In the Forest of Villefère

Introduction

First published in Weird Tales, August 1925, In the Forest of Villefère tells of de Montour’s passage through a supposedly haunted forest. There he comes upon a most unusual traveling companion.

Howard got $8 for this short story, only 4 pages long. This information is gathered from a letter Howard wrote to his friend Tevis Clyde Smith circa February 1929 (letter #101). 

In a letter (#33) to Tevis Clyde Smith on October 9th 1925, he wrote:

By the way, I sold another story, same company. “Wolfshead,” twenty-five pages, $40.00. After reading it, I’m not altogether sure I wasn’t off my noodler when I wrote it. I sure mixed slavers, duelists, harlots, drunkards, maniacs and cannibals reckless. The narrator is a libertine and a Middle Ages fop; the leading lady is a harlot, the hero is a lunatic, one of the main characters is a slave trader, one a pervert, one a drunkard, no they’re all drunkards, but one is a gambler, one a duelist and one a cannibal slave.

Farnsworth Wright, editor of Weird Tales writes as follows, “Received a letter from a reader in Brownwood, Clyde Smith, (perhaps you know him), and he says,” etc.

He went on to say that my story “Villefrere” went good with the readers and adds “Personally I think it was a gem.”

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