📖 Overview
The Robert E. Howard Bibliography is a comprehensive reference work documenting the published writings of pulp fiction author Robert E. Howard. This catalog covers Howard's entire body of work from 1925 until his death in 1936, including his poetry, letters, and stories published in magazines like Weird Tales.
Lord's bibliography lists every known publication of Howard's works, providing details such as dates, prices, publishers, and alternate versions. The entries are organized chronologically and by publication type, with indices for titles, characters, and periodicals where Howard's work appeared.
The book includes publication history for Howard's most famous creations like Conan the Barbarian, Solomon Kane, and Kull, as well as his lesser-known boxing stories and weird western tales. Supplementary sections contain information about Howard's unpublished manuscripts and fragments discovered after his death.
This bibliography stands as an essential research tool for understanding Howard's career and his impact on sword-and-sorcery, horror, and pulp fiction genres. Through its cataloging of Howard's diverse output, the work reveals the full scope of his literary contributions beyond his most well-known characters.
👀 Reviews
This appears to be a specialized reference work with very limited reader reviews available online. The book is out of print and was published in a limited print run primarily for Howard scholars and collectors.
What readers liked:
- Comprehensive listing of Howard's published works
- Inclusion of manuscript information and publication history
- Cross-referencing system for tracking story variants
- Details on Howard's poetry publications
What readers disliked:
- High price point for a bibliography
- Limited availability
- Some information now outdated
No ratings found on Goodreads or Amazon. The book is primarily discussed in Robert E. Howard fan forums and collector sites rather than mainstream review platforms. Howard collector Dennis McHaney notes it served as "the bible for Howard collectors for many years" though aspects have been superseded by newer research.
The Robert E. Howard United Press Association describes it as "the first serious attempt to catalog Howard's complete works."
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The Dark Barbarian: The Writings of Robert E. Howard by Don Herron A critical analysis and bibliographic resource that examines Howard's complete literary output with detailed publication histories.
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The Ultimate Conan Bibliography by Richard Tierney and Dale Rippke This reference work documents every Conan story, novel, and adaptation across all media with publication chronology and historical context.
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Lovecraft: A Study in the Fantastic by Maurice Levy This research volume provides publication data and textual analysis of Lovecraft's work while documenting the pulp magazine publishing landscape.
🤔 Interesting facts
📚 Glenn Lord was considered the "Dean of Howard Studies" and spent over 50 years collecting and preserving Robert E. Howard's works, including discovering many previously unpublished manuscripts.
🗃️ The bibliography lists over 1,100 pieces of Howard's writing, making it the most comprehensive catalog of his work at the time of publication (1976).
⚔️ Robert E. Howard, the subject of the bibliography, created the character Conan the Barbarian while writing from his home in Cross Plains, Texas, earning roughly half a cent per word for his stories.
📝 Lord acquired Howard's original typescript collection in 1965 from a agent in Sweden, rescuing countless unpublished stories and fragments that might have otherwise been lost.
🏆 The bibliography became an essential reference tool for Howard scholars and helped spark a revival of interest in Howard's work during the 1970s, leading to numerous reprints and new collections.