Introduction
Unsigned Contract. Seems to be a contract for the rewriting of the story ‘West of the Rio Grande’. A story of the modern West. Plot construction by R. Fowler Gafford, literary style by Robert E. Howard. The story was never published.
We learn of this in a letter (#101) to Tevis Clyde Smith circa February 1929:
I collaborated with one Clyde Smith on a short story and rewrote a novel, to say nothing of writing a novel on my own.
The collaboration was ‘Diogenes of Today‘ and the novel he mentions writing on his own is ‘Post Oaks and Sand Roughs‘.
The next letter (#102) we know of Fowler is mentioned:
Last night the Sunday School class had a party and I had to get drunk to rid myself of Fowler’s1 importunities to go. He said he figured on he and myself being the life of the party. Hokum. Strange what a difference a few snorts of white corn makes in people’s attitude toward you. After I had reached the point where I wanted to go, they didn’t want me.
Howler was Howard’s friend from Cross Cut, Texas.
Published in:
- POST OAKS AND SAND ROUGHS, REH Foundation Press, June 2019