A world of stories.
A library in your pocket.

What is REH World Library?

REH World Library brings the public catalogues behind REH Writings and REH Publications to your phone or tablet. Follow a title to its textual versions and publication history, explore connected characters, or browse the books and magazines that carried Howard’s writing.

This is a catalogue and discovery app. It does not contain a complete collection of story or letter texts. Its public catalogue updates independently of app releases and remains available offline.

A connected public library — version 0.7.0

Read the public introductions, editorial notes and catalogue facts from REH World in the app, including while offline. Detailed summaries stay closed until you choose to read them. Work cards show recorded genres, and each textual state keeps its own manuscript evidence and connections.

Follow letter participants, related drafts and embedded writings; explore character relationships, groups and exact textual appearances; and inspect publication editions, ISBNs, bibliographic title lists and related publications. Searchable directories for publishers, contributors and series offer more ways through the collection.

Public images, facsimiles and linked documents retain their source links and credits. Images need a connection when first opened; linked external documents open online. Entries without an established Writings identity retain their bibliographic title and source link. Private research records, private collections and restricted reading copies are not included.

Poem openings and letter extracts

From version 0.6.0, Poetry shows the first four recorded opening lines directly in the catalogue. Open a poem to read its public opening with verse line breaks preserved. Letters shows a short preview in the catalogue and the approved public extract on the detail page, including its source credit where recorded. If only public opening words are available, these are labelled separately.

These are the public previews from REH World, saved for offline reading and searchable in the app. New and revised openings and extracts arrive through ordinary catalogue updates. Some records do not yet have a public preview; the app says so when you open them.

Five ways into the library

• Works: stories, titles and textual versions.
• Poetry: poems and their publication history.
• Letters: Howard’s correspondence, searchable by letter date.
• Characters: people, creatures and other entities connected to the writing.
• Publications: books, magazines and editions, searchable by publication year.

Search, explore and save

Version 0.5.1 improves search across the catalogues: matching titles and alternative names appear ahead of records that only mention your words in descriptions or connections. You can omit a leading “The” and use ordinary spaces, hyphens or apostrophes in titles. Search remains available offline, including while catalogue updates download.

Choose a catalogue on the opening screen or open Search. Search by name or title, then narrow the results with the available filters. Active filters appear above the results, where Reset filters clears them.

Each catalogue has its own filters. Works offers type, combined genres, written and published years, and income. Poetry offers section, category and the year of any linked publication. Letters offers direction, correspondent, state and letter dates. Characters offers kind, historicity, species, role and where the entity is found. Publications offers type, format, contents, platform, relationship to REH, publisher, language, year and sorting. Filters are kept separately for each catalogue and are preserved in saved searches.

Save useful searches and favourite entries in Your Collection. Saved searches show their criteria before you open them. Your Collection is stored on your device. Random discoveries on Explore offer fresh starting points into Howard’s worlds.

Phones, tablets and text symbols

From version 0.5.0, the same APK adapts to Android phones and tablets. Tablets have side navigation, a two-column browsing grid, and a comfortable reading width. On wide screens, search controls sit beside the results. Rotate your device to use portrait or landscape.

Small symbols identify the recorded text type: letters, postcards, stories, poetry, notes, outlines, fragments, drafts and essays. Works without a recorded text type use a neutral document symbol; their recorded genres are shown separately. Find the symbol guide in About.

Offline use and updates

The catalogue, search and saved items work offline. Cover images and links to websites need an internet connection.

From version 0.4.0, website catalogue changes arrive without installing another APK. When connected, the app checks when opened or brought back to the foreground, at most once an hour. All five catalogues update together, including public editorial sections, manuscript facts, poem openings, approved letter extracts, directories, filters, book contents and connections. Downloads are checked before replacing the offline library; your favourites and saved searches are kept.

Open About → Update catalogue now to check immediately, or turn automatic catalogue updates off to refresh manually. REH World normally prepares a new catalogue every hour. Scheduled website tasks may run later during quiet periods.

When a new app version is published, the app can notify you and offer its download. You can also open About → Check for app updates. Android may delay background checks, so the manual check is useful whenever you want to check immediately.

Install updates over the existing app to keep your favourites and saved searches. Do not uninstall first. Android asks you to confirm each installation. The download button on this page always leads to the latest published version.

Your data

No advertising, analytics or app login. Favourites and saved searches stay on your device. Firebase delivers update notifications using an app installation identifier; your searches and collection are not sent to Firebase.

Created by Ståle Gismervik · Savage Studios. Catalogue information comes from REH World, with publication source material from Howard Works. Images retain their respective ownership and credits.

Explore REH Writings on the web · Explore REH Publications on the web