Edited by Leo Grin | Illustrated by Dalmatius
40 pages

This issue was printed in two editions. The deluxe edition, numbered 1–75, uses a black linen cover with foil-stamped gold text. The limited edition, numbered 76–225, uses a gold cover with solid black text.

DELUXE COPIES DESTROYED: 17

LIMITED COPIES DESTROYED: 70

Features a symposium on the rarest of all Howard books, the Herbert Jenkins edition of A Gent from Bear Creek. Four different articles present a host of new discoveries related to this edition that will knock your socks off, plus bring you up to date on all the latest data regarding how many have been found worldwide, how much they are worth, and where you can see them yourself.

EXCERPTS:

Glenn wrote in The Cimmerian about a rumored “second printing” of the book, one never conclusively proven to have existed. He guessed that such a printing might have cheaper paper, resulting in a slightly thinner width than other known copies. In addition, since time immemorial Glenn has owned the only Gent dustjacket positively known to exist, and on that copy the price was printed directly onto the book cover as “7’6 Net” in a standard square printing font. Glenn’s theory was that a “cheaper edition” dustjacket would sport a lower price. Or perhaps none of this was right, and the real answer was that the advertisements at the back of the books would be different in a second print or “cheap edition.” In any case, if I could physically examine the volumes and the rumored dustjacket, I perhaps could help prove or disprove these theories.

— from “Treasures of Our Own” by Danny Street

In 2003 I was getting ready to head to Cross Plains as guest speaker for Robert E. Howard Days, when the Hat phoned me up. “Hey,” he said. “You know that guy Toni Lee married? He’s from Cross Plains, Texas!”

I admit it seemed like an incredible coincidence, but I’ve been around for awhile and don’t startle easily anymore. Bill encouraged me to call him up, get the lowdown on the town, but I was in a rush to get out the door and figured I wasn’t moving to Cross Plains, I was just popping in for a visit, so how much background did I need?

A few months after I got back from Texas I was talking to the Hat again and he asked, “Say, have you ever heard of a story called ‘A Gent from Bear Creek’?”

Yes, I told him, I had. Why did he ask?

— from “Ur Gent” by Don Herron

First, a copy of this rare book is listed on a large booksellers’ website for about $15 — and is immediately snatched up by person or persons unknown. Then, a few weeks later, a copy of that very same book is listed on eBay for $6,000 — and sells for $8,500. Coincidence? I didn’t know, but I was determined to get to the bottom of this mystery.

After waiting for several hours for a drop dead gorgeous, leggy blonde to come into my office, I concluded I’d have to be my own client. Putting on my authentic Philip Marlowe fedora, I was ready to do some serious detecting to get the straight dope on this deal.

— from “The Mysteriously Mysterious Jenkins Gent Mystery” by Damon Sasser

John got back to me to see if there was anything I wanted in trade, or if I would name my price for them. I told John again the pulps were not for sale. . .but I would trade for a copy of the British first edition of A Gent From Bear Creek. I mischievously added, “in dustjacket, of course,” assuming that would be impossible, and I would not be tempted to trade. End of story — until July 2006.

— from “Chasing the Grail” by Edward Gobbett

I am reminded as I have never been before just how urban HPL actually was, and how relatively helpless he turned out to be in a rural setting, when he visited Barlow and his family at Barlow’s then-home in Florida during May and June of 1934, and when Lovecraft went berry picking with Barlow and another person. After staying behind in the woods to fill his bucket, he then promptly lost most of its contents when he missed the board crossing the stream to return home and fell into the cold water up to his neck, poor guy (HPL suffered from poor eyesight). Luckily he endured no real damage beyond that to his dignity as a gentleman of the old school.

Still, I can’t help but compare him with REH and CAS, both of whom found themselves perfectly at home in rural or rustic settings, REH in the wild countryside of Texas, and CAS in the beloved woodland around his cabin outside of old Auburn to the southeast. Although CAS loathed cities, he knew how to take care of himself living almost in frontier conditions with his mother and father. REH knew how to handle himself in cities and in countryside, in polite society as well as in environments full of pretty tough characters.

— Donald Sidney-Fryer, writing in The Lion’s Den