Introduction
“Red Shadows” was REH’s first published Solomon Kane story (Howard’s original title was “Solomon Kane”). It tells a tale of wide scope, one which takes place over many years and in many countries. It’s a tale of unrelenting dogged persistence as Kane spends years of his life seeking to avenge the death of a complete stranger.
First published in Weird Tales, August 1928. Howard got $80 for this story. The story was also sent to Argosy, but it was rejected.
In a letter (#062) to Tevis Clyde Smith in the week of February 20th, 1928, he talks about this story which was originally titled simply ‘Solomon Kane‘:
Strange thing: I had a long mss. with the Argosy-Allstory and last night I dreamed that I got it back together with a long personal letter from the editor, written in pen and ink. Sure enough I did. He said in some places the story was “very good” and in some places “rotten!” He says that I have the “stuff” if I “get steered right” so therefore he is giving me the reasons it was turned down, in detail. He did, very concisely and very clearly. He says as the setting was the Middle Ages, I had too much “Eugene O’Neill jungle stuff” in the story. (He’s not accusing me of plagiarizing.) The main reason for non sale was “unexplained miracles.” The reason for this is, I wrote this story for the Weird Tales originally and then decided to try my luck with Argosy-Allstory, just as it was. So, if a despised weird tale, whose whole minor tone is occultism, can create that much interest with a magazine which never publishes straight weird stuff, I don’t feel so much discouraged. He apologizes for having kept the mss. so long, saying that he wished to write me a personal letter and therefore kept the mss. on his desk two weeks before he found time; he says they have been getting about 100 mss. a day.
And in another letter (#066) circa March 1928, we learn that he has sold the story to Weird Tales:
The Weird Tales took that mss. the Argosy editor commented upon, offering me $80. The Weird Tales editor took it in its original form, for I didn’t change it any, in spite of the defects pointed out by the Argosy editor, and says that he thinks he’ll give me front page and cover illustration. He asks me to change the title “Solomon Kane” however and I can’t seem to think of a good title.
Circa June 1928 Howard writes a handwritten letter (#074) to Tevis telling him:
Next month if nothing happens the Weird Tales publishes my “Red Shadows” which according to the announcement is “Red Shadows on black trails — thrilling adventures and blood-freezing perils — savage magic and strange sacrifices to the Black God the story moves swiftly and without the slightest let-down in interest through a series of startling episodes and wild adventure to end in a smashing climax in a glade of an African forest. A story that grips the reader and carries him along in utter fascination by its eery succession of strange and weird happenings.” The announcement does it a fair amount of justice I suppose.
And he also writes Harold Preece about his story circa June 1928:
This issue of Weird Tales there is an announcement of a story scheduled for next month, “Red Shadows,” which I submitted to Argosy-Allstory under the title of “Solomon Kane,” and was rejected. The announcement gives it justice in a fair manner. Also a rime in this issue, “The Gates of Nineveh.” Read it; it’s good.
In 1930, circa October Howard again mentions ‘Red Shadows’ in a letter (#143) to H.P. Lovecraft:
What a black and bloody land the West Coast of Africa is! The chronicles of the fleeting black empires read like nightmares. I tried, in “Red Shadows” to create a slight sense of the bestial inhumaness of the country, but failed utterly. It must be something that a man must see in order to get a complete idea of it. Some day I intend to go and see it at first-hand.
And we’re in for a treat when Howard writes a letter to Alvin Earl Perry, circa early 1935:
The first character I ever created was Francis Xavier Gordon, El Borak, the hero of “The Daughter of Erlik Khan” (Top-Notch), etc. I don’t remember his genesis. He came to life in my mind when I was about ten years old. The next was Bran Mak Morn, the Pictish king (“The Kings of the Night”, etc., Weird Tales). He was the result of my discovery of the Pictish race, when reading some historical works in a public library in New Orleans at the age of thirteen. Physically he bore a striking resemblance to El Borak. Solomon Kane (“Red Shadows”, etc., Weird Tales) I created when I was in high school, at the age of about sixteen, but, like the others I have mentioned, several years passed before I put him on paper. He was probably the result of an admiration for a certain type of cold, steely-nerved duelist that existed in the sixteenth century.
Alternate title:
Published in:
- WEIRD TALES VOLUME 12 NUMBER 2, Popular Fiction Publishing Company, August 1928.
- RED SHADOWS, Grant, 1968 (red binding)
- RED SHADOWS, Grant, 1971 (gray binding)
- SOLOMON KANE, Centaur, February 1971 (60c)
- SOLOMON KANE, Haddock, 1972 (n.d., not authorized)
- SOLOMON KANE, Centaur, 2nd, 1974 (nd) ($1.25)
- TERRA FANTASY 11: DEGEN DER GERECHTIGKEIT, Erich Pabel Verlag KG, August 1975 (German)
- SOLOMON KANE, Centaur, 3rd, 1976 (nd) (“The Illustrated Edition”)
- RED SHADOWS, Grant, 1978
- TERRA FANTASY 11: DEGEN DER GERECHTIGKEIT, Erich Pabel Verlag KG, April 1978 2nd printing (German)
- SOLOMON KANE: SKULLS IN THE STARS, Bantam, December 1978
- SOLOMON KANE, Fanucci Editore, September 1979 (Italian)
- SOLOMON KANE, NeO, March 1981 (French)
- SOLOMON KANE, NeO, July 1983 (French, 2nd printing)
- SOLOMON KANE, NeO, July 1985 (French, 3rd printing)
- THE SWORD OF SOLOMON KANE #1, Marvel Comics, September 1985 (graphic adaptation)
- SOLOMON KANE, NeO, May 1988 (French, 4th printing)
- SOLOMON KANE, Fleuve Noir, September 1991 (French)
- CZERWONE CIENIE, Wydawnictwo PiK, 1992 (Polish)
- DELIRIUM TREMENS Nº 3, Club Alpino Guadarrama, 1992 (Spanish)
- YÖN KUNINKAAT, WSOY, 1992 (Finnish)
- CYBER FANTASY 2, Alberto Santos, June 1993 (Spanish)
- A KOPONYAK HOLDJA, Cherubion Könyvkiadó, 1993 (Hungarian)
- PURITÁN, Leonardo, 1993 (Czech)
- LAS AVENTURAS DE SOLOMON KANE, Anaya, November 1994 (Spanish)
- TUTTI I CICLI FANTASTICI – I CICLI DI SOLOMON KANE E DI KIRBY BUCHNER, Newton Compton Editori, April 1995 (Italian)
- LE ALI NOTTURNE, Newton Compton Editori, June 1995 (Italian)
- SOLOMON KANE, Baen, November 1995 (restored text)
- СOЛOMOH КEЙH (SOLOMON KEJN / SOLOMON KANE), Азбука-Терра (Azbuka-Terra / ABC-Terra), 1997 (Russian)
- LE AVVENTURE DI SOLOMON KANE, Editrice Nord, November 1998 (Italian)
- THE SAVAGE TALES OF SOLOMON KANE, Wandering Star, 1998
- THE BLADE OF FATE, North-West, 1998 (Russian)
- SOLOMON KANE, Laser Books, 2001 (Czech)
- SOLOMON KANE IL GIUSTIZIERE, Editrice Nord, May 2002 (Italian)
- THE SAVAGE TALES OF SOLOMON KANE, Del Rey, July 2004
- SHADOW KINGDOMS, Wildside Press, December 2004
- THE SAVAGE TALES OF SOLOMON KANE, Science Fiction Book Club, February 2005
- SHADOW KINGDOMS, Wildside Press, November 2005
- THE WEIRD WRITINGS OF ROBERT E. HOWARD Volume 1, Girasol Collectables, January 2006
- ミステリマガジン2006年8月( MISUTERIMAGAJIN 2006 NEN 8 GATSU) (MYSTERY MAGAZINE AUGUST 2006), Hayakawa Publishing Corporation , August 2006 (Japanese)
- SHADOW KINGDOMS, Wildside Press, November 2006 (2nd printing)
- THE ‘SOLOMAN CRANE’ STORIES, Echo Library, March 2007
- SHADOW KINGDOMS: THE WEIRD WORKS OF ROBERT E. HOWARD Volume 1, Audio Realms, April 2007, (audio)
- THE RIGHT HAND OF DOOM AND OTHER TALES OF SOLOMON KANE, Wordsworth Editions, April 2007 (as “Solomon Kane”)
- SHADOW KINGDOMS, Cosmos Books, July 2007
- CRIMSON SHADOWS: THE BEST OF ROBERT E. HOWARD VOLUME 1, Del Rey, August 2007
- PULP REPLICA: WEIRD TALES V12N2, Girasol Collectables, November 2007
- SOLOMON KANE DEHŞETENGIZ SERÜVENLER, Minima Yayınları, October 2008 (Turkish)
- SOLOMON KANE, L’INTÉGRALE, Bragelonne, August 2008 (French)
- THE COLLECTED STORIES OF SOLOMON KANE, Ignacio Hills Press, December 2008
- SOLOMON KANE’I LOOD, Fantaasia, 2008 (Estonian)
- SOLOMON KANE TÖRTÉNETEI, Tuan Kiadó, 2008 (Hungarian)
- CRIMSON SHADOWS: THE BEST OF ROBERT E. HOWARD VOLUME 1, Subterranean Press, November 2009
- THE CHRONICLES OF SOLOMON KANE, Dark Horse Books, December 2009 (graphic adaptation)
- СОЛОМОН КЕЙН. КЛИНОК СУДЬБЫ (SOLOMON KANE. BLADE OF DOOM), Eksmo, Domino, December 2009 (Russian)
- THE SAVAGE TALES OF SOLOMON KANE, Tantor Media Inc., January 2010 (audio)
- THE SOLOMON KANE SERIES: RED SHADOWS, Paradox Entertainment, Inc., January 2010
- THE ROBERT E. HOWARD OMNIBUS: 99 COLLECTED STORIES, Halcyon Press, Ltd., May 2010 (as “Solomon Kane”)
- SOLOMON KANE, Astiberri Ediciones, May 2010 (Spanish)
- THE SOLOMON KANE OMNIBUS, Benediction Classics, May 2010
- SOLOMON KANE. CICLO COMPLETO, Coniglio Editore, June 2010 (Italian)
- SOLOMON KANE, Newton Compton Editori, July 2010 (Italian)
- SOLOMON KANE, Newton Compton Editori, August 2010 (Italian)
- SOLOMON KANE, Urco Editora, November 2010 (Galician)
- SOLOMON KANE, L’INTÉGRALE, Bragelonne, 2010 (French, 2nd printing)
- SOLOMON KANE, Zagrebačka naklada, 2010 (Croatian)
- CONAN’S BRETHREN, Gollancz, January 2011
- THE SOLOMON KANE SERIES: RED SHADOWS, Paradox Entertainment, Inc., November 2011
- SOLOMON KANE’I LOOD, Fantaasia, 2011 (Estonian)
- SOLOMON KANE AND OTHER STORIES, Jame-Books, August 2012
- SKULLCRUSHER: SELECTED WEIRD FICTION VOLUME 1, Creation Oneiros, September 2012
- LE ALI NOTTURNE, Newton Compton Editori, October 2012 (Italian)
- THE APES OF WRATH, Tachyon Publications, February 2013
- ROBERT E. HOWARD’S COLLECTED WORKS, Jame-Books, February 2013
- SOLOMON KANE. LES COLLINES DES MORTS, Bragelonne, July 2013 (French)
- RED SHADOWS, eStar Books, September 2013
- WEIRD TALES: 101 WEIRD, STRANGE, AND SUPERNATURAL STORIES VOLUME 9, Civitas Media, June 2013 (as “Solomon Kane”)
- RED SHADOWS, eStar Books, April 2014
- ROBERT E. HOWARD SHORT STORIES & NOVELLAS, Business and Leadership Publishing, July 2014
- SOLOMON KANE: OKRUTNE PRZYGODY, Rebis, September 2014 (Polish)
- DIE UNTER DEN GRÄBERN HAUSEN, Festa Verlag, August 2014 (German)
- THE RIGHT HAND OF DOOM, Wordsworth Editions, October 2014 (as “Solomon Kane”)
- THE SHADOW KINGDOM AND OTHER WEIRD TALES, Ulwencreutz Media, October 2015
- SOLOMON KANE: A SAGA COMPLETA, Generale, 2015 (Portuguese)
- RED SHADOWS, Ozymandias Press, June 2016
- THE SOLOMON KANE MYTHOS, Ozymandias Press, July 2016
- SOLOMON KANE, Jovian Press, November 2016
- ROBERT E. HOWARD’S CONAN THE CIMMERIAN BARBARIAN: THE COMPLETE WEIRD TALES OMNIBUS, Pulp-Lit Press, June 2017
- ROBERT E. HOWARD’S CONAN THE CIMMERIAN BARBARIAN: THE COMPLETE WEIRD TALES OMNIBUS, Audible Audio, June 2017
- SOLOMON KANE, L’INTÉGRALE, Bragelonne, June 2017 (French)
- ROBERT E. HOWARD’S CONAN THE CIMMERIAN BARBARIAN: THE COMPLETE WEIRD TALES OMNIBUS, Easton Press, 2017
- LE ALI NOTTURNE, Newton Compton Editori, May 2018 (Italian)
- SOLOMON KANE , Le Livre de Poche, October 2019 (French)
- SOLOMON KANE, L’INTÉGRALE (COLLECTOR), Bragelonne, September 2020 (French)