“THEM’S FIGHTIN’ WORDS: ROBERT E. HOWARD ON BOXING” is the latest chapbook in The Cimmerian Library, brought to you by the same fine folks who publish THE CIMMERIAN, one of the leading journals devoted to Howard and his work. Ably edited by Chris Gruber, who edited the Bison Books edition of Howard’s BOXING STORIES, this volume collects many of Howard’s boxing discussions from his correspondence with H.P. Lovecraft, Tevis Clyde Smith, and others. These vivid descriptions of fisticuffs witnessed and sometimes engaged in by Howard are told with the same color and excitement of his fictional boxing yarns. (And given the fact that Howard sometimes embellished the facts a little in his letters, there’s probably a certain amount of fiction mixed in here, too.) Of even greater interest to me are his letters concerning his successes and failures in writing boxing stories for the pulp magazines. I find it fascinating how many of these stories were rewritten several times in an attempt to slant them to particular markets. Howard was nothing if not a professional at the writing game and worked diligently at it. I love his comment in a letter to Tevis Clyde Smith from 1932: “A writer either starves or works himself to death. Often both.”
All in all, an excellent volume. Highly recommended.
2 comments:
That's the best comment I've seen about the writing game in a long time.
Referring to a recent post, I watched Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang today and loved it! The banter between the two guys was very reminiscent of Shane Black's Lethal Weapon movies. The girl was to-die-for hot. The whole film was, as you said, like McGinnis covers come to life. On the whole it was great fun and I really enjoyed it. Thanks for the encouragement to see it.
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