Robert E. Howard Foundation Newsletter Volume 20 Number 2

The Robert E. Howard Foundation Newsletter, Volume 20, Number 2 (Summer 2026) focuses heavily on Howard’s boxing fiction and surviving manuscript material. The centerpiece is a reproduction of the carbon of the final draft of “Alleys of Darkness,” the Sailor Steve Costigan story that was later published as a Dennis Dorgan tale under the Patrick Ervin pseudonym. The issue also reproduces Howard’s own list of story sales showing what he received for “Alleys of Darkness,” along with intriguing notes for a possible football story using several of his boxing characters.

Also included are two letters from Howard to Tevis Clyde Smith, dated July 16, 1925 and April 14, 1926; the letters contain early boxing verse later published as “And Dempsey Climbed into the Ring” and “The Duckers of Crosses.” The issue concludes with book reviews and an illustrated historical note showing 1930s Publisher’s Weekly want ads from readers apparently searching for Howard’s fictional Nameless Cults as though it were a real book.