The Hour of the Dragon, Conan the Conqueror

Robert E. Howard

Robert Ervin Howard (January 22, 1906 – June 11, 1936) was an American writer who wrote pulp fiction in diverse genres. He created Conan the Barbarian and is regarded as the father of the sword and sorcery subgenre.

Howard was born and raised in Texas. He spent most of his life in Cross Plains and some time in nearby Brownwood. A bookish and intellectual child, he was also a boxing fan and spent some time in his late teens bodybuilding, eventually taking up amateur boxing. From nine, he dreamed of becoming an adventure fiction writer but failed until he was 23. 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. His most tremendous success occurred after his death.

Although a Conan novel was nearly published in 1934, Howard’s stories were never collected during his lifetime. The main outlet for his stories was Weird Tales, where Howard created Conan the Barbarian. With Conan and his other heroes, Howard helped fashion the genre now known as sword and sorcery, spawning many imitators and significantly influencing fantasy. Howard remains a highly-read author, with his best works still reprinted, and is one of the best-selling fantasy writers of all time.

Howard’s suicide and the circumstances surrounding it have led to speculation about his mental health. His mother had been ill with tuberculosis her entire life, and upon learning she had entered a coma from which she was not expected to wake, he walked out to his car parked outside his kitchen window and shot himself in the head while sitting in the driver’s seat. He died eight hours later.

Biography

Early years

During Howard’s youth, his parents’ relationship began to break down. The Howard family had problems with money, which may have been exacerbated by Isaac Howard’s investing in get-rich-quick schemes. Hester Howard, meanwhile, came to believe that she had married below herself. Soon, the pair were actively fighting. Hester did not want Isaac to have anything to do with their son. She had a powerful influence on her son’s intellectual growth. She had spent her early years helping a variety of sick relatives, contracting tuberculosis in the process. She instilled in her son a deep love of poetry and literature, recited verse daily and supported him unceasingly in his writing efforts.

First writings

Voracious reading, along with a natural talent for prose writing and the encouragement of teachers, created in Howard an interest in becoming a professional writer. From age nine, he began writing stories, mostly tales of historical fiction centring on Vikings, Arabs, battles, and bloodshed. 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. Friends considered Howard to be eidetic and astounded them with his ability to quickly memorize lengthy reams of poetry after one or two readings.

Professional writer

Howard spent his late teens working odd jobs around Cross Plains, all of which he hated. In 1924, Howard returned to Brownwood to take a stenography course at Howard Payne College, boarding with his friend Lindsey Tyson instead of his mother. Howard would have preferred a literary course but was not allowed to take one for some reason. Biographer Mark Finn suggests that his father refused to pay for such a non-vocational education. In the week of Thanksgiving that year, and after years of rejection slips and near acceptances, he finally sold a short caveman tale titled “Spear and Fang”, which netted him the sum of $16 and introduced him to the readers of a struggling pulp called Weird Tales.