The last two or three years, we’ve dated steadily, not because we’re in love; but because we like each other and like to talk about books and writing stories. Both of us try to write; he has sold a few things, and I’m still trying.
—Novalyne Price Ellis, One Who Walked Alone 19

Writing was one of the interests Novalyne Price and Robert E. Howard had in common, and it drew them together. According to Novalyne’s memoir, Howard put her in touch with his agent Otis Adelbert Kline, who agreed to read one of her stories, and sent it back with comment—at the time, literary agents normally charged a reading fee, but Kline likely did this as a favor to Bob. Unfortunately for Novalyne, her story (and Kline’s letters) were accidentally burned (ibid. 227). Sadly, Novalyne did not appear to break into print during her time in Cross Plains, Texas.

However, in later letters, Novalyne says she was published:

Eventually, I sold a few short stories and the radio script about Bob’s look-alike or double.
—Novalyne Price Ellis to L. Sprague de Camp, 20 Aug 1977,
Selected Letters of Novalyne Price Ellis 19

Although I had to keep teaching because I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to meet my monthly bills, I did sell a few stories and articles over the years.
—Novalyne Price Ellis to Thomas W. Collins, 10 Nov 1988, ibid. 51

While I sold a few stories during the 1940s and 50s, I know so little about writing and what I am trying to do for Bob.
—Novalyne Price Ellis to Glenn Lord, 27 Aug 1979,
Selected Letters of Novalyne Price Ellis Vol. II, 15

But I was very lucky with the sixteen to eighteen stories, articles, radio scripts, and things that I sold. My first story had two paragraphs cut. One other story had a title change, and the radio script had a title change and the first line changed—(which was a mistake.)
—Novalyne Price Ellis to Glenn Lord, 8 Dec 1980, ibid. 50-51

Glenn, the first story I sold was the result of the editor’s making a couple of suggestions about cutting it. After that I sold another group of stories because I knew more than I had a[t] first. Kline was handling my material then, too, and he made some worthwhile suggestions about individual stories.
—Novalyne Price Ellis to Glenn Lord, 10 Nov 1981, ibid. 75

All my life, I wanted to write but teaching was so exciting and I put so much effort into it, I didn’t have time to devote to writing. However, the fact that I managed somehow to write and sell about 18 stories and articles encourages me to believe that I can write salable material.
—Novalyne Price Ellis to Donald Grant, 19 Nov 1981, ibid. 79

I have read and re-read the stories of mine that sold, and I’ve tried for the same spontaneity of ease. It’s been hard.
—Novalyne Price Ellis to Glenn Lord, 3 Sep 1986, ibid. 151

Some of this material jives with known information. The radio play, for instance, is “The Day of the Stranger” (1947) by Novalyne Price Ellis. Articles like “Lafayette Teacher Terms Public Speaking Training Vital Necessity in School System” (The Lafayette Progress 29 Aug 1959) are fairly well known. However, the assertion that she wrote and published a number of fiction stories in the 1940s and 50s, and even published them through Kline’s agency, is new. It suggests an ongoing business relationship with Kline, possibly until his death in 1946.

The real question is: where were Novalyne’s stories published? Her name is absent from the major pulp databases. She might have used a pen name, which was common enough during the period, and difficult to track. So too, she might have been writing primarily in the romance pulps, which are poorly attested, or in non-pulp magazines, which are likewise not well indexed. As it happens, at least two of her stories were published (or republished) in newspapers and are available through online archives, while at least two more were published in non-pulp magazines, one of which is available online.

Part of the difficulty in finding these stories is that the first three (all published in 1945) were published under the name Novalyne Price Robarts (she was briefly married to Douglas Robarts from 1942 to c.1946; she married William Ellis in 1947), and appeared in Canadian newspapers and/or magazines. Kline was known for placing his client’s work internationally, and while World War II put a serious crimp in such sales, Canada seems to have been a ready market for Novalyne’s romantic fiction.

So we have a glimpse of at least some of Novalyne’s published fiction—and we can get a glimpse of her style and themes, and a better understanding of the stories she may have shared with Robert E. Howard, Tevis Clyde Smith, Otis Adelbert Kline, and others.

“Marriage by Arrangement” (23 Jun 1945)

This short story was published in the Toronto (Ontario, Canada) Star Weekly newspaper, under the name Novalyne Price Robarts.

Jean receives a proposal from Smith Jones, the Marine buddy of her brother Carl, who was killed in action. This makes a small difficulty, as she’s expected to receive a proposal from Paul Villa, and doesn’t like being told who she will or will not marry. Initial upset at the unexpected proposal gives way, by degrees, to attraction and regret for hardheadedness.

By 5 o’clock that afternoon, she felt so sorry for Smith Jones she even cried a little. She spent most of the afternoon trying to write him a letter. But she didn’t know his address. She could run an ad. in the personal column of the newspaper.

This is not one of Novalyne’s relationships recast in fictional form; but there is a bit of an echo of One Who Walked Alone in the vacillation, the feminine independence versus the attraction. It’s a wish-fulfillment story aimed for women, an ideal romantic fantasy where the main conflict is a woman struggling with the question of what—and who—she really wants. Fortunately, in this case, Jones comes back, hat literally in hand.

“Blueprint for Happiness” (29 Sep 1945)

This short story was published in the Toronto (Ontario, Canada) Star Weekly newspaper, under the name Novalyne Price Robarts.

Mary Ellen Carter, schoolteacher, doesn’t want to be an old maid. She wants to be a wife and mother. Handsome Greg, war vet, was in love with Gloria and building her the kind of house that Mary Ellen wanted to live in. Fat Mr. Wilkes proposes to Mary Ellen. It is a swift and perfunctory love quadrangle that ends with Mary Ellen resigning to become a housewife.

“Blueprint for Happiness” is not in any sense a progressive love story, nor does it reflect Novalyne’s own path in life—she managed to balance marriage, motherhood, and teaching—though her schoolteacher background undoubtedly inspired things. These were real considerations at the time; women were torn between the practicality of career vs. traditional homemaker expectations. The story is a kind of wish-fulfillment, a swift and happy ending to a potentially complex and knotty social quandary.

“A Date with the Moon” (Sep 1945)

An advertisement for the September 1945 issue of the Canadian Home Journal includes a listing for this story, as by Novalyne Price Robarts. I have not yet been able to obtain a copy or scan of this issue to confirm the contents.

“A Fellow Has To Fight” (May 1951)

This short story was published in The Country Guide (May 1951) magazine, under the name Novalyne Price Ellis.

This is a fairly treacle-sweet story of an accomplished young man named Jimmy Jones at high school who feels restrained by his mother’s attitude and expectations he refrain from fighting or sports, and eager to make time with beautiful Betty Myers—but the local bully starts accusing him of being a “mamma’s boy” and a “sissy.” Jones gets into one little fight and Betty starts dating other people…

“I don’t care to discuss it further,” she stormed. “And furthermore. I’ll give you to understand that I can have a date with anybody I want to. Just because I’ve had a few dates with you is no sign that you own me.”

“Well, ye gods!” I mumbled. (75)

That isn’t anything ripped straight from Novalyne and Bob’s relationship, but there might be an echo of it. Certainly, Novalyne went on dates with other men before, after, and during the time she dated Robert E. Howard, and didn’t feel guilty about it as there was no agreement of being exclusive with each other. Unfortunately, a few pages are missing from the scan, so we don’t see how the story ends.

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The stories—two complete, one incomplete, one only a title—have some commonalities. They are mostly told from a woman’s point of view; they are concerned with romance, but also social pressures and expectations; and they are relatively light fantasies with happy endings. All of them have Novalyne’s particular style; readers familiar with her letters and One Who Walked Alone will recognize the occasional turn of phrase, certain ways of thinking. While these stories are all written probably pretty much to order for newspapers looking to publish fluffy stories that make readers feel good, they also capture echoes Novalyne’s own thoughts and conflicts.

While the stories don’t tell us much about Novalyne’s own romantic relationships, they do tell us more about Novalyne as a writer. These are passable stories. These are salable stories. Not exceptional, not groundbreakingly original, but neither are they incompetent or completely stale. They’re stories which show an understanding of the form of romance, but don’t have enough space to really develop the conflicts very far before resolution. The kind of short stories that a busy schoolteacher might churn out between grading themes and coaching kids after class.

Are these the kind of stories she might have shown to Robert E. Howard? Hard to say. The plots she describes in One Who Walked Alone include more mature elements, like a woman with an illegitimate child. Not the kind of thing that would play in your average newspaper. The sense of place is also somewhat vague; except for “Marriage by Arrangement,” which is explicitly set in New Orleans and involves a Texas suitor, the others are generic Anytown USA (or, in this case, Anytown, CAN) locales.

It will be interesting to see what other stories from Novalyne Price Ellis’ typewriter turn up, in old magazines and newspapers or online databases.

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Bobby Derie is the author of Weird Talers: Essays on Robert E. Howard and Others and Sex and the Cthulhu Mythos.

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