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Robert E. Howard

  • Robert Ervin Howard
Sort Name
Howard, Robert E.
Ratings
No reviews
Type
Person
Gender
Male
Date of birth
1906-01-22
Place of birth
Weatherford
Date of death
1936-06-11
Place of death
Cross Plains

Wikipedia

Robert Ervin Howard (January 22, 1906 – June 11, 1936) 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.

Howard was born and raised in Texas. He spent most of his life in the town of Cross Plains, with some time spent in nearby Brownwood. A bookish and intellectual child, he was also a fan of boxing, eventually taking up amateur boxing; he also spent some time in his late teens bodybuilding. From the age of nine, he longed to become a writer of adventure fiction but did not have real success 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 greatest 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 giving him a large influence in the fantasy field. 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; 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.

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Annotation

US fantasy and horror writer.

Last modified: 2023-02-11 (revision #117018)

Editions

NameFormatISBNRelease Date
Conan von CimmeriaPaperback?1971
Short Fiction (Robert E. Howard)eBook?2018-04-13
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Identifiers

Goodreads Author ID
66700
ISNI
0000000121296259
LibraryThing Author
howardroberte
MusicBrainz Artist ID
96bc18c0-bc37-4b60-ab6f-db8c65e4b924
OpenLibrary Author ID
OL552852A
VIAF
41841537
Wikidata ID
Q207640

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Last Modified
2025-01-23