The first comic book adaptation was in the Mexican Cuentos de Abuelito – La Reina de la Costa Negra No. [169] Howard himself was a natural storyteller and later a professional storyteller. Written as tall tales in the vein of Texas "Tall Lying" stories, the story first appeared in the March–April 1934 issue of Action Stories and was so successful that other magazines asked Howard for similar characters. These stories, his "middle period," are routine and considered the weakest of the series. His Conan stories began featuring western elements, most notably in "Beyond the Black River", "The Black Stranger", and the unfinished "Wolves Beyond the Border". Combined, this often led to Howard embellishing facts in his communication, not with an intention to deceive but just to make a better story. In 1920, on February 17, the Vestal Well within the limits of Cross Plains struck oil and Cross Plains became an oil boomtown. The boom brought civilization in the form of people and investment but also social breakdown. [91], 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. He may have been inspired in the creation of his setting by Thomas Bulfinch's 1913 edition of his Bulfinch's Mythology called The Outline of Mythology, which contained stories from history and legend, including many which were direct influences on Howard's work. Ah to be alive in those days! Complete Robert E. Howard 2017 Biography. Although the character swears by the god "Crom", that is his only link to the more famous successor character. "[97][98], In a letter dated March 10, 1932, Farnsworth Wright rejected "The Frost-Giant's Daughter" but noted that "The Phoenix on the Sword" had "points of real excellence" and suggested changes. [85][96][118][119], Howard wrote one of the first "Weird Western" stories ever created, "The Horror from the Mound," published in the May 1932 issue of Weird Tales. Born in Peaster, Texas, he was raised in Cross Plains. Howard killed himself in June 1936 when he learned that his beloved mother had fallen into a coma. [40] On his return to his home town, he engaged in a self-created regimen of exercise, including cutting down oak trees and chopping them into firewood every day, lifting weights, punching a bag and springing exercises; eventually building himself from a skinny teenager into a more muscled, burly form. [125][146][148] His father and another doctor rushed out, but the wound was too grievous for anything to be done. And barbarism must always ultimately triumph." Several bands have adapted Howard's works to tracks or entire albums. July 1929 saw the debut of Sailor Steve Costigan in the pages of Fight Stories. Multiple audio dramas have been adapted, from professional audio books and plays to LibriVox recordings of works in the public domain. It is a whim of circumstance. REH steeped himself in the folklore and history of the southwest, but his interests were far broader than this, encompassing not just Texana, but history and anthropology, sports, erotica, and poetry… The stories are written on a competent pulp level (a higher level, by the way, than that of some best sellers) and are allied to the Superman genre which pours forth in countless comic books and radio serials. [19][38][39], Howard graduated from high school in May 1923 and moved back to Cross Plains. Through Vinson, Howard was introduced to The Tattler, the newspaper of the Brownwood High School. Mini Bio (1) Robert E. Howard created Conan the Barbarian in a series of short stories and novels in the 1930's. 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. [68] Stories sold to Fight Stories provided Howard with a market just as stable as Weird Tales. The first table-top roleplaying game based on Howard's works was TSR's "Conan Unchained!" Howard supplemented this with two sketched maps and an additional short piece entitled "Notes on Various Peoples of the Hyborian Age. At his best, Howard was the Thomas Wolfe of fantasy, and most of his Conan tales seem to almost fall over themselves in their need to get out. [164][165], Physically, Howard was tall and heavily built. Kline encouraged him to try writing in other genres in order to expand into different markets. The Baums eventually sold their rights to the Swedish (now US) company Paradox Entertainment. One of the short stories printed in this newspaper was a comedy called "Cupid vs. Oscar Friend took over from Kline as literary agent and he was followed by his daughter Kittie West. Despite agreeing to this, she met with Howard soon after being discharged. [19][20] One by one he discovered the authors who 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 adventures; the classic mythological tales collected by Thomas Bulfinch. His brash, hasty, careless style did not lend itself to the classier pulps. Shortly afterwards, he received notice that another story, "The Hyena," had been accepted by Weird Tales. [181][182], Howard first bought a pulp magazine, a copy of Adventure, when he was fifteen. [94][95][96], With these three completed he created an essay called "The Hyborian Age" in order to flesh out his setting in more detail. "[105], In May 1933, a British publisher, Denis Archer, contacted Howard about publishing a book in the United Kingdom. [45], Weird Tales paid on publication, meaning that Howard had no money of his own at this time. The stories have a lot in common with those of Talbot Mundy, Harold Lamb and T. E. Lawrence, with Western themes and Howard's hardboiled style of writing. Thereafter, until his death by suicide at age 30, Howard's writings were published in a wide selection of magazines, journals, and newspapers, and he became proficient in several subgenres. The Hyborian Age, with its varied settings similar to real places and eras of history, allowed him to write pseudo-historical fiction without such problems. [153][154] Howard used race as shorthand for physical characteristics and motivation. Some have suggested that he had an Oedipus complex, others have found evidence for clinical depression, and others still have diagnosed him as being mentally healthy. He was wounded 14 times over 54 months of combat, was awarded the Medal of Honor, eight Purple Hearts, a Distinguished Service Cross, a Silver Star, and four Bronze Stars.. [99], Howard probably began to work on the novel in February 1934, starting to write Almuric (a non-Conan, sword and planet science fiction novel) but abandoned it half way. [67] The series saw a return to Howard's use of humor and (unreliable) first-person narration, with the combination of a traditional tall tale and slapstick comedy. On the morning of June 11, 1936, Howard asked one of his mother's nurses, a Mrs. Green, if she would ever regain consciousness. [26][69][82], With the onset of the Great Depression, many pulp markets reduced their schedules or went out of business entirely. "Mountain Man" was the first of the Breckinridge Elkins stories, humorous westerns in a similar style to his earlier Sailor Steve Costigan stories and again featuring an exaggerated, cartoonish version of Howard himself as the main character. Weird Tales editor Farnsworth Wright bought the story for $100, the most Howard had earned for a story at this time, and several more Kull stories followed. REH was the son of Dr. Isaac Mordecai Howard, one of the southwest's most prominent pioneer physicians, and Hester Jane Ervin Howard. [47][50][52] On reading "Wolfshead" in Weird Tales Howard became dismayed with his writing. "[195], The following table shows Howard's earnings from writing throughout his career, with appropriate milestones and events noted by each year. The story was briefly held as part of the company's assets before being returned to Howard. In 1966, de Camp made a deal with Lancer Books to republish the Conan series, which led to the "First Howard Boom" of the 1970s; their popularity was enhanced by the cover artwork of Frank Frazetta on most of the volumes. He is well known for his character Conan the Barbarian and is regarded as the father of the sword and sorcery subgenre. The Conan stories were increasingly edited by de Camp and the series was extended by pastiches until they replaced the original stories. Cross Plains' population quickly grew from 1,500 to 10,000, it suffered overcrowding, the traffic ruined its unpaved roads and vice crime exploded but it also used its new wealth on civic improvements, including a new school, an ice manufacturing plant, and new hotels. [154][159], Howard had feminist views, despite his era and location, which he espoused in both personal and professional life. [108] This was followed by another abortive attempt at a novel, this time a Conan novel which later became Drums of Tombalku. [69][70], With solid markets now all buying up his stories regularly, Howard quit taking college classes, and indeed would never again work a regular job. The British metal band Bal-Sagoth is named after Howard's story "The Gods of Bal-Sagoth". They parted after a drive and would not see each other again for over a year. The words sounded familiar to her, but it was only in early June 1936 that she found the source in Macbeth:[143]. Howard grew to despise the oil industry along with everyone and everything associated with it. Hester Howard, meanwhile, came to believe that she had married below herself. He relaxed by visiting the Neeb Ice House, to which he was introduced by an oil-field worker befriended at the drug store, to drink and began to take part in boxing matches. His articles, essays, and introductions about Robert E. Howard and his works have appeared in publications for the Robert E. Howard Foundation, Dark Horse Comics, Boom! Supplement 1, pp. He did manual labor for a surveyor for a time before beginning a job as a stenographer for an oil company. [144] On the night before his suicide, when his father confirmed that his mother was finally dying, he asked where his father would go afterwards. [136], In an effort to improve her memory and writing, Price began recording all her daily conversations into a journal, in the process preserving an intimate record of her time with Howard. These stories sold easily and they include the first and second Conan stories to feature on the cover of Weird Tales, "Black Colossus" and "Xuthal of the Dusk". The stories and writers featured in this magazine were a strong influence on Howard. This early work by Robert E. Howard was originally published in 1935 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography. The book was otherwise of middling quality and was never published in the author's lifetime, but it is of interest to Howard scholars for the personal information it contains. [20][33] 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. This led Howard to see civilization as corrupting and society as a whole in decay. I wasn't at the head of my classes, View agent, publicist, legal and company contact details on IMDbPro, except in history - but I wasn't at the foot either. In response, a puristic movement grew up demanding Howard's original, un-edited stories. Pollux." [81] Howard initially deferred to Lovecraft but gradually asserted his own views, even coming to deride Lovecraft's opinions. ", This page was last edited on 5 January 2021, at 07:56. Robert Ervin Howard, född 22 januari 1906 i Peaster, Texas, död 11 juni 1936 i Cross Plains, Texas (), var en amerikansk författare som var mest aktiv som skapare av äventyrsberättelser. Stories such as "The People of the Black Circle" glow with the fierce and eldritch light of his frenzied intensity. [87][88], It was also during this trip that Howard first conceived of the character of Conan. The son of a pioneer physician, he began writing professionally at the age of fifteen. The main outlet for his stories was Weird Tales, where Howard created Conan the Barbarian. His fiction was carried in pulp magazines of the time such as Weird Tales, and H.P. As a child, he lived in at least nine towns across Texas until his father settled at Cross Plains in 1919. Isaac Howard replied that he would go wherever his son went, thinking he meant to leave Cross Plains.