The Robert E. Howard Library from Baen Books

[spiderlime]

hello, i was known as daniel on the old forum,

in your learned opinion, would baen books do well to reprint the contents of their seven volumes of howard's works, including "cthulhu the mythos and kindred horrors" or are those volumes considered dated today?

[deuce]

They were certainly awesome for their time. Certain ones have been superseded by the Del Reys.

[johnnypt]

You have to remember this was the era when you couldn't get REH Conan in the bookstores, the Baen series was all we had! The three character centric books (not counting volume 1, never could figure out why they started with Cormac Mac Art) are basically replicated in the Del Rey editions, except the fragments remain unfinished and they threw in Gods of Bal-Sagoth into the Bran volume because of Turlogh O'Brien.

As for the others, I'd have to go story for story, but there may be a few in there that aren't in the Del Reys. I did find it annoying that the Black Stone and Valley of the Worm weren't included in the later volumes, just in the earlier Cthulhu volume. But they're still serviceable enough.

[Jason Aiken]

I feel awfully lucky to have discovered REH through the Del Rey editions, but I did go back and get a few Baen editions at PulpFest and online. I grabbed the Solomon Kane Baen edition so I could have a companion piece to the Del Rey edition, and see how Ramsey Campbell completed the fragments.

[spiderlime]

thanks folks. as for the completed stories in baen, they were reprints of earlier versions, with campbell's being from bantam in 1978. i could swear that the cormac mac art completions by drake and tierny (Itigers of the sea|) were very similar, but i could be wrong. anyhow, as for the del reys, i really feel terrible for saying this, since i know how much work rusty burke must have done for them- but the amount of overlap material |(in the horror stories and the other two howard anthologies they published|) was'nt a good thing to have. far too many good stories were left out because of all the repetitions
again' i'm sorry but i had to say it.

[johnnypt]

I don't think there was any crossover between El Borak, Sword Woman and the horror stories, was there? With the two best of collections, crossover can't be helped. I think those may have been contractually obligated, so I wouldn't hold it against anyone.

The completion of Tigers of the Sea by Drake was new to that edition, Tierney did the completion in the earlier one.

[Ningauble]

Feb 4, 2016 8:19:20 GMT -5 spiderlime said:

 but the amount of overlap material |(in the horror stories and the other two howard anthologies they published|) was'nt a good thing to have. far too many good stories were left out because of all the repetitions
again' i'm sorry but i had to say it.

The overlap in Horror Stories is negligible: "The Children of the Night", "People of the Dark" and "Worms of the Earth" from Bran Mak Morn. There is also "The Fire of Asshurbanipal", but it is not the same version as the one in El Borak so it does not count.
As for the two Best of... collections (not anthologies -- there are no other writers involved), there has to be an overlap. The whole point of a Best of... collection is to gather a selection of the best stuff, so in the case of Howard it would have been monumentally stupid to omit "The Black Stone" and "Pigeons from Hell", for example. They should not be considered part of the series, but an off-shoot of it; a sampler of what REH has to offer. A whole different target audience than the fans.

[Jason Aiken]

I complained about the Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard for that reason on the old forum, but had to eat crow after it came out. Sure there was some double and triple dipping, but it's a great collection.

[samarobrin]

I'm in agreement about all the overlap, particularly in the horror edition, in which some of the really rare tales like "Brazen Peacock" and "Voodoo Room" should have appeared instead.
But it wasn't a new problem. In the 1970s, there would frequently be collections with just one or two stories I needed, padded out with material that could be found anywhere. I began to feel like such a chump purchasing them, that I eventually gave up reading Howard for many years. I figure if I felt that way, others must also, which is why I'm a proponent for inexpensive e-editions or budget omnibus volumes that can keep Howard's material available and seen by the public.

[spiderlime]

indeed, collections rather than anthologies. hopefulloy del rey will pursue howard further with thematic collections such as the celtic stories promised a few years earlier, etc. another horror collection is also welcome.

[johnnypt]

Unfortunately Del Rey was done after their last collection came out. I think Swords of the North is what a Del Rey Celtic collection would've resembled, maybe just adding Spears of Clontarf.