Search Results for: when yar ali khan

Steve Harrison

Steve Harrison is the name of the detective that Howard is known for. Brock Rollins is a name that the editors of Strange Detective Stories came up with for volume 5 number 3 (1934) when two Harrison stories were published in the same issue. He operates mainly on River Street and often on the Chinese quarter.

Not your average detective, Steve Harrison is more likely to tear into a fight wth his fists than a gun. More often than not the stories also strays further afield from standard detective fare, adding weird menace and more adventure. Also, few private eyes could boast of a recurring enemy, never mind one as diabolical and evil as Erlik Khan, a descendent of Genghis Khan.

The Legend of El Borak

An article written by Rick Lai about the Legend of El Borak. Best known for his tales of heroic fantasy, Robert E. Howard (1906-36) also wrote contemporary tales of adventure for the pulps. Howard was influenced by Talbot Mundy, a major writer for Adventure in the 1920’s. Mundy’s heroes were American and British adventurers roving around India and the Middle East. Utilizing Mundy’s settings, Howard fashioned his own band of protagonists. Among Howard’s soldiers of fortune, the most famous is Francis Xavier Gordon.

The Treasures of Tartary

THE TREASURES OF TARTARY.

Kirby O’Donnell is an American treasure hunter, created by Howard, in early-twentieth-century Afghanistan disguised as a Kurdish merchant, “Ali el Ghazi”. Howard only wrote three stories about O’Donnell, one of which was not published within his lifetime.

The Tomb’s Secret

The Tomb’s Secret. Under the name: Patrick Ervin. Featuring Steve Harrison.

The February 1934 issue of STRANGE DETECTIVE STORIES carried two stories by REH: “The Tomb’s Secret” and “Fangs of Gold”. It appears that the story titles were inadvertently switched. Howard’s agent, Otis Adelbert Kline, kept a list of titles and the magazines that purchased them.