The noted book and pulp collector Kevin Cook was telling me about another collector he knew named Richard Minter, who would have made a great resource for the book on Arkham House ephemera I’m working on with John D. Haefele.
But then an intriguing aside related to Robert E. Howard suddenly came to light.
Sez Kevin:
You and John did miss out with Richard Minter.
When I knew him he had a whole drawer full of Arkham catalogs, flyers, bills of sale from Derleth and what not. After he returned from the war he began ordering at least ten copies of every Arkham book which he would then sell to collectors in that area of the south where he attended cons and such, basically North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee. He had a long correspondence with Derleth as well.
Eventually, on my recommendation after Richard’s death, Mildred Minter sold everything to Dave Kurzman. But several things, including the Arkham stuff, had disappeared between the time Richard Minter got ill and the time Dave purchased everything else.
I think that someone came by the house when he was ill and persuaded him to sell things.
I was extremely pissed off at the time because there was one thing that I really wanted — and that he had promised to me — that was gone.
You might appreciate what that item was.
When P. Schuyler Miller and John D. Clark wrote a “A Probable Outline of Conan’s Career,” they typed up the original and three carbons. The original was sent to Robert E. Howard. Miller and Clark kept one carbon each. The third carbon was given to their friend — named Howard Snively?
Snively sold it to Richard Minter.
How cool is that? A carbon copy of what was mailed to REH in January 1936.
I have never seen or heard of it being offered for sale, but it’s out there in the world somewhere.
Someone has it, but it’s not me.
