You may not be aware that the home of Robert E. Howard in Cross Plains, Texas, is in need of vital repairs. This has been reported by the Robert E. Howard Foundation on its website and in videos on YouTube.
To help out, they have been working on fundraising for it, an effort joined in by others. I know the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society has helped raise funds as well. You can see the status of this effort on the REH Foundation website.
As part of this effort, they have recently put out a book through the Robert E. Howard Foundation Press, First Passage: Early Drafts of Beloved Yarns. This nearly 500-page volume is available in hardback and paperback directly from the Press, though you can get it from Amazon at a higher price. All proceeds from the sales of this book will go to Project Pride in Cross Plains to support restoration and maintenance of the Robert E. Howard Museum.
Artist Gary Gianni provided the cover and interior artwork.
We get the early drafts for 15 works, along with a foreword and introduction. Among the drafts are stories with Solomon Kane, Bran Mak Morn, King Kull, and Red Sonya (not to be confused with Red Sonja). Other stories include an early draft for his horror classic “Pigeons From Hell.”
While you can get fragments and unfinished works in various publications from the Foundation, when it comes to early drafts, these has pretty much only appeared in their Newsletter. So I think this may be the first general publication of these works.
I know for most people, drafts aren’t interesting, but for some, it is fascinating to see how stories you enjoy develop and get changed before the final form. For those people, this can be a peek behind the scenes.
The Foundation is already halfway to its goal of helping restore REH’s home. Will you help out?
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