Here Lies - Original Manuscript

New York: No Publisher. New York, No Publisher, n.d. [c1937]. Manuscript. Unbound. Fine condition. This must be the first draft with the amendments being so extensive; even the amendments have amendments. The hand in which the amendments have been made I suspect will be from one of the Wandrei brothers. It looks like Donald's hand (we have a number of manuscripts for comparison); though it is very compact it bears a good number of similarities. That said, other corrected typescripts that we have are more clearly in Donald's hand. The amendments are so extensive that one would have to expect great humility on the part of Howard to accept so much editing in the mid-stage of his writing output, though I did find a 1939 letter from Weird Tales rejecting one of Howard's stories so perhaps it could've been Donald. Of course, without any evidence of Donald having edited Howard's work - and I know of none - then Donald could be unlikely too. Either way, I've never seen such a heavily amended work from this period. All in all though, the amendments contitute the text as publish in Weird Tales in October 1937 so the manuscript offers a view at the story before it was heavily edited. In reality, it would be unlikely that earlier drafts would exist. 6pp, single-sided. [10065, Hyraxia Books]. n.d. [c1937] . Fine. Unbound. Manuscript. 1937.