Description
Collecting Robert E. Howard
Before his first book was published, Howard was dead. At the age of 30, in a dusty Texas town, he put a bullet through his head. Previous to that, his heroic fantasies had only appeared in pulp magazines. In the 1970s they found wide book publication and established mighty Conan the Barbarian at the forefront of adventure heroes.
The Best Barbarian
There are four basic sets of Howard first editions; all of them present problems. For the first edition collector there is strong appeal in the Gnome Press editions. But these are hardly definitive.
A “Sophisticated” Copy
The ideal addition to every collector’s library is a pristine, “unsophisticated” book—unrestored and without any repairs. The problem is that, eventually, all copies need some restoration; paper does not last forever. We look at a book that lost its “unsophisticated” status and returned to collectability.
Remembering Charles Beaumont
To quote Richard Matheson, “Beaumont held up to us a dirk-rimmed funhouse mirror so that we might see our distorted and yet, somehow, much more truthful images.” Beaumont’s close friend and colleague, William F. Nolan, profiles his brilliant and tragically short-lived friend.
Books into Film
The Night of the Hunter, a novel by Davis Grubb, a film by Charles Laughton