5 Robert E. Howard first editions are documented on this shelf, from A Gent from Bear Creek (1937) to The Coming of Conan (1953) across 4 different publishers. Each linked guide gives the points of issue that separate a true first printing of that Robert E. Howard title from later printings and book-club copies — the publisher and year to expect, the number-line or edition-statement conventions, and the tells that show up in online listings.
Identification only, per the house rule: no prices and no appraisals here. Checking a Robert E. Howard copy in hand? Type the title into the First-Edition Checker or photograph the copyright page with Snap & Sort.
- A Gent from Bear Creek — 1937 · Herbert Jenkins LtdThe 1937 Herbert Jenkins first collates 312 pages plus 8 pages of publisher's advertisements, in orange cloth; the dust jacket is exceptionally scarce, and jacketed copies are institutional rarities (the Bodleian holds one). HowardWorks reports only about twenty copies known in any state as of late 2025, and many survivors are ex-lending-library examples — Boots Book Lovers' Library copies are frequently…. The Herbert Jenkins first edition, London, 1937, is the true first and the only edition of Howard's lifetime era — but the census note is wrong on one point: this was published POSTHUMOUSLY, Howard having died in June 1936, and it is generally cited as the first Howard book published. The census is also wrong on the US first: it is NOT Gnome Press but Donald M. Grant, Publisher, West Kingston, Rhode Island, 1965…. No book-club issue is documented. The critical trap is a modern facsimile reproduction of the 1937 Jenkins: it is bound in BLUE cloth rather than orange, carries the Jenkins logo to the spine, and wears a facsimile of the original jacket art — cloth colour is therefore a first-line check. The Donald M. Grant 1965 was itself a facsimile-style reprinting of the Jenkins text, and every subsequent reprinting has been….
- Skull-Face and Others — 1946 · Arkham HouseFirst major Howard collection from Arkham House; edition of 3,004 copies, black cloth gilt-lettered on the spine, dust jacket by Hannes Bok carrying the printed price unclipped. Single printing. Collects twenty-three stories and a poem with appreciations by E. Hoffmann Price and H.P. Lovecraft. The 3,004-copy 1946 Arkham printing is the true first omnibus of Howard's weird fiction. No book club edition exists; a genuine 1946 Arkham copy is the first. Beware ex-library copies and later facsimile dust jackets.
- Conan the Conqueror (The Hour of the Dragon) — 1950 · Gnome PressGnome Press first hardcover edition, 1950, titled 'Conan the Conqueror'. Copyright page with Gnome Press imprint and no later printings stated. Dust jacket art; first state has the original Gnome Press price on the jacket flap. This was the first Conan story in hardcover. Gnome Press 1950 is the true first hardcover Conan book. The original magazine appearance ('The Hour of the Dragon', Weird Tales, 1935-36 serialization) predates it but the book first is the Gnome Press. The 1950s Gnome Conan series volumes are each scarce firsts. Later Ace/Lancer paperbacks and the 1960s revivals are reprints, not the Gnome first. Any paperback is a reprint; the Gnome Press hardcover with 1950 imprint is the collectible first.
- The Sword of Conan — 1952 · Gnome Press, Inc.The copyright page of this title states 'First Printing' (copyright registered 1 April 1952); it is the second Gnome Conan volume. The binding is magenta/maroon cloth lettered in black, with David Kyle's colour pictorial Map of the World of Conan in the Hyborean Age as endpapers front and rear, and the dust jacket is by David Kyle with the artist credited at the front flap and the price present at the flap on an…. The Gnome Press first edition, New York, 1952, is the true first in book form; the constituent stories had appeared in Weird Tales in the 1930s, which is a magazine appearance, not a competing book edition. There is no UK or original-language precedence question — Howard wrote in English and no earlier or simultaneous British edition of this collection is recorded. The census claim is confirmed. No book-club edition is documented for this title, and the Gnome Press bibliography lists no variants. The structural Gnome caveat still governs the imprint generally: with a single exception (The Carnelian Cube), Gnome never announced that it had reprinted a book and left the edition statement unchanged on the copyright page, and Greenberg bound only part of a run at a time, warehousing sheets and later binding….
- The Coming of Conan — 1953 · Gnome Press, Inc.The copyright page of this title states 'First Edition' (copyright registered 25 October 1953), and the book runs 224 pages. The binding is red cloth with black lettering to the spine, and the dust jacket is by Frank Kelly Freas, with the price present at the flap on an unclipped copy. Two distinguishing features separate it from the earlier Gnome Conan volumes: the title page drops the 'The Hyborean Age'…. The Gnome Press first edition, New York, 1953, is the true first in book form; the underlying stories are Weird Tales appearances and some were completed or revised by L. Sprague de Camp for this volume, which is a textual point rather than a precedence one. No UK or original-language edition competes. The census claim is confirmed; note that although this volume opens Conan's internal chronology, it is the…. No book-club edition is documented for this title, and the Gnome Press bibliography lists no variants. The imprint-wide caution applies: with a single exception, Gnome never noted that it had reprinted a book and left 'First Edition' standing on the copyright page, and partial binding runs mean later-bound sheets can appear in different boards — so the statement alone is necessary but not sufficient across the….
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