The REH Foundation Newsletter

Spring 2012 and Summer 2012

Hello CROM! readers. I have been silent lately, and for that I apologize, but my career has kept me uber busy. Also, my recent reading of Mark Finn's Blood & Thunder has placed me on a biography reading kick. Right now I am immersed in S.T. Joshi's H.P. Lovecraft: A Life. Joshi's book has also spun me onto several side quests involving reading Lovecraft material I have not read in ages, and in some cases never have. More on that in the future.

In a recent post, I mentioned that I made the decision to join the Robert E. Howard Foundation. If you're not familiar with them, please take the time to check them out at their site, as they have a mission that is important to me.

At the level of membership I am at, I receive their newsletter as it becomes available. I came home from my recent business travels to discover that in my absence, I received two issues of the newsletter, Spring 2012 number 1 and Summer 2012 number 2 (both volume 6). Both issues are 18 pages in length, printed on good quality paper. The newsletter is standard 8 1/2 x 11 inches.

I have been looking forward to perusing the newsletters. They are a treat for the Howard fan. To illustrate why, I present the content pages of both issues so the reader will have an idea of what kind of articles/contents are in a typical issue:

Spring 2012

Summer 2012

I can offer a few comments on the contents of both issues. With the sad passing of Glenn Lord in December 2011, there is an expected amount of Lord content. I particularly liked Rusty Burke's essay, "Glenn Lord, 1931-2011".  Most, if not all newsletters feature original Howard content. These two issues feature: "The Door to the Garden" (an incomplete tale first published in Fantasy Crosswinds #2 [Stygian Isle Press, 1977], then later completed by Joseph F. Pulver and published in Nameless Cults [Chaosium, 2001] as "The Door to the World"--this is the version I have read in the past); the poem "A Rattlesnake Sings in the Grass" (previously unpublished and found in Glenn Lord's collection after his death); "Brachan the Kelt" (an incomplete James Allison tale previously published only twice before, 1981's The Barbarian Swordsmen and 1998's "New" Howard Reader #1). In all cases for these two issues, the original Howard content is presented as clear, easy to read photo copies of Howard's original typescript. For me, that is like looking into a camera lens and viewing the past. Way cool. 

The other contents of both issues are rounded out with news and events of interest to the Howard fan, biographical information and items such as a school paper about athletics that Howard wrote in 1921 for a school project, and this is a photo copy of the original paper and is written in Howard's long-hand cursive script. Again, I really enjoy things like that. There are also newly discovered photos either of or pertaining to Robert E. Howard. I particularly enjoyed three photos of Howard goofing as a pirate with his neighbors, the brother and sister Leroy and Faustine Butler.

I wish I could in good conscience share these items with you, but I do not feel I have the permission to do so. I am a big fan of Howard's poetry, so the opportunity to read a poem by Bob ("A Rattlesnake Sings in the Grass") that I have not encountered before, is well worth the price of admission alone. 

I encourage you, if you are a Bob Howard nut such as myself to visit the above link to the REH Foundation, and become a member.