Two Against Tyre is a chapbook published in 1975 by Dennis McHaney, containing the short story of the same name by Robert E. Howard. The story, featuring the lesser-known character Eithriall the Gaul, was originally written in the 1930s but remained unpublished until this edition. The tale is steeped in Howard’s signature historical adventure style, celebrating the pageantry of medieval knighthood, the exoticism of the Orient, the ferocity of the invaders from the steppes, the mysteries of the seraglio, and the rise and fall of great dynasties.

This chapbook was published in an edition of 1,500 copies, with 600 copies printed on deluxe 70 lb. Strathmore Artlaid paper as a numbered deluxe edition. It was saddle-stapled with wraparound covers, and page numbers do not include the covers. The front and back covers, as well as the interior illustrations, were done by artist Steve Fabian, although there were delays in production as Fabian was transitioning to professional illustration work at the time. The deluxe edition had already sold out before the art was ready, teaching McHaney an important lesson about not advertising items before all materials were in hand.

Library-Bound Copies and Discovery

In a curious twist, at least two copies of Two Against Tyre were acquired by a university library in Memphis, Tennessee, specifically for their Mississippi Valley Collection, a special room dedicated to books, media, poetry, and art by local creators. McHaney had worked at the original library in the art department during the 1980s, and discovered one of the bound volumes during a library book sale around 1988. According to library records, the books had been purchased from noted bookseller L. W. Curry, who bought 20–30 copies of each McHaney publication and received a dealer discount (selling Tyre, with a retail price of $2, for $8 each). The university had the two copies bound in standard cloth library binding — a durable format that replaced the saddle staples with stitching.

McHaney was floored to see his small press publication treated with such permanence and archival attention. One of the two copies had been circulated and eventually discarded; the other presumably still resides in the Memphis library’s holdings. McHaney personally signed both hardbound copies on the day he discovered them. He later observed that one seller had tried to pass off a second printing as a deluxe edition by adding a hand-written number — something he caught only because the number used was from a batch he had kept for himself. Such stories only add to the collectibility of the piece.

Contents

• Two Against Tyre • (1970) • short story by Robert E. Howard

Notes

Published in an edition of 1,500 copies
600 copies were printed on deluxe 70 lb. Strathmore Artlaid paper in a numbered deluxe edition.
Saddle-stapled. Wraps. Page numbers do not include covers.
2 copies were hardbound by the university library in Memphis, Tennessee.