In Memoriam

In Memoriam: Robert Ervin Howard
The sudden and unexpected death on June 11 of Robert Ervin Howard, author
of
fantastic tales of incomparable vividness, forms weird fictions worst loss since
the
passing of Henry S. Whitehead four years ago.
Mr. Howard was born at Peaster, Texas on January 22, 1906, and was old
enough
to have seen the last phase of southwestern pioneeringthe settlement of the
great
plains and lower Rio Grande valley, and the spectacular rise of the oil industry
with its
raucous boom towns. His father, who survives him, was one of the pioneer
physicians
of the region. The family have lived in south, east, and west Texas, and western
Oklahoma;
for the last few years at Cross Plains, near Brownwood, Texas. Steeped in the
frontier atmosphere, Mr. Howard early became a devotee of its virile Homeric
traditions.
His knowledge of its history and folkways was profound, and the descriptions
and
reminiscences contained in his private letters illustrate the eloquence and power
with
which he would have celebrated it in literature had he lived longer. Mr. Howards
family
is of distinguished southern planter stockof Scotch-Irish descent, with most
ancestors
settled in Georgia and North Carolina in the eighteenth century.
Beginning to write at fifteen, Mr. Howard placed his first story three years later
while a student at Howard Payne College in Brownwood. This story, Spear and
Fang,
was published in Weird Tales for July, 1925. Wider fame came with the
appearance of
the novelette Wolfshead in the same magazine in April, 1926. In August, 1928,
began
the tales dealing with Solomon Kane, an English Puritan of relentless duelling
and wrong-redressing proclivities whose adventures took him to strange parts of
the
worldincluding the shadow-haunted ruins of unknown and primordial cities in
the
African jungle.1 With these tales Mr. Howard struck what proved to be one of
his most
effective accomplishmentsthe description of vast megalithic cities of the elder
world,
around whose dark towers and labyrinthine nether vaults clings an aura of prehuman
fear and necromancy which no other writer could duplicate. These tales also
marked
Mr. Howards development of that skill and zest in depicting sanguinary conflict
which
became so typical of his work. Solomon Kane, like several other heroes of the
author,
was conceived in boyhood long before incorporation in any story.
Always a keen student of Celtic antiquities and other phases of remote history,
Mr. Howard began in 1929with The Shadow Kingdom, in the August Weird
Talesthat succession of tales of the prehistoric world for which he soon grew
so famous.
The earlier specimens described a very distant age in mans historywhen
Atlantis,
Lemuria, and Mu were above the waves, and when the shadows of pre-human
reptile men rested upon the primal scene. Of these the central figure was King
Kull of
Valusia. In Weird Tales for December, 1932, appeared The Phoenix on the
Sword
first of those tales of King Conan the Cimmerian which introduced a later
prehistoric
world; a world of perhaps 15,000 years ago, just before the first faint
glimmerings of
recorded history. The elaborate extent and accurate self-consistency with which
Mr. Howard developed this world of Conan in his later stories is well known to
all fantasy
readers. For his own guidance he prepared a detailed quasi-historical sketch of
infinite
cleverness and imaginative fertilitynow running in The Phantagraph as a
serial
under the title The Hyborian Age.2
T
AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND MISCELLANY Y 217
Meanwhile Mr. Howard had written many tales of the early Picts and Celts,
including
a notable series revolving round the chieftain Bran Mak Morn. Few readers
will ever forget the hideous and compelling power of that macabre masterpiece,
Worms of the Earth, in Weird Tales for November, 1932. Other powerful
fantasies
lay outside the connected seriesthese including the memorable serial SkullFace,
and a few distinctive tales with a modern setting, such as the recent Black
Canaan3
with its genuine regional background and its clutchingly compelling picture of
the horror
that stalks through the moss-hung, shadow-cursed, serpent-ridden swamps of
the
American far South.
Outside the fantasy field Mr. Howard was surprisingly prolific and versatile. His
strong interest in sportsa thing perhaps connected with his love of primitive
conflict
and strengthled him to create the prize-fighting hero Sailor Steve Costigan,
whose
adventures in distant and curious parts delighted the readers of many

magazines. His
novelettes of Oriental warfare displayed to the utmost his mastery of romantic
swashbuckling, while his increasingly frequent tales of western lifesuch as the
Beckenridge Elkins seriesshewed his growing ability and inclination to
reflect the
backgrounds with which he was directly familiar.
Mr. Howards poetryweird, warlike, and adventurouswas no less notable
than
his prose. It had the true spirit of the ballad and the epic, and was marked by a
pulsing
rhythm and potent imagery of extremely distinctive cast. Much of it, in the form
of
supposed quotations from ancient writings, served to head the chapters of his
novels. It
is regrettable that no published collection has ever appeared, and one hopes
that such
a thing may be posthumously edited and issued.4
The character and attainments of Mr. Howard were wholly unique. He was,
above
everything else, a lover of the simpler, older world of barbarian and pioneer
days, when
courage and strength took the place of subtlety and stratagem, and when a
hardy, fearless
race battled and bled and asked no quarter from hostile Nature. All his stories
reflect
this philosophy, and derive from it a vitality found in few of his contemporaries.
No one could write more convincingly of violence and gore than he, and his
battle passages
reveal an instinctive aptitude for military tactics which would have brought him
distinction in times of war. His real gifts were even higher than the readers of his
published
work could suspect, and had he lived would have helped him make his mark in
serious literature with some folk-epic of his beloved southwest.
It is hard to describe precisely what made Mr. Howards stories stand out so
sharply; but the real secret is that he himself was in every one of them, whether
they
were ostensibly commercial or not. He was greater than any profit-making
policy he
could adoptfor even when he outwardly made concessions to Mammonguided editors
and commercial critics he had an internal force and sincerity which broke
through
the surface and put the imprint of his personality on everything he wrote.
Seldom if
ever did he set down a lifeless stock character or situation and leave it as such.
Before
he concluded with it, it always took on some tinge of vitality an realty in spite of
popular
editorial policyalways drew something from his own experience and

knowledge of
life instead of from the sterile herbarium of desiccated pulpish standbys. Not
only did
he excel in pictures of strife and slaughter, but he was almost alone in his ability
to create
real emotions of spectral fear and dread suspense. No authoreven in the
humblest
fieldscan truly excel unless he take his work very seriously; and Mr. Howard
did just that, even in cases where he consciously thought he did not. That such
a genuine
artist should perish while hundreds of insincere hacks continue to concoct
spurious
218 Y H. P. Lovecraft: Collected Essays
ghosts and vampires and space-ships and occult detectives is indeed a sorry
piece of
cosmic irony.
Mr. Howard, familiar with many phases of Southwestern life, lived with his
parents
in a semi-rural setting in the village of Cross Plains, Texas. Writing was his sole
profession.
His tastes in reading were wide, and included historical research of notable
depth in
fields as dissimilar as the American Southwest, prehistoric Great Britain and
Ireland, and
the prehistoric Oriental and African world. In literature he preferred the virile to
the subtle,
and repudiated modernism with sweeping completeness. The late Jack London
was
one of his idols. He was a liberal in politics, and a bitter foe of civic injustice in
every
form. His leading amusements were sports and travelthe latter always giving
rise to delightful
descriptive letters replete with historical reflections. Humour was not a specialty,
though he had on the one hand a keen sense of irony, and on the other hand an
abundant
fund of heartiness, cordiality, and conviviality. Though having numerous friends,
Mr. Howard belonged to no literary clique and abhorred all cults of arty
affectation. His
admirations ran toward strength of character and body rather than toward
scholastic
prowess. With his fellow-authors in the fantasy field he corresponded
interestingly and
voluminously, but never met more than one of themthe gifted E. Hoffmann
Price,
whose varied attainments impressed him profoundlyin person.
Mr. Howard was nearly six feet in height, with the massive build of a born
fighter.
He was, save for Celtic blue eyes, very dark; and in later years his weight
averaged
around 195. Always a disciple of hearty and strenuous living, he suggested

more than
casually his own most famous characterthe intrepid warrior, adventurer, and
seizer
of thrones, Conan the Cimmerian. His loss at the age of thirty is a tragedy of the
first
magnitude, and a blow from which fantasy fiction will not soon recover. Mr.
Howards
library has been presented to Howard Payne College, where it will form the
nucleus of
the Robert E. Howard Memorial Collection of books, manuscripts, and letters.
EDITORS NOTE FP: Fantasy Magazine No. 38 (September 1936): 2931. Text
derived from
the TMS (JHL). A poignant obituary to one of the closest of HPLs later
associates, one
with whom he had been corresponding voluminously since 1930. The essay
appears to be a
reworking of a letter to E. Hoffmann Price (5 July 1936; SL 5.27579) and was
probably
written shortly afterward. HPL prepared a truncated version (see p. 293), which
preceded
this item in print.
Notes
1. The first published Solomon Kane story was Red Shadows (Weird Tales,
August 1928).
2. The Hyborian Age was serialised in the Phantagraph (February, August,
October/November
1936). It was later published as a booklet (Los Angeles: LANY Cooperative
Publications, 1938),
with a prefatory letter by HPL to Donald A. Wollheim ([c. September 1935]).
3. Skull-Face appeared in Weird Tales for September, October, and November
1929;
Black Canaan in Weird Tales for June 1936.
4. The first book publication of Robert E. Howards verse was Always Comes
Evening (Arkham
House, 1957), followed by Singers in the Shadows (Donald M. Grant, 1970) and
Echoes
from an Iron Harp (Donald M. Grant, 1972), but much of his verse remains
uncollected.

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In Memoriam: Robert Ervin Howard

adventures in distant and curious parts delighted the readers of many

editorial policyalways drew something from his own experience and

around 195. Always a disciple of hearty and strenuous living, he suggested

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