In Memory of Robert E Howard: Jan 22, 1906 to June 11, 1936
When I saw the first Conan movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger I had never heard of Robert E Howard, but I loved the movie and quickly went out in search of similar stories. Ironically, the first book that caught my eye at the local paperback exchange was Michael Moorcock’s Elric novel The Vanishing Tower. I was too young to notice that Elric was a kind of anti-Conan, a man who went from Emperor to Wanderer instead of from Wanderer to King (and that’s only one of many inversions). It was only later that I noticed all of the little Easter eggs sprinkled throughout Moorcock’s work. Elric might have been an inversion of Conan, but he was written by someone who loved the character and the character’s creator. I’m pretty sure that one of the reasons Elric cries out “Arioch! Arioch! Blood and souls for my lord Arioch!” is because H.P. Lovecraft used to call Robert E Howard (REH) by the name Ar-I-E’ch, but that is fodder for a future post.
Even after my new found love of Sword & Sorcery led to me eventually purchasing Conan pastiche paperbacks at at various bookshops around town, the name of Conan's creator wasn’t the first thing on my mind because the books I purchased were Conan pastiche’s and not the “pure” stuff. In fact, it wasn't until the Christmas after I had seen the film when my parents bought me a copy of the first edition AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide and I read Gary Gygax's famous "Appendix N" that the name was fully burned into my brain.
I eventually found used copies of the de Camp Conan books that included stories that were written by Howard. These editions also contained some "co-written" stories, and I could instantly see a difference between the dark prose of Howard and the less earnest writing of de Camp and Lin Carter. I still enjoy the de Camp, Carter, and other pastiche authors’ tales for what they are, but there is something more to the Howard stories (as I have written before).
Episode 176: Conan the Patron of the Arts? (From the Archives)
For the end of Cimmerian September, I am republishing a slightly revised version of one of my earlier posts about the Conan character. The original version was published in August of 2023, when my su…
Howard’s tales weren't the merely wish fulfillment tales of a lusty and violent young man in a loincloth hacking and slashing his way through life. Conan was a thoughtful and vibrant character who truly did experience gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth. He was not a cardboard character, but a fully realized human being. Contrary to the Schwarzenegger portrayal, Howard's Conan was cunning, quick witted, joyful and somber. Conan’s Hyborean age was a hodgepodge of ancient history, but it lived and breathed. Aquilonia was as real to me as Thermopylae, maybe even more real.
It wasn't long before I was hunting down everything I could find written by Howard. Eventually, I stumbled upon Solomon Kane, a character who would quickly become my favorite Howard creation. The righteous Puritan's tales combined horror and action in a way that sparked my imagination. They combined the high heroics of H. Rider Haggard’s Allan Quatermain with horrors both Supernatural and Eldritch, from Vampire lore to Lovecraftian terrors. All of which were opposed by a stern and forthright Puritan warrior. I didn’t know what a Cavalier or a Roundhead were yet, and didn’t even know that England had a Civil War, but this religious warrior was right up my alley.
My love for Howard’s tales has only increased as I’ve gotten older. I’ve purchased more Howard anthologies than any other single author, though my Burroughs probably exceeds my Howardian one for overall volume. In recent years, I have been rereading a good deal of Howard's fiction as more publishers release collections of his writings. In particular, the Robert E Howard Foundation, of which I’m a member, has been releasing some beautiful collections of Howard’s writings through their Foundation Press. I’m alternating between reading Howard’s El Borak tales and the Del Rey published The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard. While reading the later, I came across a story that is wonderfully Poe-esque. In honor of this anniversary of Howard’s death, here is a sample of "The Touch of Death."
Old Adam Farrel lay dead in the house wherein he had lived alone for the last twenty years. A silent, churlish recluse, in his life he had known no friends, and only two men had watched his passing.
Dr. Stein rose and glanced out the window into the gathering dusk.
"You think you can spend the night here, then?" he asked his companion.
This man, Falred by name, assented.
"Yes, certainly. I guess it's up to me."
"Rather a useless and primitive custom, sitting up with the dead," commented the doctor, preparing to depart, "but I suppose in common decency we will have to bow to precedence. Maybe I can find some one who'll come over here and help you with your vigil."
Falred shrugged his shoulders. "I doubt it. Farrel wasn't liked -- wasn't known by many people. I scarcely knew him myself, but I don't mind sitting up with a corpse."
Dr. Stein was removing his rubber gloves and Falred watched the process with an interest that almost amounted to fascination. A slight, involuntary shudder shook him at the memory of touching these gloves -- slick, cold, clammy things, like the touch of death.
The story proceeds from this opening to a perfectly rewarding Twilight Zone style resolution.
The tone has been set.
I often wonder at what tales Howard would have written had he lived beyond the age of 30. Sadly, we can only speculate. That’s exactly what I’ll be doing though as I finish the Del Rey Horror volume and move on to the Foundation Press printing of Tales of Weird Menace.