First Cuts – The Hardboiled Manuscripts
$99.00 boxed set
Individual hardcover volumes: $44.99 each, without the box.
The two-volume hardcover slipcased set and individual hardcover volumes are awaiting approval of the publisher’s proof copy. They are not yet available to order.
First Cuts: The Drafts and Fragments — The Hardboiled Manuscripts
The Hardboiled Manuscripts opens the workshop behind Robert E. Howard’s detective and crime fiction. Compiled and transcribed by Ståle Gismervik, these two volumes bring together surviving synopses, successive drafts, partial revisions, false starts, and unfinished texts.
Part of First Cuts: The Drafts and Fragments, the collection is a two-volume companion to Steve Harrison’s Casebook in the REH Foundation Press Ultimate Edition series. It follows the development of Howard’s stories through their surviving manuscript states, with editorial notes describing the typescripts and their relationships.
Volume 1
The first volume collects surviving manuscript material for eight Steve Harrison stories: Lord of the Dead, The Mystery at Tannernoe Lodge, The Teeth of Doom, The Black Moon, The Voice of Death, People of the Serpent, The House of Suspicion, and The Names in the Black Book.
Gismervik’s foreword, A Field He Detested, places the material in the context of Howard’s career and the detective pulp market. The paperback contains 588 pages.
More information and table of contents for Volume 1 on reh.world.
Volume 2
The second volume continues with Steve Harrison in The Silver Heel, the untitled synopsis beginning “Steve Harrison Received a Wire . . .,” and Graveyard Rats, then turns to the detective partners Brent Kirby and Butch Gorman in The Hand of the Black Goddess and Sons of Hate.
Dierk Günther’s essay, Barbarism and Detective Fiction: REH’s Steve Harrison Stories, examines Howard’s approach to the pulp detective tradition. The paperback contains 510 pages.
More information and table of contents for Volume 2 on reh.world.
About the Texts
Prepared from Howard’s surviving typescripts, the edition retains spelling, punctuation, unusual wording, and textual irregularities with minimal editorial interference. Missing passages and incomplete drafts are identified openly. On Editing Robert E. Howard: A Note on Language, Style, and Fidelity explains the transcription principles.
Choose Your Edition
- Paperback Volume 1: full-colour interior, matte cover, 6 × 9 inches, 588 pages. ISBN 9781955446846. Available now — $34.99.
- Paperback Volume 2: full-colour interior, matte cover, 6 × 9 inches, 510 pages. ISBN 9781955446860. Available now — $34.99.
- Collector’s Edition: two hardcover volumes together in a slipcase ($99.00), or individual hardcover volumes without the box ($44.99 each). Coming soon.
Shipping is additional. The paperbacks are printed on demand. The Collector’s Edition will be available after the publisher approves the proof copy.
Product images are digital mockups.
The Hardboiled Manuscripts collects Robert E. Howard’s surviving detective and crime drafts, synopses, and fragments in two volumes, compiled and transcribed by Ståle Gismervik. Full-colour paperbacks are available now at $34.99 each. The Collector’s Edition is coming soon.
