On Rusty Burke's
The Iron Harp #1

As expected, Rusty, both of these pieces are both substantial and example-setting scholarly work. The discovery of the Garbin poem and your reinforcement of the scholarly notion that it is always risky to assume that the first quick answer to a question is necessarily the truth are a credit to your investigative abilities and persistence on the trails of TRUTH re: REH. The publication of your important talk given at the 1999 Howard Days celebration gets the word out to the browsing public in helping to set the record straight and clear up common misconceptions.

Great job all around and it was certainly a great credit to this new concept to have you and Patrice lend a great deal of credibility to the first-ever REHEAPA Posting.

Patrice, this was the first real study I'd seen on the relevance (and some of the misconceptions and important connections) of REH's dog. At Cross Plains a week or so ago, I stopped for awhile on a couple occasions near the tree that Rusty believes to be the site of Patch's grave and paid some respects to Bob's long lost friend.

It's always good to see deCamp deBunked again. And I think you've hit deNail on deHead (sorry for the puns, I'm on a roll ;-) regarding the time frames and significance of Patch -- and the absence of Patch -- in REH's life and letters.

I also like the concept that the fictional dogs became the extension, the continuance, the reincarnations in a sense, of Patch.

All in all, a great first Posting, gentlemen -- and the reviews have been in almost unanimous agreement. It's my pleasure to welcome: Jeffrey Elmquist, Paul Herman, Josep Parache, and Gary Romeo (in order of journal submission) to our Association as Founding and Active Members beginning with this Posting #2.

ONWARD!
Frank