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Robert Ervin Howard

Born January 22, 1906 (1906-01-22)
Peaster, Texas, United States
Died June 11, 1936 (aged 30)
Cross Plains, Texas, United States
Occupation short story writer, poet, novelist, epistolean
Genres Sword and Sorcery, Westerns, Boxing stories, Historical fiction, Horror
Notable work(s) Conan the Cimmerian (series), The Hour of the Dragon
Influences
Influenced

Robert Ervin Howard (January 22, 1906 – June 11, 1936)[1] was an American pulp writer of fantasy, horror, historical adventure, boxing, western, and detective fiction. Events 565 - Eutychius is deposed as Patriarch of Constantinople by John Scholasticus. Year 1906 ( MCMVI) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year starting Peaster is an unincorporated community in Parker County, Texas, United States, nine miles northwest of Weatherford. Texas ( is a state geographically located in the South Central United States and is also known as the Lone Star State. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Events 1184 BC - Trojan War: Troy is sacked and burned according to the calculations of Eratosthenes. Year 1936 ( MCMXXXVI) was a Leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Cross Plains is a town in Callahan County, Texas, United States. Texas ( is a state geographically located in the South Central United States and is also known as the Lone Star State. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Employment is a Contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. A literary genre is a category of literary composition Genres may be determined by Literary technique, tone, Content, or even (as in the case of fiction Sword and sorcery ( S&S) is a fantasy subgenre generally characterized by swashbuckling heroes engaged in exciting and violent conflicts Western fiction is a genre of literature set in the American Old West between the years of 1860 and 1900 Boxing (sometimes also known as English boxing or pugilism) is a Combat sport in which two participants generally of similar weight, An historical novel is a Novel in which the story is set among historical events or more generally in which the time of the action predates the lifetime of the Author Horror fiction is broadly Fiction in any medium intended to scare unsettle or horrify the audience Conan the Barbarian (also known as Conan the Cimmerian, from the name of his homeland Cimmeria) is a Fictional character often associated with The Hour of the Dragon, also known as Conan the Conqueror, is a 1935 Fantasy novel written by Robert E Edgar Rice Burroughs ( September 1, 1875 – March 19, 1950) was an American author best known for his creation of the jungle hero Edwin Lester Linden Arnold ( 1857 - March 1, 1935) was an English author Rafael Sabatini (April 29 1875 - February 13 1950 was an Italian / British Writer of Novels of romance and adventure. Etymology According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the word bible is from Latin biblia, traced from the same word through Medieval Latin and Late Latin Joseph Rudyard Kipling (30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936 was an English Author and poet Thomas Bulfinch ( July 15 1796 - May 27, 1867) was an American writer born in Newton Massachusetts. Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle, DL (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930 was an Anglo-Scottish Author most noted for his stories about the Nathaniel Hawthorne (born Nathaniel Hathorne; July 4 1804 – May 19 1864 was an American novelist and Short story writer Jack London (January 12 1876 &ndash November 22 1916 was an American author who wrote The Call of the Wild, White Fang, and The Harold Albert Lamb ( 1892 - April 9 1962) was an American Historian, Screenwriter, Short story writer Sir Henry Rider Haggard KBE ( 22 June 1856 &ndash 14 May 1925) was a prolific writer of Adventure novels set Clark Ashton Smith ( January 13, 1893 - August 14, 1961) was a Poet, sculptor, painter and author of fantasy Howard Phillips Lovecraft ( August 20, 1890 – March 15, 1937) was an American author of horror, fantasy Gilbert Keith Chesterton (29 May 1874 – 14 June 1936 was an influential English writer of the early 20th century Poul William Anderson ( November 25, 1926 – July 31, 2001) was an American Science fiction author who wrote during a Golden Leigh Douglass Brackett ( December 7, 1915, in Los Angeles California &ndash March 18, 1978) was a female writer of Science John Ramsey Campbell (born 4 January 1946 in Liverpool) is an English Horror fiction author Lyon Sprague de Camp, ( November 27 1907 – November 6 2000) was an American science fiction and fantasy author Linwood Vrooman Carter ( June 9, 1930 - February 7, 1988) was an American author of Science fiction and Fantasy David Drake (born September 24, 1945) is an author of Science fiction and Fantasy literature Steven Erikson (born October 7, 1959) is the Pseudonym of Steve Rune Lundin, a David Andrew Gemmell ( August 1, 1948 &ndash July 28, 2006) was a bestselling British author of Heroic fantasy. Laurell Kaye Hamilton (born February 19, 1963) is an American Fantasy / Romance writer author of the series Anita Blake Vampire John William Jakes (born on March 31, 1932) is a Writer of Fiction. Paul Kearney is a Northern Irish Fantasy author. Life Kearney was born in Portglenone, County Antrim, Northern Ireland in 1967 William King (born 1959 also known as " Bill King " is the writer of a number of successful science-fiction and Fantasy books most notably in Henry Kuttner ( April 7 1915 – February 4 1958) was a Science fiction author born in Los Angeles, California. This article refers to the science fiction writer For the actor see Fritz Leiber Sr Richard Allen Lupoff, (born February 21, 1935, Brooklyn New York) is a Science fiction and mystery author who has also written humor satire Brian McNaughton (1935 Red Bank New Jersey – May 13, 2004) was an American writer of horror and Fantasy fiction who Michael John Moorcock (born 18 December 1939, in London) is an English writer primarily of Science fiction and fantasy who has also Catherine Lucille Moore ( January 24, 1911 – April 4, 1987) was an American Science fiction and Fantasy Andrew Jefferson Offutt (born August 16, 1934 in Kentucky) is an American Science fiction and Fantasy author Emil Petaja (1915 - 2000 was an American Science fiction and Fantasy writer whose career spanned seven decades American author James Reasoner specializes in historical military novels westerns and mysteries Charles R Saunders also credited as Charles Saunders (born July 12, 1946) is an African American Author and Journalist David Victor Sim (born May 17 1956 in Hamilton, Ontario) is a Canadian Comic book Writer and Artist, best known as the Stephen Michael Stirling is a French -born Canadian - American Science fiction and Fantasy author Matthew Woodring Stover (born 1962 is an American Fantasy novelist Richard L Tierney (born 1936) is an American writer and poet Tierney a scholar of H Harry Norman Turtledove (born June 14 1949) is an American historian and novelist who has written Historical fiction, Fantasy, and Karl Edward Wagner ( 4 December 1945 &ndash 13 October 1994) was an American writer editor and publisher of horror, Robert Weinberg (also credited as Bob Weinberg) is an American author Events 565 - Eutychius is deposed as Patriarch of Constantinople by John Scholasticus. Year 1906 ( MCMVI) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year starting Events 1184 BC - Trojan War: Troy is sacked and burned according to the calculations of Eratosthenes. Year 1936 ( MCMXXXVI) was a Leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Fantasy is a Genre that uses magic and other Supernatural forms as a primary element of plot, theme, and/or setting Horror fiction is broadly Fiction in any medium intended to scare unsettle or horrify the audience An historical novel is a Novel in which the story is set among historical events or more generally in which the time of the action predates the lifetime of the Author Boxing (sometimes also known as English boxing or pugilism) is a Combat sport in which two participants generally of similar weight, The Western is a fiction Genre seen in Film, Television, Radio, Literature, Painting and other Visual arts. Detective fiction is a branch of Crime fiction in which a Detective (or detectives either professional or amateur investigate a crime usually Murder Howard wrote "over three-hundred stories and seven-hundred poems of raw power and unbridled emotion"[2] and is especially noted for his memorable depictions of "a sombre universe of swashbuckling adventure and darkling horror. "[3]

He is well known for having created — in the pages of the legendary Depression-era pulp magazine Weird Tales — the character Conan the Cimmerian, a. Pulp magazines (or pulp fiction; often referred to as "the pulps" were inexpensive Fiction magazines Weird Tales is an American Fantasy and Horror fiction Pulp magazine first published in March 1923. k. a. Conan the Barbarian, a literary icon whose pop-culture imprint can only be compared to such icons as Tarzan of the Apes, Count Dracula, Sherlock Holmes, and James Bond. Conan the Barbarian (also known as Conan the Cimmerian, from the name of his homeland Cimmeria) is a Fictional character often associated with Tarzan is a Fictional character, an archetypal Feral child raised in the African jungle by Apes who later returns to civilization only to Sherlock Holmes is a famous fictional detective of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries who first appeared in Publication in 1887 James Bond 007 is a Fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve Novels and two Short story [4]

Between Conan and his other heroes Howard created the genre now known as sword-and-sorcery in the late 1920s and early 1930s,[5][6] spawning a wide swath of imitators[7] and giving him an influence in the fantasy field rivaled only by J.R.R. Tolkien and Tolkien's similarly inspired creation of the modern genre of High Fantasy. Sword and sorcery ( S&S) is a fantasy subgenre generally characterized by swashbuckling heroes engaged in exciting and violent conflicts High fantasy, or epic fantasy, is a subgenre of Fantasy fiction that is set in invented or parallel worlds. [8]

As a seminal figure in the history of modern fantasy, Howard remains a highly read author,[9] with his best work endlessly reprinted. [10] He has been compared to other American masters of the weird, gloomy, and spectral, such as Nathaniel Hawthorne,[11] Herman Melville,[12] and Jack London. Nathaniel Hawthorne (born Nathaniel Hathorne; July 4 1804 – May 19 1864 was an American novelist and Short story writer Herman Melville (August 1 1819 &ndash September 28 1891 was an American novelist Short story writer Essayist and poet Jack London (January 12 1876 &ndash November 22 1916 was an American author who wrote The Call of the Wild, White Fang, and The [13]

Contents

Biography

Early years

Robert E. Howard was born in Peaster, Texas, the only son of a traveling country physician, Dr. Peaster is an unincorporated community in Parker County, Texas, United States, nine miles northwest of Weatherford. Isaac Mordecai Howard, and his tubercular wife, Hester Jane Ervin Howard. Both sides of the family had longstanding roots throughout the American South, with various ancestors owning plantations and fighting for the Confederacy in the Civil War. The Southern United States &mdashcommonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South &mdashconstitutes a large distinctive The Confederate States of America (also called the Confederacy, the Confederate States, and CSA) formed as the government set up from 1861 Causes of the war See also Origins of the American Civil War, Timeline of events leading to the American Civil War The coexistence of a slave-owning South A postbellum mindset of loss, anger, and pride would later dominate Howard's fiction.

The author's early life was spent wandering through a variety of dusty Texas cowtowns and boomtowns: Dark Valley (1906), Seminole (1908), Bronte (1909), Poteet (1910), Oran (1912), Wichita Falls (1913), Bagwell (1913), Cross Cut (1915), and Burkett (1918). Texas ( is a state geographically located in the South Central United States and is also known as the Lone Star State. Seminole is a City in Gaines County in west Texas, United States. Bronte is a town in Coke County, Texas, United States. The population was 1076 at the 2000 census Poteet is a city in Atascosa County Texas. The population was 3305 at the 2000 census Wichita Falls is a city in the state of Texas and the County seat of Wichita County Texas, United States. Talking to aging Civil War veterans and Texas Rangers, listening to grisly ghost stories told by his grandmother and various ex-slaves, and visiting old forts and historical sites all had a strong influence on his personality. The Texas Ranger Division, commonly called the Texas Rangers, is a law enforcement agency with statewide Jurisdiction based in Austin, the Slavery is a social-economic system under which certain persons — known as slaves — are deprived of personal freedom and compelled to perform labour or services By the time he reached his teens, Howard had soaked in the dying of the Frontier, the bloody history and legends of the American Southwest, and the art of the tall tale. A frontier is a Political and Geographical term referring to areas near or beyond a boundary, or of a different nature The Southwestern area of the United States could be defined as the states west of the Mississippi River, with the qualification of a certain northern limit such as the 37 Tall Tale, also known as Tall Tale The Unbelievable Adventures of Pecos Bill is a 1995 family Western movie starring Patrick

During Howard's youth his mother Hester had a particularly strong influence on his intellectual growth. Known throughout her family as a kind and giving woman — she had selflessly spent her early years helping a variety of sick relatives, contracting tuberculosis in the process — it was she who instilled in her son a deep love of poetry and literature, filling his ears daily with recited verse, and who supported him unceasingly in his efforts to write. Howard never forgot her many kindnesses both to himself and his extended family, and her growing sickness and invalidity did much to cement his view of existence as heartless, unfair, and ultimately futile.

Other themes began to appear at this time which would later seep into his prose. Howard loved reading and learning, but found that school, jobs, and most bastions of authority were to him hated prisons filled with stultifying rules and endless boredom. Experiences watching and confronting bullies revealed the omnipresence of evil and enemies in the world, and taught him the value of brute physical strength and violence. Firsthand tales of gunfights, lynchings, feuds, and Indian raids developed his distinctly Texan, hardboiled outlook on the world. Lynching is an Extrajudicial punishment meted out by a mob Lynching an enumerated Felony in some states in the United States, is defined by some A feud (ˈfjuːd (referred to in more extreme cases as a blood feud or vendetta) is a long-running argument or fight between parties&mdashoften through Guilt Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples from the regions of North America now encompassed by the continental United States Hardboiled Crime fiction is a literary style pioneered by Carroll John Daly in the mid-1920s popularized by Dashiell Hammett over the course of the

Sports, especially boxing, became a passionate preoccupation. Sport is an Activity that is governed by a set of rules or Customs and often engaged in competitively Boxing (sometimes also known as English boxing or pugilism) is a Combat sport in which two participants generally of similar weight, At the time, boxing was the most popular sport in the country, with a cultural influence far in excess of what it is today. Jim Jeffries, Jack Johnson, Bob Fitzsimmons, and later Jack Dempsey were the names that dominated Howard's dreams during those years, and he grew up a lover of all contests of violent, masculine struggle. Jim Jeffries may refer to James J Jeffries, world heavyweight boxing champion Jim Jeffries, Australian comedian Arthur John Johnson (March 31 1878 – June 10 1946 better known as Jack Johnson and nicknamed the “Galveston Giant” was an American boxer and Robert James "Bob" Fitzsimmons ( May 26, 1863 - October 22, 1917) a British -born New Zealand boxer made Jack "Manassa Mauler" Dempsey ( June 24, 1895 – May 31, 1983) was an American boxer who held the world Specifically, he focused in on a type of boxer he called Iron Men, tough battlers who had little skill but made up for it in the sheer ability to take punishment that would kill a lesser man. Inspired by these heroes, Howard lifted weights, practiced boxing and wrestling with friends, and read everything he could find on the subject — most notably in exciting, somewhat lurid magazines such as The Ring and The Police Gazette. Weightlifting, also called Olympic weightlifting or Olympic-style weightlifting, is a sport in which participants attempt a maximum weight single lift of a barbell Wrestling is the act of physical engagement between two people in which each wrestler strives to get an advantage over or control of the opponent This article is about the American magazine The National Police Gazette

In 1919, when Howard was thirteen, Dr. Howard moved his family to the Central Texas hamlet of Cross Plains, and there the family would stay for the rest of Howard's life. Central Texas (a part of which is Texas Hill Country) is a region (and a physiographic section as it pertains to geography in the U Cross Plains is a town in Callahan County, Texas, United States. That same year, sitting in a library in New Orleans while his father took medical courses at a nearby college, Howard discovered a book concerned with the scant fact and abundant legends surrounding a group of barbaric tribesmen in ancient Scotland called the Picts. New Orleans (nʲuːˈɔrliənz nʲuːˈɔrlənz French: La Nouvelle-Orléans) is a major United States port city and the largest city in Louisiana Scotland ( Gaelic: Alba) is a Country in northwest Europethat occupies the northern third of the island of Great Britain. The Picts were a Confederation of tribes in what was later to become eastern and northern Scotland from Roman times until the 10th century Named for the tattoos they decorated themselves with and bitter enemies of encroaching Roman legions, the Picts fired Howard's imagination and crystallized in him a love for barbarians and outsiders from civilization who lived lives of great hardship and struggle but also great freedom and verve. For other uses see Legion The Roman Legion (from Latin legio "military levy Conscription," From then on, the Picts became a muse of sorts, appearing in various guises throughout all the many genres Howard wrote in, and helping to thematically tie his work together.

First writings

Voracious reading, along with a natural talent for prose writing and the encouragement of teachers, conspired to create in Howard an interest in becoming a professional writer. A writer is anyone who creates a written work although the word usually designates those who write creatively or professionally as well as those who have written in many different forms From the age of nine he began writing stories, mostly tales of historical fiction centering on Vikings, Arabs, battles, and bloodshed. A Viking is one of the Norse ( Scandinavian Explorers Warriors Merchants, and pirates who raided and colonized wide areas The araB gene Promoter is a bacterial promoter activated by e L-arabinose binding One by one he discovered the authors that would influence his later work: Jack London and his stories of reincarnation and past lives, most notably The Star Rover (1915); Rudyard Kipling's tales of subcontinent adventure and his chanting, shamanic verse; the classic mythological tales collected by Thomas Bulfinch. Jack London (January 12 1876 &ndash November 22 1916 was an American author who wrote The Call of the Wild, White Fang, and The The Star Rover is a novel by American writer Jack London published in 1915 (published in the United Kingdom as The Jacket) Joseph Rudyard Kipling (30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936 was an English Author and poet Thomas Bulfinch ( July 15 1796 - May 27, 1867) was an American writer born in Newton Massachusetts. Howard was considered by friends to be eidetic (i. Eidetic memory, photographic memory, or total recall is the ability to recall Images Sounds, or objects in Memory e. had a photographic memory), and astounded them with his ability to memorize lengthy reams of poetry with ease after one or two readings.

At fifteen Howard first sampled the popular world of pulp magazines, especially Adventure and its star authors Talbot Mundy and Harold Lamb. Pulp magazines (or pulp fiction; often referred to as "the pulps" were inexpensive Fiction magazines Adventure was first published in November 1910 as a monthly Pulp magazine. Talbot Mundy (born William Lancaster Gribbon) ( April 23, 1879 – August 5, 1940) was an English writer Harold Albert Lamb ( 1892 - April 9 1962) was an American Historian, Screenwriter, Short story writer Like a lightning bolt striking, his fate was sealed — come hell or high water, he was going to be an adventure writer. The next few years saw him creating a variety of series characters: El Borak (a Texan cross between John Rambo and T. E. Lawrence), a cowboy hero named The Sonora Kid, the puritan avenger Solomon Kane, and the last king of the Picts, Bran Mak Morn. "RAMBO" can refer to RAMBO Brooklyn, a neighborhood in New York City Robust Associations of Massive Baryonic Objects, a theoretical The Sonora Kid, also known as Steve Allison, is a fictional Cowboy created by Robert E Stories Most of the Solomon Kane stories were first published in Weird Tales. Bran Mak Morn is a hero of several pulp fiction short stories by Robert E Soon the fifteen-year-old was submitting stories to pulps such as Adventure and Argosy. Rejections piled up, and with no mentors or instructions of any kind to aid him, Howard became a writing autodidact, methodically studying the markets and tailoring his stories and style to each. Autodidacticism (also autodidactism) is self-education or self-directed learning

In the fall of 1922, when Howard was sixteen, he temporarily moved to a boarding house in the nearby city of Brownwood to complete his senior year of high school, and it was in Brownwood that he first met friends his own age who shared his interest not only for sports and history but also writing and poetry. Brownwood is a city in and the County seat of Brown County, Texas, United States. The two most important of these, Tevis Clyde Smith and Truett Vinson, shared his Bohemian and literary outlook on life, and together they wrote amateur papers and magazines, exchanged long letters filled with poetry and existential thoughts on Life and Philosophy, and encouraged each other's writing endeavors. Tevis Clyde Smith (1908&ndash1984 was an American fantasy writer and amateur publisher The term bohemian, of French origin was first used in the English language in the nineteenth century to describe the untraditional lifestyles of marginalized and impoverished Artists Existentialism is a philosophical doctrine which posits that individuals create the meaning and essence of their lives and that this essence follows from their existence Philosophy is the study of general problems concerning matters such as existence knowledge truth beauty justice validity mind and language

Howard also spent his late school years engaging in a self-created regimen of exercise and sparring, eventually building himself into a muscled, burly specimen. He began boxing locally in seedy drinking and gambling venues such as the local Cross Plains icehouse, gaining a reputation for toughness and seldom if ever losing a fight. All of this real-life experience with physical struggle began factoring heavily in his stories, giving them a frighteningly realistic aura and power seldom seen in literature.

Depression and suicidal tendencies

It's clear from Howard's earliest writings and the recollections of his friends that Howard suffered from severe depression from an early age. Major depressive disorder, also known as major depression, unipolar depression, unipolar disorder, clinical depression, or simply depression Confidants such as Tevis Clyde Smith and Novalyne Price Ellis found Howard to be an agreeable companion most of the time, full of life and good humor — but always with an underlying simmering melancholy. Tevis Clyde Smith (1908&ndash1984 was an American fantasy writer and amateur publisher Novalyne Price Ellis (born Novalyne Price ( March 9, 1908 &ndash March 30, 1999) was a Texas -born schoolteacher

These bouts of depression haunted him throughout his life. In later years, Howard would attribute this to a variety of reasons: the inherited gloomy disposition of the Irish; his poor treatment at the hands of locals who derided him for staying at home as a writer rather than getting a respectable blue-collar job; the natural lonely, somewhat outcast existence of writers; and a shyness and lack of self-confidence exacerbated by frequent moves during his youth. The Irish people ( Irish: Muintir na hÉireann, na hÉireannaigh, na Gaeil) are a Western European Ethnic group who originate Employment is a Contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. The constant mental and emotional pressures Howard experienced in his role of primary caregiver for his increasingly sick mother may also have contributed to his depression.

Howard's writings reveal that he planned to go out while young and in the prime of health. Friends recall him defending the act of suicide as a valid alternative as early as eighteen years old, while many of his stories and poems have a suicidal gloom and intensity that seem prescient in hindsight, describing such an end not as a tragedy but as a release from hell on earth. Hell, according to many Religious beliefs, is a location in the Afterlife, which may be described as a place of suffering At his lowest times he insinuated to friends that the only thing keeping him from attempting suicide was the effect it would have on his ailing, tubercular mother, who by now was mostly bedridden and increasingly relied on her son to get through daily life. Tuberculosis (abbreviated as TB for tubercle bacillus or T u' b' erculosis Bacillus --> is a common

Howard spent his late teens working a variety of hated odd jobs around Cross Plains: picking cotton, branding yearlings, hauling garbage, working in grocery stores, office work, serving at a soda counter, public stenography, packing rods for a surveyor, and writing oil-field news, all while taking courses at Howard Payne Academy in Brownwood (an adjunct of the college) and trying mightily to break into the pulp markets. After years of rejection slips and near acceptances, he finally sold a short caveman tale titled "Spear and Fang", which netted him the princely sum of $16 and introduced him to the readers of a struggling pulp called Weird Tales. A caveman is a popular Stock character based upon Stereotyped concepts of the way in which early prehistoric Humans or Homininans may have looked and Weird Tales is an American Fantasy and Horror fiction Pulp magazine first published in March 1923. Nicknamed "The Unique Magazine" due to its strange and macabre content, it was destined to become one of the classic, best-remembered pulps, largely due to the influence of Howard and his two contemporaries, H. P. Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith. Howard Phillips Lovecraft ( August 20, 1890 – March 15, 1937) was an American author of horror, fantasy Clark Ashton Smith ( January 13, 1893 - August 14, 1961) was a Poet, sculptor, painter and author of fantasy Further story sales to Weird Tales were sporadic but encouraging, and soon Howard was a regular in the magazine. His first cover story was for "Wolfshead", a werewolf yarn published when he was only twenty. See also Lycanthropy (disambiguation Werewolves, also known as lycanthropes, are mythological or folkloric humans with the ability to

Professional writer

As he found his footing in the market, Howard became increasingly attracted to the concept of series characters. A gloomy, action-packed story rejected by the more popular pulp Adventure was salvaged and submitted to Weird Tales, and the result was "Red Shadows," the first of many stories featuring the vengeful Puritan swashbuckler Solomon Kane. An adventure is an activity that comprises Risky dangerous and uncertain experiences Swashbuckler or swasher is a term that developed in the 16th century to describe rough noisy and boastful Swordsmen It is based on a fighting style using a Stories Most of the Solomon Kane stories were first published in Weird Tales. Appearing in the August 1928 issue of WT, the character was a big hit with readers, as was Howard's increasingly grim and intense worldview — a bloody, dark, fatalistic outlook fueled by suicidally intense depressive tendencies and wide-ranging studies in history, warfare, philosophy, and poetry.

Six more Kane stories followed over the next four years, but Howard was already expanding his horizons. In conjunction with his friend Tevis Clyde Smith he dabbled heavily in verse, writing hundreds of poems and getting dozens published in Weird Tales and assorted poetry journals. Tevis Clyde Smith (1908&ndash1984 was an American fantasy writer and amateur publisher The best of these efforts remain classics, conjuring up the same blood-splattered, dark, mythic visions of war and rapine that his best stories do. Efforts to get a book of poems accepted by a mainstream publisher failed, however, with several editors recoiling at the brutal imagery and macabre subject matter.

Ultimately Howard judged the writing of poetry to be a luxury he couldn't afford, and after 1930 he wrote little verse, instead dedicating his time to short stories and higher-paying markets. Nevertheless, as a result of this apprenticeship, his stories increasingly took on the aura of "prose-poems" filled with hypnotic, dreamy imagery and a fantastic power lacking in most other pulp efforts of the time.

During the same period, Howard took his first stab at writing a novel, a loosely autobiographical book modeled on Jack London's Martin Eden and titled Post Oaks and Sand Roughs. Jack London (January 12 1876 &ndash November 22 1916 was an American author who wrote The Call of the Wild, White Fang, and The Martin Eden ( 1909) is a novel by American author Jack London, about a struggling young writer Of interest to Howard scholars for the personal information it contains, the book was otherwise of middling quality and was never published in the author's lifetime. Stymied by the poetry and novel fields, Howard kept plugging away at Weird Tales, filling its pages with Kane stories and verse. He also did his best to expand his markets, submitting a bewildering array of tales to a variety of pulps.

After several minor successes and false starts, he struck gold again with a new series based on one of his favorite passions: boxing. July 1929 saw the debut of Sailor Steve Costigan in the pages of Fight Stories. Sailor Steve Costigan is a Fictional character created by Robert E Fight Stories was a Pulp magazine devoted to stories of Boxing published between June 1928 and spring 1952 (although publication was suspended from May A tough-as-nails, two-fisted mariner with a head of rocks and occasionally a heart of gold, Costigan began boxing his way through a variety of exotic seaports and adventure locales, becoming so popular in Fight Stories that the same editors began using additional Costigan episodes in their sister magazine Action Stories. Action Stories was a multi-genre Pulp magazine published between September 1921 and Fall 1950 with a brief hiatus at the end of 1932 The series was Howard's first foray into humor and first-person narration, and has been compared to the humorous work of such writers as Damon Runyon and P. G. Wodehouse. Damon Runyon ( 4 October 1884 – 10 December 1946) was a newspaperman and writer Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, KBE (15 October 1881 – 14 February 1975 (ˈwʊdhaʊs was an English Comic novelist who enjoyed enormous popular success With three solid markets now all buying up his stories regularly, Howard quit taking college classes, and indeed would never again work a regular job. At twenty-three years of age, from the middle of nowhere in Texas, he had become a full-time writer.

The birth of Sword and Sorcery

As Kane and Costigan stories were rattling off his typewriter, Howard began audacious experiments with the entire concept of the weird tale as defined by practitioners such as Edgar Allan Poe, A. Merritt, and H. P. Lovecraft, mixing elements of fantasy, horror, mythology, and swordplay into thematic vehicles never before seen. Horror fiction is broadly Fiction in any medium intended to scare unsettle or horrify the audience Edgar Allan Poe (January 19 1809 – October 7 1849 was an American poet, short-story Writer, editor and Literary critic, Abraham Merritt ( January 20, 1884 &ndash August 21, 1943) who published under the byline A Howard Phillips Lovecraft ( August 20, 1890 – March 15, 1937) was an American author of horror, fantasy Fantasy is a Genre that uses magic and other Supernatural forms as a primary element of plot, theme, and/or setting Horror fiction is broadly Fiction in any medium intended to scare unsettle or horrify the audience The word mythology (from the Greek grc μυθολογία mythología, meaning "a story-telling a legendary lore" Fencing is the art of armed Combat involving Cutting, Stabbing, or slapping bludgeoning Weapons directly manipulated by hand After two years of successive drafts, rewrites, and world creation, he finished "The Shadow Kingdom," which for the first time richly blended elements of horror, history, barbaric adventure, high fantasy, and philosophy into a new style of tale which ultimately became known as Sword and Sorcery. "The Shadow Kingdom" by Robert E Howard is the first of Howard's Kull stories set in his fictional Thurian Age. Horror fiction is broadly Fiction in any medium intended to scare unsettle or horrify the audience History is the study of the past particularly the written record Those who study history as a Profession are called Historians Etymology "Barbarian" is a pejorative term for an uncivilized person either in a general reference to a member of a nation or Ethnos perceived High fantasy, or epic fantasy, is a subgenre of Fantasy fiction that is set in invented or parallel worlds. Philosophy is the study of general problems concerning matters such as existence knowledge truth beauty justice validity mind and language Sword and sorcery ( S&S) is a fantasy subgenre generally characterized by swashbuckling heroes engaged in exciting and violent conflicts Featuring King Kull, a barbarian precursor to later Howard heroes such as Conan, the tale hit Weird Tales in August 1929 and received much fanfare from readers. Kull of Atlantis or Kull the Conqueror is a Fictional character created by Robert E Conan the Barbarian (also known as Conan the Cimmerian, from the name of his homeland Cimmeria) is a Fictional character often associated with Weird Tales is an American Fantasy and Horror fiction Pulp magazine first published in March 1923. Several more Kull stories followed, but enough of them were rejected by Weird Tales editor Farnsworth Wright to convince Howard not to continue the series. Farnsworth Wright (1888-1940 was the editor of the Pulp magazine Weird Tales during the magazine's heyday

With his own interest in Solomon Kane dwindling and his Kull stories not catching on, Howard applied his new Sword-and-Sorcery template to one of his first loves: the Picts. The Picts were a Confederation of tribes in what was later to become eastern and northern Scotland from Roman times until the 10th century His story "Kings of the Night" depicted King Kull conjured into pre-Christian Britain to aid the Picts in their struggle against the invading Romans, and introduced readers to Howard's king of the Picts, Bran Mak Morn. Kull of Atlantis or Kull the Conqueror is a Fictional character created by Robert E In Britain and Ireland the Iron Age lasted from about the 7th century BC until the Roman conquest and until the 5th century in non- Romanised Ancient Rome was a Civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC Bran Mak Morn is a hero of several pulp fiction short stories by Robert E Howard followed up this tale with the now-classic revenge nightmare "Worms of the Earth" and several other tales, creating horrific adventures tinged with a Cthulhu-esque gloss and notable for their memorable use of metaphor and symbolism. "Worms of the Earth" is a short story by American fantasy fiction writer Robert Ervin Howard. Cthulhu is a giant fictional creature one of the Great Old Ones in H

The Lovecraft Circle

In August 1930 Howard wrote a letter into Weird Tales praising a recent reprint of H. P. Lovecraft's "The Rats in the Walls" and discussing some of the obscure Gaelic references used within. Howard Phillips Lovecraft ( August 20, 1890 – March 15, 1937) was an American author of horror, fantasy "The Rats in the Walls" is a Short story written by H Scottish Gaelic ( Gàidhlig) is a member of the Goidelic branch of Celtic languages. Wright forwarded the letter to Lovecraft, who responded warmly to Howard, and soon the two Weird Tales veterans were engaged in a vigorous correspondence that would last for the rest of Howard's life. By virtue of this, Howard quickly became a member of "The Lovecraft Circle," a group of writers and friends all linked via the immense correspondence of H. Howard Phillips Lovecraft ( August 20, 1890 – March 15, 1937) was an American author of horror, fantasy P. Lovecraft, who made it a point to introduce his many like-minded friends to each other and encourage them to share stories, utilize each other's invented fictional trappings, and help each other succeed in the pulp field. In time this circle of correspondents has developed a legendary patina about it rivaling similar literary conclaves such as The Inklings, the Bloomsbury Group, and the Beats. The Inklings was an informal literary discussion group associated with the University of Oxford, England, for nearly two decades between the early The Bloomsbury Group was an English collectivity of loving friends and relatives who lived in or near London during the first half of the twentieth century [14]

Howard was given the affectionate nickname "Two-Gun Bob" by virtue of his long explications to Lovecraft about the history of his beloved Southwest, and during the ensuing years he contributed several notable elements to Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos of horror stories (his Mythos stories include: "The Cairn on the Headland", "The Black Stone," "The Children of the Night" [1] and "The Fire of Asshurbanipal"). The Cthulhu Mythos is a Shared universe created in the 1920s by American horror writer H "The Black Stone" is a classic Short story by Robert E "The Children of the Night" is a 1931 short story by Robert E He also corresponded with other weird tale writers such as Clark Ashton Smith, August Derleth, and E. Hoffmann Price. Clark Ashton Smith ( January 13, 1893 - August 14, 1961) was a Poet, sculptor, painter and author of fantasy August William Derleth ( February 24 1909 &ndash July 4 1971) was an American writer and anthologist Edgar Hoffmann Trooper Price ( July 3 1898, Fowler California – June 18 1988, Redwood City California) was a writer

Oriental Stories

With the onset of the Great Depression, many pulp markets reduced their schedules or went out of business entirely. Howard saw market after market falter and vanish — Fight Stories, Action Stories — and his savings were wiped out when the local Cross Plains banks failed. Fight Stories was a Pulp magazine devoted to stories of Boxing published between June 1928 and spring 1952 (although publication was suspended from May Action Stories was a multi-genre Pulp magazine published between September 1921 and Fall 1950 with a brief hiatus at the end of 1932 A bank run (also known as a run on the bank) occurs when a large number of Bank customers withdraw their deposits because they believe the bank is or might Yet even during the worst of these times, he kept plugging away at the writing game and breaking new markets.

When Farnsworth Wright started a new pulp called Oriental Stories, Howard was overjoyed — here was a venue where he could run riot through favorite themes of history and battle and exotic mysticism. Farnsworth Wright (1888-1940 was the editor of the Pulp magazine Weird Tales during the magazine's heyday Oriental Stories later retitled The Magic Carpet Magazine, was a Pulp magazine of 1930-34 an offshoot of the famous Weird Tales During the four years of the magazine's existence, he crafted some of his very best tales, gloomy vignettes of war and rapine in the Middle and Far East during the Middle Ages, tales that rival even his best Conan stories for their historical sweep and jewelled splendor. The Middle East is a Subcontinent with no clear boundaries often used as a synonym to Near East, in opposition to Far East. The Far East is a term often used by people in the Western world to refer to the countries of East Asia. Conan the Barbarian (also known as Conan the Cimmerian, from the name of his homeland Cimmeria) is a Fictional character often associated with In addition to series characters such as Turlogh Dubh O'Brien and Cormac FitzGeoffrey, Howard sold a variety of tales depicting various times and periods through the Middle Ages. Turlogh Dubh O'Brien or Black Turlogh, is a fictional 11th Century Irishman created by Robert E Cormac Fitzgeoffrey is a fictional character created by Robert E

Conan

Early 1932 saw Howard taking one of his frequent trips around Texas. Texas ( is a state geographically located in the South Central United States and is also known as the Lone Star State. In Fredericksburg, while overlooking sullen hills through a misty rain, he conceived of the fantasy land of Cimmeria, a bitter hard northern region home to fearsome barbarians. Fredericksburg is a city in Gillespie County, Texas, United States. Cimmeria is a Fictional land of Barbarians in Antediluvian Earth (cp "Barbarian" is a pejorative term for an uncivilized person either in a general reference to a member of a nation or Ethnos perceived Going back home he developed the idea, fleshing out a new invented world — his Hyborian Age — and populating it with all manner of countries, peoples, monsters, and magic. The Hyborian Age is a phrase used by author Robert E Howard to refer to a specific epoch in a fictional timeline used for many of the Low fantasy tales of his In Political geography and International politics, a country is a Political division of a geographical entity A monster is any of a large number of Legendary creatures which usually appear in Mythology, Legend, or Horror fiction. Magic, sometimes known as sorcery, is a Conceptual system that asserts human ability to control the natural world (including events objects people and His Cimmerian hero, Conan, derived from a host of influences, including the previous Kull and a character also named Conan from a reincarnation story he wrote earlier called "People of the Dark". Conan the Barbarian (also known as Conan the Cimmerian, from the name of his homeland Cimmeria) is a Fictional character often associated with Kull of Atlantis or Kull the Conqueror is a Fictional character created by Robert E

Conan first appeared in Weird Tales in December 1932's "The Phoenix on the Sword", and was such a hit that Howard was able to place seventeen more Conan stories in the magazine between 1933 and 1936. Weird Tales is an American Fantasy and Horror fiction Pulp magazine first published in March 1923. "The Phoenix on the Sword" is one of the original short stories about Conan the Cimmerian, written by American author Robert E The character had a wide and enduring influence among other WT writers, including C. L. Moore and Fritz Leiber, and over the ensuing decades the genre of Sword and Sorcery grew up around Howard's masterwork, with dozens of practitioners evoking Howard's creation to one degree or another. Catherine Lucille Moore ( January 24, 1911 – April 4, 1987) was an American Science fiction and Fantasy This article refers to the science fiction writer For the actor see Fritz Leiber Sr Sword and sorcery ( S&S) is a fantasy subgenre generally characterized by swashbuckling heroes engaged in exciting and violent conflicts

New markets

Ever on the search for new markets, in late 1934 Howard took a character conceived in his youth, El Borak, and began using him in mature, professional tales of WWI-era Middle Eastern adventure that landed in Top Notch, Complete Stories, and Thrilling Adventures. TopNotch Records is an Amsterdam based Record label, concentrating on Dutch Hip Hop. As with Kull/Conan, he also created other characters in the same vein such as Kirby O'Donnell. Kull of Atlantis or Kull the Conqueror is a Fictional character created by Robert E Conan the Barbarian (also known as Conan the Cimmerian, from the name of his homeland Cimmeria) is a Fictional character often associated with Kirby O'Donnell is a fictional character created by Robert E Howard. Howard also dabbled in a variety of new genres: "Strange Detective" stories, reincarnation stories, Cthulhu-themed horror tales, pirate stories, and much more. Cthulhu is a giant fictional creature one of the Great Old Ones in H Piracy is Robbery committed at sea or sometimes on shore without a commission from a sovereign Nation (as distinct from Privateering By the end of his life he had contributed to pulps as varied as Action Stories, Argosy, Complete Stories, Cowboy Stories, Dime Sport Magazine, Fight Stories, Ghost Stories, Jack Dempsey's Fight Magazine, Marvel Tales, Oriental Stories, Spicy-Adventure Stories, Sport Story Magazine, Strange Detective Stories, Strange Tales, Super Detective Stories, Thrilling Adventures, Thrilling Mystery, and Top-Notch. Action Stories was a multi-genre Pulp magazine published between September 1921 and Fall 1950 with a brief hiatus at the end of 1932 Fight Stories was a Pulp magazine devoted to stories of Boxing published between June 1928 and spring 1952 (although publication was suspended from May A ghost story may be any piece of Fiction, or Drama, that includes a Ghost, or simply takes as a Premise the possibility of ghosts or the belief Jack "Manassa Mauler" Dempsey ( June 24, 1895 – May 31, 1983) was an American boxer who held the world Marvel Tales is the title of three American Comic-book series published by Marvel Comics, the first of them from the company's 1950s predecessor Atlas Oriental Stories later retitled The Magic Carpet Magazine, was a Pulp magazine of 1930-34 an offshoot of the famous Weird Tales Strange Tales was the name of several Comic book Anthology series that have been published by Marvel Comics.

Novalyne Price

In 1934 Howard met Novalyne Price, a local schoolteacher who was interested in becoming a writer. Novalyne Price Ellis (born Novalyne Price ( March 9, 1908 &ndash March 30, 1999) was a Texas -born schoolteacher Through much of the next two years they dated on and off, spending much time discussing writing, philosophy, history, religion, reincarnation and much else. In an effort to improve her memory and writing, Novalyne began recording all her daily conversations into a journal, in the process preserving an intimate record of her time with Howard.

Their relationship was a series of on-again, off-again encounters, with one falling in love while the other one stepped back. When Novalyne began dating other people behind Howard's back (notably Howard's close friend Truett Vinson), their friendship was irrevocably scarred, but they continued visiting with each other until May 1936, when Novalyne left Cross Plains for LSU to get a graduate degree. Cross Plains is a town in Callahan County, Texas, United States. Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, generally known as Louisiana State University or LSU, is a public, Coeducational

Years later she wrote of their relationship in a book called "One Who Walked Alone", which was the basis for the 1996 film The Whole Wide World starring Vincent D'Onofrio as Howard. The Whole Wide World is a 1996 film depicting the relationship between pulp fiction writer Robert E Vincent Phillip D'Onofrio (born June 30, 1959) is an American Actor and producer.

Western Writing

In the years since Conan had been created, Howard found himself increasingly fascinated with the history and lore of Texas and the American Southwest. History is the study of the past particularly the written record Those who study history as a Profession are called Historians Etymology Texas ( is a state geographically located in the South Central United States and is also known as the Lone Star State. The Southwestern area of the United States could be defined as the states west of the Mississippi River, with the qualification of a certain northern limit such as the 37 Many of his letters to H. P. Lovecraft ran for a dozen pages or more, filled with stories he had picked up from elderly Civil War vets, Texas Rangers, and pioneers. Howard Phillips Lovecraft ( August 20, 1890 – March 15, 1937) was an American author of horror, fantasy Causes of the war See also Origins of the American Civil War, Timeline of events leading to the American Civil War The coexistence of a slave-owning South The Texas Ranger Division, commonly called the Texas Rangers, is a law enforcement agency with statewide Jurisdiction based in Austin, the A settler is a person who has migrated to an area and established permanent residence there often to colonize the area His Conan stories began featuring western elements, most notably in "Beyond the Black River," "The Black Stranger," and the unfinished "Wolves Beyond the Border. Conan the Barbarian (also known as Conan the Cimmerian, from the name of his homeland Cimmeria) is a Fictional character often associated with "Beyond the Black River" is one of the original short stories about Conan the Cimmerian, written by American author Robert E " The Black Stranger " is one of the stories by Robert E " By 1934 some of the markets killed off by the Depression had come back, and Weird Tales was over $1500 behind on payments to Howard. Weird Tales is an American Fantasy and Horror fiction Pulp magazine first published in March 1923. The author therefore stopped writing weird fiction and turned his attentions to this steadily growing passion.

Howard began appearing once again in Action Stories (which the Depression had killed off a few years earlier, but which had now started republishing) in March 1934, this time using a new humorous character in the place of Sailor Steve Costigan, a nineteenth-century hillbilly woodsman named Breckinridge Elkins. Action Stories was a multi-genre Pulp magazine published between September 1921 and Fall 1950 with a brief hiatus at the end of 1932 Sailor Steve Costigan is a Fictional character created by Robert E Hillbilly is a term referring to people who dwell in remote Rural, Mountainous areas of the United States, primarily southern Appalachia and Written as tall tales in the vein of Texas "Tall Lying" stories, which were usually spoken aloud, the series became immensely popular in the magazine, which published a new Elkins story every month without fail until well after Howard's death.

Other magazines asked Howard for similar characters, and soon the author had three different western series in play, as well as penning other more serious westerns for other pulps. By 1936 almost all of his fiction writing was being devoted to westerns, a book of Breck stories titled A Gent from Bear Creek was due to be published by Herbert Jenkins in England, and by all accounts it looked as if Howard was finally breaking out of the pulps and into the more prestigious book market. A Gent from Bear Creek is a collection of Western Short stories by Robert E Herbert Turner Jenkins ( June 7, 1907 – July 20, 1990) was the longest serving Police chief of Atlanta.

Death

Throughout all of this time, Howard continued to be dogged by fits of increasing melancholy and depression, and he maintained his belief in the validity of suicide as an escape from the nightmarish pain. All of his close friends had married and were immersed in their careers, Novalyne Price had left Cross Plains for graduate school, and his most reliable market, Weird Tales, had grown far behind on payments. Novalyne Price Ellis (born Novalyne Price ( March 9, 1908 &ndash March 30, 1999) was a Texas -born schoolteacher

Most importantly, his home life was falling apart — after decades of struggle, his mother was finally nearing death, and the constant interruptions of care workers at home combined with frequent trips to various sanatoriums for her care made it nearly impossible to write. Several times in 1935–36, whenever his mother's health precipitously threatened to give out, he made veiled allusions to his father about planning suicide. Both parents made efforts to convince him to reconsider. In June 1936, as Hester Howard slipped into her final coma, her son maintained a death vigil with his father and friends of the family, getting little sleep, drinking huge amounts of coffee, and growing more despondent.

On the morning of June 11, 1936, told by a nurse that his mother would never again regain consciousness, he walked out to his car in the driveway, took a borrowed . Events 1184 BC - Trojan War: Troy is sacked and burned according to the calculations of Eratosthenes. Year 1936 ( MCMXXXVI) was a Leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. 38 automatic from the glove box, and shot himself in the head. A semi-automatic, or self-loading Firearm is a gun that requires only a trigger pull for each round that is fired unlike a single-action His father and another doctor rushed out, but the wound was too grievous for anything to be done. Howard lived for another eight hours, dying at 4 p. m. ; his mother died the following day. They were both buried on June 14, 1936 in a double funeral in Greenleaf Cemetery in Brownwood, Texas. Events 1276 - While taking exile in Fuzhou in southern China, away from the advancing Mongol invaders, the remnants of the Year 1936 ( MCMXXXVI) was a Leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Brownwood is a city in and the County seat of Brown County, Texas, United States.

Howard's death sent shockwaves of grief through the weird fiction community, vividly documented in the pulps and fanzines of the era, and marked the beginning of the end of the Golden Age of Weird Tales. The term Golden age is best known from Greek mythology and legend but can also be found in other ancient cultures (see below H. P. Lovecraft was severely affected by the death of his friend, and would die himself of intestinal cancer within a year. Howard Phillips Lovecraft ( August 20, 1890 – March 15, 1937) was an American author of horror, fantasy Clark Ashton Smith (the third member of the triumvirate of Weird Tales), was stricken by the deaths of Howard and Lovecraft as well as those of his own parents, and soon stopped writing fiction himself. Clark Ashton Smith ( January 13, 1893 - August 14, 1961) was a Poet, sculptor, painter and author of fantasy Weird Tales is an American Fantasy and Horror fiction Pulp magazine first published in March 1923.

Writing

Howard wrote stories in many genres, but his most famous were sword and sorcery, a genre of fantasy based on war, fighting and magic. Sword and sorcery ( S&S) is a fantasy subgenre generally characterized by swashbuckling heroes engaged in exciting and violent conflicts Fantasy literature is Fantasy in written form Historically speaking the majority of fantasy works have been literature Indeed, many consider him the father of the genre in the same way that J.R.R. Tolkien is considered the father of epic fantasy. High fantasy, or epic fantasy, is a subgenre of Fantasy fiction that is set in invented or parallel worlds. Howard created one of the most popular of all fantasy characters in the barbarian warrior Conan, whom he based on a Celtic warrior, drawing inspiration from his own Scottish Gaelic descent. "Barbarian" is a pejorative term for an uncivilized person either in a general reference to a member of a nation or Ethnos perceived Conan the Barbarian (also known as Conan the Cimmerian, from the name of his homeland Cimmeria) is a Fictional character often associated with Celts (ˈkɛlts or /ˈsɛlts/, see Names of the Celts The Scots people ( Scots Gaelic: Albannaich) are a Nation and an Ethnic group indigenous to Scotland. Conan first appeared in December 1932. Conan the Barbarian (also known as Conan the Cimmerian, from the name of his homeland Cimmeria) is a Fictional character often associated with Year 1932 ( MCMXXXII) was a Leap year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. To add realism and depth to his new character, Howard developed the fictional Hyborian Age. The Hyborian Age is a phrase used by author Robert E Howard to refer to a specific epoch in a fictional timeline used for many of the Low fantasy tales of his His other characters include the Atlantean King Kull, the Puritan adventurer Solomon Kane, the Pict Bran Mak Morn, drawn from the pre-Celtic people that inhabited Scotland till the early medieval period, and the female warriors Dark Agnes de la Fere and Red Sonya of Rogatino, the latter the prototype for the better known Red Sonja of Marvel Comics fame. Atlantis (in Greek,, "island of Atlas " is the name of a Legendary Island, first mentioned in Plato 's dialogues Kull of Atlantis or Kull the Conqueror is a Fictional character created by Robert E A Puritan of 16th and 17th century England was an associate of any number of religious groups advocating for more "purity" of Worship and Doctrine, Stories Most of the Solomon Kane stories were first published in Weird Tales. The Picts were a Confederation of tribes in what was later to become eastern and northern Scotland from Roman times until the 10th century Bran Mak Morn is a hero of several pulp fiction short stories by Robert E Scotland ( Gaelic: Alba) is a Country in northwest Europethat occupies the northern third of the island of Great Britain. Red Sonja, the She-Devil with a Sword, is a Fictional character, a Low fantasy Sword and sorcery heroine created by Roy Thomas Red Sonja, the She-Devil with a Sword, is a Fictional character, a Low fantasy Sword and sorcery heroine created by Roy Thomas Marvel Comics is an American comic book company owned by Marvel Publishing Inc Another barbarian hero, an Irishman named Cormac Mac Art, was descended from Kull and had a Dane friend called Wulfhere the Skull-Splitter. The Irish people ( Irish: Muintir na hÉireann, na hÉireannaigh, na Gaeil) are a Western European Ethnic group who originate Kull of Atlantis or Kull the Conqueror is a Fictional character created by Robert E The term Dane may refer to People with a Danish ancestral or ethnic identity whether living in Denmark, emigrants or the descendants of emigrants

Another field in which Howard was successful was supernatural horror, where he influenced and was in turn influenced by his peer and correspondent H. P. Lovecraft, adding his own trademarks of quickly paced action and strong characterization. Howard Phillips Lovecraft ( August 20, 1890 – March 15, 1937) was an American author of horror, fantasy His original creations, like the forbidden tome Nameless Cults by Friedrich von Junzt, are now considered to be integral parts of the Cthulhu Mythos. Unaussprechlichen Kulten (also known as Nameless Cults or the Black Book) is a fictional work of arcane literature The following fictitious biographies showcase the most important characters in the Cthulhu Mythos. The Cthulhu Mythos is a Shared universe created in the 1920s by American horror writer H Howard and Lovecraft shared a love of the same "weird" writers, chief among them Ambrose Bierce and Arthur Machen, the latter being very important to both authors in the construction of their Cthulhu Mythos tales. Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce (June 24 1842 &ndash 1914? was an American Editorialist Journalist, short-story writer and Satirist. Arthur Machen (ˈmækən ( March 3, 1863 &ndash December 15, 1947) was a leading Welsh Author of the 1890s Howard's true source of inspiration came from folklore and tall tales that he absorbed from various storytellers at an early age.

Howard also wrote in other genres:

Howard envisioned almost all of his sword-and-sorcery stories to take place in the same literary "universe", starting with the prehistoric adventures of James Allison's pre-incarnations; evolving in the Thurian Age of Kull, set in the times of Atlantis and Lemuria (from where Kathulos/Skull Face comes and also the remnants of Atlantean civilization Solomon Kane finds in central Africa); onward to the Hyborian Age of Conan and then to known history. The Thurian Age a specific epoch in the fictional timeline used by Robert E Kull of Atlantis or Kull the Conqueror is a Fictional character created by Robert E Atlantis (in Greek,, "island of Atlas " is the name of a Legendary Island, first mentioned in Plato 's dialogues Lemuria (lɨˈmjʊəriə is the name of a hypothetical " lost land " variously located in the Indian and Pacific Oceans Stories Most of the Solomon Kane stories were first published in Weird Tales. The Hyborian Age is a phrase used by author Robert E Howard to refer to a specific epoch in a fictional timeline used for many of the Low fantasy tales of his Conan the Barbarian (also known as Conan the Cimmerian, from the name of his homeland Cimmeria) is a Fictional character often associated with The James Allison stories can also be viewed as taking place within the context of the latter half of Howard's famous essay, "The Hyborian Age", when, as he recounts, a cataclysm destroyed the age of Conan, and the proto-Nordic tribes roamed the world in vast migrations. The Hyborian Age is an essay by Robert E Howard pertaining to the Hyborian Age, the fictional setting of his stories about Conan the Cimmerian A voracious reader, Howard was familiar with the works of H. P. Blavatsky and contemporary racial migration theories, so his "proto-Aryans," descendants of the Hyborian Age's AEsir and Vanir, roamed the world looking for new lands to conquer (this is made most clear in his excellent tale, "The Valley of the Worm", in which the AEsir have but recently left the northlands and have encroached upon the land of the Picts, who during the Hyborian Age lived directly south of "Nordheim"). This took place between the end of the Hyborian Age and the beginning of recorded history.

Howard engineered his tales so that a great cataclysm always came to seal and divide each era from the next one, so each civilization was barely conscious of the ones that came before, and even then only in myths and legends (for example, Allison's slaying of the "Great Worm" provided us with the myths of Siegfried and Beowulf). This article is about the Greek expression For the event in the Dragonlance series of books see Cataclysm (Dragonlance. Beowulf is an Old English Heroic epic poem of anonymous authorship dating as recorded in the Nowell Codex manuscript from between

In one of the most memorable Howardian tales ever ("Kings of the Night"), a cross-over between different sagas is presented as the Pictish chieftain Bran Mak Morn magically conjures Kull the Valusian from his time to aid him in battle against the Romans and their allies. Bran Mak Morn is a hero of several pulp fiction short stories by Robert E Kull of Atlantis or Kull the Conqueror is a Fictional character created by Robert E The Thurian Age a specific epoch in the fictional timeline used by Robert E Ancient Rome was a Civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC

Howard's prose is straightforward, colorful, and exciting more than subtle and literary, and it attempts to entertain rather than instruct, but it is not without sophistication. Howard tells of worlds where violence is usually the best solution to problems, and where gold, jewels, and beautiful women are often the hero's reward; yet, distancing himself from his inferior imitators, Howard's works have a shade of macabre, even malignant humour in contrasting his square-jawed heroes' efforts with their ultimate futility in the greater picture of things. And yet, as true Nietzschean heroes, they accept their toil of suffering, bloodshed, passion, and pain without even lamenting or complaining about it, thus achieving ultimate freedom from it.

Although he had his faults as a writer, Howard was a natural storyteller, whose narratives are unmatched for vivid, gripping, headlong action. His heroes. . . are larger than life: men of mighty thews, hot passions, and indomitable will, who easily dominate the stories through which they stride. In fiction, the difference between a writer who is a natural storyteller and one who is not is like the difference between a boat that will float and one that will not. If the writer has this quality, we can forgive many other faults; if not, no other virtue can make up for the lack, any more than gleaming paint and sparkling brass on a boat make up for the fact that it will not float. -- L. Sprague de Camp

Legacy

In the decades following Howard's death, he often suffered at the hands of genre critics disdainful of Sword-and-Sorcery, such as Damon Knight, but nevertheless his fame has grown exponentially, fuelled largely by the character of Conan. Lyon Sprague de Camp, ( November 27 1907 – November 6 2000) was an American science fiction and fantasy author Damon Francis Knight ( September 19, 1922 &ndash April 15, 2002) was an American Science fiction Author, Arkham House, a revered fantasy publisher started by Weird Tales regulars August Derleth and Donald Wandrei, started the trend by publishing Skull-Face and Others (1946), one of only four deluxe omnibus volumes in the company's history. Arkham House is a publishing house specializing in Weird fiction founded in Sauk City Wisconsin in 1939 by August Derleth and Donald Wandrei August William Derleth ( February 24 1909 &ndash July 4 1971) was an American writer and anthologist Donald Wandrei ( April 20, 1908 &ndash1987 was an American Science fiction, Fantasy and Weird fiction writer poet and Skull-Face and Others is a collection of fantasy and horror Short stories by author Robert E

Glenn Lord

In the 1950s, a young fan named Glenn Lord began methodically scouring the country for hundreds of lost Howard stories and poems, and as he found them began doing what he could to publish and popularize them. Arkham House printed Lord's book of Howard's poetry Always Comes Evening, and from 1961–1973 Lord published a journal called The Howard Collector that today fetches high prices and is much revered by fans and scholars. Always Comes Evening is a collection of poems by Robert E Howard. In the early sixties, Lord became agent for the Howard heirs, and used his incredible collection of original Howard typescripts to help publishers expose readers to a mountain of unknown Howardiana, bringing much of it into print for the first time.

L. Sprague de Camp and the Howard Boom

Also in the fifties the prominent science-fiction and fantasy writer L. Sprague de Camp, who had become a fan of Howard on reading the Gnome Press edition of Conan the Conqueror (The Hour of the Dragon) was commissioned to edit a few Conan tales for publication in the Gnome Press series. Lyon Sprague de Camp, ( November 27 1907 – November 6 2000) was an American science fiction and fantasy author Gnome Press was an American small-press Publishing company primarily known for publishing many Science fiction classics The Hour of the Dragon, also known as Conan the Conqueror, is a 1935 Fantasy novel written by Robert E He subsequently converted unpublished non-Conan stories by Howard into Conans and edited the first outright non-Howard Conan story (often referred to as "pastiches"), by Swedish Howard fan Björn Nyberg. The word pastiche describes a literary or other artistic Genre. Björn Emil Oscar Nyberg, born September 11 1929, is a Swedish fantasy author best known for his additions to the series of Conan

In 1966, de Camp made a deal with struggling Lancer Books to publish the existing Howard and non-Howard Conan corpus in paperback, along with additional material contributed by himself and his colleague and collaborator Lin Carter. Lancer Books was a line of paperback books published in the 1960s and 1970s by Irwin Stein and Walter Zacharius Linwood Vrooman Carter ( June 9, 1930 - February 7, 1988) was an American author of Science fiction and Fantasy Together they completed recently discovered fragments of Conan pieces by Howard and wrote several of their own stories to fill out the picture of Conan's career. The Lancer Conan series became a publishing phenomenon, selling millions of copies and spawning a host of imitators. Sporting a set of now-classic covers painted by Frank Frazetta, the success of the Lancers created a decade-long "Howard boom" in the 1970s which saw not only the birth of popular Conan comics (Conan the Barbarian, The Savage Sword of Conan, et al. Frank Frazetta (born February 9, 1928) is an American fantasy and Science fiction Artist, noted for his Buck Rogers Comics (via Latin from the Greek "" kōmikos, of or pertaining to "comedy" from kōmos "revel" ) and movies (Conan the Barbarian, which made Arnold Schwarzenegger a star), but also the reprinting of virtually every word Howard ever wrote in a bewildering variety of hardcovers, paperbacks, chapbooks, and fanzines. Conan the Barbarian is a 1982 film by director John Milius and is recognized as the acting Breakthrough of bodybuilder Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger ( German ˌaɐnɔlt aloʏs ˈʃvaɐtsənɛɡɐ born July 30 1947 is an Austrian American Bodybuilder, Actor A fanzine (see also Zine) is a nonprofessional publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon (such as a literary or musical genre for the pleasure

During this same period de Camp popularized Conan, Howard, and fantasy in general in a number of books (The Spell of Conan, The Blade of Conan, Literary Swordsmen and Sorcerers, et al. The Spell of Conan is a 1980 collection of essays poems and fiction edited by L The Blade of Conan is a 1979 collection of essays edited by L Literary Swordsmen and Sorcerers the Makers of Heroic Fantasy is a 1976 work of collective Biography on the formative authors of the Heroic fantasy ) and magazines such as Amra, culminating in his writing of the first full biography of the Texan, Dark Valley Destiny: the Life of Robert E. Howard (1983). Amra are the name of certain ancient Irish elegies or panegyrics on native Saints. Dark Valley Destiny the Life of Robert E Howard is a 1983 Biography of the writer Robert E His success in making Howard a subject of serious scholarship led to the erosion of his own reputation, as fans who had been happy to see anything by or about Howard began to give way to Howard "purists. " As a result de Camp's work has become a divisive issue in Howard studies, with proponents praising his decades of service to the Howardian cause and detractors accusing him of using Howard's work to promote his own interests, and denigrating what they see as his factual errors concerning Howard's life and writings.

Critical appreciation

Early appreciation for Howard's work came more from fellow writers than from critics. In his book Literary Swordsmen and Sorcerers: The Makers of Heroic Fantasy, de Camp describes an interview with J. R. R. Tolkien in which he "indicated that he rather liked Howard's Conan stories. Literary Swordsmen and Sorcerers the Makers of Heroic Fantasy is a 1976 work of collective Biography on the formative authors of the Heroic fantasy "

The 1980s saw critical respect begin to come to Howard, in the form of The Dark Barbarian (1984), edited by noted critic Don Herron, who earlier had penned a seminal essay, "Conan vs. Conantics", which took de Camp to task for what he regarded as the pollution of Howard's reputation with substandard stories by himself and Lin Carter. Linwood Vrooman Carter ( June 9, 1930 - February 7, 1988) was an American author of Science fiction and Fantasy The Dark Barbarian was the first critical volume on Howard to appear by an academic press, and has since been followed by a 2004 sequel titled The Barbaric Triumph.

In 1987, Robert E. Howard, by Marc Cerasini and Charles Hoffman, was published. Mr. Hoffman was the author of the seminal essay, "Conan the Existentialist," published in the 1970s in the Journal of Popular Culture. Robert E. Howard was the first book-length critical study of the author's entire literary output. Now out of print, a revised and updated version of this groundbreaking work will be released in 2008.

Another academic press, Bison Books (University of Nebraska), has recently released five hardcover volumes of Howard's work featuring introductions and textual restoration by Howard scholars. The University of Nebraska Press, founded in 1941 is a Publisher of Scholarly and popular-press books The University of Nebraska is the public University system in the state of Nebraska, USA.

A host of journals and magazines have also contained much criticism. In 1972 The Robert E. Howard United Press Association (REHupa) was born, and for thirty years its members have contributed new scholarship in the field. In recent years Howard's stories have been meticulously restored and republished by various editors and presses such as Wandering Star and Wildside Press, and a journal called The Cimmerian has become the first paying market for Howard criticism, publishing twenty issues in three years. The word critic comes from the Greek el κριτικός ( el-Latn kritikós) "able to discern" which in turn derives from the word

Novalyne Price Ellis

Fifty years after Howard's death, a now-retired Novalyne Price Ellis, upset by Howard's portrayal in de Camp's Dark Valley Destiny, wrote One Who Walked Alone (1986) to counteract its influence. Novalyne Price Ellis (born Novalyne Price ( March 9, 1908 &ndash March 30, 1999) was a Texas -born schoolteacher One Who Walked Alone Robert E Howard The Final Years is a memoir of Robert E Ten years later, the book was made into a critically acclaimed film called The Whole Wide World, starring Renée Zellweger and Vincent D'Onofrio. The Whole Wide World is a 1996 film depicting the relationship between pulp fiction writer Robert E Renée Kathleen Zellweger (born April 25, 1969) is an Academy Award - BAFTA - SAG Award - and Golden Globe -winning Vincent Phillip D'Onofrio (born June 30, 1959) is an American Actor and producer.

Howard Days

Howard's hometown of Cross Plains, Texas, has restored his home and converted it into a museum that has been added to the National Register of Historic Places. Cross Plains is a town in Callahan County, Texas, United States. The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP is the United States government's official list of districts sites buildings structures and objects deemed worthy of Cross Plains celebrates Robert E. Howard Days annually on the second weekend in June, hosted by a local civic organization known as Project Pride. This mini-convention attracts over a hundred fans yearly; events include tours of Howard's home and special postal cancellations, and the Cross Plains Library displays a selection of original Howard manuscripts.

2006 World Fantasy Convention

The theme of the 2006 World Fantasy Convention in Austin, Texas was celebrating the centennial of Howard's birth. The World Fantasy Convention is an annual convention of professionals collectors and others interested in the field of Fantasy. A century (from the Latin centum, meaning one hundred is One hundred consecutive Years Centuries are numbered ordinally (e Two books published to correspond with the convention were Cross Plains Universe: Texans Celebrate Robert E. Howard, edited by Joe R. Lansdale and Scott A. Joe R Lansdale (born October 28, 1951, Gladewater, Texas) is an American author and martial-arts Cupp, and Blood and Thunder: The Life of Robert E. Howard by Mark Finn. Mark Finn (born October 1969 in Abilene, Texas) is the Pseudonym of Mark Farr-Nash a Science fiction and Fantasy writer

In popular culture

See also

References

Sources

Blosser, Fred (1997). This is a list of some (not all notable Writers in the Horror fiction genre. A list of works by Robert E Howard. The works are sorted by genre by series and then alphabetically "The Star Rover and 'The People of the Night'". The Dark Man #4: 16-18.  

Clareson, Thomas D. (1990). Understanding Contemporary American Science Fiction. Univ of South Carolina Press. ISBN 0-87249-870-0.  

Clute, John and Grant, John, ed. (1999). The Encyclopedia of Fantasy. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-19869-8.  

Grin, Leo (January 2006). "Birth and Death". The Cimmerian V3n1: 13-18. ISSN 1548-3398.  

Grin, Leo (2004). "The Reign of Blood". The Barbaric Triumph: (Don Herron, ed. ) 141-160, Wildside Press. ISBN 0-8095-1566-0.  

Herron, Don, ed. (2004). The Barbaric Triumph. Wildside Press. ISBN 0-8095-1566-0.  

Herron, Don, ed. (1984). The Dark Barbarian. Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-23281-4.  

Herman, Paul. Howardworks. Retrieved on 2006-09-13. Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. Events 509 BC - The Temple of Jupiter on Rome 's Capitoline Hill is dedicated on the ides of September

Joshi, S. T. and Dziemianowicz, Stefan, ed. (2005). Supernatural Literature of the World: An Encyclopedia. Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-32774-2.  

Knight, George (2004). "Lands of Dreams and Nightmares". The Barbaric Triumph: (Don Herron, ed. ) 129-140, Wildside Press. ISBN 0-8095-1566-0.  

Tompkins, Steve (2002). "". The Black Stranger typescript: cover flap essay, Wandering Star.  

Tompkins, Steve (June 2005). "letter in The Lion's Den". The Cimmerian V2n3: 37-38. ISSN 1548-3398.  

Westfahl, Gary, ed. (2005). The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy: Themes, Works, and Wonders. Greenwood Press. ISBN 0313329508.  

Notes

  1. ^ Grin (January 2006) contains facsimile reproductions of both Howard's birth certificate and death record.
  2. ^ Grin (2004) p. 141
  3. ^ Herron (1984). p. xvi
  4. ^ Herron (1984). p. 149: "Robert E. Howard of Cross Plains, Texas, created one of the great mythic figures in modern popular culture, the Dark Barbarian. . . [which] put Howard in the select ranks of the literary legend-makers: Ned Buntline, Alexandre Dumas, père, Mary Shelley, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Bram Stoker, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Dashiell Hammett, H. P. Lovecraft, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Ian Fleming. Ned Buntline ( March 20, c 1821 – July 16, 1886) was a Pseudonym of Edward Zane Carroll Judson ( E Mary Shelley ( Née Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin; 30 August Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle, DL (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930 was an Anglo-Scottish Author most noted for his stories about the Abraham "Bram" Stoker (8 November 1847 – 20 April 1912 was an Irish writer of novels and short stories who is best known today for his 1897 horror Edgar Rice Burroughs ( September 1, 1875 – March 19, 1950) was an American author best known for his creation of the jungle hero Samuel Dashiell Hammett ( May 27, 1894 — January 10, 1961) was an American Author of Hardboiled detective Howard Phillips Lovecraft ( August 20, 1890 – March 15, 1937) was an American author of horror, fantasy Ian Lancaster Fleming ( May 28, 1908 – August 12, 1964) was a British author, Journalist and Second World War "
  5. ^ Joshi and Dziemianowicz (2005) (entry written by Don Herron) Vol. 3, p. 1095: "Critical consensus, however, unfailingly places the birth of sword-and-sorcery with the publication of 'The Shadow Kingdom' (August 1929), in which Howard introduced the brooding figure of King Kull, ruling over the fading land of Valusia in a Pre-Cataclysmic Age when Atlantis is but newly risen from the waves. "
  6. ^ Westfahl (2005) (entry written by Charles Gramlich) Vol. 3, p. 780: "The term 'sword and sorcery' was coined by Fritz Leiber but the genre was pioneered by Robert E. This article refers to the science fiction writer For the actor see Fritz Leiber Sr Howard, a Texas pulp writer who combined fantasy, history, horror, and the Gothic to create the Hyborian Age and such characters as Conan the Conqueror and Kull. "
  7. ^ Tompkins (June 2005). p. 38: "True, the era during which drugstore racks were a Muscle Beach of Kandars, Kothars, Thongors, Wandors, Odans, and Orons is long gone, but is S&S in trouble?" Tompkins then presents a series of quotes from modern fantasy writers who claim a strong Howardian influence, including David Gemmell, Matthew Woodring Stover, Charles R. Saunders, Karl Edward Wagner, Paul Kearney, Steven Erikson and William King. David Andrew Gemmell ( August 1, 1948 &ndash July 28, 2006) was a bestselling British author of Heroic fantasy. Matthew Woodring Stover (born 1962 is an American Fantasy novelist Charles R Saunders also credited as Charles Saunders (born July 12, 1946) is an African American Author and Journalist Karl Edward Wagner ( 4 December 1945 &ndash 13 October 1994) was an American writer editor and publisher of horror, Paul Kearney is a Northern Irish Fantasy author. Life Kearney was born in Portglenone, County Antrim, Northern Ireland in 1967 Steven Erikson (born October 7, 1959) is the Pseudonym of Steve Rune Lundin, a William King (born 1959 also known as " Bill King " is the writer of a number of successful science-fiction and Fantasy books most notably in
  8. ^ Clute and Grant (1999). p. 483: "[REH] remains of central interest in the field of fantasy for his sword and sorcery; the templates he established for that mode have remained influential for most of the 20th century. "; p. 39: "The combined success of Howard's Conan books and J. R. R. Tolkien's LotR in paperback had resulted in unprecedented interest in heroic and high fantasy. The Lord of the Rings is an epic "
  9. ^ Clareson (1990). p. 14: "Between 1932 and 1936 Weird Tales also provided Robert E. Weird Tales is an American Fantasy and Horror fiction Pulp magazine first published in March 1923. Howard an outlet where he could create the Hyborian world of Conan the Barbarian, thereby begetting the "Sword-and-Sorcery" motif which not only dominates much of contemporary heroic fantasy but has remained a principal ingredient of science fiction itself. "
  10. ^ See Herman (2006) for a comprehensive listing of past and present Howard volumes.
  11. ^ Tompkins (2002) cover flap: essay discusses the influence of The Scarlet Letter on Howard's "The Black Stranger" and touches on many similarities of style, characters, and tone. The Scarlet Letter is the Magnum opus of Nathaniel Hawthorne.
  12. ^ Knight (2004) p. 129: "In his portrayal of the natural world Robert E. Howard follows in the illustrious footsteps of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, and Mark Twain. Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30 1835 – April 21 1910 better known by the Pen name Mark Twain, was an American Humorist, satirist He designed a thematically resonant geography over the course of his career, worlds worthy of scarlet letters and white whales and great dark rivers — mythic talismans glittering under a velvet night sky. At his best, Howard transforms nature into a brilliant illuminating dreamscape deserving of a place among the great mise en scenes of classic American literature. "
  13. ^ Blosser (1997). p. 16: "'The Children of the Night' and 'People of the Dark' also display the influence of another author whose robust, adventurous personality forms a striking contrast to the introverted, reclusive personae of Lovecraft and Machen. Howard Phillips Lovecraft ( August 20, 1890 – March 15, 1937) was an American author of horror, fantasy Arthur Machen (ˈmækən ( March 3, 1863 &ndash December 15, 1947) was a leading Welsh Author of the 1890s This progenitor was Jack London. " The article goes on to describe how REH "skillfully blended the very elements of primitive action and supernatural horror" that London also specialized in. Also see Grin (2004) pp. 144-146.
  14. ^ Herron (2004). p. 161-162 "Suddenly one Golden Age in literature had drawn to a close. . . For just over a decade these three [REH, CAS, and HPL] had created a phenomenal array of new imaginative fiction and poetry. . . In these same years another Golden Age played out in the detective pulp The Black Mask. . . In England, C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien and others called their group centered in Oxford University The Inklings. . . the Bloomsbury Group, which flourished from 1904 until World War II, form yet another. So do the American poets and novelists who became known as The Beats. . . "

External links

Biography

Bibliography

Scholarly Sources

Online Texts

Conan


Persondata
NAME Howard, Robert Ervin
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION American short story writer, poet, novelist, epistolean
DATE OF BIRTH January 22, 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH Peaster, Texas, United States
DATE OF DEATH June 11, 1936
PLACE OF DEATH Cross Plains, Texas, United States
Events 565 - Eutychius is deposed as Patriarch of Constantinople by John Scholasticus. Year 1906 ( MCMVI) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year starting Peaster is an unincorporated community in Parker County, Texas, United States, nine miles northwest of Weatherford. Texas ( is a state geographically located in the South Central United States and is also known as the Lone Star State. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Events 1184 BC - Trojan War: Troy is sacked and burned according to the calculations of Eratosthenes. Year 1936 ( MCMXXXVI) was a Leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Cross Plains is a town in Callahan County, Texas, United States. Texas ( is a state geographically located in the South Central United States and is also known as the Lone Star State. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the
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