62.7.7: Gomez,— 62.12.14: no comma after “gorilla” 62.16.10: no comma after “Ace” 62.21.2: no comma after “wolf” 62.24.6: no comma after “back” 62.28.3: Gomez” 62.37.11-12: to the his; 62.38.8: vitallity; 63.4.1: straighted; 63.5.14: of; 63.7.2: Gomez” 63.19.7: Gomez” 63.21.13: no comma after
“and” 63.25.13: no comma after “before” 63.28.11: right hand; 63.30.5: left handers; 63.33.2: cant; 63.34.5: no comma after “try” 63.39.9: no comma after “Then” 64.7.2: no comma after “in” 64.24.2: my; 64.28.2: blood shot; 64.29.5: dont; 64.30.6: caint; 64.31.12: vitallity; 64.34.1: no paragraph break; 64.38.7: from,; 64.39.10: “Ace” repeated; 64.40.7: no comma after “cautiously” 67.1.17: comma rather than period after “canvas” 67.2.1: he; 67.2.5: no comma after “winning” 67.7.3: foe; 67.7.9-10: could only could not; 67.7.11: evert; 67.8.13: back pedalling; 67.12.13: no comma after “chin” 67.17.6: no comma after “corner” 67.25.15: aint; 67.28.1: no comma after “ring” 67.36.3: no comma after “left”
67.37.10: back pedalled; 68.2.13: “ribs” not in typescript; 68.18.7: unconciousness; 68.28.12: no comma after “eyes” 68.32.9: punishment,; 68.37.1: wind blown; 68.40.3: blood shot; 69.3.16-4.8: “the picture” through “violently” is in all capital letters; 69.4.8: period rather than exclamation point after
“violently” 69.7.9: wide eyed; 69.12.2: immobile faced; 69.12.5-13.2: “and to” through “that ring!” is in all capital letters; 69.14.5: no comma after “short” 69.14.9: barrel chested; 69.14.12: mighty limbed; 69.20.11: was; 69.23.2: come back; 69.31.5: Gomez” 69.31.8: back; 69.33.3: a; 69.33.5: tableaux; 69.35.10: no comma after “short” 69.36.14: no comma after “and” 69.38.4: comma rather than period after “shuddered” 70.2.5: vitallity; 70.6.10: conciousness; 70.10.12: life like; 70.17.10: steely nerved; 70.17.12: cold eyed; 70.22.2: period rather than comma after “did” 70.22.4: comma rather than period after “answered’
Casonetto’s Last Song
Text taken from Etchings and Odysseys #1, 1973. 71.14.5: bosom,; 73.14.4: comma rather than period after “Costigan’
The Touch of Death
Text taken from Weird Tales, February 1930. The only change made for this edition is the title. Weird Tales published the story under the title “The Fearsome Touch of Death.” In two separate lists of his stories typed by Howard, one made before the story appeared in print and the other after, the title was given as “The Touch of Death.”
Out of the Deep
Text taken from a scan of a carbon copy of Howard’s original typescript, provided by the Robert E.
Howard Foundation. 80.13.5-7: the passage is smudged from erasure and typeover, the reading is probable; 80.15.1: no comma after “Strange” 80.15.8: “the” not in typescript; 80.16.2: ex-sea-man; 80.16.6: Town; 80.16.9: no comma after “deep” 80.17.10-12 and 15: the passage is smudged from erasure and typeover, the reading is probable; 80.20.9: period rather than comma after “him” 80.21.2: For; 80.21.3: t’is; 81.5.4: period rather than comma after “turned” 81.5.6: no comma after “whispered”
81.5.12: “corpse” not in typescript (‘lifted the” ends first page and “and bore” begins second page); 81.9.14: no comma after “trance” 81.22.9: comma rather than period after “Leary” 81.23.11: no comma after “Now” 81.25.5: no comma after “this” 81.25.13: no comma after “him” 81.26.6: back; 81.36.12: no comma after “sleep” 81.37.12: no comma after “and” 81.38.3: no comma after “sand” 81.40.6: cold eyed; 82.13.1: “slend” ends one line of typescript and “-der” begins next line; 82.15.9: no comma after
“leaped” 82.17.5: comma rather than period after “Leary” 82.20.5: comma rather than period after
“shrieked” 82.20.11: t’was; 82.21.11: T’is; 82.22.12: no comma after “sleep” 82.25.11: no comma after
“were” 82.27.10: comma rather than period after “him” 82.32.3: comma rather than dash after “then”
82.38.5: period rather than comma after “night” 82.40.2: period rather than comma after “lies” 82.40.8: comma rather than period after “beards” 83.6.4: no comma after “white” 83.11.8: period rather than comma after “us” 83.11.10: comma rather than period after “he” 83.20.4: lead; 83.22.5: no comma after
“Hansen” 83.27.4: “the” not in typescript; 83.29.7: period rather than comma after “stocks” 83.29.9: no comma after “they” 83.33.3: no comma after “breast” 83.33.13: no comma after “and” 83.37.10: no comma after “and” 83.39.11: flaming eyed; 84.22.12-13: comma after “and” rather than “when”
84.26.1: no comma after “life” 84.34.4: period rather than colon after “know” 84.37.16: no comma after
“not” 87.5.6: no comma after “will” 87.17.1: no comma after “spine” 87.18.10: no comma after “make”
87.20.12: no comma after “then” 87.22.8: no comma after “still’
A Legend of Faring Town
Text taken from Verses in Ebony (George T Hamilton and Dale Brown, 1975). No changes have been made for this edition.
Restless Waters
Text taken from Witchcraft & Sorcery, No. 10, 1974. There is some evidence that the original title of this story may have been “The Horror at the Window.” 89.3.3: period rather than comma; 91.19.9: period rather than comma; 91.28.7: dammed; 93.2.7: Hanson; 93.29.3: period rather than comma The Shadow of the Beast
Text taken from Howard’s original typescript, a copy of which was provided by the Robert E. Howard Foundation. 95.7.16: comma after “shot” 95.8.12: pale faced; 95.9.3: horror struck; 95.9.4: comma after “struck” 95.10.4: grim faced; 95.12.4: comma after “hunted” 95.13.7: period rather than comma; 96.1.7: period rather than comma; 96.1.11: havent; 96.3.2: isnt; 96.3.5: period rather than comma; 96.3.8: comma rather than period; 96.5.4: no comma after “window” 96.7.12-14: text obscured by overtyping but reading seems probable; 96.13.1: no opening quotation mark; 96.14.1: period rather than comma; 96.17.5: period rather than comma; 96.17.8: no comma after “harshly” 96.17.9: comma after
“rising” 96.19.2: Dont; 96.24.3: aint; 96.24.7: period rather than comma; 96.25.8: no comma after
“camp” 96.26.5: Dont; 96.33.7: aint; 96.36.9: see; 96.38.2: aint; 96.38.3: nowhere’s; 96.40.1: Aint; 97.1.15: foun; 97.3.10: comma after “night” 97.5.5: didnt; 97.7.11: drawn out; 97.8.1: what-ever; 97.8.11: locallity; 97.8.14: south; 97.15.1: Dont; 97.15.7: comma rather than period; 97.28.4: animal like; 97.40.1: comma after “then” 98.6.10: sure footed; 98.13.8-10: hand to hand; 98.18.10: moons; 98.19.6: some where; 98.31.4: comma after “mansion” 98.40.14: comma after “suddenly,” “and” not in original; 99.20.11: comma after “decades” 99.21.3: bat’s; 99.23.1: stair ways; 99.25.10: has; 99.36.1: winced; 99.40.2: pow; 100.16.5: no comma after “halted” 100.26.7: comma after “was” 100.29.1: no comma after “nothing” 100.29.5: soul freezing; 101.7.10: “some” repeated; 101.23.7: proceded; 101.24.3-8: “on an” ends first line of page; beginning of next line is overtyped; it appears, based on clarity of letters and spacing in relation to the continuation of the line, that “a discharged shell and I hurled” was typed over “empty chamber and I hurled” 101.26.2: back flung; 102.8.2: no comma after
“corridor” 102.11.5: concious; 102.16.6: conciousness; 102.17.12: no comma after “closed” 102.22.4: no comma after “insane” 102.23.10: no comma after “tears” 102.27.15: no comma after “time”
102.28.13: horrizon; 102.30.10: couldnt; 102.32.3: no comma after “posse” 102.32.14: wasnt; 102.34.6: forelorn; 102.36.8: What; 102.37.8: unconcious; 102.40.3: comma rather than period; 103.3.4: dont; 103.3.13: comma after “war” 103.8.1: “him” not in original; 103.11.7: comma rather than period; 103.14.5: comma rather than period; 103.15.1: Dont; 103.15.3: period rather than comma; 103.15.10: Dont; 103.16.5: didnt; 103.18.2: earth bound; 103.21.10: no comma after “then” 103.23.11: no comma after “mounted” 103.27.2: But; 103.30.1: no comma after “looked’
The Dead Slaver’s Tale
Text taken from Weirdbook Eight, 1973. 104.1.7: no comma after “sea’
> Dermod’s Bane
Text taken from Howard’s original typescript, a copy of which was provided by the Robert E. Howard Foundation. 105.5.7: no comma after “Tribes” 105.18.4: ancestor; 106.9.9: an ellipsis(…) follows the closing quotation mark, with no paragraph break before “I went to Galway.” 106.11.11: familes; 106.13.1: familes; 106.13.6: familes; 106.24.14: devided; 106.27.1: MacMurraughs; 106.29.4: no comma after “Pembroke” 107.1.14: no comma after “last” 107.2.1: comma after “band” 107.4.10: farmer’s; 107.5.1: shepherd’s; 107.5.12: “a” not in original; 107.14.2: country side; 107.19.10: The; 107.24.2: no comma after “so” 107.26.9: you; 107.29.7: Demod’s; 107.31.4: no comma after “know”
108.2.7: “soul” not in original; 108.3.17: eye lids; 108.19.1: silkly; 108.19.6: moonmist; 108.21.9: mist like; 108.26.5: my; 108.26.12: comma rather than semi-colon; 108.28.2: wither; 108.31.1: no comma after “vision” 108.31.9: tusk like; 108.33.1: pent house; 108.35.7: comma rather than period; 108.36.1: no closing quotation mark (the dash is at the extreme right edge of the paper); 108.39.2: irresistably; 108.40.6: keen edged; 109.6.13: soul easing; 109.9.9: no comma after “Did” 109.9.16: long dead; 109.10.3: “me” not in original
The Hills of the Dead
Text taken from Weird Tales, August 1930. 121.25.2: he; 124.12.8: easy; 130.10.5: blood brother Dig Me No Grave
Text taken from Weird Tales, February 1937. 136.24.5: oriental; 139.7.6: oriental; 139.36.9: Phenician; 139.39.9: oriental; 140.15.7: oriental; 140.27.6: oriental; 141.20.8: oriental The Song of a Mad Minstrel
Text taken from Weird Tales, February–March 1931. No changes have been made for this edition.
The Children of the Night
Text taken from Weird Tales, April–May 1931. 148.1: a line of asterisks marks the section break; 148.8.2: “deer-skin” hyphenated at line break; 153.38: a line of asterisks marks the section break; 156.32.2: mediæval
Musings
Text taken from Howard’s original typescript, a copy of which was provided by the Robert E. Howard Foundation. 158.1.7: semicolon rather than colon; 158.7.3: no comma after “that” 158.9.7: colon rather than semicolon
The Black Stone
Text taken from Weird Tales, November 1931. 160.26.3-4: “Midsummer’s Night” not capitalized here, though it is capitalized elsewhere in the story; 161.13.6: gleam (‘glean” in Howard’s earlier draft of the story); 162.4.16: no comma after “and” 162.15.8: black-eddy (‘back-eddy” in Howard’s earlier draft); 162.23.7: Goeffrey; 162.26.2: mine; 163.41.7: aboriginies; 170.1.5: rythmically; 170.37.3: ecstacy The Thing on the Roof
Text taken from Weird Tales, February 1932. 179.7.14: the period is placed outside the quotation mark The Dweller in Dark Valley
Text taken from Magazine of Horror, November 1965
The Horror from the Mound
Text taken from Howard’s original typescript, a copy of which was provided by the Robert E. Howard Foundation. 185.8.9: “farm-land” hyphenated at line break; 186.7.9: comma after “creek” 186.21.10: thes; 186.34.5: hemself; 187.14.1: “Senor” not underlined to indicate italics; 187.16.9: every; 187.17.8-9: hear-tell; 188.9.8: “Senor” not underlined to indicate italics; 188.35.10: grunned; 188.38.7: no comma after “decided” 189.11.9: cam; 189.17.4: befool; 189.18.10: refained; 189.38.7-8: treasure-trove; 190.4.4: no comma after “halted” 190.5.4: undeiable; 190.13.8: no comma after “stone”
190.30.11: “the” not in original; 191.2.9: tp; 191.8.10: forebidden; 191.34.12: Greaser; 191.35.6: trued; 192.1.9: cruse; 192.3.15: Spigs; 192.29.11: any one; 193.20.4: thre; 194.5.4: jjust; 195.1.7: Some one; 195.11.7: any one; 195.16.14: glassy eyed; 195.17.8: no comma after “creek” 196.41.14: long dead; 197.10.2: “Senor” not underlined to indicate italics; 197.22.4: light; 198.21.13: fear crazed A Dull Sound as of Knocking
Text taken from Glenn Lord’s transcription of Howard’s original. No changes have been made for this edition.
People of the Dark
Text taken from Strange Tales, June 1932. 203.10.9: comma after “hills” 203.35.1: loin cloth; 203.41.4: no comma after “reavers” 206.6.4: no comma after “where” 206.14.5: serpent like; 206.34.12: in it; 212.24.6: a wash; 214.5.6–7: little people
Delenda Est
Text taken from Howard’s original typescript, a copy of which was provided by the Robert E. Howard Foundation. The typescript is untitled; the title is Glenn Lord’s. 217.13.7: aborbed; 217.19.9: semicolon rather than comma; 218.14.1: semicolon rather than comma; 218.17.2: semicolon rather than comma; 218.26.9: horrizons; 218.34.3: no comma after “rival” 218.35.7: semicolon rather than comma; 219.3.3: with; 219.4.10: “westward” is typed above “before” with no indication of the intended insertion point; 219.8.6: “of” is typed above the space between “much” and “physical” with no indication of the intended insertion point; 219.9.3: vigour; 220.24.6: “not” not in original; 220.33.1: semicolon rather than comma; 221.40.2: rhyhmic; 222.34.6: no comma after “hand’
The Cairn on the Headland
Text taken from Strange Tales, January 1933. In a letter to H. P. Lovecraft, ca. December 1932
(probably very shortly after the magazine had appeared), Howard wrote: “The editor took liberties with
‘The Cairn on the Headland.’ In the original version, O’Brien was born in America. The editor changed this and made O’Brien a native of Ireland, but neglected to change the line: ‘We were countrymen in that we born in the same land.’ That would seem to make ‘Ortali’ an Irishman, too, when I intended him for an American-born Italian.” We have restored the characters’ original nationalities by using text from an existing draft typescript of the story. That existing draft does not bear a title, indicating it was probably a first draft. The magazine version features an epigraph: “And the next instant this great red loon was shaking me like a dog shaking a rat. ‘Where is Meve MacDonnal?’ he was screaming. By the saints, it’s a grisly thing to hear a madman in a lonely place at midnight screaming the name of a woman dead three hundred years.—The Longshoreman’s Tale.” This epigraph does not appear in the draft typescript, and as it telegraphs an important story element, which seems uncharacteristic of Howard, we have left it off.
224.34.6: fired; 227.29.4: Strange Tales has, after “American,” “though born and raised here” text here is from the draft typescript; 227.29.6: typescript has “answered, “my” 228.20.2: Strange Tales has
“ancestors” “birth” in draft typescript; 228.20.12-13: Strange Tales has “have passed the best part of my life” “was born” in draft typescript; 235.38.4: comma after “cairn” 237.39.1: comma after
“superstition’
Worms of the Earth
Text taken from Weird Tales, November 1932. In a letter to H. P. Lovecraft, circa December 1932, Howard noted several errors in the magazine appearance of the story: “Concerning “Worms of the Earth”–I must have been unusually careless when I wrote that, considering the errors–such as “her” for
“his”, “him” for “himself”, “loathsome” for “loathing”, etc.. I’m at a loss to say why I spelled Eboracum as Ebbracum. I must investigate the matter. I know I saw it spelled that way, somewhere; it’s not likely I would make such a mistake entirely of my own volition, though I do frequently make errors. Somehow, in my mind, I have a vague idea that it’s connected in some way with the Gaelic “Ebroch”–York.”
240.8.3: Ebbracum; 243.13.5: him; 244.1.6: Ebbracum; 248.15.1: Ebbracum; 248.17.11: Ebbracum; 249.21.9: Ebbracum; 251.11.2: Ebbracum; 251.17.10: Ebbracum; 253.3.3: laugh; 253.11.6: her; 253.11.15: loathsome; 253.25.5: there is a dash rather than a hyphen in “night-things” 260.1.3: comma after “cast” 262.19.1: Ebbracum; 266.29.1: Ebbracum’s; 266.32.5: Cæsar The Symbol
Text taken from Ariel, Autumn 1976. No changes have been made for this edition.
The Valley of the Lost
Text taken from Howard’s original typescript, a copy of which was provided by the Robert E. Howard Foundation. There are two draft typescripts
extant: one titled, the other not. The titled draft has numerous editorial markings, probably by Strange Tales editor Harry Bates, who wrote to Howard on October 4, 1932: “Mr. Clayton the other day instructed me to discontinue Strange Tales, and as a result I have to return your story, “The Valley of the Lost,” even marked up as it is with the editorial pencilings. I started to rub out the pencilings but that did not seem to improve the looks of the manuscript much, so I left off.”
Many of these editorial markings entirely obscure the original underlying text, making some readings problematic. 269.12.1: “South-west” hyphenated at line break; 269.18.1: right (typed to extreme right edge of paper); 269.18.6: Reynolds; 269.19.1: Donnelly (typed to extreme right edge of paper); 269.22.9: whole-sale; 270.1.10: comma after “pay” 270.3.2: punctuation following “range” obscured; 270.4.1: developement; 270.5.1: country-side; 270.8.8: Reynolds; 270.9.5: Reynolds; 270.11.11: comma after “down” 270.13.6: well now; 270.22.9: it appears a comma was marked out after “speedy”
270.24.7: awhile; 270.27.4: Reynolds; 270.28.3: no comma after “slope” 270.32.6: it appears a comma was marked out after “Ord” 270.35.13: didnt; 270.36.17: no closing quotation mark (typed to extreme right edge of paper); 270.37.1: comma after “Well”, no dash; 270.37.8: comma after “Fletcher”, no dash; 270.38.5: dont; 270.39.8: its; 271.15.17: comma after “valley” 271.27.11: he; 271.31.10: aint; 271.33.5: cant; 271.37.11: cant; 271.38.14: cant; 272.1.3: wont; 272.3.15: at least one character has been obscured before “right”, possibly “a” right” or “a-right” 272.12.8: cant; 272.15.12: something obscured before “walking”, probably “a-” 272.23.2: Reynolds; 272.24.9: no comma after “and”
272.41.4: shorted; 272.41.11: redmen; 273.6.7: re-opened; 273.11.9-10: comma after “Valley” rather than “and” 273.14.7: comma after “stones” 273.17.5: half destroyed; 273.20.2: and which; 273.30.11: country-side; 274.27.1: “a” not in titled typescript, is in untitled draft; 274.33.3: it appears a comma was marked out after “where” 274.33.8: it appears a comma was marked out after “sanity” 274.36.9: high heeled; 274.41.9: foot-step; 275.8.1: a word has been marked out before “dead” “stone-dead” in earlier draft; 275.18.5: suddeness; 276.4.3: no comma after “shaken” 276.20.1: letters are marked out after
The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard Page 66
