EXTRACTS: The Complete Conan of Cimmeria Volume 3 © The Book Palace (416 PAGES in Full edition)

A19 N OTES ON THE C ONAN T YPESCRIPTS AND THE C HRONOLOGY By Patrice Louinet LIST OF THE EXTANT CONAN TYPESCRIPTS (July 1934–July 1935) The final drafts of the stories published in Weird Tales were probably destroyed after the story was typeset, and thus are no longer extant. Regarding the terminology used: a draft is “incomplete” when we are missing at least one page; it is “unfinished” when Howard didn’t finish the draft. Sometimes Howard would write a draft and rewrite only a portion of it; such drafts are subdivided with numerals (i.e., draft b2 recycles pages from draft b1). All drafts have been examined for the preparation of this volume unless noted. The Servants of Bit-Yakin – draft a, untitled, 32 pgs. (numbered 1–5, 7–33 in error) – draft b, 48 pgs. – draft c, (final Weird Tales version), survives as carbon, 56 pgs. Beyond the Black River – draft a, untitled, 56 pgs. – draft b, (final Weird Tales version), survives as untitled carbon, 69 pgs. The Black Stranger – synopsis a, untitled, single-spaced, 2 pgs. – draft a, untitled, dwindling to a synopsis, 64 pgs. – draft b1, incomplete, pgs. 47–81 of 81 pgs. – draft b2, incomplete, pgs. 47–93 of 93 pgs., (numbered 47–59, 59–93) (pages 79–81 are perhaps missing; they were not located in time for this edition) – draft c, final version, 98 pgs., (plus discarded pg. 35) (also survives as a carbon) – in addition to his final draft, Howard wrote a two-page synopsis of the first part of this story, conceived as a serial; undoubtedly this would have appeared in Weird Tales—had the story been accepted—at the beginning of the second installment. The Man-Eaters of Zamboula – synopsis, 1 pg. – draft a, dwindling to a synopsis, 24 pgs. – draft b, 33 pgs. – draft c, (final Weird Tales version), survives as carbon, 40 pgs. (page 32 is perhaps lost; it was not located in time for this edition)