Box

Letters, Biographies and Manuscripts

• 1921-1931 (Creation)

17 folders

S1-2/1 to S1-2/8:

• Letters and Poems to Tevis Clyde Smith from Robert E. Howard from June 8, 1923, to circa 1934. (118 items, 337 pages between 8 folders)

S1-2/9: Truett Vinson

• Probably the first friend that Howard made in Brownwood. It was Vinson who introduced Smith to Howard. Vinson published his amateur journal The Toreador to which Howard contributed. Vinson was also active in The Junto, the circulating journal of several writers, including Booth Mooney, Harold Preece, Lenore Preece, Smith, et al. These letters from Vinson to Smith consists of seven pages, dated in 1921, 1925 and 1928. (7 pages, 4 letters).

S1-2/10: Herbert Klatt (1907-1928)

• Klatt was a farm boy from Hamilton County, Texas who was a strong follower of the Lone Star Scout program and their amateur papers. From an examination of his letters to Smith, he was extremely well-read and was a member of The Junto. He entered a sanitarium in early 1928 and died in May, presumably of tuberculosis. After his death, the members of The Junto planned a tribute volume to Klatt, but it never came to fruition.
• Eleven letters dating from May 27, 1925, to July 12, 1927, written from Klatt to Smith, one letter from Truett Vinson to Smith relating to Klatt's death and a letter from the Klatt family to Smith, dated May 18, 1928, thanking him for flowers for Herbert's grave. These letters were the basis of an article about Klatt written by Glenn Lord for The Dark Man: The Journal of Robert E. Howard Studies, No. 1, August 1990.

S1-2/11: Harold Preece (1906-1992)

• Preece and Howard first met in Austin in 1927. Preece was a journalist and writer. His books deal primarily with the historical events of Texas and included Living Pioneers, Lone Star Man, and The Dalton Gang. (100 pages)

S1-2/12: Lenore Preece

• Sister to Harold Preece, Lenore took over active editorship of The Junto from 1928-1930 when the periodical died a natural death. (30 pages)

S1-2/13: Booth Mooney (1912-1977)

• Editor of The Junto until 1928. He went on to work as a journalist, served in the Air Corps in World War II, and became an assistant to Lyndon B. Johnson. He was the author of ten books. (13 pages)

S1-2/14: Letters from Alvin Earl Perry [?] to Tevis Clyde Smith, 1930-1931

S1-2/15: Letter to and from unknown persons, Undated

S1-2/16: Manuscript, Images out of the Sky

• A Volume of Verse by Tevis Clyde Smith, Robert E. Howard, and Lenore Preece. This is the original manuscript submitted by Smith to Christopher Publishing House in Boston Massachusetts and returned to Smith with a rejection letter dated January 11, 1932. The manuscript consists of 44 pages typed on one side only. Each of the three authors typed out their own poems which Smith submitted. The tattered envelope is also present.
• Smith provided six poems, two of which he later included in his book of poetry Images Out of the Sky, that he self-published in 1966. Lenore Preece provided eighteen poems and Robert E. Howard provided sixteen poems. Most if not all the Howard poems were later published in various publications. On page 331 of his bibliography of Howard, The Last Celt, Glenn Lord cites the manuscript but did now know what it contained.

S1-2/17: Manuscript, Diogenes of Today by Robert E. Howard and Clyde Smith (11 pages typed)

• At a later date, Smith inserted Tevis in front of Clyde and also added a copyright date of 1969 at the bottom edge of the front sheet. This story was published in the book Red Blades of Black Cathay by Robert E. Howard and Tevis Clyde Smith by Donald M. Grant in 1971 as the second story in that volume. In the introduction, Smith says that he and Howard wrote Diogenes in 1924 or 1925. "The story worked itself out as we took turns at the typewriter." Smith ultimately sent the story out but it was returned rejected. Only years later did Grant accept the story.