Following Robert E. Howard's death, the courts granted his estate to his father, who continued to work with Howard's literary agent Otis Adelbert Kline. Dr. Isaac Howard passed the rights on to his friend Dr. Pere Kuykendall, who passed them to his wife, Alla Ray Kuykendall, and daughter, Alla Ray Morris. Morris left the rights to the widow of her cousin, Zora Mae Bryant, who gave control to her children, Jack Baum and Terry Baum Rogers. The Baums eventually sold their rights to the Swedish company Paradox Entertainment, Inc (now Cabinet Entertainment).
Howard's first published novel, A Gent from Bear Creek, was printed in Britain one year after his death. This was followed in the United States by a collection of Howard's stories, Skull-Face and Others (1946) and then the novel Conan the Conqueror (1950). The success of Conan the Conqueror led to a series of Conan books from publisher Gnome Press, the later editor of which was L. Sprague de Camp. The series led to the first Conan pastiche, the novel The Return of Conan by De Camp and Swedish Howard fan Björn Nyberg. De Camp eventually achieved control over the Conan stories and Conan brand in general. Oscar Friend took over from Kline as literary agent and he was followed by his daughter Kittie West. When she closed the agency in 1965, a new agent was required. De Camp was offered the role but he recommended Glenn Lord instead. Lord began as a fan of Howard and had re-discovered many unpublished pieces that would otherwise have been lost, printing them in books such as Always Comes Evening (1957) and his own magazine The Howard Collector (1961–1973). He became responsible for the non-Conan works and later restored, textually-pure versions of the Conan stories themselves.
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; many of his works were reprinted (some printed for the first time) and they expanded into other media such as comic books and films. The Conan stories were increasingly edited by De Camp and the series was extended by pastiches until they replaced the original stories. In response, a "purist" movement grew up demanding Howard's original, un-edited stories. The first boom ended in the mid-1980s. In the late 1990s and early 21st century, the "Second Howard Boom" occurred. This saw the printing of new collections of Howard's work, with the restored texts desired by purists. As before, the boom led to new comic books, films and computer games. Howard's house in Cross Plains has been converted into the Robert E. Howard Museum which has been added to the National Register of Historic Places.
Howard's estate
In his will Robert E. Howard left his literary estate to his friend Lindsey Tyson. Dr. Isaac Howard attempted to cover this up but the news made its way to Tyson anyway. However, Tyson was shaken by his friend's suicide and wanted nothing to do with it. After some delays, the Callahan County court eventually granted the estate to Howard's father. Robert's agent, Kline, agreed to perform the same job for Isaac as well as working to collect the money still owed. They sold some of Robert's unsold manuscripts and attempted to arrange publication of collected editions.[1]
The first Robert E. Howard novel was A Gent from Bear Creek, printed by British publisher Herbert Jenkins in 1937. It was based on Howard's Breckenridge Elkins stories, which he has edited together and partially rewritten to form a continuous story. The novel was not successful and very few copies still exist today.
In 1942, Dr. Howard moved to the town Ranger to help in a clinic run by Dr. Pere M. Kuykendall. Dr. Howard died of a heart attack on November 12, 1944. His body was buried with his wife and son in Brownwood. He left all that he owned to Dr. Kuykendall, including Robert Howard's literary rights, with the exception of a trunk of Robert E. Howard's papers, about half of his written output, which were sent to E. Hoffman Price in California. In 1946, Howard's agent, Otis Adelbert Kline, also died and his agency was bought by Oscar J. Friend.[2][3][4]
New collections
Also in 1946, a collection of stories called Skull-Face and Others was released by August Derleth and his publishing company Arkham House.[5][6] This book was reviewed by Hoffman Reynolds Hays in the New York Times Book Review under the title "Superman on a Psychotic Bender." Hays' review was flawed, bearing little relation to Howards' work, and he was the first critic to make ill-considered claims about Howard's life and sanity.[7] Another book was published in 1950, this time a hardback version of the Conan novel "The Hour of the Dragon" re-titled as Conan the Conqueror. Martin Greenberg, owner of Gnome Press and a fan of Howard from the Weird Tales days, had approached Oscar Friend with a proposal for hardback reprints of all the Conan series. Conan the Conqueror was successful enough for the remaining five books in the series to go into production. The series, however, was not as much of a success and by the late 1950s the books could be found selling for just 50 cents. Conan the Conqueror also displayed another early example of a trend in Howard publishing, in the introduction editor and Howard fan John D. Clark wrote "Don't look for hidden philosophical meanings or intellectual puzzles in these yarns–they aren't there." This claim would later be refuted by Howard scholars.[8][9][10]
L. Sprague de Camp and Catherine Crook de Camp at Nolacon II in New Orleans (1988)
The editor of the later Gnome Press editions was the prominent science-fiction and fantasy writer L. Sprague de Camp. Friend had written to Dr. Kuykendall in February 1954 stating that the Conan property was too valuable to allow to simply come to an end with the final Gnome Press book. He suggested commissioning new Conan stories from a new writer, to which Kuykendall agreed. After editing some previously unpublished Howard-written Conan stories, de Camp wrote the new stories to be inserted into the now "official" timeline (based on a fan letter to Howard written by John D. Clark and P. Schuyler Miller in 1936). He subsequently converted unpublished non-Conan stories by Howard into Conans, for example the Crusades-era "Hawks over Egypt" was converted into the Conan story "Hawks over Shem." He also converted the pirate story "Swords of the Red Brotherhood" into the Conan story "The Treasure of Tranicos" despite the fact that it had been originally written by Howard as the Conan story "The Black Stranger," re-writing it himself into the pirate version after it failed to sell. These stories were referred to as "posthumous collaborations," about which de Camp later wrote "it was mostly a matter of changing names, eliminating gunpowder, and dragging in a supernatural element." De Camp also edited the first outright non-Howard Conan story (often referred to as "pastiches"), "The Return of Conan" by Swedish Howard fan Björn Nyberg, which was the seventh and last of the Gnome books.[11][12] When the copyrights on Howard's original Conan stories expired between 1959 and 1963, de Camp filed copyrights on the stories he had edited as well as his new Conan material. De Camp had legal difficulties with Martin Greenberg and Gnome Publishing over unpaid monies, which eventually led to court and winning control over the Conan stories.[13]
By 1957 Floyd C. Gale of Galaxy Science Fiction said that H. P. Lovecraft and Howard "seemingly goes on forever; the two decades since their death are as nothing. In any event, they appear more prolific than ever. What with de Camp, Nyberg and Derleth avidly rooting out every scrap of their writings and expanding them into novels, there may never be an end to their posthumous careers".[14] In the 1950s, a young fan named Glenn Lord began methodically scouring the country for hundreds of lost Howard stories and poems. In particular, he approached E. Hoffmann Price about the trunk of Howard material sent to him by Dr. Isaac Howard. Price had lent material to others, not always keeping track of to whom he had done so, nor of where the works had ended up[citation needed]. Lord traced he papers from one person to the next and was eventually able to recover the material, especially after offering a cash reward[citation needed]. Using material from the trunk, Arkham House printed Lord's book of Howard's poetry Always Comes Evening in 1957, and from 1961–1973 Lord published a journal called The Howard Collector.[15][16]
Dr. Kuykendall and Oscar Friend died in 1959. Alla Ray Kuykendall and her daughter Alla Ray Morris inherited the rights to Howard's works while Friend's daughter, Kittie West, became their agent. In 1965, however, West began to close down the agency. Her first choice as a replacement was de Camp, who refused in order to prevent a possible conflict of interest. He did, however, recommend Glenn Lord for the position, as long as de Camp retained control of Conan. The Kuykendalls agreed and Lord accepted the role in March of that year, which he retained until September 1993.[17][18]
The first Howard boom
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. 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. 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.[19] De Camp increasingly wrote introductions and short articles about Howard. Despite factual inaccuracies in these, he became seen as the leading expert on Howard and his works.[20]
At the same time Lord arranged for other Howard works to see print. The publisher Donald Grant began by reprinting Howard's first novel, A Gent from Bear Creek. With the success of the Conan stories, Lancer also began to publish other Howard stories, such as a series of Kull books. In 1970, Marvel Comics bought the rights to produce Conan comics, which included Conan the Barbarian and The Savage Sword of Conan. The latter of these was classed as a magazine, including articles as well as comic book sections, which allowed it to include more mature content than was allowed at the time under the Comics Code Authority.[21]
Fan works appeared as well, the most significant of which were Amra and the Robert E. Howard United Press Association (REHupa). Amra was a fanzine than began publication in 1959, created by L. Sprague de Camp and George Scithers, and grew to attract material from many famous authors and artists. Named after one of Conan's alter egos, it covered the subjects of Conan, Robert E. Howard and the sword and sorcery genre in general. It continued publication for thirty-three years. REHupa was formed in 1972 as an amateur press association, each of the small membership producing their own regular fanzine, which is sent to the Official Editor and subsequently disseminated to all members. REHupa still exists to this day.[22]
Lancer filed for bankruptcy in 1973 but managed to continue doing business for another three years. De Camp sued Lancer for unpaid royalties and was himself sued by Lord for the same thing; Kuykendall and Morris were due royalties from foreign language Conan publications arranged by de Camp. De Camp paid the money but the business relationship became strained. To simplify business matters a new company, Conan Properties, Inc., was formed in January 1970 which included both de Camp and Lord on its board of directors.[23][24] Companies similar to Conan Properties were later created for his other characters, including Solomon Kane Properties, LLC; Kull Productions, LLC; and Red Sonja Corporation.[25]
Soon afterwards, the rights to a Conan film were sold to Dino de Laurentiis which, after several scripts, led to Conan the Barbarian starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.[26] Conan Properties, Inc. also sold the printing rights to a new company, Ace Books, who publishing the existing twelve book Conan set along with additional new Conan novels. However, the original works were later cancelled, leaving only the derivative pastiches in print.[27][28]
REHupa collected a hardcore group of Howard fans and allowed them to communicate ideas easily. Their discussions led to the beginning of a "purist" movement within Howard fandom demanding texts as they were written by Howard without any subsequent amendments or alterations. This movement began in 1977, led by author Karl Edward Wagner, who worked with Glenn Lord to produce the first pure Howard texts, in the public domain, from Berkeley Books. The publication of the critical essay "Conan vs. Conantics" by Don Herron continued the movement. In this, Herron drew attention to the failings of de Camp and Carter as compared to the original work of Howard, whose work they had repeatedly altered.[29]
Interim
The first Howard boom faded in the mid-1980s in the wake of poor books, movies and Howard-imitators.[30] Following the end of the Howard boom, the rights to Howard's works moved around as their holders died. Alla Ray Morris died in 1995; she left the rights to Zora Mae Bryant who was the widow of Alla Ray's cousin. Bryant gave control of the rights to her children, Jack Baum and Terry Baum Rogers. In 1996, they formed Robert E. Howard Properties, LLC, to control the parts of Howard's literary estate not already controlled by another company. The Baums also sold their shares in Conan Properties, Inc.[31]
Following de Camp's death in November 2000, Conan Properties, Inc. was sold to Stan Lee Media. Shortly after this, Stan Lee Media filed for bankruptcy and in 2002 Conan Properties, Inc. was bought by Paradox Entertainment, Inc.[32] In 2006, the Baums sold Robert E. Howard Properties, LLC and all their rights to Paradox, giving that company control over most (approximately 85%) of Howard's estate.[33]
The second Howard boom
Robert E. Howard Museum, Cross Plains, Texas.
In 1990, Howard's hometown of Cross Plains, Texas, formed Project Pride to promote their community. They bought Howard's old house, then vacant, restored it and converted it into a museum that has been added to the National Register of Historic Places. Cross Plains celebrates Robert E. Howard Days annually on the second weekend in June, called Howard Days. 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.[34]
In 2006, a non-profit organization called the Robert E. Howard Foundation was created. The purpose of the organization is to promote Howard scholarship, publishing and Howard-related programs. The Foundation was suggested by Paradox Entertainment, the current holders of the rights to most of the Howard's works, and was created with their co-operation. The board members of the Foundation are Rusty Burke, Paul Herman, Patrice Louinet and, from Paradox, Fred Malmberg and Peter Sederowsky. Glenn Lord served as a semi-official adviser prior to his death, but was not himself a board member. Since creation, the foundation has published several books including collections of Howard's correspondence and a book containing all of his poetry known to still exist.[35]
This period is being referred to as the "Second Howard Boom." Howard's original works are back in print with their original texts, in some cases for the first time. New comics are being printed and new movies in production. More critical studies have been produced, in the form of new books, journals and fanzines.[36]
Critical appreciation
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,[37] but nevertheless his fame has grown exponentially, fueled largely by the character of Conan. 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.[38]
Early appreciation for Howard's work came more from fellow writers than from critics. In his book Literary Swordsmen and Sorcerers, de Camp describes an interview with J. R. R. Tolkien in which he "indicated that he rather liked Howard's Conan stories."[39]
Serious Howard scholarship began with the 1983 publication of de Camp's biography of Robert E. Howard, Dark Valley Destiny. This was based on The Miscast Barbarian, a shorter piece de Camp had published in 1975; he expanded on his earlier effort with the assistance of his wife, Catherine de Camp, and a former teacher named Jane Whittington Griffin. The three conducted interviews among those people who had known Howard, who were still alive and who were willing to talk to them. A current opinion is their material was tainted, however, due to de Camp's preconceived bias that Howard was an intensely troubled man.[citation needed] De Camp focused on information that would support his view of Howard's suicide.[citation needed] The book met with a mixed reception and many fans considered it outright character assassination, while others praise it.[citation needed] The interviews notes themselves are now archived with the rest of de Camp's papers in the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas in Austin.[40] Don Herron, in the acknowledgement for his book The Dark Barbarian, wrote that "with his uninspired 'additions' to the Conan canon, and especially for mixing his own stories and those of his inept collaborator Lin Carter in with Howard's own fiction, de Camp's reputation has been in steep decline in Howardian circles as the purist movement has come fully to the forefront. But he researched the biography at a time when many people who had known Howard personally were still alive, and so preserved valuable information that might otherwise have been lost."[41]
More scholarly books followed from other sources. The first was The Dark Barbarian (1984), a collection of essays about Howard's literary works edited by noted critic Don Herron, who earlier had penned the seminal essay, "Conan vs. Conantics". 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.[42] This was followed by Robert E. Howard (1987), number 35 of The Starmont Reader's Guide series, written by Marc A. Cerasini and Charles E. Hoffman, the first book length study of Howard's entire literary output.[43]
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.[citation needed]
In recent years Howard's stories have been meticulously restored and republished by presses such as Wandering Star, Del Rey, and The Robert E. Howard Foundation,[citation needed] and a journal called The Cimmerian become the first paying market for Howard criticism, publishing twenty issues in three years, before ceasing publication in 2008.[44]
↑ Clareson (1990, p.14): "Between 1932 and 1936 Weird Tales also provided Robert E. 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."
↑ Herman (n.d., entire work): A comprehensive listing of past and present Howard volumes.
↑ 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.
↑ 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. 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."
↑ 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. This progenitor was Jack London." The article goes on to describe how REH "skillfully blended the very elements of primitive action and supernatural horror" in which London also specialized.
Related Research Articles
Conan the Barbarian is a fictional sword and sorcery hero who originated in pulp magazines and has since been adapted to books, comics, films, television programs, video games, and role-playing games. Robert E. Howard created the character in 1932 for a series of fantasy stories published in Weird Tales magazine.
Robert Ervin Howard was an American writer who wrote pulp fiction in a diverse range of genres. He created the character Conan the Barbarian and is regarded as the father of the sword and sorcery subgenre.
"The Tower of the Elephant" is one of the original short stories starring the fictional sword and sorcery hero Conan the Cimmerian, written by American author Robert E. Howard. Set in the fictional Hyborian Age, it concerns Conan infiltrating a perilous tower to steal a fabled gem from an evil sorcerer named Yara. Its unique insights into the Hyborian world and atypical science fiction elements have led the story to be considered a classic of Conan lore, and it is often cited by Howard scholars as one of his best tales.
"Jewels of Gwahlur" is one of the original short stories starring the fictional sword and sorcery hero Conan the Cimmerian, written by American author Robert E. Howard. Set in the fictional Hyborian Age, it concerns several parties, including Conan, fighting over and treasure hunting for the eponymous treasure in Hyborian Africa. The tale was first published in the March, 1935 issue of Weird Tales. Howard's original title for the story was "The Servants of Bit-Yakin".
"Queen of the Black Coast" is one of the original short stories about Conan the Cimmerian, written by American author Robert E. Howard and first published in Weird Tales magazine c. May 1934. Set during the fictional Hyborian Age, Conan becomes a notorious pirate plundering the coastal villages of Kush alongside Bêlit, a head-strong femme fatale.
The Hour of the Dragon, also known as Conan the Conqueror, is a fantasy novel by American writer Robert E. Howard featuring his sword and sorcery hero Conan the Cimmerian. It was one of the last Conan stories published before Howard's suicide, although not the last to be written. The novel was first published in serial form in the December 1935 through April 1936 issues of the pulp magazine Weird Tales. The first book edition was published by Gnome Press in hardcover in 1950. The Gnome Press edition retitled the story Conan the Conqueror, a title retained by all subsequent editions until 1977, when the original title was restored in an edition published by Berkley/Putnam. The Berkley edition also reverted the text to that of its original Weird Tales publication, discarding later edits. Later editions have generally followed Berkley and published under the original title.
"Black Colossus" is one of the original short stories starring the fictional sword and sorcery hero Conan the Cimmerian, written by American author Robert E. Howard and first published in Weird Tales magazine, June 1933. Howard earned $130 for the sale of this story.
"The Devil in Iron" is one of the original stories by Robert E. Howard about Conan the Cimmerian, first published in Weird Tales in August 1934. Howard earned $115 for the publication of this story.
"The People of the Black Circle" is one of the original novellas about Conan the Cimmerian, written by American author Robert E. Howard and first published in Weird Tales magazine in three parts over the September, October and November 1934 issues. Howard earned $250 for the publication of this story.
"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. It was written in the 1930s but not published during Howard's lifetime. Its purpose was to maintain consistency within his fictional setting.
Conan of the Isles is a fantasy novel by American writers L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter, featuring Robert E. Howard's sword and sorcery hero Conan the Barbarian. It was first published October 1968 in paperback by Lancer Books, and reprinted in July 1970, 1972, and May 1973; publication was then taken over by Ace Books, which reprinted the novel in May 1977, May 1979, April 1980, July 1981, April 1982, November 1982, November 1983, June 1984, September 1986, February 1991, and May 1994. The first British edition was published in paperback by Sphere Books in December 1974 a number of times since by various publishers. It has also been translated into French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Spanish, Russian and (supposedly) Japanese.
The Return of Conan is a 1957 fantasy novel written by Björn Nyberg and L. Sprague de Camp, featuring Robert E. Howard's sword and sorcery hero Conan the Barbarian. It was first published in hardcover by Gnome Press and in paperback by Lancer Books as part of the collection Conan the Avenger in 1968; in this form it has been reprinted a number of times since by various publishers. It has also been translated into Japanese, German and Spanish.
Conan is a 1967 collection of seven fantasy short stories and associated pieces written by Robert E. Howard, L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter featuring Howard's seminal sword and sorcery hero Conan the Barbarian. Most of the stories were originally published in various pulp magazines. The book was first published in paperback by Lancer Books in 1967, and was reprinted in 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972 (twice) and 1973. After the bankruptcy of Lancer, publication was taken over by Ace Books. Its first edition appeared in May 1977, and was reprinted in 1979, 1982 (twice), 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, and 1990. The first British edition was issued by Sphere Books in 1974, and was reprinted in 1977. The book has also been translated into German, Japanese, French, Spanish, Italian, Swedish and Dutch. It was gathered together with Conan of Cimmeria and Conan the Freebooter into the omnibus collection The Conan Chronicles.
The Flame Knife is a 1955 fantasy novella by American writers Robert E. Howard and L. Sprague de Camp, featuring Howard's sword and sorcery hero Conan the Barbarian. It was revised by de Camp from Howard's original story, a then-unpublished oriental tale featuring Francis X. Gordon titled "Three-Bladed Doom". De Camp changed the names of the characters, added the fantastic element, and recast the setting into Howard's Hyborian Age. The story was first published in the hardbound collection Tales of Conan, and subsequently appeared in the paperback collection Conan the Wanderer, as part of which it has been translated into German, Japanese, Spanish, Dutch, and Italian. It was published by itself in paperback book form by Ace Books in 1981, in an edition profusely illustrated by Esteban Maroto.
This article covers some of the major Conan chronologies that have been advanced over the years. From the 1930s onward a number of fans and scholars have analyzed the numerous Conan the Barbarian stories by Robert E. Howard and later writers, and attempted to organize them into a chronological timeline.
The Conan books are sword and sorcery fantasies featuring the character of Conan the Cimmerian originally created by Robert E. Howard. Written by numerous authors and issued by numerous publishers, they include both novels and short stories, the latter assembled in various combinations over the years by the several publishers. The character has proven durably popular, resulting in Conan stories being produced after Howard's death by such later writers as Poul Anderson, Leonard Carpenter, Lin Carter, L. Sprague de Camp, Roland J. Green, John C. Hocking, Robert Jordan, Sean A. Moore, Björn Nyberg, Andrew J. Offutt, Steve Perry, John Maddox Roberts, Harry Turtledove, and Karl Edward Wagner. Some of these writers finished incomplete Conan manuscripts by Howard, or rewrote Howard stories which originally featured different characters. Most post-Howard Conan stories, however, are completely original works. In total, more than fifty novels and dozens of short stories featuring the Conan character have been written by authors other than Howard. This article describes and discusses notable book editions of the Conan stories.
Glenn Lord was an American literary agent, editor, and publisher of the prose and poetry of fellow Texan Robert E. Howard (1906–1936), and the first and most important researcher and scholar of Howard's life and writings.
"A Witch Shall Be Born" is one of the original sword and sorcery novellas by Robert E. Howard about Conan the Cimmerian. It was written in only a few days in spring of 1934 and first published in Weird Tales in December 1934. A book edition was published in 1975 by Donald M. Grant, Publisher with illustrations by Alicia Austin.
The distinctive literary styles and themes of Robert E. Howard rely on a combination of many factors. In his fiction, he used devices borrowed from classical and traditional works, as well as formal rhetoric. In his poetry, he used rhythm, stress, and intonation to achieve a sense of motion. Some of his fiction has been described as prose poetry. His works can be distinguished by his use of violence and hate as positive forces in his universe, which can be seen as a part of the American Myth. In keeping with the era in which he worked, a grim and hardboiled theme pervades. The continuing cycle of civilisation and barbarism is highlighted in several works. Although he died before it was formally defined, an existentialism subtext runs through his writing. He was an aesthete and had affinity for romanticism and neo-romanticism, although in this he was out of step with his era.
Blood & Thunder: The Life & Art of Robert E. Howard is a biography of the writer Robert E. Howard by Mark Finn, first published in a trade paperback edition in November 2006 by MonkeyBrain Books. A second, expanded and corrected edition was published in hardcover by The Robert E. Howard Foundation Press in January 2012; a trade paperback followed from the same publisher in 2013. Both editions include an introduction by suspense writer Joe R. Lansdale.
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