First Cuts – the Drafts and Fragments of Breckinridge Elkins

First Cuts: The Drafts and Fragments – Breckinridge Elkins is a four-volume hardcover boxed set (over 1200 pages!) collecting every surviving draft Robert E. Howard wrote featuring Breckinridge Elkins, including the short stories and the novel A Gent from Bear Creek.

The set also includes five scholarly essays by Patrice Louinet, Mark Finn, Dierk Günther, Jeffrey Shanks, and Paul Herman.

For a full table of contents go to reh.world.

Each volume features a dust jacket with gold foil stamping and sprayed edges. Printed on demand in the UK. Estimated delivery time: approximately 4–5 weeks. See more details below.

First Cuts: The Drafts and Fragments – Breckinridge Elkins

Boxed Set – 4 Hardcover Volumes

For the first time, every surviving draft Robert E. Howard wrote featuring Breckinridge Elkins is collected in a single four-volume hardcover boxed set.

This edition includes:

• All extant drafts of the Breckinridge Elkins short stories

• All surviving drafts of the novel A Gent from Bear Creek

• Variants, alternate passages, and unfinished material

• Illustrations from the pulp magazines

• Five essays by Patrice Louinet, Mark Finn, Dierk Günther, Jeffrey Shanks, and Paul Herman

Rather than presenting the finalized magazine texts, this set focuses on the development of the stories — revisions, structural changes, and textual differences across drafts — offering a documentary look at Howard’s creative process.

Production Details

• Four hardcover volumes

• Dust jackets with gold foil stamping on the titles (dust jacket only)

• Sprayed page edges

• Presented together in a custom box

• Printed in the United Kingdom

This is a carefully produced edition, but it is not a limited press or hand-bound volume. It is manufactured using modern print-on-demand production.

Important Ordering Information

This is a print-on-demand product.

• Orders cannot be canceled once they have been submitted for printing.

• Returns are not accepted unless the set arrives damaged or defective.

• Estimated production and delivery time is approximately 4–5 weeks.
  (Actual delivery time may vary depending on printer workload and shipping destination.)

Because each boxed set is printed specifically for the customer, we do not keep inventory and cannot accept discretionary returns.

If your order arrives damaged, please contact us and we will resolve the issue promptly.

REH Foundation Members

Members of the Robert E. Howard Foundation may apply their membership discount code to this product.

We will also be releasing simpler and more affordable editions at a later date, in both paperback and hardcover, without premium features such as gold foiling on the dust jackets, sprayed edges, color pages, and, of course, the box.