5. What are some of the marriage customs of Poland, Germany and Austria?
6. I understand that public whipping was one of the punishments by law formerly in use in the countries of central Europe. In what manner was this done? Were women ever whipped?
7. About what is the population of Czecho-Slovakia?
If this letter should be published in Adventure, please do not publish my name.
R. E. H.
Cross Plains, Tex.
Robert E. Howard to The Californian, Summer 1936
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Thank you very much for the copy of The Californian. I feel greatly honored that Miss Wooley should have quoted an excerpt from my serial Beyond the Black River in her article in your fine journal.
Robert E. Howard to Claytons Magazine, Jun 13, 1933
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Gentlemen:
A few weeks ago I wrote you asking a release of the British Empire rights on my stories, "People of the Dark" and "The Cairn on the Headland," published in Strange Tales. I have had no reply from you.
I note that in the Author & Journalist for November, 1932, your company is quoted as buying "all North American serial rights, but do not purchase and have no control over motion picture, radio, book, or dramatic rights."
According to this, I have the right to offer the stories mentioned to the British publishing house which has asked to look at them, with the view of bringing them out in book form. But I would like to have some sort of writing from your company, showing that I own the foreign rights.
Or, in case some special conditions prevailed in the case of Strange Tales, by which you purchased book and foreign rights, I would appreciate a release on them. I see no reason why I should not be given such release, since the magazine has been out of circulation for some months now. I realize that things are not breaking well for your company, and I sympathize with you. But things aren't breaking so good for me, either, and this may be a chance for me to make a little money through British publication. Please answer this letter, one way or another. I enclose an addressed and stamped envelope for your convenience.
Yours,
R. E. Howard
L.B. 313
Cross Plains, Texas
Robert E. Howard to The Fantasy Fan, Dec 1933
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I find the Fantasy Fan very interesting and think it has a good fortune. Anybody ought to be willing to pay a dollar for the privilege of reading, for a whole year, the works of Lovecraft, Smith, and Derleth. I am glad to see that you announce a poem by Smith in the next issue. He is a poet second to none. Weird poetry possesses an appeal peculiar to itself and the careful use of it raises the quality of any magazine. I liked very much the department of 'True Ghost Stories,' and hope you will continue it. The world is full of unexplained incidents and peculiar circumstances, the logical reasons for which are often so obscure and hidden that they are lent an illusion of the supernatural.
Robert E. Howard
Robert E. Howard to The Fantasy Fan, Jan 1934
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I liked the November issue very much and hope you'll publish more of Smith's poetry.
Robert E. Howard to The Fantasy Fan, May 1934
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Smith's poem in the March issue was splendid, as always. By all means, publish as many of his poems as possible; I would like to see more by Lumley, and it would be a fine thing if you could get some of Lovecraft's poetry.
Robert E. Howard to Fort Worth Record, Jul 20, 1928
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Tunney can't win. After the fight, Tom Heeney is going to be heavyweight champion of the world, not through any special virtue of his, but simply because there's a jinx on Tunney that Gene can't whip.
Now get this: Back in 1892 James J. Corbett, a skillful boxer, whipped John L. Sullivan, a superslugger, and then knocked out Charles Mitchell, the only man who'd ever given John L. much of an argument.
Now: Some years later, in 1926, James J. Tunney, like Corbett, an Irishman, whipped Jack Dempsey, a superslugger, after having knocked out Tom Gibbons, the only man who'd been able to stay with Jack—the only difference being that Tunney knocked out Gibbons before he won the title and not after.
Now, that lines Corbett and Tunney up together enough, I guess. Both Irish, both boxers, both named James J., both winning their titles from dark-browed, furious sluggers of Irish blood.
All right: Corbett in 1897 met an ex-blacksmith from New Zealand—Irish and a rugged fighter, named Tom Heeney. Result—? A new champion, I say. Heeney isn't Tunney's equal in speed, punch or cleverness, but then Corbett had it all over Fitzsimmons in the way of speed and skill.
So, just as I predicted Dempsey's defeat by Tunney when I heard Gene's real name was James J., so I now predict defeat for Tunney because of the New Zealnad jinx, a factor to be reckoned with. I hope Tunney wins; I like Heeney, but I like Tunney better. Still, I predict his defeat.
Robert E. Howard to The Ring, Apr 1926
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Here is my opinion on the greatest heavyweights of all time: Boxing reached its height between 1892 and 1905. That was the ring’s Golden Era. The culmination of perfection, the pinnacle of achievement, the greatest heavyweight of all time was James J. Jefferies. Records prove that. During his reign there flourished the greatest collection of heavyweights ever seen, and he was the greatest of all. He defeated all manner of boxers.
In Corbett he beat the fastest heavyweight and the cleverest boxer that ever lived; in Fitzsimmons the most effective hitter of any time; in Tom Sharkey, the greatest of all near champions. While Jefferies would not rank first in skill, speed or hitting ability, for all around prowess he was invincible.
Peter Jackson never saw the day that he could have beaten Jefferies; and the idea of Johnson beating Jefferies when the white man was at his best is ridiculous. Johnson lacked both the ability and the nerve. As for Sullivan and Dempsey, they would have fought themselves out punching Jefferies, and then have been defeated. If there ever was a man who might have won from Jefferies it was Corbett, when at his prime.
This is my rating of heavyweights: James J. Jefferies; James J. Corbett; Jack Dempsey; Peter Jackson; Bob Fitzsimmons; John L. Sullivan; Tom Sharkey; Kid McCoy; Sam Langford; Jack Johnson; Louis Firpo and Jess Willard.
Robert E. Howard
Cross Plains, Texas
Robert E. Howard to Weird Tales, ca. Jan 1926
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Robert E. Howard of Cross Plains, Texas, writes concerning Mr. Quinn's stories of Jules de Grandin: "These are sheer masterpieces. The little Frenchman is one of those characters who live in fiction. I look forward with pleasurable anticipation to further meetings with him."
Robert E. Howard to Weird Tales, Jun 1927
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Your last three issues have been very fine. Certainly no magazine has ever offered a tale as unique and thought-inspiring as the serial by MR. Cummings.
Robert E. Howard to Weird Tales, May 1928
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Mr. Lovecraft's latest story, The Call of Cthulhu, is indeed a masterpiece, which I am sure will live as one of the highest achievements of literature. Mr. Lovecraft holds a unique position in the literary worlld he has grasped, to all intents, the worlds outside our paltry ken. His scope is unlimited and his range is cosmic. He has the rare gift of making the unreal seem very real and terrible, without lessening the sensation of horror attendant thereto. He touches peaks in his tales which no modern or ancient writer has ever hinted. Sentences and phrases leap suddenly at the reader, as if in utter blackness of solar darkness a door were suddenly flung open, whence flamed the red fire of Purgatory and through which might be momentarily glimpsed monstrous and nightmarish shapes. Herbert Spencer may have right when he said that it was beyond the human mind to grasp the Unknowable, but Mr. Lovecraft is in a fair way of disproving that theory, I think. I await his next story with eager anticipation, knowing that whatever the subject may be, it will be handled with the skill and incredible vision which he has always shown.