The Best of Robert E. Howard, Volume 1 (78 page)

A Word from the Outer Dark

Text taken from Howard’s original typescript, provided by Glenn Lord. No changes have been made for this edition.

Hawk of the Hills

Text taken from
Top-Notch
, June 1935. 405.4.10: “heart-breaking” hyphenated at line break: 406.30.5: “head-man” hyphenated at line break: 407.7.5: coördination; 407.11.9: hyphen between “hand” and “fighting” 408.38.11: today; 410.23.5: semicolon after “structure” 411.40.13: rôle; 415.23.5: “the” not in original; 419.39.5: fire-arm hyphenated at line break; 419.39.8: to-day; 420.25.8: reëchoing; 424.5.3: end quotation after “mine?” 428.1.5: reënforce; 430.29.8: “pit-like” hyphenated at line break; 433.7.6: “El” not in original; 439.33.7: to-night; 440.1.7: To-night; 440.8.12: to-night; 442.17.5: tomorrow; 448.1.1: To-night.

Sharp’s Gun Serenade

Text taken from
Action Stories
, January 1937. 456.28.6: too; 459.36.11: night; 465.9.11: period after “her’n” 465.9.12: A; 465.26.4: period after “business.”

Lines Written in the Realization That I Must Die

Text taken from
Weird Tales
, August 1938. No changes have been made for this edition.

Our work on this book would never have been possible without the direct and indirect aid of so many people. James Van Hise, who first introduced us to Robert E. Howard. Marcelo Anciano to whom we owe so much. Jack and Barbara Baum for their friendship and trust. Tony Swatton and the gang at Sword & Stone for their excellent armour, weapons, and expertise. M. Graham & Co. for the oils used on the cover illustration. Michael Venables for his priceless textual guidance. And Bill Sampson, for a million reasons. We would also like to express our gratitude to Mark Westermoe, Mark Schultz, Ed Waterman, Tom Gianni, Christian Svensson, Madison Mason, James Black, Eric Underwood, and Beth Kennedy. And of course big thanks to Rusty, Stuart, Patrice, David, Fredrik, and Thommy.

Jim & Ruth Keegan

Deepest thanks to Jim, Ruth, and Stuart, who came through like champs; to Marcelo, whose vision continues to inspire us; to Glenn, Paul, Patrice, David, Nino, Lee, and Frank for assistance with the texts; to Cherry Shults at the Cross Plains Library for providing copies of typescripts; to the members of the REH Inner Circle and others who responded to my polling for the best REH stories; to the members of the Robert E. Howard United Press Association, past and present, for thirty-five years of carrying the standard; and as always to Shelly, for her patience, love and support.

Rusty Burke

My thanks go once again to Marcelo and Rusty for making this an enjoyable experience, Jim and Ruth for their excellent illustrations–it was a pleasure meeting you both. Thanks also to Mandy and Emma for being even more patient with me as I did this at home on a laptop at the dining table! I’d also like to say thank you to Matthew Foster, for his friendship and our many literary debates over the years on the merits of Howard, Lovecraft, and Machen.

Stuart Williams

I’d like to thank Rusty and Stuart for their consistent and wonderful support and most of all Jim and Ruth for making it all seem so easy with their fantastic work, thanks. Thanks must also go to Graziana who makes it all worthwhile.

Marcelo Anciano

T
HE
F
ULLY
I
LLUSTRATED
R
OBERT
E. H
OWARD
L
IBRARY
from Del Rey Books

The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian

The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane

The Bloody Crown of Conan

Bran Mak Morn: The Last King

The Conquering Sword of Conan

Kull: Exile of Atlantis

The Best of Robert E. Howard
Volume 1: Crimson Shadows

The Best of Robert E. Howard
Volume 2: Grim Lands
(forthcoming)

^*1
To avoid confusion I have used the modern terms for places and clans.—A
UTHOR
Return to text.

The Best of Robert E. Howard,
Volume One is a work of fiction. Names, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

A Del Rey Trade Paperback Original

Copyright © 2007 by Robert E. Howard Properties, LLC

Published in the United States by Del Rey Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

D
EL
R
EY
is a registered trademark and the Del Rey colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.

CONAN, HYBORIA, and related logos, names, and character likenesses are registered and unregistered trademarks of Conan Properties International LLC in the United States and certain other territories. KULL and related logos, names, and character likenesses are registered and unregistered trademarks of Kull Productions, Inc., in the United States and certain other territories. SOLOMON KANE and related logos, names, and character likenesses are registered and unregistered trademarks of Solomon Kane, Inc., in the United States and certain other territories. ROBERT E. HOWARD, BRAN MAK MORN, STEVE COSTIGAN, JAMES ALLISON, EL BORAK, BRECKENRIDGE ELKINS, STEVE HARRISON, BLACK TURLOGH, and related logos, names, and character likenesses are registered and unregistered trademarks of Robert E. Howard Properties, LLC, in the United States and certain other territories. All rights reserved.

www.delreybooks.com

Art Director: Marcelo Anciano

eISBN: 978-0-345-50055-7

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