Robert E. Howard (1906–1936) is most widely known today as the creator of Conan the Cimmerian, more popularly referred to as Conan the Barbarian. However, he also wrote across a wide array of genres for the pulp magazines of the 1920s and 1930s, including westerns, sports stories (boxing), adventures, supernatural horror, and even humor. Howard also created many other popular characters such as King Kull, Bran Mak Morn, Solomon Kane, Steve Costigan, and Breckenridge Elkins. More importantly, he created two specific subgenres of fiction: sword and sorcery (sometimes referred to as heroic fantasy) and weird westerns. Born and raised in Texas, Robert E. Howard began his writing career after his family settled in the small Central Texas town of Cross Plains. His first professional sale came from the pulp magazine Weird Tales in 1925, and over the next eleven years he wrote hundreds of stories and an equal number of poems. With this prolific body of stories, he was among the most lauded pulp authors of that era. It has been said, and rightly so, that the secret to his success was that there was a bit of Howard in every one of his characters, and because Howard was a Texan, even Conan shows elements of the Texan in his persona.
Robert E. Howard: The Life and Times of a Texas Author details the many trials and tribulations he faced as he became—and remained—a full-time writer while dealing with an aging father and caring for a mother who was dying of tuberculosis. The book both chronicles his personal life and demonstrates how the one driving force in Robert E. Howard’s life—forming the foundation for all of his characters and stories—was his personal pursuit of freedom. He lived for his freedom, he wrote as a means to attain that freedom, and, while it may sound strange, he also died tragically by his own hand in that very same pursuit at the young age of 30.
About the Author :
Williard M. Oliver is a professor of criminal justice at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas; is a retired major in the Military Police Corps, United States Army; and is an Operation Desert Storm veteran. He is the author/editor of thirty books including one previous biography, August Vollmer: The Father of American Policing. He lives with his family in Huntsville, Texas.
Review :
"Oliver has delivered a biography that REH novices can access which also offers new insights/info to hardcore scholars. . . . Raise your mead-horns high, sword-brothers, and salute a truly worthy book devoted to the life and works of the immortal Robert E. Howard."--DMR Books
"Willard M. Oliver's thoroughness is exemplary, and he is never boring, giving the reader a keen understanding of the times in which Howard lived and wrote, his constant problems with editors, the rejections, rewrites and struggles with payments . . . . Despite the tragic end to Howard's life, this is an incredible book, utterly readable, insightful and impressively thorough, one of the best biographies of a writer I have ever read, and I recommend it unreservedly for anyone with an interest in the creator of Conan."--Phantasmagoria
"In this biography, you'll find the spirit of the Lone Star State pulsing deep beneath the muscles of the pulp writer's most famous creation, Conan the Barbarian."--Texas Monthly
"Willard M. Oliver's biography of one of the greatest horror and adventure authors of the twentieth century is not only an exceptional retelling of one man's history, but also a story of the evolution of American authorship in a time of change in the publishing world."--Journal of Texas History
"In the pages of Oliver's book, we learn just how deeply Lovecraft inspired Howard. . . . Though they often disagreed, the two weird authors admired each other's work and the correspondence broadened Howard's perspective, helping him grasp and articulate what he hoped to get out of writing."--Book and Film Globe
"[T]he best linear presentation of what is known about Robert E. Howard's life, bar none. Chapters 3-29 will be my go-to for revisiting what was occurring in REH's life from now on. I do not anticipate it being supplanted in my lifetime."--Gary Romeo, spraguedecampfan
"Robert E. Howard will likely be considered the definitive REH biography from now on, since it's exhaustively researched, extensively footnoted, and brings together in one place all the information that's available about Howard's life, plus adding some things that I've never come across before in nearly 60 years of being a Howard fan. . . . What I look for in a biography of Robert E. Howard is a sense of who he was, what he did, how and why he did it . . . and this new book delivers on that. It delivers on that magnificently, in prose that's clear, straightforward, sometimes poignant, and very compelling."--Rough Edges
"Now, with Will's voluminous book, you get the best parts from all four previous biographies with additional new insights and thoughts about Howard and his life by Will and other Howard scholars since those biographies were written. It is now my go-to book for any biographical information and writing information on Howard as it has just about everything I will need or want. . . . [I]f you are a Howardophile, or have any interest in learning about Robert E. Howard's life and writings, get this book. You will come away with a deep understanding and knowledge of the man, his life and work."--Adventures Fantastic
"Oliver writes with such deep understanding and empathy for his subject, that it renders the ultimately tragic story of a creative but tormented man accessible even to those who are not as deeply invested in Howardiana as so many of us are. By Crom! the man crushed it. . . . Robert E. Howard is one damned fine piece of work. If you are at all interested in the life and works of REH, pick it up. And raise a horn to Will Oliver, who has given us a chronicle that will stand until the mountains crumble and the oceans once again drink our civilization."--Frontier Partisans
"Robert E. Howard is worth reading whether you are a fan of Howard's writing, wish to learn of the realities of the pulp fiction industry, or are interested in exploring life in 1920s Texas. Magnificently researched and engagingly written, it will capture readers."--Ricochet
"Oliver's biography is not a middle ground between Dark Valley Destiny and Blood and Thunder but instead cuts a new channel--scholarly biography, as exhaustively researched as Dark Valley Destiny and as fair as Finn's reappraisal. . . . I believe Robert E. Howard: The Life and Times of a Texas Author will join the front ranks of Howard scholarship; I can't see another Howard biography surpassing this one for research, even-handedness, and thorough attention to detail. Time will tell."--Brian Murphy, The Silver Key
"Robert E. Howard will be the go-to resource for the next wave of serious Howard scholarship for the foreseeable future. This is an academic biography of Howard that is readable and approachable for a variety of audiences. Oliver makes incredible use of primary sources; first-rate detective work."--Jonas Prida, editor of Conan Meets the Academy: Multidisciplinary Essays on the Enduring Barbarian "This will eclipse all the other biographies; it will be hailed as the best of these biographies, and one that will likely stand uncontested for a generation or more. Oliver's new approach to Howard's life and work can best be seen in the details Oliver provides that make Howard's story a family story, and indeed a communal story. We get to live the drama of the rise and growing popularity of the Conan character and get to viscerally feel the crushing economic burden Howard carried alongside the burden of his mother's failing health. And throughout the biography, the love and respect Oliver has for Howard is always evident."--Patrick Burger, author of On the Precipice of Fascism: The Mythic and Political in the Work of Robert E. Howard and Ernst Jünger
"Robert E. Howard: The Life and Times of a Texas Author by Willard M. Oliver offers a deeply researched and vivid account of the life of this legendary pulp writer. From his rich correspondence with H.P. Lovecraft to his complex relationship with Novalyne Price, this biography paints an intimate portrait of a man whose imagination shaped an entire literary genre. Exploring his struggles, triumphs, and creative genius, this book is an indispensable exploration of one of Texas's most fascinating literary figures."--Ståle Gismervik, founder of the World of Robert E. Howard website
