Lord of Samarcand and Other Adventure Tales of the Old Orient

478 Pages·2005·1.41 MB·English

by  Robert E. Howard

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3 Lord of Samarcand
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and Other Adventure Tales
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8 of the Old Orient
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12 RobertE.Howard
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23 EditedbyRustyBurke
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PatriceLouinet
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KimE—UniversityofNebraskaPress/Pageiii//LordofSamarcandandOtherAdventureTalesoftheOldOrient/RobertE.Howard
1 ©2005byREHProperties,Inc.
2 Introduction©2005byPatriceLouinet
3 Allrightsreserved.ManufacturedintheUnited
4 StatesofAmerica.SetinFredSmeijers’
QuadraatbyKimEssman.DesignedbyRichard
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Eckersley.Printedandboundby
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EdwardsBrothers,Inc.
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(cid:1)(cid:1)
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LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
9 Howard,RobertErvin,1906–1936.
10 LordofSamarcandandotheradventuretales
11 oftheoldOrient/RobertE.Howard;
12 editedbyRustyBurkewithanintroductionby
13 PatriceLouinet. p.cm.
isbn0-8032-2422-2(cl.:alkalinepaper)– [-4], (4)
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isbn0-8032-7355-x(pbk.:alkalinepaper)
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1.Orient–Sociallifeandcustoms–Fiction.
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2.Adventurestories,American. i.Burke, Lines: 65 to 118
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KimE—UniversityofNebraskaPress/Pageiv//LordofSamarcandandOtherAdventureTalesoftheOldOrient/RobertE.Howard
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contents
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6 IntroductionbyPatriceLouinet vii
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Tales
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RedBladesofBlackCathay 3
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(WithTravisClydeSmith)
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HawksofOutremer 32
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TheBloodofBelshazzar 60
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TheSowersoftheThunder 89
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LordofSamarcand 129 [-5], (5)
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Timur-lang 165
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TheLionofTiberias 166
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TheShadowoftheVulture 195 Lines: 118 to 202
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GatesofEmpire 234
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TheRoadoftheEagles 270 0.2pt PgVar
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20 HawksoverEgypt 306 ———
21 TheRoadofAzrael 344 Normal Page
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23 TheSlavePrincess
24 (Synopsis) 385
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25 TheSlavePrincess
26 (Unfinisheddraft) 387
27 TwoagainstTyre
28 (Unfinisheddraft) 407
29 TheTrackofBohemund
30 (Unfinisheddraft) 421
31 TheShadowoftheHun
32 (Unfinisheddraft) 439
33 “HeknewdeBracy...”
34 (Untitledfragment) 455
35 “ThewindfromtheMediterranean...”
36 (Untitledfragment) 456
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Contents
1 RecapofHowardLamb’s“The
2 WolfChaser” 457
3 “ThePersianshadallfled...
4 (Untitleddraft) 458
5 SourceAcknowledgments 461
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patrice louinet
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Introduction
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8 “Thereisnoliterarywork,tome,halfaszestfulasrewritinghistoryin
9 the guise of fiction. I wish I was able to devote the rest of my life to
10 that kind of work. I could write a hundred years and still there would
11 bestoriesclamoringtobewritten,bythescores.Everypageofhistory
12 teemswithdramasthatshouldbeputonpaper.Asingleparagraphmay
13 bepackedwithactionanddramaenoughtofillawholevolumeoffiction
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14 work,”explainedRobertE.Howardin1933.Heimmediatelyaddedthat
15 he“couldnevermakealivingwritingsuchthings,though;themarkets
16 aretooscanty,withrequirementstoonarrow,andittakesmesolongto
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17 completeone.”Indeed,by1933Howard’shistoricalfictionwasbehind
18 him; between 1930 and 1933 he had completed only eleven Oriental ———
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19 tales.Severalofthese,however,areregularlymentionedonlistsofhis
20 bestfiction.Itisnocoincidencethatthosefouryearsalsocorrespondto ———
21 thedatesofpublicationoftheFarnsworthWright–editedpulpmagazine Normal Page
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23 FarnsworthWright,aseditorofWeirdTales,theera’smostinfluential
24 weirdfictionmagazine,hadinlargemeasurecontributedtotheascension
[-7], (7)
25 ofHoward’scareer.UnderWright’stutelage,Howardblossomedfroman
26 amateurTexaswritertooneofthemagazine’smostimportantcontribu-
27 tors.ItwaspartlythankstoWright’swillingnesstolethisauthorsexplore
28 newformsoffictionthatHowardwasallowedtodevelopthestoriesof
29 KullofAtlantisandlaterofConantheCimmerianwhichweresomarkedly
30 differentandoriginal.InJune1930,whenWrightinformedHowardthat
31 thecompanywaslaunchingOrientalStories,henaturallyaskedtheTexan
32 tocontribute.Howardwassufficientlyinterestedatthisprospecttocome
33 back home from vacation to start working on a tale, or so he wrote a
34 friend.Howardhadbeeninterestedinhistoricalfictionsinceatleast1921,
35 whenhediscoveredAdventure,thebestadventurefictionmagazineofits
36 time.ItwasinthepagesofthismagazinethatHowardfirstencountered
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Introduction
1 thewritingsofseveralauthorswhoweretoinfluencehishistoricalfiction,
2 most notably Harold Lamb. However, Howard had never succeeded in
3 selling fiction to Adventure, and Wright’s proposition must have been a
4 welcomeone.
5 After a few false starts, and after writing an adventure story set in
6 an eastern locale, Howard hired his friend Tevis Clyde Smith to do the
7 researchonhisfirsthistoricaltale,“RedBladesofBlackCathay.”Soon
8 after these two stories had been accepted, Howard completed his first
9 soloOrientalstory.Heevidentlyappreciated–andtookadvantageof–
10 thecreativefreedomheknewhecouldfindinaWright-editedmagazine.
11 Commentingonthatstory,hewrote:“IlatelysoldataletoOrientalStories
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inwhichIcreatedthemostsombercharacterIhaveyetattempted.The
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storyiscalled‘HawksofOutremer,’andIgot$120forit.Thecharacteris [-8], (8)
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CormacFitzgeoffrey....OneofthemainthingsIlikeaboutFarnsworth
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Wright’smagazinesisthatyoudon’thavetomakeyourheroessuchutter
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saints.ItookCormacFitzgeoffreyintotheEastonaCrusadetoescapehis Lines: 244 to 262
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enemiesandamconsideringwritingaseriesoftalesabouthim.”
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Howard’s series about the exploits of Cormac Fitzgeoffrey was an 7.69997pt PgVar
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abortive one, as only one other tale was completed (a third was begun
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butleftunfinished).ThisisaninterestingfeatureofHoward’sOriental
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tales. Although he is best known for his series centered on characters
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suchasKull,Conan,BranMakMorn,orSolomonKane,inthiscasehe
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soon realized that the times, places, and historical events that held his
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interestwerefartoonumerousandscatteredforasinglecharacter;the [-8], (8)
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possibilitiesweretoointerestingtoignore.In1931,justaftercompleting
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“TheSowersoftheThunder,”hewroteafriendaboutpossiblesubjects
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forOrientaltales:
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29 AndBabartheTigerwhoestablishedtheMogulruleinIndia–and
30 theimperialphaseinthelifeofBaibarsthePanther,thesubjectof
31 mylaststory–andtheriseoftheOttomans–andtheconquestof
32 ConstantinoplebytheFifthCrusade–andthesubjugationoftheTurks
33 bytheArabsinthedaysofAbuBekr–andthegradualsupplanting
34 oftheArabmastersbytheirTurkishslaveswhichculminatedinthe
35 conquest of Asia Minor and Palestine by the Seljuks – and the rise
36 of Saladin – and the final destruction of Christian Outremer by Al
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Introduction
1 Kalawun–andthefirstCrusade–GodfreyofBouillon,Baldwinof
2 Boulogne,Bohemund–SigurdtheJorsala-farer–Barbarossa–Coeur
3 deLion.Yegods,Icouldwriteacenturyandstillhaveonlytappedthe
4 reservoirofdramaticpossibilities.IwishtoHellIhadadozenmarkets
5 forhistoricalfiction–I’dneverwriteanythingelse.
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From mid-1931 to late 1932, Howard wrote the best of his Oriental
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tales, all aimed at Farnsworth Wright’s magazine. “The Sowers of the
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Thunder”waswritteninJune1931,“LordofSamarcand”aroundOctober
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ofthatyear,“TheLionofTiberias”inJune1932,and“TheShadowofthe
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Vulture” in the fall of 1932. The other stories in this volume were also
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writtenaboutthesametimebutwereeitherleftunfinishedorrejectedby
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Wrightandsoldonlyyearslater.
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ReadingthesestoriesandexaminingHoward’slistofthesubjectsand [-9], (9)
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characters that interested him, one can see the strong affinity between
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Howard’sandHaroldLamb’sfiction.Inthetalesofbothmenthefavorite
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subjectistheconfrontationbetweentheEastandtheWest.Whetherthe
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23 ItwasthusnotacoincidencethatHoward’sfirstattemptatwritingan
24 OrientalstorywascontemporarytohisreadingLamb’s“TheWolfChaser”
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25 (AdventureMagazine,April30,1922).Lamb’staledealswithanexilewho
26 leavesChristendom,tryingtofindreliefinthelandoftheTatars,fighting,
27 dyingandfindingredemptioninthewarswhichtearthoselands–themes
28 dear to Howard’s Oriental stories. The Texan first wrote a short recap
29 ofLamb’sstory,thenproceededtowriteashortstory,orratheroutline
30 of a story, which apparently didn’t go beyond the second page. These
31 fascinatingdocumentswereidentifiedassuchonlyveryrecently(theyare
32 notlistedinTheLastCelt,GlennLord’sauthoritativebiographyofHoward)
33 andarepublishedinthisvolumeforthefirsttime.
34 OneshouldnotmistakeHoward’sconceptionofthisfrontierforthatof
35 Kipling,however:thelinedrawnbytheTexanissignificantlymuddierand
36 darker.Howard’svisionisapessimisticone,tosaytheleast.HisCrusades
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