January 22, 1906 – June 11, 1936
The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian | The Bloody Crown of Conan
Robert E. Howard wrote profusely, voluminously, and flagrantly. He invented a cast of leading characters, the most popular and enduring being Conan the Barbarian. Then, at age 30, when the death of his mother was imminent, he killed himself.
I have seen people accuse Howard of having an Oedipus complex, but let’s be real. Depression was a part of his writing and his life. It was even a part of Conan’s. In his first sketch of the barbarian, Howard portrays him as prone to moments of existential despair at his own impermanence, resorting to alcohol to dull his inward thoughts. I would be shocked if Conan’s inner conflict wasn’t representative of Howard himself.
REH argued with H.P. Lovecraft that civilization was an aberration and that barbarism was the natural state of humanity. This was not out of a fondness for barbarism, however. Rather, it feels like an outgrowth of his nihilistic worldview, informed by his understanding of history. Per Howard, civilizations and institutions decay, founder, and are swept into the dust of history; the only things that truly endured were legends. You can see this fascination with the legendary in his works, whether it’s Kull’s 200,000 year old origin story for the boatman and the River Styx or Solomon Kane’s adventures in Weird Africa. Ultimately Howard’s work has survived because his larger-than-life characters became legendary themselves.
Howard warrants discomfort as an author. He grew up and reached adulthood and wrote during the height of the eugenics movement. His depictions of Africans OR people who are African in everything but name only is generally problematic. If they are not sensationalized grotesqueries then they are generally amenable to a white savior. The most nuanced story that I’ve read thus far was a previously unpublished travelogue through Africa where a group of Middle-Eastern mercenaries is banded together under…the super cool and oh so charismatic white boy Francis Gordon in a formative El Borak tale. There’s plenty more Howard for me to read, however.
REH generally didn’t write strong female characters. He has damsels by the dozens, though, and they typically ended up naked so that his story had a better chance of ending up on the cover of whatever pulp he was targeting. He espoused feminist views in his letters, and gave us Dark Agnes, who murdered her bridegroom and ran away from her abusive father, as well as Red Sonya of Rogatino, who in being a vibrant defender during a siege against a Muslim empire bears almost no relation to the chicks-in-chain mail Sonja that is in the public consciousness. It is easy for me to believe that Howard allowed the market to largely dictate his depictions of women.
I love Howard's flowery, poetic prose. His action is thunderously dynamic. His sword and sorcery is crazy fun and from what I've seen he could write pretty good horror as well. Of the pulp authors that I've read, he has been the most eminently entertaining. If you decide to dig into his body of work then I hope that you have as good a time as I have had.
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