WEBSITES: THE WORKS OF ROBERT E HOWARD

This is actually the first time I've put up a post about a website. I've referred to many during the time I've been blogging and listed some of my favourites in the sidebar, but this is the first time I've been enthused to actually write specifically about one.

Arrived in the post this morning is an anthology of stories by Robert E. Howard entitled Conan's Brethren. It features a selection of stories about three of Howard's other well-known characters -King Kull (low budget crap movie with Kevin Sorbo), Solomon Kane (disappointing decent budget movie with James Purefoy) and Bran Mak Morn (bleak Pictish stuff, no movie to date), plus a selection of stories featuring similar characters. Looking through the book, I was curious to find out how many stories about the three had been omitted and googled Robert E Howard bibliography. The very first entry was this one-

The works of Robert E Howard at http://howardworks.com/howard.htm

And it's simply amazing. At the end of this post is what's on the home page. Each link takes you to an enormous resource. Now what it doesn't do is provide biographical information. It is, pure and simple, a bibliography of the works of Howard and of sources of information about him. It's impossible to imagine anything else of this kind about the author improving on this site. It's a true labour of love and a model of what a single-author bibliographical web site should be. 

Todd Woods, the compiler, started it in 2000 and states that it's a work in progress. All I can say is that  it includes Conan's Brethren which was only published this year (2011). Over a decade on and it's still being updated.

(NB and that's despite the indicia of CB claiming 2009 as a publication date. It was supposed to have been published then and, presumably, it was even printed, but I only stumbled across it a few days ago in Waterstones. My original order on Amazon was delayed so often that Amazon cancelled orders for the book. I've just found out that the pages were indeed printed in 2009 but a trademark dispute delayed publication. Also above the title on the unpublished edition is The Complete Collection, which it most certainly isn't. The RRP is £20.00, Amazon are flogging it for £14.00, but I got it for £7.50, including postage, new from an Amazon Marketplace dealer which is a pretty good deal.) 

Mr Woods, I salute you for an outstanding achievement.

Sources by ...

Letters Index	Story Title Index		Verse Title Index
Publishers (English)	Genre and Character		By Year
Publishers (Non-English)	Audio	E-Books	Video
Hardcovers	Trade Paperbacks	Paperbacks	Chapbooks
Anthologies	Periodicals	Pulps: Weird Tales	Pulps: Other Pulps
About REH	Letters Collections	Verse Collections	Foreign Language
	Howard Works Contributors

BOOKS: PULP SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY

About a year ago I reviewed for Amazon Robert E. Howard's The Complete Chronicles of Conan (Gollancz, 2006), being just what it says but with the virtue of containing the original text rather than any rewriting by people like L. Sprague de Camp or (shudder) Lin Carter. At the end of the review I added that I hoped they would do a companion volume featuring some of Howard's other pulp heroes. Today, while looking up something else, I came across Conan's Brethren (see above) which will be published by Gollancz in the middle of October and is just what I wished for.

In the 'Customers who bought this also bought...' section I came across Henry Kuttner's Elak of Atlantis which led me to his The Dark World, a couple of pulp adventures from the 40's. Kuttner was one of the better SF writers to emerge in during that period (his classic is Mutant), often writing in collaboration with his wife C.L. Moore. By then I couldn't resist his SF adventure novel Fury (1947), sadly the plain yellow Gollancz edition going cheap.He died far too young in 1958 at the age of only 43 when he was just hitting his peak. I haven't read anything by him in decades but I'm looking forward to reading these ancient pulp action fantasies of his which I should be receiving over the next couple of weeks.

The publisher of the Kuttner books is new to me but they are doing a series of pulp reissues and I've added Moore's Northwest of Earth to my Amazon wish list for future consideration.

Post Script

I've since deleted the above book because the stories, plus those of Jirel of Joiry, are available together in an Gollancz Fantasy Masterworks omnibus pb entitled Black Gods & Scarlet Dreams which I've just ordered in a 'like new' condition for £5.60 (inc. postage) from an American dealer. It's not as nice looking an edition but it's much better value and the Fantasy Masterworks is an excellent series.