THE ROBERT E. HOWARD COLLECTOR

For the Donald M. Grant collectors - 

A BINDING VARIATION IN

ECHOES FROM AN IRON HARP

The original binding is shown on the left, the variant on the right.

In  May,1972, Donald M. Grant published his sixth Robert E. Howard book, Echoes From An Iron Harp. It was typeset and printed by Ink Printing Co., Charleston, Rhode Island, and bound by Arnold's Book Binding in Reading, Pennsylvania. 1079 copies were delivered from the bindery and approximately 1,000 copies were sold. The rest of the copies were given to Glenn Lord, Alicia Austin, who illustrated the book, and various reviewers and other involved parties.

The initial copies shipped out to dealers were bound in the cloth pictured above on the left.  There was no mention of different bindings in any of Grant's correspondence, but in the decades since the book was published, a few copies have surfaced with a darker red cloth. I recently wrote the late publisher's partners and asked if they knew anything about this variation in binding, and got no response, so I assume they do not have that information. As far as can be determined, there is no specific data about this variant binding, other than copies with the variant binding are extremely rare.

The value of Grant's Howard volumes has not increased as most other Howard volumes have, the value likely affected by the fact that most of Grant's Howard books have questionable texts, but the poetry collections are an exception to that rule.  No difference in the value of these two bindings for Echoes From An Iron Harp has been established. 

Grant was not known for doing this sort of thing with his stock, and variations in his binding materials have rarely been documented.  This probably matters to a few collectors.

Dennis McHaney