Introduction
This first draft of People of the Dark is incomplete: its opening seven pages are missing, and the surviving text ends at page 14. The story was developed in October 1931, when Howard sent People of the Dark to Strange Tales of Mystery and Terror. Editor Harry Bates requested revisions before accepting the revised story.
The draft already uses the remembrance/reincarnation structure, with the protagonist reliving a past life as “Conan of the Reavers,” a black-haired Gael who swears by Crom.
In November 2024 John Bullard prepared an REH Foundation Legacy Circle publication that presented the first two drafts together for the first time.
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.
Physical extent: 7 pages / 7 TSS catalogue units; surviving manuscript page labels 8–14
TSS: 67064, 65055–65060
Original typescript (OT).
Source: 000 TSS of REH moving towards final.xls · Complete List · People of the Dark (d1) · TSS 67064, 65055–65060