Posts tagged Robert E. Howard

Today is Robert E. Howard’s 107th birthday (January 22, 1906 – June 11, 1936). Howard was born in Peaster, TX, but spent most of his life in Cross Plains, TX. He is most widely known for his pulp fiction characters; Conan the Cimmerian, Solomon Kane, Bran Mak Morn, Kull the Conquerer. Howard also wrote westerns, horror tales, boxing stories and penned hundreds of poems.
His influences included Rudyard Kipling, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Jack London, and his friend and fellow writer H.P. Lovecraft. Howard is called the father of Sword & Sorcery fantasy, and has had a huge impact on the High Fantasy genre. Contemporary writers who have been influenced by Robert E. Howard include  David Gemmell, Matthew Woodring Stover, Charles R. Saunders, Karl Edward Wagner, Paul Kearney, Steven Erikson, Joe R. Lansdale, Robert Jordan and William King.

Today is Robert E. Howard’s 107th birthday (January 22, 1906 – June 11, 1936). Howard was born in Peaster, TX, but spent most of his life in Cross Plains, TX. He is most widely known for his pulp fiction characters; Conan the Cimmerian, Solomon Kane, Bran Mak Morn, Kull the Conquerer. Howard also wrote westerns, horror tales, boxing stories and penned hundreds of poems.

His influences included Rudyard Kipling, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Jack London, and his friend and fellow writer H.P. Lovecraft. Howard is called the father of Sword & Sorcery fantasy, and has had a huge impact on the High Fantasy genre. Contemporary writers who have been influenced by Robert E. Howard include  David GemmellMatthew Woodring StoverCharles R. SaundersKarl Edward WagnerPaul KearneySteven EriksonJoe R. Lansdale, Robert Jordan and William King.

‎”A great poet is greater than any king.
Robert E. Howard; By This Axe I Rule!

The Tempter by Robert E. Howard

Something tapped me on the shoulder
Something whispered, “Come with me,”
“Leave the world of men behind you,
“Come where care may never find you
“Come and follow, let me bind you
“Where, in that dark, silent sea,
“Tempest of the world n’er rages;
“There to dream away the ages,
“Heedless of Time’s turning pages,
“Only, come with me.”

“Who are you?” I asked the phantom,
“I am rest from Hate and Pride.
“I am friend to king and beggar.
“I am Alpha and Omega,
“I was councilor to Hagar
“But men call me suicide.
“I was weary of tide breasting,
Weary of the world’s behesting,
And I lusted for the resting
As a lover for his bride.

And my soul tugged at its moorings
And it whispered, “Set me free.
“I am weary of this battle,
“Of this world of human cattle,
“All this dreary noise and prattle.
“This you owe to me.”
Long I sat and long I pondered,
On the life that I had squandered,
O’er the paths that I had wandered
Never Free.

In the shadow panorama
Passed life’s struggles and its fray.
And my soul tugged with new vigor,
Huger grew the phantom’s figure,
As I slowly tugged the trigger,
Saw the world fade swift away.
Through the fogs old Time came striding,
Radiant clouds were ‘bout me riding,
As my soul when gliding, gliding,
From the shadow into day.

A Question for Halloween: What’s the Scariest Story You’ve Ever Read?

Mine? Pigeons from Hell by Robert E. Howard. Stephen King claims it’s the scariest story he’s ever read as well, so I’m in good company.

Currently Reading.

  1. Green Lantern (DC Comic Books New 52 graphic novel)
  2. A Means to Freedom: The Letters of H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard: 1930-1932
  3. Columbine by Dave Cullen
I think the real reason so many youngsters are clamoring for freedom of some vague sort, is because of unrest and dissatisfaction with present conditions; I don’t believe this machine age gives full satisfaction in a spiritual way, if the term may be allowed.
Robert E. Howard
When a nation forgets her skill in war, when her religion becomes a mockery, when the whole nation becomes a nation of money-grabbers, then the wild tribes, the barbarians drive in … Who will be our invaders? From whence will they come?
Robert E. Howard
He was a man born out of his time—a strange blending of Puritan and Cavalier, with a touch of the ancient philosopher, and more than a touch of the pagan, though the last assertion would have shocked him unspeakably. An atavist of the days of blind chivalry he was, a knight errant in the somber clothes of a fanatic. A hunger in his soul drove him on and on, an urge to right all wrongs, protect all weaker things, avenge all crimes against right and justice. Wayward and restless as the wind, he was consistent in only one respect—he was true to his ideals of justice and right. Such was Solomon Kane.
Robert E. Howard; The Moon of Skulls (quoted from the Del Rey copy of The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane, p. 127).

Currently reading these two works.

If people don’t put clothes on your back and food on your table, who cares what they think.
Robert E. Howard (via texastalespinner)
texastalespinner:

A horror story by Robert E. Howard. In 1983, Stephen King, writing in Danse Macabre, considered Pigeons from Hell to be “one of the finest horror stories of our century.”

texastalespinner:

A horror story by Robert E. Howard. In 1983, Stephen King, writing in Danse Macabre, considered Pigeons from Hell to be “one of the finest horror stories of our century.”

All fled—all done, so lift me on the pyre;
The feast is over, and the lamps expire.
Robert E. Howard (via texastalespinner)

On An Underwood #5: The Ghost Kings by Robert E Howard

texastalespinner:

The ghost kings are marching; the midnight knows their tread,
From the distant, stealthy planets of the dim, unstable dead;
There are whisperings on the night-winds and the shuddering stars have fled.

A ghostly trumpet echoes from a barren mountain head;
Through the fen the wandering witch-lights…

I am never, in these dreams of ancient times, a civilized man. Always I am the barbarian, the skin-clad, tousle-haired, light eyed wild man, armed with a rude axe or sword, fighting the elements and wild beasts, or grappling with armored hosts marching with the tread of civilized discipline, from fallow fruitful lands and walled cities.
Robert E. Howard in a letter to H. P. Lovecraft, ca. January 1931 (via texastalespinner)