Kirby O'Donnell is a fictional character created by Robert E. Howard. He is an American treasure hunter in early-twentieth century Afghanistan disguised as a Kurdish merchant, "Ali el Ghazi". Howard only wrote three stories about O'Donnell, one of which was not published within his lifetime.
Kirby O'Donnell | |
---|---|
First appearance | Swords of Shahrazar |
Last appearance | The Curse of the Crimson God |
Created by | Robert E. Howard |
O'Donnell has, like many Howard characters, the stereotypical "Black Irish" combination of black hair and blue eyes. He has a lithe but powerful physique, relying more on agility and wits than strength. Kirby O'Donnell is similar to another of Howard's characters, El Borak, in many ways. However, O'Donnell seeks hidden treasures in all of his stories while El Borak is more concerned with his own form of justice and stability in Afghanistan. O'Donnell carries a set of distinctive weapons, a scimitar with a bronze hawk-head on the pommel and a "kindhjal" [sic].
Howard wrote three complete Kirby O'Donnell stories. Two were published in his life, by different publishers.
This story was first published in the pulp magazine Top-Notch in October 1934. Later reprints have used the title The Treasure of Shaibar Khan. [1] It was received by Howard's agent, Otis Adelbert Kline on 12 January 1934. It was returned to Howard for rewrites on 21 February and 30 April before publication in October. Howard earned $124.90 for the publication of this story. [2]
This is a sequel to The Treasures of Tartary, despite being published before that story, and it is again set partly in the forbidden city of Shahrazar.
This story was first published in the pulp magazine Thrilling Adventures in January 1935. It was originally titled Gold From Tartary. [3]
It was received by Howard's agent on 15 November 1933 and Howard earned $42.50 for its publication. [2]
O'Donnell searches the forbidden city of Shahrazar, ruled by the Uzbek Shaibar Khan, for the lost treasure of Khuwarezm (which, legend states, was hidden to protect it from Genghis Khan).
The third O'Donnell story, originally titled The Trail of the Bloodstained God, was not published within Howard's lifetime. The writer L. Sprague de Camp found it amongst Howard's papers and edited it into the Conan story The Blood-Stained God, which was first published in Tales of Conan in 1955. The O'Donnell version of the story first saw print much later in the paperback Swords of Shahrazar in 1976. [4]
The story was returned by Thrilling Adventures on 8 October 1935. Howard sent a rewritten version to Kline on 31 January 1936. Kline sent this to several pulp magazines but all returned it – Dime Adventure (sent 4 February 1936, returned 2 March), Short Stories (3 March, returned 18 March), Adventure (19 March, returned 8 April) and Argosy (9 April, returned 22 April). [2]
In this story, O'Donnell is in pursuit of thieves who have stolen from him a treasure map that points the way to the precious idol called The Bloodstained God.
Conan the Barbarian is a fictional sword and sorcery hero who originated in pulp magazines and has since been adapted to books, comics, films, television programs, video games, and role-playing games. Robert E. Howard created the character in 1932 for a series of fantasy stories published in Weird Tales magazine.
Robert Ervin Howard was an American writer who wrote pulp fiction in a diverse range of genres. He created the character Conan the Barbarian and is regarded as the father of the sword and sorcery subgenre.
Sword and sorcery (S&S), or heroic fantasy, is a subgenre of fantasy characterized by sword-wielding heroes engaged in exciting and violent adventures. Elements of romance, magic, and the supernatural are also often present. Unlike works of high fantasy, the tales, though dramatic, focus on personal battles rather than world-endangering matters. The genre originated from the early-1930s works of Robert E. Howard. While there is a chance example from 1953, Fritz Leiber re-coined the term "sword and sorcery" in the 6 April 1961 issue of the fantasy fanzine Ancalagon, to describe Howard and the stories that were influenced by his works. In parallel with "sword and sorcery", the term "heroic fantasy" is used, although it is a more loosely defined genre.
Otis Adelbert Kline was an American songwriter, adventure novelist and literary agent during the pulp era. Much of his work first appeared in the magazine Weird Tales. Kline was an amateur orientalist and a student of Arabic, like his friend and sometime collaborator, E. Hoffmann Price.
"Red Nails" is the last of the stories featuring Conan the Cimmerian written by American author Robert E. Howard. A novella, it was originally serialized in Weird Tales magazine from July to October 1936, the months after Howard's suicide. It is set in the fictional Hyborian Age and concerns Conan entering a lost city whose degenerate inhabitants are entangled in a murderous blood feud. Due to its dark themes of decay and death, the story is considered a classic of Conan lore while also cited by Howard scholars as one of his best tales.
"The Black Stranger" is a fantasy short story by American writer Robert E. Howard, one of his works featuring the sword & sorcery hero Conan the Cimmerian. It was written in the 1930s, but not published in his lifetime. When the original Conan version of his story failed to find a publisher, Howard rewrote "The Black Stranger" into a piratical Terence Vulmea story entitled "Swords of the Red Brotherhood".
Conan is a 1967 collection of seven fantasy short stories and associated pieces written by Robert E. Howard, L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter featuring Howard's seminal sword and sorcery hero Conan the Barbarian. Most of the stories were originally published in various pulp magazines. The book was first published in paperback by Lancer Books in 1967, and was reprinted in 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972 (twice) and 1973. After the bankruptcy of Lancer, publication was taken over by Ace Books. Its first edition appeared in May 1977, and was reprinted in 1979, 1982 (twice), 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, and 1990. The first British edition was issued by Sphere Books in 1974, and was reprinted in 1977. The book has also been translated into German, Japanese, French, Spanish, Italian, Swedish and Dutch. It was gathered together with Conan of Cimmeria and Conan the Freebooter into the omnibus collection The Conan Chronicles.
The Treasure of Tranicos is a 1980 collection of a fantasy short story and essays by American writers Robert E. Howard and L. Sprague de Camp featuring Howard's sword and sorcery hero Conan the Barbarian; the essays by de Camp are on the title story and on Howard. The book is illustrated by Esteban Maroto.
The Conan books are sword and sorcery fantasies featuring the character of Conan the Cimmerian originally created by Robert E. Howard. Written by numerous authors and issued by numerous publishers, they include both novels and short stories, the latter assembled in various combinations over the years by the several publishers. The character has proven durably popular, resulting in Conan stories being produced after Howard's death by such later writers as Poul Anderson, Leonard Carpenter, Lin Carter, L. Sprague de Camp, Roland J. Green, John C. Hocking, Robert Jordan, Sean A. Moore, Björn Nyberg, Andrew J. Offutt, Steve Perry, John Maddox Roberts, Harry Turtledove, and Karl Edward Wagner. Some of these writers finished incomplete Conan manuscripts by Howard, or rewrote Howard stories which originally featured different characters. Most post-Howard Conan stories, however, are completely original works. In total, more than fifty novels and dozens of short stories featuring the Conan character have been written by authors other than Howard. This article describes and discusses notable book editions of the Conan stories.
The Blood-Stained God is a 1955 fantasy novella by American writer Robert E. Howard and L. Sprague de Camp, featuring Howard's sword and sorcery hero Conan the Barbarian. It was revised by de Camp from Howard's original story, an unpublished non-fantasy oriental tale that featured Kirby O'Donnell titled "The Curse of the Crimson God". De Camp changed the names of the characters, added the sorcery elements, and recast the setting into Howard's Hyborian Age. The story was first published in the hardbound collection Tales of Conan, and subsequently appeared in the paperback collection Conan of Cimmeria, as part of which it has been translated into German, Japanese, Spanish, Dutch, and Italian. The stories elements were used on the 1976 Peter Pan Records audio drama record: Conan the Barbarian, entitled The Jewel of the Ages.
El Borak, otherwise known as Francis Xavier Gordon, is a fictional character created by Robert E. Howard. Gordon was a Texan gunfighter from El Paso who had travelled the world and settled in Afghanistan. He is known in Asia for his exploits in that continent.
A list of prose works by Robert E. Howard. The works are sorted by genre, by series and then alphabetically. Untitled works and fragments are listed separately by their opening line.
Turlogh Dubh O'Brien or Black Turlogh, is a fictional 11th Century Irishman created by Robert E. Howard. Turlough is a warrior and an outlaw who has adventures in Ireland and elsewhere. The Turlough Dubh stories are historical adventure stories with fantasy elements; writer Jeffrey Shanks has described the Turlogh Dubh stories as "sword and sorcery".
"Son of the White Wolf" is an El Borak short story by American writer Robert E. Howard. It was originally published in the December 1936 issue of the pulp magazine Thrilling Adventures.
"The Daughter of Erlik Khan" is an El Borak short story by Robert E. Howard. It was originally published in the December 1934 issue of the pulp magazine Top-Notch.
"Hawk of the Hills" is an El Borak short story by Robert E. Howard. It was originally published in the June 1935 issue of the pulp magazine Top-Notch, one of only five of the El Borak stories published within Howard's lifetime. The story was featured as the cover of that issue.
"Blood of the Gods" is an El Borak short story by Robert E. Howard. It was originally published in the July 1935 issue of the pulp magazine Top-Notch.
"Three-Bladed Doom" is an adventure short story by American writer Robert E. Howard, featuring his character El Borak. It was not published within Howard's lifetime.
"The Coming of El Borak" is an El Borak short story by Robert E. Howard. First printed in the chapbook The Coming of El Borak, it was not published in Howard's lifetime. The chapbook features art by Stephen Fabian, and was edited by Robert M. Price.
Thrilling Adventures was a monthly American pulp magazine published from 1931 to 1943.