Robert Ervin Howard (1906-1936) was an American master of the pulps, a writer whose fierce imagination helped forge the sword-and-sorcery tradition and gave the literary world figures who feel older than their ink - Conan the Barbarian chief among them. But before the Cimmerian strode onto the stage, Howard introduced one of his most severe creations in Solomon Kane: an ascetic Puritan wanderer compelled by a fury carved into his bones by the Almighty. In these five early tales, Kane hunts a murderer across continents, grapples the bloodthirsty ghost of a murdered lunatic, crosses paths with treachery in a shuttered inn, descends into a forgotten kingdom of skulls, and stands against the restless dead in a land scorched by ancient sorcery. Together they reveal the forging of Howard's avenging pilgrim - a man who believes himself God's scourge, armed with a blade, a vow, and a shadow that lengthens with every mile.