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"A Gent from Bear Creek" (Novel)
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"A Gent from Bear Creek" is
the title of both an original short story, as well as a novel created by
combining several previous short stories with some new material; the previously
published short stories were altered a little to create chapters with a
continuous story line, and new material was added as additional chapters.
The chapters are:
"Striped Shirts and Busted Hearts" (new)
"Mountain Man"
"Meet Cap'n Kidd" (new)
"Guns of the Mountains"
"A Gent from Bear Creek"
"The Feud Buster"
"The Road to Bear Creek"
"The Scalp Hunter"
"Cupid from Bear Creek"
"The Haunted Mountain"
"Educate or Bust" (new)
"War on Bear Creek"
"When Bear Creek Came to Chawed Ear" (new). |
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The information below is from "Collecting
Robert E. Howard" by Don Herron in the July/August 2000 issue of
FIRSTS.
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A ‘Cheap Edition’ was
reportedly released in 1938.
Glenn Lord supposes the cheap state may have been the first, with
the dustjacket marked down accordingly, or signatures of the first bound
in lesser materials, perhaps even paper-covered. Neither he nor anyone
he has talked with in over 50 years of Howard collecting has ever seen
this “cheap” edition.
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The true first edition from 1937
is almost as scarce.
Nine copies are known positively to exist.
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1.
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The copy that went to I. M.
Howard is now held in a Robert E. Howard collection by Ranger Junior
College in Ranger, Texas. It lacks a dustjacket.
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2.
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Howard collector Darrell C.
Richardson has owned a copy for many years. It too lacks the dustjacket.
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3. & 4.
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Two copies are in libraries
in Britain. Both lack dust jackets, although one bookless
dust jacket may exist.
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5.
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A Canadian collector owns a
copy without a dust jacket.
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6.
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The finest known copy belongs
to Glenn Lord.
It is the only copy known in dustjacket.
Lord bought it some forty years ago from Arkham House publisher
August Derleth for $4.00. Inside, written in holograph, is “August Derleth,
his book.”
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7.
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Leo Grin located a copy via
a source in South Africa, who saved it from a discard bin the day before
the contents of that bin were headed to the dump. Leo bought this jacketless
copy and has donated it to the REH Museum in Cross Plains, Texas.
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8.
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A copy with the defining condition
of having restored endpapers (and no dustjacket) was offered on eBay.
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9.
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A copy was sold on AbeBooks for $15
in July 2006.
It was then resold on ebay for $8,500.
It was then traded for early issues of THE SHADOW and is now in the collection
of Ed Gobbett.
This copy had a Boots Book Slip at the first page of text, as well as a
Boots Lending slip on the verso of the rear cover. Boots would buy books
at the time of issue and immediately discard the dustjacket and slap one
of their stickers on the front board, they would then rent out the book with
the intent of eventually selling the book to any interested buyer.
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