Damon C. Sasser just picked up the latest issue of the Robert E. Howard: Two-Gun Raconteur journal from the printer. It will be available at Howard Days 2010 on June 11.

Since the announcement of the fourteenth issue of the TGR journal on TC last April, Damon has posted some updates on its contents, which will be detailed below.

Above, you can see Michael L. Peters’ cover featuring El Borak. Two of his drawings from a four-plate Solomon Kane portfolio based on “The Hills of the Dead” are also illustrating this blog entry.

Damon has written a blog on the portfolio and the magical staff once owned by Atlantean priests, Moses and King Solomon on TGR.

Here is the full table of contents:

El Borak Cover by Michael L. Peters
Inside Front and Back Covers: Scenes from “Nekht Semerkeht” by Terry Pavlet
Back Cover: Terence Vulmea by Robert Sankner
“The Curly Wolf of Sawtooth” by Robert E. Howard, illustrated by Richard Pace
“The Hills of the Dead: A Solomon Kane Portfolio” by Michael L. Peters
“The Old Time Radio Adventures of Sailor Steve Costigan” by Mark Finn, illustrated by John Lucas
“It Really Wasn’t a Game: El Borak and the Victorian Cold War” by Brian Leno
“From Bran Mak Morn to Beyond the Black River: The Evolution of the Picts in Robert E. Howard’s Fiction by Simon Sanahujas, illustrated by Bob Covington
“The Monster in the Jungle: “Red Nails” and the Return of the Repressed” by David Hardy, illustrated by Didier Normand
“Unmasking “The Shadow Kingdom:” Kull and Howard as Outsiders” by Brian Murphy, illustrated by Bill Cavalier
Plus additional artwork, reviews and features.

A rare humorous western story by Robert E. Howard, “The Curly Wolf of Sawtooth,” will be included in the issue, back in print in its original version for the first time since 1936 (a rewritten version featuring Breck Elkins instead of Bearfield Elston was published since several times). Richard Pace did the artwork for the story. Here is one of his preliminary sketches:

Former Cimmerian-contributor Mark Finn “details the creative process involved adapting several of Howard’s “Sailor” Steve Costigan stories into radio plays by the Violet Crown Radio Players of Austin, Texas.  The group also presented Novalyne Price Ellis’ radio play, “Day of the Stranger” over the airwaves.” Fellow blogger Brian Murphy provides and essay on Kull and Howard.

Don Herron will be reviewing The Dark Man Vol. 5, No. 1. Deuce Richardson is reviewing J. Kahan’s ” ‘Marchers of Valhalla,’ Creation, and the Cult of Castration” article specifically. Blogger Jeffrey Shanks, in his own review here on the TC blog had few good things to say on said essay (as opposed to the other articles therein).

You can order TGR # 14 here. It will debut at Howard Days 2010 on June 11, with orders shipping next week. The print run is only two hundred copies, so get them while you can.

TC editors advertising (I refuse to use the term “pimping”) their personal literary items for sale has a long history here on the blog.  Check out this post by Leo Grin (and several subsequent).

Times are dire here in serpent-haunted SEK. Musing on such, a decision was reached by yours truly. Time to lighten the load for the journey into the future.

I own the two-volume set of A Means to Freedom from Hippocampus. I’ll be taking it to Cross Plains this Friday. My firm asking price is $300.  Cash or (possibly) check. The set has been read once. Very minor shelf-wear. Since I’m not a full-blown book collector (much like Leo), I will rely on the expertise of Paul Herman and Jeffrey Shanks as to the exact condition when I reach Howard Days.

Speaking of Paul Herman, he just announced on the Official Robert E. Howard Forum that Paradox has kindly donated a set of AMtF to the Silent Auction for Project Pride.

For any who might feel qualms about buying the set from me, all I can say is that you can contact me after the Silent Auction. However, this is a Darwinian struggle for survival. I’ll take offers whenever they come. I’m really beginning to get an inkling of how REH felt in 1936.

As mentioned in the headline, I am also bringing along the two Night Shade hardcover collections of Wagner’s Kane oeuvre. Once again, minor shelf-wear. My price is a firm $150 for the set.

If neither set sells in Cross Plains, both will go on ebay at a higher price and shipping added into the bargain. I’ll be bringing other cool stuff to Howard Days (as well as a piece for the Silent Auction), so feel free to seek me out. The (by then) former Managing Editor of The Cimmerian blog will be heading back to Dallas after the REH Foundation awards ceremony.

Courtesy of the indispensable Coming Attractions website:

The shirt design above is by award winning artist David Burton. It is the art chosen by Project Pride –the Robert E. Howard Museum of Cross Plains, TX. — for the 2010 annual Robert E. Howard Days. Project Pride helps maintain the Robert E. Howard House and Museum.

The image is printed on a nice gray t-shirt and is now available. Shirts are eighteen dollars (this includes postage). They’ll ship the next day upon receiving payment. Shirts come in all ADULT sizes from S to 3X. Make the checks or money orders to: Project Pride and send to: PO Box 534, Cross Plains, TX 76443.

David Burton also did the wrap-around cover for A Word from the Outer Dark, a collection of 100 poems by Robert E. Howard put together by Paul Herman in 2009, with the assistance of Rob Roehm for the restored texts. This volume is available exclusively from the Robert E. Howard Museum, for the price of $15.00, with a $2.00 shipping/handling fee. For more than one, add $1.00 per book. You can buy them at the Gift Shop of the Howard House or order them via mail from Project Pride, POB 534, Cross Plains, Texas 76443.

The contents of this collection, which covers a broad scope of the Texan’s outstanding poetic output, can be read here at Howardworks. As for the T-Shirts, your money would contribute directly to the preservation of the Legacy of Robert E. Howard.

Just one month until Howard Days 2010, REH fans. REHupa and the REH Foundation are working with Project Pride to prepare for the most important annual gathering of REH fans in Cross Plains, Texas. Since 1986, people have come from all around the world on the second weekend in June to render homage to the life and writings of Texan author Robert E. Howard.

Here’s a summary of the schedule:

FRIDAY JUNE 11

8:30 – 9 am: Coffee and donuts at the Pavilion, compliments of Project Pride

9 am – 4 pm: Robert E. Howard House Museum open to the public.

9 am – 4 pm: REH Postal Cancellation at Cross Plains Post Office

9 am – 11 am: Walking Tour of Cross Plains

9:30 am – 12 Noon: Bus Tour of Cross Plains area

10 am – 5 pm: Cross Plains Public Library open

Noon: Lunch hosted by Project Pride. Donations Welcome.

Noon to 4 pm: Pavilion available for REH items Swap Meet

1:00 pm: PANEL: The Illustrators of REH

3 pm: PANEL: The Evolutionary Heroes of Robert E. Howard

5:30 – 6:30: Silent Auction items available for viewing & bidding at Banquet site

6:30: Robert E. Howard Celebration Banquet at the Cross Plains Community Center, featuring Guests of Honor Jim & Ruth Keegan

Following the Banquet & Silent Auction: The First Annual Robert E. Howard Foundation Awards at the Cross Plains Community Center

SATURDAY JUNE 12

9 am – 4 pm: Robert E. Howard House Museum open to the public.

9 am – 4 pm: BARBARIAN FESTIVAL in the large lot North of the Dollar Store on Main St.

9 am – 11 am: Walking Tour of Cross Plains

9:30 am – 12 Noon: Bus Tour of Cross Plains area

10 am – 3 pm: Cross Plains Public Library open

10 am PANEL: The Jim & Ruth Keegan Hour

Noon to 4 pm: Pavilion available for REH items Swap Meet

Lunch & Festival Activities at your leisure during the day

1:00 pm PANEL: Paul Sammon: 51 Years in Cimmeria

3 pm PANEL: What’s Happening with REH

5 pm: Sunset BBQ at the Caddo Peak Ranch

Here’s a link to the REH Days 2010 Information Page, frequently updated by Bill “Indy” Cavalier, who recently asked Robert E. Howard fans to help out Howard Days by donating Howard and Howard-related items to the Silent Auction.

To my knowledge, at least two Cimmerian bloggers are supposed to attend, managing editor Deuce Richardson and the Venarium Award nominee Alexander Harron –whose rival in the category is none else than another Cimmerian contributor, our own Barbara Barrett.

Howard Days’ Guests of Honor will be the artists Jim and Ruth Keegan. Paul Sammon, author of Conan the Phenomenon will be there (he also attended in 2006), as well as Justin Everett and Deirdre Pettipiece, co-authors of the upcoming critical volume More Than Human: The Evolutionary Heroes of Robert E. Howard.

Also, there will be a presentation of the donations to Project Pride in the name of Dan “Painbrush” Goudey, late Robert E. Howard fan and artist. The goal was to reach $1,000 donated and we’re close. Please help if you can –even only a few bucks in these tough times– every bit counts and it is not too late. It would help to keep Howard’s legacy alive. Paypal donations can be made through the REH Foundation thanks to Paul Herman who will forward the money to Project Pride. You just need to make sure to make a notation on the payment that your donation is in the name of Dan Goudey. Here’s the link.

Since this year’s theme is “The Illustrators of Robert E. Howard,” the fine people in charge of organizing the event will also be doing something to honor the greatest of them –the best fantasy artist of the last century– the recently departed Frank Frazetta, with an appropriate tribute.

DEUCE ADDS: Our own Jeffrey Shanks just informed me that he will also be attending Howard Days this year.

Many thanks to Howardian scholar Paul Herman, who posted about this book on The Official Robert E. Howard Forum.

He noted that the two co-authors of the upcoming critical work More Than Human: The Evolutionary Heroes of Robert E. Howard, Justin Everett, Ph.D. and Deirdre Pettipiece, Ph.D. were “very serious REH fans, and serious academics, they have been promoting REH out there on the academic circuit” and has corresponded with both several times. They also will be presenting a panel at Howard Days next June.

Abstract:

Known best for the sword and sorcery stories he produced for the pulp fiction magazines of the 1930s, Robert E. Howard created a huge body of work that consisted of “around 3.5 million words” (Robert E. Howard Foundation, The Last of the Trunk), most of which focused on the creation of fantastic heroes of a depth and breadth unmatched by any writer before or since. Conan, King Kull, Solomon Kane and other complex characters populate civilizations Howard constructed and reconstructed in a wide-array of alternative worlds governed by competing principles of combat, survival, loyalty, and revenge. Tracing these heroes and the texts they occupy over the course of Howard’s interactions with evolutionary theories of human origin and behavior, Everett and Pettipiece reveal his dynamic and often conflicted engagement with ideas that changed the world. Howard’s interaction with the ideas of Darwin, Spencer, Freud and others who articulated fundamental principles of human behavior and social organization can be seen not only in the developing identities of his heroes, but also in the critical discussions he undertook with H.P. Lovecraft and other contemporaries. His intellectual engagement with some of the most important theories and philosophies of the 19th and 20th centuries demonstrates that Howard and his body of work are sufficiently representative of important themes and tropes to recognize him as part of the American canon. This volume therefore addresses the gap in the critical discussion of American literary production of the first half of the 20th century by presenting Howard and his heroes and the evolution they both undertook over the course of his active career.

Brief table of contents:

1. Preface
2. Forward by Terence McVicker
3. Introduction: Why American Literary Studies Need Robert E. Howard
4. Chapter one: Early Influences and the Little Blue Books
5. Chapter two: Engaging with Ideas: What Howard Read and Its Impact on Howard’s Emerging Philosophy
6. Chapter three: Sex and Sinews: Sexual Selection, Secondary Sex Characteristics and Howard
7. Chapter four: Howard’s Men and Women and Their Potential Sources in Literature and Life
8. Chapter five: Isolation and Community, Civilization and Barbarism: Binary Forces in Howard’s fiction
9. Chapter seven: Conclusions and Continuing Questions

Approx. 350 pps, approx. $150.00 hardback. Publication by Edwin Mellen Press expected for late 2010. Robert E. Howard fan and bookseller Terence McVicker provides the foreword.

This book’s theme seems interesting, so it might be worth its — expensive — price. One can’t have enough serious literary criticism concerning Robert E. Howard’s œuvre.

With the demise of The Cimmerian print journal, so too have the Cimmerian Awards passed into legend. However, the Robert E. Howard Foundation has taken up the gauntlet:

Though the general Howard enthusiast public can’t folk, we can still take a gander at the categories and nominees.

Our own Barbara Barrett receives a 2010 Atlantean nomination for The Wordbook, a 2009 Hyrkanian nod for her essay “Six Degrees to Cross Plains” appearing in v5n3 of The Cimmerian, and a joint contender (along with myself) for the 2010 Venarium award for her outstanding work on The Cimmerian, REHupa and elsewhere. Brian Murphy‘s “The Unnatural City” from The Cimmerian v5n2 and “An Honourable Retreat: Robert E. Howard as Escapist Writer” from The Dark Man v4n2 received a place among the Hyrkanian nominees for 2009 and 2010 respectively. The Cimmerian website itself is nominated for the Stygian for 2009 and 2010, and the fifth and final year of The Cimmerian print journal gains an Aquilonian contention.

Cimmerian alumni are also represented. In addition to his Cimmerian plaudits, Leo Grin’s “In Defense of Hester Jane Howard” is placed among the 2010 Hyrkanian candidates. Rob Roehm has many balls in the court for the Hyrkanian: “Howard at 102″ (The Cimmerian, v5n1), “Humorous Westerns Are Serious Business” (The Howard Review), and “In the Middle of the Street” (The Cimmerian, v5n3) for 2009; and “The Long and Winding Road: A Poetic History” (REH: Two-Gun Raconteur #13) for 2010. The redoubtable Mark Finn is up for the 2010 Black River Award for his Cross Plains High School presentation, as well as two for the 2009 Hyrkanian: “Breckinridge Elkins, Robert E. Howard, and Filial Piety” (The Howard Review) and The Robert E. Howard Medicine Wheel (Two-Gun Raconteur #12). Steve Trout’s “Conan and the Crusaders” (The Cimmerian, v5n2) is up for the 2009 Hyrkanian, as well as the 2010 Stygian for The Cimmerian blog.

Last but not least, the great Steve Tompkins is posthumously acknowledged with three 2009 Hyrkanian nominations in”Black Stranger, White Wolflord or, Not Out of the Woods Yet” (Two-Gun Raconteur #12), “Long Falls and Hard Climbs” (The Cimmerian, v5n4), and “Newer Barbarians” (The Cimmerian, v5n1).

Man. I guess I’ll really have to get to Howard Days now!

Here’s a communiqué from REH fan and photographer, Ben Friberg:

Howdy! Ben, warrior photog here. Just wanted to let you know I posted my tour of the Howard house with Norris Chambers on my youtube channel. Leo and I are talking with him about what he remembers of Bob. Mixed in some pictures of the Howards and cutaways of the room and other parts of the house. It’s not as zippy and quick moving as my Cimmeria post, but it’s informative and neat to listen to the last guy who knew Howard talk about the nice, gentle man he was. It will be a part of my overall movie/doc, but I decided I wanted to post it in this form, in order to share with my fellow Howard fans. It would be great to show the room and inside of the house to folks who live all over the world, and who may never get a chance to come out to Cross Plains.

Friberg shot the video in 2007 as part of a bigger REH documentary that he is working on. He and Leo Grin accompanied Norris Chambers in a tour of the Howard House and listened as Chambers reminisced about Robert E. Howard. To my mind, Friberg’s video is one of the best pieces of its type I’ve seen. To hear Mr. Chambers relate his memories of the Howards is just enthralling. Ben’s video can be found here.

A link to Friberg’s “Cimmeria post” can be found here.

With the news this last week of the sudden and unexpected passing of Robert E. Howard fan and forum member Dan “Painbrush” Goudey, we began discussing ideas to try and do something to honor Dan’s contributions to Robert E. Howard, this forum and the fandom of Howard across the web.

With the theme of this year’s Robert E. Howard Days being ‘The Illustrators of Robert E. Howard’ and Dan being a very talented artist, moderator Deuce Richardson came up with the idea to honor Dan by supporting REH’s Museum through Project Pride with donations in the name of Daniel ‘Painbrush’ Goudey.

Deuce checked with Dan’s fiancée Sheila and Dan’s family – and I confirmed today in person – and they think it is a wonderful way to honor Dan who planned to attend the REH Days celebration this year.

Here’s the 411:

Send a check/money order/cashier check to Project Pride – made out to Project Pride – in the name of Dan “Painbrush’ Goudey (just write his name in the notes section.)

Here’s the address:

Project Pride
P.O. Box 534
Cross Plains, TX 76443

Paypal isn’t an option right now.

Project Pride accepts all major currencies.

Project Pride will collect and keep track of the donations made in Dan’s name. During this years Robert E. Howard Days celebration, there will be a presentation of a check to Project Pride in Dan’s name. We are hoping the amount will be significant and greatly contribute to the legacy of Robert E. Howard.

This begins immediately – please start sending your donations right away. The suddenness of Dan’s passing has taught us all the perils of putting off things until tomorrow. Any amount is greatly appreciated – give as much or as little as you can.

Thank you in advance from all of us moderators/administrators here at the Official Robert E. Howard Forums. Please post any questions/suggestions etc. on this topic. Spread the word across the web – Painbrush Donations to Project Pride!

Project Pride website:

www.crossplainstx.com/howard/museum.htm

Robert E. Foundation website:

www.rehfoundation.org/?page_id=246

I think this is an excellent idea, and I don’t doubt Dan himself would be pleased as punch to know his memory would help preserve the name of his favourite author and inspiration.

By now, Dan “PainBrush” Goudey is well on his journey to whatever spheres lie beyond this world, but his legacy will remain here as long as we remember him.

UPDATE: Rusty Burke reminded me that Paul Herman has generously offered to put donations made in Dan’s name through Paypal, via the REH Foundation, to Project Pride. This will allow peace of mind for those uncomfortable about sending money or checks through the mail.

Remember: you must indicate that the donation is for the PainBrush/Dan Goudey contributions.

Everyone knows, pretty much, about the 1986 trip where the town was visited by Rusty Burke, Vern Clark, Bill Cavalier, Nancy Collins, Mark and Deanna Kimes, Steve Ghilardi, Tom Kovacs, and Graham Flanagan, on the fiftieth anniversary of Howard’s death. It was far from the first time people had come on that pilgrimage, as Leo wrote once, but it was probably the most significant. Eventually Project Pride, the Howard Museum, and Howard Days would all derive from this beginning — but it didn’t happen all at once.

Although I didn’t go on this first trip, I heard much about it; especially how it was impossible to really grasp the isolation of the post oaks and sand rough region without going there myself. So when the next time a trip was planned, I made sure to go. Burke was still in Houston, so that was where we met up. I flew in, only one of two times I ever flew that didn’t involve work. It was 1989 then, in November. They had just bought the Howard House, but not yet done anything with it. The group consisted of Rusty, Vern, Indy, Tim Arney, Gary Adrian, and myself. Though Glenn Lord couldn’t go to Cross Plains with us this time out, I did get to meet him in Houston for the first time, a great and funny guy. I believe we had good weather for the trip, as best I can recall, despite it being November. I can remember sitting on the Howard porch at night, and a stray cat coming up to us, whom we promptly named “Bob.”

We did all the traditional stuff, it seems: visited the house and the library, went to the Howard Paine University and the Brownwood grave, and were feasted by generous locals. As with the first trip, we got fed by Project Pride members Charles and Lou Rodenberger (a tasty chili, instead of the now standard — though wonderful — brisket on Caddo Peak). I remember they had a marvelous library, not what you’d expect from the Cross Plains area. We also met Charlotte Laughlin and her husband, who had done the heavy lifting in determining the books in Howard’s library. Perhaps most unique was a trip to the “other” Caddo Peak (East, not West), which was technically not legal, and decidedly hazardous. I still have a piece of rattlesnake skin I collected there. It was a beautiful sunset view, though, perhaps even more so than the familiar one.

Perhaps the reason this Cross Plains trip has been so overshadowed by the others is that it coincided with the 100th mailing of REHupa, which was a huge event on its own. It will always be a big event for me, however, though I have been back there a few more times, as it was my first.

Howard Days in Cross Plains is just around the corner. Thus and therefore (and especially since I’m unable to attend this year), I find myself yearning for fare of the Texan persuasion. My first trip to Howard Days (in 2006), I stayed over in Dallas the night before. One of my Texan cousins steered me to a little hole-in-the-wall called Lee Harvey’s in a fairly disreputable quarter of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. Excellent burgers, cold beer and billiards (and discussions regarding Dan Brown and the Knights Templar) made for a memorable evening.

Soon after pulling up to the Alla Ray Morris Pavillion in Cross Plains the next day, I savored the hearty fare purveyed by Joan McCowen and the other estimable members of Project Pride. Nachos and chili just do a pilgrim’s soul good, I must say.

The gustatory highpoint (figuratively and literally) of both my trips to Robert E. Howard’s hometown would have to be the Saturday night barbecues at the Caddo Peak Ranch. Do not breath a word of this to my Kansan brethren, but Texan BBQ has it all over KC barbecue. Marjorie Middleton (and many others) put on a mouth-watering spread of Texan proportions, with attendant Lone Star hospitality.

However, my trips to Cross Plains were but the latest of my personal forays into the splendrous fields of Texan cuisine. Ever since the Christmas of ’76, I’ve visited Texas and sampled its culinary wares. Having relatives in the Dallas area helps mightily in that regard. Probably my most memorable visit (in regards to Texan food) was in 1980. In the short week I was there, my uncle took me to the legendary Tolbert’s Chili Parlor (founded by a Texan with the most Howardian moniker of “Frank X. Tolbert”) and a Tex-Mex restaurant (name unremembered) which served a delectable (and still unknown-beyond-Texas, at the time) dish called “fajitas”. Yeah, I thought my Uncle Gary Bradbury was pretty cool.

Robert E. Howard was, by his own admission, a bit of a “gourmand.” Judging from what Rusty Burke cites in “The Gustatory REH,” Howard was not laying claim to a false title. For a small-town Central Texas boy who reached manhood before the Second World War, REH’s tastes in food were wide-ranging (indicative of his far-reaching studies in numerous other areas). In his letters, Howard speaks of his appreciation for Mexican, Italian, German, Creole (and, by extension, Caribbean) cuisines. Such might be more likely expected (in that era) from a well-heeled sophisticate born to a more cosmopolitan clime.

That said and noted, I believe Robert E. Howard would be highly pleased by the latest (July 2009) issue of Saveur magazine, which is on newsstands as we speak. Most fortuitously (considering that Howard Days are just around the corner), the editors and writers of Saveur (several of whom have Texan connections) decided to dedicate their most recent issue to the food-ways of the Lone Star State. To my knowledge, Saveur has never devoted an entire issue, cover to cover, to just one region, state or country (depending on whether you’re a Texan or not, the “state” or “country” designation may be problematic).

So, a singular honor has been granted to Texan cuisine by the finest cooking magazine in print (which Saveur is, in my opinion). Several chapters in the July 2009 issue relate specifically to Robert E. Howard’s opinions and tastes. Here’s a few…

Chapter 1: The Best Beef on Earth

This chapter features a fine two-page photo depicting a herd of Texas Longhorns. Anyone who has read The Collected Letters of Robert E. Howard knows how REH regretted that the Lone Star State was diverted from its destiny of being a “cattle empire.”

Chapter 2: Chuck Wagon Cooking

A fine write-up on the origination and evolution of the chuck wagon, without which the “cowboy lifestyle” that REH so admired would have been even more spartan.

Chapter 7: El Paso

This chapter visits the Enriquez family of restauranteurs. A fine recipe for cheese enchiladas is included (REH’s love of cheese just goes without saying).

Mexican dishes I enjoy, but they don’t agree with me much. However I generally wrestle with them every time I go to the Border. Tamales, enchiladas, tacos, chili con carne to a lesser extent…

Robert E. Howard

Chapter 8: Gulf Oystermen

Saveur interviews Misho Ivic, owner of Misho’s Oyster Company, near Galveston.

Too bad sea-food disagrees with you. Now with me, as with many inland dwellers, it constitutes a rare delicacy. And the word ‘rare’ is quite descriptive. Oysters are about the only sort of sea-food which finds its way this far up-country.

When I get in a sea-port town, I revel in oysters, shrimps, crabs, sea-fish, and the like, to my heart’s content.

Robert E. Howard

Chapter 18: Drinks That Beat the Heat

The “Book Club Sangria” and the “Chico” both seem to be mixed beverages that REH would’ve enjoyed, judging from his letters.

Chapter 21: Superlative Sides

REH’s appreciation for cornbread, well-cooked collard greens and frijoles a la charra is pretty well-attested.

Chapter 22: Vaquero Cooking

Howard liked his grilled cabrito (which is now a “trendy” delicacy).

Tamales, enchiladas, tacos, chili con carne to a lesser extent, barbecued goat-meat, tortillas, Spanish-cooked rice, frijoles — they play the devil with a white man’s digestion, but they have a tang you seldom find in Anglo-Saxon cookery.

Robert E. Howard

Throughout the entire issue, Saveur references places and things near and dear to the hearts of Howardians, including Fredericksburg and the Shiner brewery. This is a truly excellent issue of a quality magazine. Don’t take my word for it. Texas Monthly, the “National Magazine of Texas,” has already rendered its verdict.

Howard’s tastes in food roamed far and wide, much like the fictional protagonists he created. Judging from his letters, when Robert E. Howard traveled (much more widely than some assert), he did not seek to “eat like home” in such “foreign” climes. Instead, he leapt whole-heartedly into the native cuisine. In doing so, he displayed an “intestinal fortitude” that many “ugly American” tourists fail to display to this very day. Sampling “native” cuisine (whether it be in Malibu or Malabar, Pitlochry or Pittsburg) is one of the most (literally) visceral ways to connect with a culture. What you eat is where you live, basically. Howard’s attitude towards such outré fare may be another clue to his ability to realistically depict characters as disparate as Afghan hillmen and Norman peasant girls.