The Bear Creek Omnibus

This book was supposed to be published by The Robert E. Howard Foundation Press, but this was never done. Since the project was canceled, Dennis McHaney made this a personal project. He made only 3 books in hardcover. Only 2 of these 3 have dustjackets. One of these (with a dustjacket) was traded to Jeffrey Shanks (a collector friend), one was given to Glenn Lord and the third was kept by McHaney himself until it was listed on a 3-day eBay auction. It went for $840 on August 3, 2022. 

The book contains all of Howard’s humorous westerns, all the Breckinridge Elkins, Pike Bearfield, and more. The stories are from the original magazine version of the stories. A Gent From Bear Creek is the text from the Herbert Jenkins first edition, published in Great Britain in 1937. There is also previously unpublished material in this volume. Contains the following first appearances: “A Elkins Never Surrenders” (early draft)
Untitled fragment “. . . throat under his lower jaw, and I had . . .”

The Glenn Lord copy was sold for $70 at the Windy City Pulp and Paper Convention in 2022.

Hero of Bear Creek

Sons of Bear Creek

  • 295 • A Gent from the Pecos • non-genre • [Pike Bearfield] • (1936) • short story by Robert E. Howard (variant of “Shave that Hawg!“)
  • 309 • Gents on the Lynch • non-genre • [Pike Bearfield] • (1936) • short story by Robert E. Howard
  • 323 • The Riot at Bucksnort • non-genre • [Pike Bearfield] • (1936) • short story by Robert E. Howard
  • 336 • While Smoke Rolled • non-genre • [Breckinridge Elkins] • (1956) • novelette by Robert E. Howard
  • 347 • The Diablos Trail • non-genre • [Pike Bearfield] • (1983) • short fiction by Robert E. Howard
  • 353 • A Man-Eating Jeopard • non-genre • [Buckner J. Grimes] • (1936) • short story by Robert E. Howard
  • 366 • Knife River Prodigal • non-genre • [Buckner J. Grimes] • (1937) • short story by Robert E. Howard (variant of Knife-River Prodigal)
  • 379 • A Ringtailed Tornado • non-genre • (1944) • short story by Robert E. Howard
  • 392 • The Curly Wolf of Sawtooth • non-genre • (1936) • short story by Robert E. Howard

A Gent From Bear Creek – Herbert Jenkins Version

  • 405 • A Gent from Bear Creek • non-genre • [Breckinridge Elkins] • (1937) • novel by Robert E. Howard

Notes

Some of the information below is from Dennis McHaney but he says he can’t remember 13 years back in time. So this is what I have:

Only 3 hardcover books were made and only 2 of these exist with a dust jacket. Hardcover: Limited to three copies (one test copy and two corrected copies).

Trade paperback: The exact number of copies is not known, but it is believed to be less than 10 copies. There were according to McHaney about 10 softcovers, and most of these were given away. One copy was used as a prize for the first poetry reading contest at Howard Days. Patrice Louinet and Paul Herman both have a copy.

This book was prepared for publication by The REH Foundation and about the time it was finished, the owners of the REH rights thought they had a paperback deal going for Breckinridge Elkins and the project was canceled. No paperback deal materialized.

The cover artist is not credited (it is a Frazetta painting).
No ISBN, no price.

The stories are all taken from the original pulps where available, or from typescripts if the pulps were not available to the editor/publisher. Exceptions:
1. “A Gent from Bear Creek” (novel) was taken from the Herbert Jenkins edition of the book.
2. “Mayhem and Taxes”, “The Peaceful Pilgrim” and “A Elkins Never Surrenders” were taken from The Summitt County Journal.

“A Gent from Bear Creek” is the Herbert Jenkins version of the made-up novel.

Publisher:Dennis McHaney
Year :2009
Book No. :None
Edition :1st
Format :Hardcover with dust jacket (5.5 x 7.8 inches)
Pages :248
Cover :FC: Blurry Frank Frazetta cover – not credited – BC: Cropped image of the original Jenkins novel
Illustrations :Frontispiece illustration from “A Gent from the Pecos” from ARGOSY, October 3, 1936. The artist is unknown.

 

ISFDB Howard Works

 

 

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The Bear Creek Omnibus

The Pride of Bear Creek is a collection of Western short stories by Robert E. Howard. It was first published in 1966 by Donald M. Grant, Publisher, Inc. Grant also published an edition in 1977 with illustrations by Tim Kirk.

Tags: Breckinridge Elkins / Dennis McHaney / Glenn Lord / Robert E. Howard