Introduction
Old Adam Farrel lay dead in the house wherein he had lived alone for the last twenty years. A silent, churlish recluse, in his life he had known no friends, and only two men had watched his passing… little did they know the Fearsome Touch of Death had not left the house…
In this tale, first published in the February 1930 edition of Weird Tales Magazine, a man spends a night alone with a corpse.
‘The Touch of Death’ was presented to Argosy, Ghost Story, and was accepted by Weird Tales in late fall 1928. It was published with the title ‘The Fearsome Touch of Death’. Howard got $18 for this short story.
In a letter (#118) circa January 1930 to Tevis Clyde Smith he says:
Many thanks for the letter you wrote Farnsworth. It appeared in the Eyrie this month. I sure appreciate it. Also appeared in this issue an illegitimate child of mine. By that I mean I had no idea it was to be published this month as I never got any advance sheets for it. If you don’t mind, I wish you’d read it. It’s purely psychological; I’ve told you of it before. No other magazine except Weird Tales would publish such a story — I know because I tried most of them with this one.
Alternate title:
Published in:
- WEIRD TALES VOLUME 15 NUMBER 2, Popular Fiction Publishing Company, February 1930
- THE HOWARD REVIEW #1, Dennis McHaney, December 1974
- THE HOWARD REVIEW #1, Second Edition, Dennis McHaney, December 1975
- THE HOWARD REVIEW #1, Second Edition, Second Printing, Dennis McHaney, January 1976
- LE SEIGNEUR DE SAMARCANDE, NeO, September 1986 (French)
- THE KING-SIZE HOWARD REVIEW, Dennis McHaney, 1987
- THE NEW HOWARD READER #2, Marek, August 1998 (as “The Touch of Death”)
- ROBERT E. HOWARD’S STRANGE TALES, Dennis McHaney, January 2005 (as “The Touch of Death”)
- MOON OF SKULLS, Wildside Press, March 2005 (Hardcover)
- ROBERT E. HOWARD’S STRANGE TALES, Dennis McHaney, December 2005 (as “The Touch of Death”)
- THE WEIRD WRITINGS OF ROBERT E. HOWARD Volume 1, Girasol Collectables, January 2006
- MOON OF SKULLS, Wildside Press, March 2006, (Trade paperback)
- SHADOW KINGDOMS, Cosmos Books, July 2007
- THE HAUNTER OF THE RING & OTHER TALES, Wordsworth Editions, September 2007
- THE CAIRN ON THE HEADLAND, THE DREAM SNAKE, THE FEARSOME TOUCH OF DEATH, AND THE HYENA, Dodo Press, February 2008
- THE HAUNTER OF THE RING & OTHER TALES, Wordsworth Editions, 2008
- THE DEVILS OF ERLIK KHAN, Francis DiPietro, August 2008
- THE HORROR STORIES OF ROBERT E. HOWARD, Del Rey, October 2008 (as “The Touch of Death”)
- THE BOOK OF THE HOWARD REVIEW, Dennis McHaney, June 2009
- THE DAY THEY HANGED MY BEST FRIEND JIMMY . . ., Tangled Vines Press, July 2009
- PEOPLE OF THE DARK AND OTHER HORROR STORIES, Halcyon Press, Ltd., January 2010
- THE HORROR STORIES OF ROBERT E. HOWARD, Tantor Media, Inc., March 2010 (audio, as “The Touch of Death”)
- THE ROBERT E. HOWARD OMNIBUS: 99 COLLECTED STORIES, Halcyon Press, Ltd., May 2010
- THE BOOK OF THE HOWARD REVIEW, Dennis McHaney, December 2010
- KROK ZE TMY, Albatros Media, 2010 (Czech, as “The Touch of Death”)
- THE HORROR STORIES OF ROBERT E. HOWARD, Subterranean Press, March 2011 (as “The Touch of Death”)
- FROM DARK CORNERS: THIRTEEN UNUSUAL TALES FROM FAMOUS AUTHORS, Nuelow Games, August 2011 ‘
- KULL OF ATLANTIS AND OTHER STORIES, Jame-Books, August 2012
- ROBERT E. HOWARD’S COLLECTED WORKS, Jame-Books, February 2013
- LES OMBRES DE CANAAN, Bragelonne, February 2013 (French, as “The Touch of Death”)
- WEIRD TALES: 101 WEIRD, STRANGE, AND SUPERNATURAL STORIES VOLUME 9, Civitas Media, June 2013
- DER SCHWARZE HUND DES TODES, Festa Verlag, June 2013 (German, as “The Touch of Death”)
- THE FEARSOME TOUCH OF DEATH, Ulwencreutz Media, July 2014
- THE FEARSOME TOUCH OF DEATH, eStar Books, October 2014
- WEIRD TALES DE LHORK #36, Círculo de Lhork, 2014 (Spanish)
- FOUR TALES OF TERROR, Ozymandias Press, July 2016
- FOUR TALES OF TERROR, Jovian Press, October 2016
- БОГИ БАЛ-САГОТА (THE GODS OF BAL-SAGOTH), ACT, November 2017 (Russian, as “The Touch of Death”)
- PEDON VARJO, Nysalor-kustannus, October 2020 (Finnish)
- ROAD KILL: TEXAS HORROR BY TEXAS WRITERS VOLUME 5, Hellbound Books, October 2020
- THE BOOK OF THE HOWARD REVIEW (2ND EDITION), Old Tiger Press, August 2021
- THE NECRONOMICON: TALES OF ELDRITCH HORROR FROM THE MASTERS OF THE GENRE, Arcturus Publishing, August 2021
- THE HAUNTER OF THE RING (NECRONOMICON BOXED SET), Arcturus Publishing, November 2021
- ROBERT E. HOWARD AND WEIRD TALES, Dennis McHaney, November 2021 (excerpt only)
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