E Robert HowardRobert E. Howard (1906-1936) was an American pulp writer best known as the creator of Conan the Cimmerian and one of the founding figures of sword-and-sorcery fiction. Born and raised in Texas, Howard wrote with extraordinary speed and intensity for he pulp magazines, publishing adventure, fantasy, horror, historical fiction, boxing stories, westerns, and weird fiction. His work appeared in magazines such as Weird Tales, where he helped define a new kind of heroic fantasy built on violent action, ancient kingdoms, brooding atmosphere, and larger-than-life protagonists.Howard's influence on fantasy and adventure fiction is enormous. Conan, Kull, Solomon Kane, Bran Mak Morn, and his other characters helped establish the muscular, dangerous, myth-haunted mode that later became central to modern fantasy gaming, comics, paperbacks, film, and popular culture. "Gods of the North," an early version of material later associated with Conan, shows Howard's gift for combining barbaric energy, supernatural menace, and mythic intensity. For readers of classic fantasy, pulp adventure, sword and sorcery, weird fiction, and heroic literature, Howard remains indispensable. Read More Read Less