Not top-drawer REH, but interesting REH stories nonetheless. ( )

I'm not sure how to shelve this book here. It is full of short stories, letters & poems by him as well as essays, poems & other trivia about REH & his works. I gave this 4 stars simply because it was such a comprehensive view of him, although I thought most of the stories - what I really enjoy - weren't the best, but the more obscure. Reviewing them individually would be too exhausting.

The "Preface" by Glenn Lord was very interesting. His knowledge of REH's works is fantastic & he dedicatedly printed the Howard Collector magazine for a dozen years. What he collected here is what he considers the best of what he published, save other works that were recently published about the same time. IMO, that left some of the more obscure pieces. Some I found very interesting (even the verse) while some left me bewildered.

"The Heathen"
"The Thessalians"
"Ye College Days"
"Cupid vs. Pollux"
"Musings of a Moron"
"Sunday in a Small Town"
"West Is West"
were all humorous in nature. Except for the first, they missed my funny bone. All were short & there were dated references.

"Sentiment" was a very short essay that railed against insensitivity.

"The Beast From the Abyss" is a personal essay about his life with cats. It's wonderful! 5 stars. Why I've never seen this printed before is beyond me.

Other fiction included some horror, historical & "Spanish Gold on Devil Horse" which could have been a self-fantasy of REH's. All of it was quite good.

The poems weren't bad - more to my taste than most, but still I just skimmed them. Poetry just isn't my thing.

The letters were interesting, if only because they were sent to some legends in the industry such as Clark Ashton Smith, H. P. Lovecraft, August Derleth, & more.

At the end is a handful of essays about Howard & his writing. Again, I only skimmed them.

If you're a serious REH collector, I think this is a must-have book, even if you've got every issue of the magazine that led to its publication. I'm only interested in reading most of his stories & I found it wonderful. ( )