The choice news on this week’s Coming Attractions was not limited to a word-up concerning Dark Agnes and Other Historical Adventures. There are plenty more upcoming projects that fans of Robert E. Howard and pulp fiction should get excited about.

Hippocampus Press – Now available!
A MEANS TO FREEDOM: THE LETTERS OF H. P. LOVECRAFT AND ROBERT E. HOWARD
Edited by S. T. Joshi, David E. Schultz & Rusty Burke
Now available: ISBN: 978-0-9814888-0-6: $100.00
2 volume set (individual volumes not sold separately)

Over half the 300 copy print run has now been sold, and virtually all advance orders have been filled. We are aware of the unfortunate circumstances under which Amazon.com cancelled their existing pre-orders for this volume. The situation has been adjusted, but instead of offering it for sale at an impossible discount, they are now listing it at an inflated price. Happily there are still copies available at the actual retail cost. Order from us directly or from our independent bookseller friends to secure your copy today.

That is the official update from Hippocampus Press. The screw-up over at Amazon appears to have been one of almost Biblical proportions. Apparently, even Mark Hall, editor of The Dark Man, got burned in this fiasco. Here’s hoping that all those who want this excellent set (which set I will review soonest) are able to obtain it without further hassle. I happen to know that Gavin Smith (one of the finest booksellers still extant) at Gavinicuss Books still has access to copies.

Yet another tantalizing offering from Hippocampus…

Hippocampus Press – Now available!
Weird Words: A Lovecraftian Lexicon, by Dan Clore
Eldritch . . . cacodaemoniacal . . . lucubration . . . Have you ever wondered about the meaning of these and other esoteric words used by Lovecraft and his colleagues? In this Cyclopean dictionary, the product of aeons of erudition and research into the most recondite recesses of literature, Dan Clore not only defines thousands of words found in the work of A. Merritt, H. P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, Robert E. Howard, and many others in the weird fantasy tradition, but supplies their etymologies and, most impressively, provides parallel usages of the words from centuries of English usage, citing authors ranging from Cotton Mather to Henry Kuttner, from Edmund Spenser to William S. Burroughs, from Edgar Allan Poe to Robert Anton Wilson. This is a volume that scholars of English usage, enthusiasts of fantasy and horror literature, and readers who love the beauty of the English language will find richly rewarding . . . either to read from beginning to end or to dip into as the mood strikes them.

This sounds like a resource worthy of standing beside [redacted]’s [redacted]. Author and weird lit scholar, Dan Clore, has cast a wide and eldritch net here. Of course, Robert E. Howard figures into this work, but I was impressed to see A. Merritt (who influenced REH, CAS and HPL)  also included, as well as many, many others. Clore is a good writer and quite erudite when it comes to supernatural fiction. I look forward to reading Weird Words.

Maidens and Monsters – November 24, 2009 to April 18, 2010
Maidens and Monsters: The Art of Science Fiction, Adventure, and Fantasy will debut at the Albin Polasek Museum and Sculpture Gardens in this November 24, 2009 and run through April 18, 2010.Albin Polasek Museum and Sculpture Gardens
633 Osceola Avenue
Winter Park, FL 32789
http://www.maidensandmonsters.com/

Alien worlds, brawny heroes, strange beasts, and buxom beauties are represented in this exhibition, which spans 80 years of science fiction and fantasy pulp magazine covers and book jacket illustrations from 1914 to 1995.  This will be the first time the world-renowned, private Korshak Collection of original fantasy art will be shown to the public.

These paintings and drawings by 22 grand-masters of illustration appeared on the covers and pages of timeless adventure stories such as the Allan Quatermain series by H. Rider Haggard and the Tarzan and John Carter of Mars series by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Classic sci-fi and fantasy pulp magazines are represented from the 1910s to the 1960s, such as AMAZING STORIES, WEIRD TALES, and WONDER STORIES

Original works by N. C. Wyeth, Frank Frazetta, Michael Whelan, Frank R. Paul, Virgil Finlay, Stanley Meltzoff, Kelly Frank Freas, and J. Allen St. John, among other artists will be on display.

Damn! It burns my soul like the fires of Mt. Khrosha to know that I absolutely cannot make this show. What a line-up of artists. I’m sure there have to be a few Howard-related pieces on display as well. I have heard rumors of the “Korshak Collection” for years. Apparently, it is the finest assemblage of sci-fi/fantasy art in private hands.

Paizo Publishing – Now available!
The Ship of Ishtar by A. Merritt, with an introduction by Tim Powers

Explorer John Kenton returns from a lifetime of wanderings and the wreckage of World War I to discover a mysterious block of Babylonian basalt containing a crystal model of an ancient ship—the Ship of Ishtar!
Introduction by Tim Powers (The Anubis Gates, The Stress of Her Regard).
336-page softcover trade paperback
ISBN-13: 978-1-60125-177-0
$14.99
Paizo Publications – Planet Stories

I’ve been anticipating the publication of Paizo’s The Ship of Ishtar for months. Without a doubt, the best edition of this landmark fantasy novel (which very likely influenced such Howardian yarns as “Queen of the Black Coast”) in sixty years. Readers of The Cimmerian blog can expect to see a review shortly.

All of the above does not exhaust Bill Thom’s supply of great, soon-to-be-released stuff over on Coming Attractions this week. Not by a damn sight. I would definitely urge everyone to peruse the great 2010 calendars coming out.