was slender to the point of skinniness, but he filled out in his twenties until he weighed over 200 pounds, most of it muscle.”
B9 Conan on Crusade by Allan Howard
“Lonely, hard-bitten men, these Crusaders are interested mainly in winning favor and loot with their swords, although they are not entirely insensible to the ladies.”
B10 A Gent From Cross Plains by Glenn Lord
“Had he lived, Howard might have gone on to become an important regional writer.”
B11 Editing Conan by L. Sprague de Camp
This is a must read for those who wish to know about de Camp’s editing of REH’s fiction. De Camp tells exactly why and what he edited. He concludes, “Altogether, as I look back, I am impressed by the fact that Howard managed to leave so few openings for editorial improvements. He was a real pro.”
B12 Howard’s Detective Stories by Glenn Lord
“Howard seems to have been aware from the beginning that detective stories were not his forte.”
B13 Howard and the Races by L. Sprague de Camp
“He followed the example of most American authors of popular fiction of the period, in whose tales ethnic stereotypes were stock in trade. Hence Scots were always thrifty, Irishmen funny, Germans arrogant, Latins lecherous, Jews avaricious, Negroes childish, and Orientals sinister.”
B14 The Case for Solomon Kane by John Pocsik
“Solomon Kane is markedly different from the rest of Howard’s heroes mainly because of his restraint and religious aloofness.”
B15 Stirrups and Scholarship by L. Sprague de Camp
“Even then, I knew that Roman horsemen lacked stirrups. Phooey! I said: this fellow doesn’t know what’s he talking about. So, I put the magazine back and never became seriously interested in Howard until twenty years later.”
B16 Howard’s Cthuloid Tales by Ben Solon
“Howard’s greatest single addition to the Mythos is the Unaussprechlichen Kulten (Nameless Cults) of Von Junzt.”
B17 Controlled Anachronism by Fritz Leiber
“To narrate his story in the richest and most telling way possible, [T. H. White] uses the method of controlled anachronism …”
B18 The Novels of Eric Rucker Eddison by John Boardman
“Eddison’s novels take place on two levels – one of vivid action and complex intrigue, and one of equally fascinating and complex philosophy.”
B19 Hyborians, Be Seated (The Fantasy of A. Merrit) by Ray Capella
“[…] I find Howard and Merritt on the same level. Some might say the “Lord of Fantasy” (as the old fantasy crowd used to call him) was more literary, but I’d say this was confusing skill for style.”
B20 Mundy’s Vendhya by L. Sprague de Camp
“Mundy’s stories are of interest from several points of view: as an influence on Howard; as a foreshadowing of later fictional trends; and as rattling good adventure tales in their own right.”
B21 Titivated Romance by Fritz Leiber
“The title of this review or commentary comes from [James Branch] Cabell’s half-damning praise of Eddison’s The Worm Ouroboros …”
B22 Weapons of Choice 1 by W. H. Griffey
“All edgeware is a brother to the knife.”
B23 Weapons of Choice 2 by Albert E. Gechter
“The effectiveness of swords in the days before firearms were fully perfected was never in question.”
B24 On Weapons of Choice And/Or Necessity by Jerry Pournelle
“One of the very best reasons the sword is the weapon of choice in single combat is that the sword is the most useful and deadly weapon for that kind of fight.”
B25 Son of Weapons of Choice And/Or Necessity by Jerry E. Pournelle
“If there is a conclusion to be drawn from all this, it is that if we exclude the possibility of good missile weapons, a mail shirt and a heavy sword – even a broadsword – are near optimum.”
B26 Range by L. Sprague de Camp
“To judge by the record of our own species, most people are not conservative about adopting more effective means of killing their foes and getting from place to place.”
B27 Sublimated Bloodthirstiness by Poul Anderson
“[Sprague] modestly omits one legitimate way in which you can put your superscientific hero in a sword-swinging type of situation.”
B28 …And As For The Admixture of Cultures in Imaginary Worlds by Leigh Brackett
“Any planet may have upon its surface many different levels of technology, and many degrees of the comingling there of.”
B29 Ranging Afterthoughts by L. Sprague de Camp
“About the industrialization of preindustrial peoples: Nobody to my knowledge knows why some such folk take readily to the technological revolution, while others don’t.”
B30 Arming the Incomplete Enchanter by Jerry E. Pournelle
“This article is concerned with the kind of equipment Harold Shea should have carried when he went travelling in his syllogismobile.”
B31 The Compleat Duelist by L. Sprague de Camp
“For a dueling story to end all dueling stories, we must refer to the memoirs of Louis le Golif.”
B32 Rearming the Incomplete Enchanter by Jerry E. Pournelle
“[…] I promised to write another article carrying the tale of Shea’s quarter-master corps to its logical conclusion.”
B33 Richard the Lion-Hearted is Alive and Well in California by Poul Anderson
This is an article about the Society for Creative Anachronism.
B34 … And Strange Sounding Names by Marion Zimmer Bradley
“Among other things, I decided, it ought to be pronounceable. And the names of all the people should be pronounceable. And the names ought to suggest – at least – whether the recipient of the name is male or female.”
B35 One Man’s BEM by R. Bretnor
“Personally, even though I have thoroughly enjoyed lots of specific science fiction and fantasy illustrations, I have always been strongly against the general use of illustrations in the field.”
And, that, “Hot Take” ends the book. And now for the sequel…
The Spell of Conan is just as spiffy with a slick matte finished cover. The art is sepia toned this go around. There are 35 articles by different authors.
Again, most, but not all of the articles are from AMRA. The Acknowledgements detail the bibliographic sources.
S1 Introduction: Swordsmen and Sorcerers at Play by Lin Carter
“Howard invented a sort of rip-roaring, lusty, vigorous form of fantastic adventure that held spellbound the readers of Weird Tales back in the 1930’s, and still entertain readers of similar taste today, more than a generation later.”
S2 Skald in the Post Oaks by L. Sprague de Camp
This is a reprint of de Camp’s first attempt at a REH biography that was first published in Fantastic magazine and later reused for Literary Swordsmen and Sorcerers published by Arkham House.
S3 Howard’s Style by Fritz Leiber
“I imagine that Jack London was one of the chief influences shaping Howard’s writing.”
S4 The Ghost of Camp Colorado by Robert E. Howard
This is a reprint of an article Howard had written for The Texaco Star. It shows an adept eye for regional color and history.
S5 Conan’s Ghost by L. Sprague de Camp
“When Conan the Conqueror appeared, I read it, was hooked, and quickly read all the Howard I could get my hands on.”
S6 Untitled Fragment by Robert E. Howard
This is an untitled fragment from Robert E. Howard. It begins “The wind from the Mediterranean washed a thousand scents across the packed bazaar.”
S7 The Trail of Tranicos by L. Sprague de Camp
De Camp goes into detail about why he made changes to Robert E. Howard’s “The Black Stranger.” This is the only completed Conan story that de Camp significantly altered. This is must reading.
S8 Balthus of Cross Plains by George H. Scithers
“And although it has been pointed out by a number of writers that Conan was an idealized version of Howard, Balthus seems to me to be a more accurate characterization of his author.”
S9 Something About Eve by Robert E, Howard
This is Robert E. Howard’s review of James Branch Cabell’s book. Howard recommends the book and provides some insightful comments.
S10 The Testament of Snefru by John Boardman
This is a work of fiction about a Stygian fisherman who crossed paths with Conan. It is decent story with a bit of grim humor.
S11 The Lion’s Bridge by Ray Capella
This is a work of fiction featuring Arquel of Argos. Ray Capella’s Arquel stories have been collected in a book from Celt Press titled The Leopard of Poitain. I plan to review that book soon.
S12 When Set Fled by Fritz Leiber
This is another grimly funny piece of fiction. Fritz Leiber does a great job at setting a mood.
S13 Eddison’s Zimiamvian Trilogy by Robert E. Briney
“In Eddison’s words, Zimiamvian is “a special world devised for Her Lover by Aphrodite, for whom all worlds are made.””
S14 Conan’s Great-Grandfather by L. Sprague de Camp
“Another cause of Dunsany’s lack of great popular readership was his own main weakness: the fact that in many stories, the poetic eloquence conceals a lack of solid substance.”
S15 The Dying Earth by Robert E. Briney
[Jack Vance’s] The Dying Earth remains on a plateau of its own, to be admired and savored, offering some new delight on each re-reading.”
S16 Pratt’s Parallel Worlds by L. Sprague de Camp
“My late friend and collaborator Fletcher Pratt (1897 -1956) was a connoisseur of heroic fantasy before that term was invented.”
S17 Of Worms and Unicorns by David Hulan
“Pure adventure stories in themselves are fine – I am a great lover of pure adventure as anyone who knows my tastes could tell you – but is it possible for a story to be great adventure and much more besides, and The Well of the Unicorn is a premier example of this.”
S18 Knights and Knaves in Neustria by L. Sprague de Camp
“The long novels of the Gerfalcon series may be called the Neustrian trilogy, because they are laid in a medieval kingdom called Neustria.”
S19 Fafhrd and Me by Fritz Leiber
“Anyhow, they met, and the saga of how the Gray Mouser and Fafhrd of the Blue Eyes came to the innermost vaults of the City of the Forbidden God and there met death in the moment of victory in no common fashion, was began.”
S20 Conan’s Imitators by L. Sprague de Camp
“Perhaps it would be interesting to run over some of the stories of this kind that appeared during the lustrum after Howard’s death.”
S21 The Thong of Thor by John Boardman
Humorous poem that plays on lisping.
S22 Woe is Me! by Avram Davidson
Humorous poem done in Viking saga style.
S23 Transposition by L. Sprague de Camp
Humorous poem name dropping Conan, Yasmina, and Thoth-Amon.
S24 Thoth-Amon’s Complaint by L. Sprague de Camp
Humorous poem about Thoth-Amon in the modern world.
S25 The Gray Mouser 1 by Fritz Leiber
Short poem featuring the Gray Mouser.
S26 The Gray Mouser 2 by Fritz Leiber
Short poem featuring the Gray Mouser.
S27 Prototypes and Precursors:
1. Pirettes by L. Sprague de Camp
“Two of the best-known, [female pirates] Anne Bonny and Mary Read, flourished in the Caribbean in the early 1700s.”
2. The Insidious Dr. Conan
“A plainer case of Rohmer’s influence [on Howard] can be seen in Chapter XII, “The Fang of the Dragon,” in Conan the Conqueror.”
3. The Conans of Albion
“Most Hyborians know that “Conan” is an old Celtic name, borne by four medieval dukes of Brittany.”
S28 Who Were the Aesir by Poul Anderson
“This sort of speculation, that myths are exaggerated traditions of real persons and events, is by no means new.”
S29 Howard and the Celts by L. Sprague de Camp
“This interest [in Celts] is reflected in many of Howard’s stories.”
S30 Who Was Crom? by Albert E. Gechter
“It seems obvious that the dread god Crom Cruach, whom the ancient Celts worshipped […] is the Cimmerian Crom.”
S31 Conan and Matho by L. Sprague de Camp
“My suspicion that Howard read Salammbo at about this time is not based upon any overwhelming resemblance between Salammbo and the Conan stories in general.”
S32 John Carter: Sword of Theosophy by Fritz Leiber
“A writer can find rich and stimulating material in Theosophy […] if he accepts it as intellectual fantasy, a sort of raw material of words, visions, and notions having no certain reference to anything in reality.”
S33 Conan and Pizarro by L. Sprague de Camp
“The resemblances between the two accounts [Conan in “The Phoenix on the Sword”] are obvious – except that Pizarro, unfortunately for that indomitable old scoundrel, was not reprieved by the arrival of a demon sent by Thoth-Amon.”
S34 Lord of the Black Throne by P. Schuyler Miller
“To the Altai Tatars, descendants of the Hyrkanian hillmen of the Hyborian Age, Erlik (or Erlik-Khan, or Irlek-Khan) combined in one person the attributes of Adam and Lucifer.”
S35 The Heroic Barbarian by L. Sprague de Camp
“In Howard’s long, voluminous, and sometimes acrimonious correspondence with H. P. Lovecraft, Howard expressed the wish to have been born a barbarian or on the frontier.”
And so ends the second book. All in all 70 essays that made scholars of many a Conan fan.
These two anthologies, published as mass market paperbacks, popular and easily available to fans at any bookstore, were the foundation of a Howard scholarship that continues to this day. The ideas presented in these short pieces have since been expanded and developed further. These articles gave birth to the notion that Sword & Sorcery and Robert E. Howard, in particular, was worthy of serious study.
ADDENDUM:
Steve Replogle asked for a review of the unreprinted articles from the Mirage Press hardcovers, so here it is.
The Conan Readercontains S5, B8, S7, B4, S27, S31, S33, S14, S20, S16, S18 (see numbering above). Every article is by L. Sprague de Camp. The articles not reprinted are:
El-Ron and the City of Brass
This is an article about L. Ron Hubbard’s Heroic Fantasy tales published in Unknown. This was reprinted and updated for Literary Swordsmen and Sorcerers by L. Sprague de Camp.
An Exegesis of Howard’s Hyborian Tales
“In choosing names for the people and places in his stories of the Hyborian Age, Robert E. Howard revealed a number of facts about his sources, his reading, and the writers who influenced him.” An updated version appears in Conan the Swordsman, Bantam Books, 1978.
“Well, Harold, I’m sorry to hear your nose is troubling you again.” Reprinted in Collected Letters, REH Foundation Press.
Letter to August Derleth by Robert E. Howard
“I was much interested in your accounts of the history of your native state …” Reprinted in Collected Letters, REH Foundation Press.
Conan of the Khyber Rifles by Chuck Hansen and Norman Metcalf
Comparison of “The People of the Black Circle” and Talbot Mundy’s stories.
Response by E. Hoffmann Price
“Primitive peoples do respond as precisely as Sprague says. In Mindanao, in the warlike times of Datu Ali, and other noted Moro fighting princes, ferocious characters who used the kris and kampilan and barong in combat with rifle – and pistol armed U.S. soldiers, firearms were greatly desired by the “natives.”
Artwork This is an appendix for the artists/artwork reprinted in the book.
The Conan Grimoire contains S1, S8, S9, S3, S6, S12, S10, S11, S13, S17, S15, S19, S23, S25, S26, S22, S21, B35, B32, B33, B20. The articles not reprinted are:
Letters to Clark Ashton Smith by Robert E. Howard
“I can hardly find words to express the pleasure – I might even say ecstasy – with which I have read, and re-read, your magnificent “Ebony and Crystal.”
“Only the fact that have been sick has prevented me from answering your interesting letter before now.”
Both letters are reprinted in Collected Letters, REH Foundation Press.
John Carper and his Electric Barsoom by Thomas Stratton
John Carter parody. Short story.
The Agent by Bjorn Nyberg
Short humorous vignette about how Conan disposes of the various women he collects. He sends them to a Hollywood agent to become actresses.
A Man Named John by John Pocsik
Article about psychic detectives in fiction.
I Remember Conan by Grace A. Warren
Poem about Conan.
Stanford Bridge by Poul Anderson
The story of Harald Hardrede, King of Norway, told in prose and verse.
The Free-Speaking Verses by Poul Anderson
Poem by Sighvat Thordharson spoken to Magnus Olafsson, King of Norway.
The Loss of a Son by Poul Anderson
Poem by Eigill Skallagrimson, regarding the loss of his son.
Carter’s Little Whiskey Stills by John Boardman
Parody poem about John Carter of Mars.
Ghost Ships by L. Sprague de Camp
Poem.
Tiger in the Rain by L. Sprague de Camp
Poem.
What Really Happened by C. C. Hebron
Poem.
Kush by L. Sprague de Camp
Article about the historical Kush.
A Furthest Note on the Red Planet by E. Hoffmann Price
Article about Barsoom Badigian, a real life acquaintance of Edgar Rice Burroughs.
Young Man Mulliganby Various Authors
Song with various science fiction references.
Drinking Song from “Silverlock” by John Myers Myers
The latest Heroic Legends e-book features Solomon Kane and has a twist of Celtic folklore. The “whitethorn” (or hawthorn) is a sacred tree that is a gateway between worlds. It brings bad luck when cut.
Kane is on his way home to Devonshire. Traveling through a spooky moor, Kane leans into his dark thoughts and sees the devil’s work in the English countryside. Kane thinks about his adventuring and reaffirms that his mission is “to be a good man in dark times.” He makes his way to an inn called The Green Hart and eats some rabbit pie.
A friendly fellow named Henry Worle notices Kane eating the rabbit pie and asks, “Eh… What’s up, Doc?” Figuratively, not literally, of course. Kane notices Worle wears a five-pointed star made of rowan. (Rowan, also known as mountain ash, is known for its red berries and its ability to ward off evil spirits.)
The story itself is pretty routine. While Kane and Worle are having a friendly discussion about N’Longa and the cat-headed staff that Kane carries, two young boys enter the tavern, beaten, bruised, bitten and near death. They mention they had to abandon a female friend, Masie Wilkens, in the forest. Kane and Worle heroically speed into the woods and encounter evil fairies, otherworldly portals, and have a fraught supernatural adventure. The story, if summarized, is fairly standard fare. The hero, Kane, wins the battle and rescues the child. The companion, Worle, has a secret that gets revealed. It is all mildly entertaining.
The strength of this short story is the verisimilitude it creates by sprinkling in bits of Celtic lore and even including a poem about the whitethorn tree, that if not authentic, is at least in the spirit of Samuel Ferguson’s “The Fairy Thorn.” The background elements enhance the story, making it rise to a higher level.
Ok, I’m going to say it… Game of Thrones was the best on screen fantasy since John Boorman’s Excalibur. As much as I like Robert E. Howard and Conan the Barbarian I have to admit that as an audio/visual presentation of heroic fantasy, Game of Thrones is the current leader.
I haven’t read any of George R. R. Martin’s books. I probably never will. I’m aware of the criticism about the book series remaining unfinished. And, yes, the final season of the HBO series could have been better. But in toto, Game of Thrones remains a favorite.
I’m especially glad that Mr. Martin has expressed his debt to Robert E. Howard (and indirectly to L. Sprague de Camp) by publicly expressing that his writing was influenced by his discovery of heroic fantasy. He has been photographed touting the first Sword & Sorcery anthology, which was published in 1963, and has mentioned the Lancer Conan series in a broadcast interview with Stephen Colbert.
No more blather… here are photos from a traveling exhibition featuring costumes and whatnot from this magnificent series. (I attended the exhibit at the Arlington Museum of Art in Arlington, Texas. $25 for a ticket and $10 to park. Yep, I’m a diehard fan.)
A new unauthorized Conan adventure has appeared. It is available from Amazon for .99 cents if you choose the economical Kindle version. Since .99 cents isn’t much, I bought it and read it. I figured spending .99 cents to satisfy my curiosity and have fuel for a blogpost wasn’t the most foolish waste of money.
This is a short novella sized book. Only 74 pages (on Kindle, at least). The first 11 pages reintroduce the reader to Conan and summarize the events that occurred in Conan of the Isles by L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter.
Mark LaPera doesn’t try to emulate Robert E. Howard’s style. The reader will encounter some bad formatting, proofreading errors. and misspellings along the way. But I find this to be true of many an e-book.
The story is reasonably interesting for the first 7 chapters. Conan and his crew land on an island and witness native islanders preparing to sacrifice a white woman. Conan notices that the islanders are all young in years and that the woman seems more angry than afraid. Conan has to battle a huge crocodile to rescue the woman. The crocodile almost drowns Conan. His men, having fought off the natives, pump his stomach. Conan is still in dire straits until the woman gives him a drink of water.
The woman, Zara, leaves. Conan goes to rest in his tent. Conan wakes and finds the water has restored his youth. Conan realizes that magic and mystery is at work on this island. Eventually Zara returns and leads Conan and his men to meet her people, who are descendants of an Atlantean empire. The pathway leading to her people is filled with carved rock scenes of historical battles and even a future battle. Conan meets Zara’s brother, Orion. Conan and his men are treated well. The men are provided with willing women and Conan makes love to Zara.
The next day they all meet King Azaes. Another party. More wine and that special water. Come morning, Conan’s men are as young as he. Zara takes Conan to a library/museum and Conan sees a replica of a Cimmerian warlord and studies some maps of the area. Then Conan gets worried about how long he has tarried here and wants to get back to his ship. Conan notices that their are relics of his past adventures here. A broken sword that he remembers and a display detailing his Frost-Giant’s daughter adventure. Conan wants to know the purpose behind everything he has encountered. So do I.
Up to now, the story, while not engrossing was coherent. But it all falls apart in Chapter 8 in my opinion. Conan learns the Atlanteans need outside men to fight their battles and to reproduce their population. Zara tells Conan the natives are hostile and want the youth potion. Plot wise this contradicts Conan’s previous observation about the natives all being young. And, worst of all, the explanation for how the Atlanteans knew about Conan’s lifelong career is given a simple “we have been watching you all your life” explanation. Conan remembers his movie career as grist mill slave and pit fighter and wonders how orchestrated his life was. Absurdly, it is revealed that the Cimmerian warlord replica he witnessed earlier is actually his stuffed taxidermic father!
Chapter 12 has some confusing dialog with Orion saying to Conan, “When I cut you from your stepmother’s dying arms…” WTF? The novella continues but at this point I was so dissatisfied that even Conan’s eventual victory held no joy.
Fabian Nicieza has written a new Bran Mak Morn adventure for Titan Comics’ The Savage Sword of Conan magazine. Short works probably do not need reviewing. But not every REH fan buys everything. And I want this blog to be a reference for all of the prose literary Robert E. Howard related material being published nowadays.
Titan Comics is mindful of Marvel. Roy Thomas is scheduled to do the main comics story in the next issue. Fabian Nicieza wrote several issues of X-Men, X-Force, New Warriors and also co-created Deadpool for Marvel. He has written comic adventures of Kull and Conan previously. I believe this is his first time writing a Bran Mak Morn story.
Mr. Nicieza has an uncomplicated style that is easy to read. He sets the stage by introducing Bran and his two companions. Bran is called “the Pict King of the united rebel tribes of Briton.” Robert E. Howard’s Bran was certainly the most vociferous hater of Rome but he had to have Gonar bring in King Kull to unite everybody in “Kings of the Night.” But I suppose it is possible that he kept that alliance going after Kull returned to Valusia.
Bran and his two men, the Dumnonii twins (Ahearn and Ansgar, “both huge, both brave”) are following the trail of Roman couriers and attempting to circumvent the messengers. “[Bran] had come to accept that the ouster of the Romans and freedom for the tribes of Briton likely wouldn’t come during his lifetime.” Nevertheless stopping the couriers from delivering their missives should only help his cause.
The Romans, aware of possible infringement from Bran and his Picts, have sent multiple couriers. Bran follows the messenger taking the most arduous road, correctly guessing that he is the one who carries the message. The supernatural element might seem muted in this story but it is important. The path followed leads to an area called “The Widow’s Wall.” “The locals had gossiped that the eerie sound was from the crying ghosts of widows who had flung themselves to their deaths after the loss of their husbands in the war against the Romans.”
The courier slips from the trail and Bran follows when part of the trail collapses. Dangling on the precipice, Bran and the courier, Aquila Avilius Calpurnius, have a prickly conversation but Bran does his best to keep the man alive. There is some nice back and forth about the merits and demerits of the Roman invasion. Nicieza does a good job keeping things interesting.
The eerie sounds of the crying ghosts do their part to bother Bran. But he perseveres. The story proceeds but no reviewer should spoil the ending. Suffice to say, any prose Bran fans that are not purchasers of this magazine should get it for this story. Mr. Nicieza has written a worthy Bran adventure.
This is the second Tim Waggoner Conan adventure I’ve read. This e-book is obviously less ambitious than his novel, Conan: Spawn of the Serpent God, but I found this more intriguing. Conan’s actions after the villain’s confession is something new making this a pretty strong tale. (I’ve tried to avoid overt spoilers but inferences can probably be made while reading this review.)
The story starts in the middle of a skirmish. Conan is fighting Zuagir warriors. Conan loves battle and remembers something his father said, “the only bleeding to be concerned about is the bleeding you cannot stop,” Yep, Waggoner’s Conan is a bad-ass.
Several paragraphs of battle and blood-letting start the narrative culminating in Conan putting a sword through a Zuagir’s “left eye and what remained of his brain.” The remaining Zuagirs outnumber Conan so he decides to abandon the battle. He is later joined by three other mercenaries who fought against the Zuagirs: Solfrid, Endrigo, and Danor.
Conan is distrustful of his companions. Sofrid, a female Vanir, is tall and strong. She wears her red hair in a ponytail. Endrigo is a Kothian who can expertly wield two swords in battle. Danor is a Shemite mixed with some Stygian blood. He is smaller than Conan but plenty strong.
The four mercenaries spend time looking for food and water and discover a large rock with a symbol etched in the stone. Danor recognizes it as the mark of The Lord of Silence, a man-like demon with the head of an eyeless vulture. The mark is a warning to leave the rock alone even if it contains treasure. They notice a seam in the rock that could allow them access to its contents. Conan tells them all to move on.
Later, they decide to keep watch in pairs as they are all suspicious that someone might go back to the rock and search it for treasure. There is a mysterious quiet the next day and Conan starts hearing a voice saying “Return…” Eventually the others hear it too. They are then attacked by supernatural vulture headed creatures.
Conan realizes that someone has went to the rock and stolen its treasure. The story could have turned into a “whodunit” but Conan discovers whodunit when only him and another remain. I’m not going to provide any more spoilers.
Conan kills the thief (offscreen) and returns the “treasure” appeasing the demon. It was a practical decision but it made me slightly uncomfortable. Conan had his thief phase and I would have hoped he would have killed the demon and later admonished the thief for ignoring the danger. But this ending was realistic. It made me think about my reaction to it and that is always something I enjoy.
spraguedecampfan 