Among Glenn’s many achievements was The Last Celt, a bio-bibliography of Robert E. Howard, published in 1976 by Donald Grant. When it appeared it was a long anticipated benchmark event in Howardom. The 416 page volume was much appreciated by the legion of Howard fans who knew no one other than Glenn could have compiled and written such a magnificent book. In the ensuing years there have been other bibliographies, updated of course, but this still remains one of my favorite books.
Of Course, by 1976, Glenn was an old hand at writing and editing. Glenn’s first publishing effort was Always Comes Evening, a book of Howard’s poetry. He was able to get some financial assistance from August Derleth at Arkham House to get the collection published. Glenn recognized early on the importance of Howard’s poetry and worked hard to get additional volumes of Howard’s poetry into print.
By 1961, Glenn had amassed a large amount of Howard material and wanted to share it with other Howard fans. So, taking a cue from another fantasy author themed fan periodical, The Lovecraft Collector, Glenn launched The Howard Collector. The periodical ran for 18 issues, with the final issue being published in the fall of 1973. Seems Glenn was getting so busy with his literary agent duties, he had to close up shop. But it was for a worthy cause – namely the Howard Boom of the 1970s. About four years ago, Rob Roehm talked with Glenn and wrote up an excellent history of THC on The Cimmerian blog.
Glenn also published the much sought after chapbook collection of prose poems, Etchings in Ivory in 1968. In 1979, Ace Books published a paperback “best of” collection from the 18 issues of The Howard Collector journal. The book contained roughy half the material from the magazine’s 12 year run.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Glenn was active in two Howard related amateur press associations – REHupa and the Hyperborian League (which eventually merged with REHupa) and a Lovecraft APA, the Esoteric Order of Dagon. Glenn’s Hyperborian League fanzine was titled Ultima Thule and in 2000, Joe Marek published a magazine-sized collection of all the issues. In 2006, Rob Roehm produced a second edition, which is still available through Lulu.com. In addition to these APAs, Glen would graciously write articles for various journals and fanzines whenever he was asked.
Over the years Glenn wrote introductions to well over 100 collections of Howard stories and poetry, including many of the foreign editions. And if he did not actually write an introduction to a Howard book, odds are the information the author used was provided by Glenn.
Last year, to mark the 50th anniversary of The Howard Collector, Glenn edited a new issue (No. 19). Published in June, it is still in print and available. At the time of his death, Glenn was working on a follow-up issue, which will now be published posthumously. When that appears, it will mark the end of 55 years of Glenn Lord in print. But fear not, the printed word lives on eternal, even after its author has passed on.
