Howard Payne – Again Essay
Well, I missed a few days; sorry about that, but I haven’t had a moment to spare (or internet access in my room) since Wednesday. We’ve stopped for the night just west of Flagstaff, Arizona—home tomorrow afternoon. I’ll post a Howard Days wrap-up soon, if Damon doesn’t beat me to it, but for now, here’s what I was going to post on Thursday: I’ll be in Cross Plains for the next three days, so it’s always nice to sneak away to Brownwood before the festivities begin. One might think that I’ve had enough of Brownwood, but I heard a few things when I was there in January that made me want to have a return visit.
Ever since my first visit to Howard Payne University back in August of 2004, I’ve wanted to return and more thoroughly inspect the Robert E. Howard Memorial Collection (two of the three shelves shown above) housed at the Walker Memorial Library. The first time I saw these books, I was so filled with awe that I didn’t take the time to really look at them. I took a bunch of pictures and left. Things were different this time, and I took lots of photos–including the inscription by Edmond Hamilton, below.Also, I’ve been hearing rumors about the stash of Yellow Jackets at HPU, that some scoundrel had swiped an issue or two containing the Howard yarns. Having never seen the actual papers, it was on my agenda in January. However, when I arrived to inspect them, I was informed that they were off-site being scanned—they would be back in the spring.
Well, spring is over.I’m happy to report that all of the known issues that contain a Howard story or poem are present and accounted for. And if some rapscallion ever does manage to purloin an issue, I’ve got some good, high quality photographs of the relevant pages—thanks to my photog father.More later, maybe.
