REH’s Writings

Exact textual statePrimary Text

Red Blades of Black Cathay

StateFinished / professionalSurviving witnesses1TSS catalogue units1Catalogue rolePrimary / default

Textual identity is not textual authority. “Catalogue primary/default” selects the default catalogue representation; it does not mean that this wording is automatically Howard’s most authoritative text.

Version-specific titles

Red Blades of Black Cathay (story heading)

Characters in this exact text

Exhaustively reviewed for this catalogued Poetry state. Generic lyric speakers/addressees, collectives, places and purely metaphorical allusions are not manufactured into permanent Characters.

Flower of Black Cathaythe Flower of Black Cathay — woman/object of the lost-road song treated as an individuated figureOn Page1 source-counted occurrence(s) · first: Collected Poetry UE Vol. 1 p. 152

Surviving manuscript evidence

The records below describe surviving physical typescripts, carbons, manuscript material and documentary catalogue evidence for this exact textual state. TSS numbers identify physical catalogue units; they are not story or draft IDs.

Original Howard typescript — TSS 65604Howard typescript

Extent1 pageCompletenessCompleteness uncertain

Physical extent: 1 catalogued TSS sheet

TSS: 65604

Original Typescript (OT) source code; retained as an original Howard typescript witness.

Source: 000 TSS of REH moving towards final.xls — Poetry working list rows 342

Textual witnesses & editorial mediation

These records describe how this textual state is known or represented. A witness may be authorial, editorially mediated, restored, transcribed or otherwise derived without becoming a new Howard-authored textual state.

Collected Poetry UE Vol. 1 p. 152Restored reading editionAuthority basis: Restoration toward authorial text · Treatment: Restored toward authorial wording

The Collected Poetry of Robert E. Howard UE Vol. 1 p. 152

Published in

The Collected Poetry of Robert E. Howard Volume OneREH Foundation PressOctober 2022↗