Back in the September 25, 1931 issue of Sport Story Magazine, readers were introduced to Robert E. Howard’s other boxing giant, Kid Allison, in a story entitled “College Socks.” Allison was created specifically for Sport Story, as they had expressed an interest in the Sailor Steve Costigan yarns then running in Fight Stories, as Howard told Tevis Clyde Smith in a letter ca. January 1931:
Street & Smith wrote me, wanting to take over the Steve Costigan series for their magazine Sport Stories, which they say is a bi-monthly. I told them I expected that Fight Stories would want to keep Steve, but offered them another prize-ring series instead. I hope they’ll accept.
Rather than move Steve to Sport, Howard created a new hero, thereby doubling his boxing story income. Or so he hoped.
Howard invested some time in his new creation, as evidenced by his comments to Tevis Clyde Smith, ca. April 1932.
Hear ye the tale of “Fighting Nerves”. I wrote this story — a Kid Allison yarn — as a complete novelet for Sport Story. I wrote it, I think, three times, before I sent it off. Back it came with the request to cut out the saloon atmosphere and reduce the length. I re-wrote it and returned it to the same magazine. It came back with the statement that they were all stocked up with fight stories — requested me to keep it several months and return it, with a letter reminding them of it. Not wanting to wait that long if I could help it — a natural desire of a penniless adventurer like myself — I rewrote most of it, changing the names of the characters, and sent it to Fight Stories. Back it came with the request to cut it down in length. I rewrote it and sent it back. Back it came, with the remark that it was acceptable, but that they couldn’t find a place for it just then. I should keep it a month or so, and then they’d like to see it some more. So I sent it to Sport Stories, with a letter reminding them of what they had said. It was returned with no explanation — merely a rejection slip. So I sent it to Fiction House — and back it came with the statement that Fight Stories had been — or was going to be — taken off the stands.
Despite Howard’s efforts, Sport Story only bought three Kid Allison yarns: the aforementioned “College Socks,” as well as “The Man With the Mystery Mitts” and “The Good Knight” — these are, arguably, the best three of the series, which totals ten. With the publication of “The Good Knight,” in the December 25, 1931 issue of Sport, Kid Allison was down for the count, and he would not return until May 1975.
Jonathan Bacon applied the smelling salts. Fantasy Crossroads began publication in November 1974 and, in its third issue, dated May 1975, began reprinting the Kid Allison series. All three of the Kid’s adventures appeared in Bacon’s fan magazine: “The Good Knight” in issue #3, “Man With the Mystery Mitts” in #4/5, and “College Socks” in #7, dated February 1976. Later that same year, “The Good Knight” appeared on the paperback racks in Zebra’s The Second Book of Robert E. Howard. The following year this same tale was reprinted in the Orbit book Robert E. Howard Omnibus, then again in the Berkley reissue of The Second Book of REH from 1980. And then the Kid went down for the long count.
Around the time Zebra was publishing the Kid, Glenn Lord’s The Last Celt was hitting bookstores. In the “Series Index,” under “Kid Allison,” ten stories are listed. Besides the three published yarns, readers of Lord’s “bio-bibliography” were tantalized by the following: “The Drawing Card,” “Fighting Nerves,” “Fistic Psychology,” “The Jinx,” “The Texas Wildcat,” “A Tough Nut to Crack,” and an untitled story beginning “Huh? I was so . . .” While this is plenty of material for a chapbook or two, when the dust of the Howard Boom settled, it was all still unpublished. The Cryptic explosion came and went without putting a dent in the Allison series. Even Boxing Stories, the latest collection of Howard’s ring tales, included only the most readily available — and probably the best — of the Allison yarns, “The Good Knight.” It seemed the Kid was permanently retired.
Finally, more than 30 years since that first glimpse at those intriguing titles, Kid Allison is back in the ring. The publication of The Last of the Trunk (a title which is not altogether accurate) collects all of the Kid Allison tales that haven’t seen the light of day before. Finally, Howard fans can read “Fighting Nerves” — the story Howard rewrote several times — which is not, sad-to-say, the Kid Allison version, but its final “Jim O’Donnel” incarnation.
So, the Kid Allison collection is finally complete. Ironically, two of the three best tales in the series remain out of print, moldering in the pages of Sport Story Magazine and Fantasy Crossroads, two publications which aren’t exactly cheap — or easy to come by.
Over on the 
