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        ← Back to Characters
        Works✓Poetry✓Letters✓Characters✓
        Human · Fictional / created Character

        Jang Yum

        Chinese host named in alibi

        Work & poetry appearances

        The current count is catalogue evidence, not a claim that every surviving draft or textual state has already been analyzed.

        Guests of the Hoodoo RoomDraft 4
        Jang YumMentioned · first: Tales of Weird Menace UE pp. 331-378
        ABOUT THE CATALOGUE

        REH Writings
        guide & credits

        A searchable research catalogue of Robert E. Howard’s writings and the people, animals, vessels and other story entities found in them—built for REH readers and fans as well as editors and scholars.

        703 catalogued Works1 catalogued Poems593 catalogued Letters4,039 catalogued Characters
        START HEREWhat REH Writings is

        The REH Writings plugin brings together permanent identities for Howard’s prose Works and Poetry, their distinct textual states, correspondence to and from Howard, title and name forms, dates, manuscript witnesses, publication appearances and Characters.

        It is a catalogue and research guide rather than a claim that every record is finished or that every surviving text is reproduced here. Coverage grows as reliable sources and exact texts are reviewed.

        WORKS & POETRYCompositions and textual states

        A Work is the underlying composition. One Work may survive in several Textual Versions: drafts, submitted or final typescripts, false starts, fragments, synopses, outlines, published versions or later revisions.

        • Search Howard and publication titles, manuscript titles, bylines or pseudonyms, and TSS numbers.
        • Filter by form, genre, written or published year, and recorded income.
        • Open a Work to see its textual family; open one state to inspect its exact Characters, publications and manuscript evidence.
        • The catalogue’s primary/default state is a navigation choice, not an automatic declaration of textual authority.
        LETTERSCorrespondence, dates and participants

        Letters are correspondence documents rather than merely another publication format. The catalogue can include letters from Howard, letters to Howard, and third-party correspondence that substantially mentions Howard.

        • Filter by direction, correspondent and year, or search public extracts, subjects, letter state and TSS references.
        • Exact, circa, uncertain, before/after, date-range and postmark evidence retain their source wording instead of being collapsed to a guessed day.
        • Every distinct surviving draft, unsent or sent text is a Letter of its own; reviewed draft/later relationships remain visible. Edited printed transcriptions and original TSS pages are source evidence rather than extra Letters.
        • A complete transcription or facsimile appears only when permission and an individual user capability both allow it; restricted text is never included in public search or page HTML.
        CHARACTERSPeople, animals, vessels and names

        “Character” is the catalogue’s broad story-entity term. It includes humans, historical people, animals, ships and vessels, supernatural beings and other identifiable entities.

        • Search canonical names, aliases, nicknames, spellings and draft-specific name forms.
        • Combine Kind, Historicity, Species / type and Role / occupation filters, then limit “Found in” to Works, Poetry or Letters.
        • Appearances are tied to exact Textual Versions or correspondence roles, so a Character found in one draft or letter is not silently asserted to occur elsewhere.
        • The same name never proves the same identity. Howard reused names, while one developing Character may also change name between drafts.

        Appearance totals report the evidence currently reviewed; they are not always an exhaustive census of every surviving state.

        MANUSCRIPTSTypescripts and TSS numbers

        A TSS number is a catalogue reference for a physical manuscript or typescript unit. It is not a Work ID, a Textual Version ID or necessarily a draft number. Several TSS units may belong to one surviving textual witness.

        • You can enter a TSS number in Writings search to find its catalogued Work and state.
        • Exact manuscript features—such as strikeouts, insertions, page order, authorial corrections, bylines and wording changes—are recorded only when the available evidence supports them.
        • First Cuts or direct manuscript/typescript evidence can support page-level detail. An overview catalogue or spreadsheet may establish that a unit exists without proving everything written on its pages.
        SOURCESWhere the information comes from

        The catalogue began with earlier REH World Stories records and Howard Works (howardworks.com) bibliographic evidence, then reconciled those records into stable Work and Textual Version identities. Publication records and Contents are supplied through the companion REH Publications catalogue.

        Textual and Character research is expanded from reviewed source material, including:

        • Howard’s surviving manuscripts, typescripts and carbons, together with documented TSS catalogue evidence;
        • REH Foundation Press First Cuts volumes, which preserve draft and manuscript detail;
        • REH Foundation Press Ultimate Editions, used as restored reading-edition witnesses for the practical final/final-submission state;
        • original magazine, pulp and other publication texts when publication evidence is the available textual source;
        • source notes, bibliographies and other reviewed research used to reconcile titles, dates, relationships and surviving states.

        Source data is treated as evidence to be reviewed and reconciled, not as something to copy blindly. Documented manuscript holdings represented in these sources include material associated with the Glenn Lord collection at the University of Texas at Austin, the Robert E. Howard collection at Texas A&M University and the typescript collection at Cross Plains Library. A catalogue entry does not imply that every physical page has been directly inspected.

        Correspondence sources represented in the live Letter catalogue

        This list is generated from the retained source provenance, so it grows automatically as reviewed Letter sources are added.

        • "So Far the Poet . . ." and Other Writings
          16 source states · Edited Excerpt, Edited Transcription
        • A Means to Freedom, second softcover edition (2017)
          102 source states · Edited Transcription
        • Collected Letters of Robert E. Howard, second edition
          373 source states · Edited Transcription
        • Dime Sports Magazine Volume 2 Number 6
          1 source state · Edited Transcription
        • Glenn Lord’s Ultima Thule
          3 source states · Edited Transcription
        • Legacy reh.world Letters archive
          31 source states · Legacy Web Record
        • One Who Walked Alone: Robert E. Howard, The Final Years
          1 source state · Edited Transcription
        • Robert E. Howard Foundation Newsletter
          38 source states · Edited Excerpt, Edited Transcription
          27 represented issues/editions
          • Robert E. Howard Foundation Newsletter Volume 2 Number 2
          • Robert E. Howard Foundation Newsletter Volume 3 Number 3
          • Robert E. Howard Foundation Newsletter Volume 4 Number 1
          • Robert E. Howard Foundation Newsletter Volume 4 Number 2
          • Robert E. Howard Foundation Newsletter Volume 5 Number 2
          • Robert E. Howard Foundation Newsletter Volume 5 Number 3
          • Robert E. Howard Foundation Newsletter Volume 5 Number 4
          • Robert E. Howard Foundation Newsletter Volume 6 Number 3
          • Robert E. Howard Foundation Newsletter Volume 6 Number 4
          • Robert E. Howard Foundation Newsletter Volume 7 Number 3
          • Robert E. Howard Foundation Newsletter Volume 8 Number 1
          • Robert E. Howard Foundation Newsletter Volume 8 Number 2
          • Robert E. Howard Foundation Newsletter Volume 11 Numbers 1 and 2
          • Robert E. Howard Foundation Newsletter Volume 11 Numbers 3 and 4
          • Robert E. Howard Foundation Newsletter Volume 16 Number 2
          • Robert E. Howard Foundation Newsletter Volume 16 Number 3
          • Robert E. Howard Foundation Newsletter Volume 16 Number 4
          • Robert E. Howard Foundation Newsletter Volume 17 Number 1
          • Robert E. Howard Foundation Newsletter Volume 17 Number 3
          • Robert E. Howard Foundation Newsletter Volume 17 Number 4
          • Robert E. Howard Foundation Newsletter Volume 18 Number 1
          • Robert E. Howard Foundation Newsletter Volume 18 Number 2
          • Robert E. Howard Foundation Newsletter Volume 18 Number 3
          • Robert E. Howard Foundation Newsletter Volume 18 Number 4
          • Robert E. Howard Foundation Newsletter Volume 19 Number 3
          • Robert E. Howard Foundation Newsletter Volume 19 Number 4
          • Robert E. Howard Foundation Newsletter Volume 20 Number 1
        • The Collected Letters of Doctor Isaac M. Howard
          145 source states · Edited Excerpt, Edited Transcription
        CREDITS & ACKNOWLEDGMENTSProject and research foundations

        REH Writings is created and maintained by Ståle Gismervik for reh.world. The catalogue is built on decades of bibliographic, textual, archival and editorial work by the Robert E. Howard research community.

        Major source foundations currently represented include:

        • Howard Works (howardworks.com), an important bibliographic foundation for title and publication evidence;
        • the Robert E. Howard Foundation and REH Foundation Press, including First Cuts and Ultimate Editions used in exact-text research;
        • the live Correspondence sources listed above, including The Collected Letters of Robert E. Howard and every additional reviewed Letter source currently represented;
        • surviving manuscript, typescript and TSS evidence represented by material associated with the Glenn Lord collection at the University of Texas at Austin, the Robert E. Howard collection at Texas A&M University and the typescript collection at Cross Plains Library;
        • original magazines, books and other primary publication witnesses;
        • the companion REH Publications catalogue on reh.world for publication records and Contents relationships.

        Individual records retain source and provenance where available. Researchers, editors, collectors and readers can be credited at the relevant source or record level when a specific contribution is known, rather than forcing every contribution into one undifferentiated master list.

        SEARCHINGUseful ways to explore
        • Try a familiar published title even when Howard used another title; reviewed title forms remain searchable.
        • Search a pseudonym or credited byline such as a publication-supplied name.
        • Search a TSS number without needing to know its Work, poem or letter title.
        • Character search is forgiving about middle initials and word order: Robert Barlow can find Robert H. Barlow.
        • Use -word to exclude a term: Abdullah -Khan keeps Abdullah matches but removes results matching Khan. Use -"exact phrase" to exclude a phrase.
        • Use quotation marks for a required phrase and +word when a term must be present. Keep structured questions such as Kind, Historicity and Role in the existing filters rather than building a complex Boolean query.
        • Use correspondent shortcuts for Tevis Clyde Smith, H. P. Lovecraft, Novalyne Price and other frequently represented people.
        • Combine filters: for example, a genre and year under Works, From REH plus a correspondent under Letters, or Historical person + Letters only under Characters.
        • Open result cards for the full evidence. Compact cards deliberately summarize rather than reproduce the complete record.
        INTERPRETATIONHow evidence is treated
        • No one source is automatically best for every question. A Howard typescript may be strongest for authorial wording; a pulp proves what readers received; a restored edition may best represent the normalized final reading text.
        • Missing pages or an incomplete source cannot prove that a Character or passage was absent from the missing material.
        • A publication relationship applies to the whole Work unless the evidence identifies one exact Textual Version.
        • Stable identities are corrected conservatively: evidence is preserved, same-title and same-name records are not merged by guesswork, and uncertain points remain identified as uncertain.
        DEVELOPMENT HISTORY

        REH Writings
        changelog

        A running record of public catalogue, editorial, research and migration changes. The newest release is shown first.

        0.81.8-alphaRelease notesCURRENT
        • Make the public Letter Extract empty-state wording evidence-neutral: “No public editorial extract is available for this catalogue record.” This no longer labels intentionally non-textual correspondence objects (for example drawing-only or textless postcards) as unfinished extract work.
        • Keep extract publication authority unchanged: only a non-empty extract with an approved public-use basis renders as quotation. No Letter data, rights state, source relation or media relation is changed by this frontend wording fix.
        • Schema remains 3.11.0.
        0.81.7-alphaRelease notes
        • Fix public Letter facsimiles that have a valid approved WordPress attachment but no renderable large derivative. After the existing public media/rights query has authorized the row, Letter detail now falls back to an <img> using the original attachment URL instead of silently skipping the image.
        • Preserve the same Flatsome gallery lightbox, caption/attribution, alt text and lazy loading. The fallback never bypasses Letter-media rights or exposes restricted media.
        • This covers retained legacy images such as attachment #14170 after its guarded move to Harry Bates → Mrs. Frank Torbett, April 18, 1932.
        • Schema remains 3.11.0.
        0.81.6-alphaRelease notes
        • Extend the existing Review & authority → Letter image review workflow with a guarded reassign_existing operation for the narrow case where later source inspection proves that an already-applied WordPress image belongs to a different permanent Letter/source. Import remains non-mutating and the same APPLY REVIEWED LETTER MEDIA gate remains mandatory.
        • A reassignment package must name the exact active correspondence_media row, current Letter identity/source key, WordPress attachment, and rights ID. Review/apply revalidates both the current and proposed target snapshots, the active rights row, public WordPress-backed media state, and target collisions before one transactional in-place move. The permanent media ID, attachment ID, and reviewed rights row are preserved.
        • Guarded reassignments are reviewed individually and are deliberately excluded from the existing bulk add-image approval. Previously applied media packages remain immutable provenance and must not be replayed.
        • Prepare the first correction for WordPress attachment #14170: direct facsimile inspection establishes Harry Bates → Mrs. Frank Torbett, April 18, 1932 (Letter #386), correcting the earlier attachment-title-driven link to Letter #384. The old rights row is preserved rather than silently re-granted.
        • Correct the research note about the Lovecraft postcards: permanent Letter #392 is postmarked June 4, 1932 and permanent Letter #421 is postmarked June 14, 1932. They are distinct postcards, so no #392 → #421 media reassignment is performed.
        • No schema change; schema remains 3.11.0.
        0.81.5-alphaRelease notes
        • Fix Character search exclusion operators such as Abdullah -Khan by making the exclusion predicate NULL-safe across optional Character metadata. +required, quoted groups, middle-initial tolerance and name-first relevance remain unchanged.
        • Extend the existing guarded correspondent_character_promotions mode so one person-Correspondent may carry an optional reviewed update_identity correction before promotion. The correction must remain a person identity, must not collide with another active Correspondent, and is applied in the same transaction immediately before the permanent Character is created and linked.
        • Preserve the old Correspondent canonical form as source-form provenance when a promotion corrects a spelling/name, and report the identity correction separately in the normal Correspondence apply summary.
        • No schema change; schema remains 3.11.0.
        0.81.4-alphaRelease notes
        • Stop rerunning the stale fixed Collected Letters baseline preflight after its 373-Letter state split and Letter 369 source-boundary correction are complete. The original package remains visible as provenance, while all later Letter/correspondent work stays in Generic Correspondence Intake. This removes false conflicts caused by legitimate later date/source/authority enrichment.
        • Generate a live Correspondence sources list inside public About & Credits → Sources from active retained Letter source provenance. Books, newsletter issues and other represented editions therefore update automatically as reviewed sources are added.
        • Extend Character search with a deliberately small familiar query syntax: -word excludes a term, +word requires a term, quoted phrases stay grouped, and existing name normalization still makes middle initials optional and token order forgiving. Direct canonical/name-form matches continue to rank ahead of family/mention/context matches.
        • Add schema 3.11.0 Character media authority. Edit Character can select a primary WordPress Media Library image and retain media type, caption, credit, source, rights holder, rights notes and reviewed public-use basis. Only Permission confirmed, Public domain or Licensed images render publicly, using the established Flatsome lightbox. Replaced primary images are retained as gallery media for future multi-image support.
        • Include Character media in guarded Character merge/undo snapshots so reconciliation cannot orphan or silently discard image provenance.
        0.81.3-alphaRelease notes
        • Add guarded package_mode: correspondent_identity_corrections support to Generic Correspondence Intake for reviewed canonical-name/type corrections and duplicate Correspondent merges.
        • Correction packages contain zero Letter items and only explicit REUSE Correspondents. update_identity can change the canonical name/type and fill a reviewed public description; merge_into can move participant/name evidence to one explicit active target and retire only the duplicate Correspondent row.
        • Live validation rechecks the source Correspondent name/type snapshot, rejects corrected-name/type collisions, rejects reclassification of Character-linked people away from person, rejects missing/self merge targets, and blocks merges when source and target already occupy the same Letter/role.
        • Preserve per-Letter participant display names during merges, so historic source headings such as Magic Carpet Magazine remain visible even after the duplicate identity is reconciled to The Magic Carpet Magazine. Old canonical Correspondent names are retained as source-form aliases rather than discarded.
        • No schema change; schema remains 3.10.0.
        0.81.2-alphaRelease notes
        • Add a guarded package_mode: correspondent_character_promotions to Generic Correspondence Intake for the case where a reviewed person-Correspondent already exists but no permanent Character identity exists yet.
        • Promotion packages contain zero Letter items and only explicit REUSE person-correspondents. Each declaration carries a reviewed character_profile (canonical name, qualifier, kind, historicity, species, public description and private notes).
        • Live validation rechecks the Correspondent name/type snapshot, requires the live Correspondent to remain unlinked, rejects existing Character or Character-name-form collisions, and blocks create/defer identity shortcuts that would bypass the reviewed promotion.
        • Apply creates the permanent Character and canonical Character name and writes correspondents.character_id in the same transaction. It creates no Letter and no new Correspondent, eliminating the previous create-Character-then-export-ID-then-link round trip.
        • Keep the existing correspondent_character_links mode unchanged for cases where both identities already exist. No schema change; schema remains 3.10.0.
        0.81.1-alphaRelease notes
        • Add explicit package_mode: correspondent_character_links support to Generic Correspondence Intake for reviewed Correspondent → permanent Character reconciliation when no Letter item needs to be created or enriched.
        • Keep the link-only mode narrow and guarded: zero Letter items are required; every declaration must be REUSE EXISTING with explicit existing Correspondent and Character IDs; same-name-new is forbidden; the live Correspondent name/type snapshot, active Character target, conflicting existing Character link and duplicate target Character linkage are revalidated before apply.
        • Count and report actual Correspondent → Character links written by the apply transaction, and make the admin review screen explicitly say that a link-only package creates no Letters, Correspondents or Characters.
        • Fix the 0.81.0 workflow blocker where a legitimate link-only package was rejected with “At least one correspondence item is required.” Existing ordinary Correspondence Intake packages still require one or more Letter items.
        • No schema change; schema remains 3.10.0.
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