Robert E. Howard

[Addy]

Apart from the famous comics adaptations, I haven't read much Robert E. Howard. What do you suggest as compulsory reading?

 

[Theleb K]

Conan!!!! Forget the crappy films...Start by getting the Fantasy Masterworks collections (in the UK anyway), which have the original Howard stories... if not get anything you can - but check it's REH and not one of the many others who wrote about Conan shortly after Howard's death (Lin carter, Sprague de Camp etc.. - not that some of these aren't also great..)

Also read King Kull... and Almuric as well if you find it - and anything featuring Soloman Kane. El Borak is not so much of a must-read for me - but don't let me put you off...

 

[Overread]

As a point all of the conan written by howard is currently availible in a single hard back edition - look around for it as it has only recently been released -a great way to start

 

[Addy]

As a point all of the conan written by howard is currently availible in a single hard back edition - look around for it as it has only recently been released -a great way to start

Yes, I've seen that edition. Looks mighty fine. I just don't know if I can afford it.

 

[Connavar]

I have the huge new Centinery edition that is 800-900 pages long of all Conan REH wrote.

Its a great way to start.

Its pretty cheap compared other huge collections i have seen and it looks very fine.

 

[Fried Egg]

I think a good way to buy Conan on the cheap, if you can find them, is to pick them up second hand. Most often, you will stumble upon the series of paperbacks edited by Sprague Le Camp and Lin Carter. Be careful though, often these editions contain additional stories written by the above or others. Also Howard's stories were edited to make them all seem part of a connected series.

 

[Addy]

I think a good way to buy Conan on the cheap, if you can find them, is to pick them up second hand. Most often, you will stumble upon the series of paperbacks edited by Sprague Le Camp and Lin Carter. Be careful though, often these editions contain additional stories written by the above or others. Also Howard's stories were edited to make them all seem part of a connected series.

Good call. I only buy second-hand anyway.

 

[Addy]

I have the huge new Centinery edition that is 800-900 pages long of all Conan REH wrote.

Its a great way to start.

Its pretty cheap compared other huge collections i have seen and it looks very fine.

ISBN #?

 

[Overread]

ISBN is:
0 575 07766 2 cased (hard back)
0 575 07780 8 trade paperback

note that at 920 odd pages hard back would last better - I have read 1000 page paperbacks and you always spend the entire novel wondering when the back/glue will give out

 

[j d worthington]

If you can find either the Neville Spearman or Panther reprints of the Skull-Face and Others omnibus, this is a wonderful introduction to various Howardian characters and themes, from Conan to Kull to Solomon Kane to Bran Mak Morn to James Allison... and several non-series stories, as well...

Here's the Wiki on the original Arkham House edition (the contents of the Neville Spearman hb reprint are the same; the Panther was a 3-volume paperback reprint, and things are, as I recall, arranged slightly differently....)

Skull-Face and Others - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

There was also a nice pair of series from the 1970s and 1980s of various Howardian works, one by Zebra, the other by Berkley Books, which you can find many of secondhand... especially as Ace books picked up most of these -- but again, be careful to get only those by Howard, and not his followers (easier with the Berkley series... the Zebra was about half and half....)

And currently Del Rey books are putting out a series collecting together all the stories in various series (and two volumes of "the best of", which repeats some of the contents of the previous volumes plus other material):

Del Rey Online

These are great because they not only have the complete stories in a series, but even some of his earlier drafts, as well as some very nifty other material....

 

[Addy]

Great info, guys, as usual. Thanks a whole lot. I'll start looking on abebooks.com to begin with.

 

[Connavar]

So addy did you ever get hold of Conan stories?


I have started reading my collection again.

They get better and better specially when you see more of the young before he became King Conan. I love the way he talks and acts like. REH writes almost poetic like and then in Conan scenes, that changes.

With lines like this :

" Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing. ”

 

[Ursa major]

I borrowed the Centenary edition from my local library; I just about managed to finish it after one renewal.

It's a book more to dip into than read in one go. The stories were written to be read on their own, so it can be a bit tiring reading about Conan's haircut, the state of his "thews", etc., over and over again (there are a lot of stories, both short and long).

In spite of having to read everything over a short period, I enjoyed the book, and by the end I was no longer immediately thinking of Arnie when I read the tales.

 

[Connavar]

There is no way i ever think of Arnie, thanks to REH describing him so clearly. I have clear vision of Conan, its more similer to the DH comic look and the books pic than Arnie.


I dont mind reading the Conan's haircut and the like, as the long i enjoy the stories i couldnt careless how many times i read about his looks.


What did you you think Tower of the Elephant?, Phoenix of The Sword ?

 

[Ursa major]

I thought most of the stories were good. (The God in the Bowl - I think that's what it was called - was a bit weak, which may explain its rejection by the publisher.)

I only mentioned the (brief) descriptions of Conan because they recur so often when you have to read a lot of the tales in one go, as I did. In other circumstances (i.e. owning the book and reading it at your leisure ), it isn't an issue at all.

As to your specific question, I was impressed with these early stories (they appear in the book in order of writing, I believe). These quite short stories felt as if they were part of a larger whole. (I think I've mentioned elsewhere that this is what I like about built worlds: the feeling that there's far more to them than is found directly on the page.)

 

[Connavar]

Yeah i like that too, that there is far more than to the world than on the page.


What i find very interesting other than quality of the stories is how many nun white people he writes about. Its a very real world. So many different kind of people. I was almost shocked to see that Kush was africans or the like in that age.

Its funny and special that he did that in the 30's while many of today biggest fantasy series is all about white people. Or something like dark skinned elfs ie Malazan series.

Im not saying it is something wrong with that but as nun white person it is in the back in your mind why fantasy series after fantasy series there are totaly different and created world with 99% with white people.

I admire my fav writer David Gemmell even more cause he is like REH he almost always has characters that are from other parts of the world. Nadir(mongol like people),Pagan(a wandering African King) in Knights of Dark Renown etc

He said it best with this and it made me smile and like him more cause of what he said and did after the situation he talks about. He was a great man.


DG:
I originally wrote Pagan as a character after a young fan of Legend said to me: 'I love your books, mate. You know where its at.' I asked him what he meant. He looked at me and smiled and said: 'No spades in Legend.' That was a watershed for me. Not until then did I realise what a responsibility an author has. As well as entertaining readers we need to raise awareness and battle the idiocies and evils of prejudice in all its forms.

 

[Ursa major]

He's writing about a mythical precursor to the Old World, generally Europe and the Middle East, but also further afield, i.e. the Indian Subcontinent.

I have to say that I took into account when reading the stories where (in time and place) he came from, which came through in some of his descriptions of Kushites, the people of Shem, and others (not to mention women).

(Of course, some of his neighbours might have thought of him as a dangerous progressive! Who knows?)

 

[Connavar]

He must have been very progressive for his time to say the least.

I have read writers that was after his time, that was full of prejuidce of the times specially about women.


I even expected him to write the black prisoner guard Conan faces in The Scarlet Citadel shall we say ...less proper. Since it was my first time seeing him write a black character.


Have you read any of his other work?

 

[Ursa major]

That's the only book I've read, Connovar. I was a bit apprehensive about borrowing the Centenary, given that my only expose to Conan was the film. (I have seen the sequel, but remember little about it.) I'm glad I did, though; it was most entertaining.

What I'd like to know now is how much Howard's writing was affected by others in his field, e.g. how much of his work is pioneering or, if it isn't, how much better his work is than the others. (I'm assuming, of course, that his work has lasted due to its quality rather than mere commercialism.)

I've also seen the picture (can't remember what it's called) with Rene Zellweger as a teacher who knew Howard. It wasn't what I'd expected!

 

[j d worthington]

The film is The Whole Wide World and, though I've only seen a bit of it, I have some strong quibbles with the presentation of Howard... that is, the way D'Onofrio portrayed him in the bit I saw (the rest of the film may have been very good... eventually I'd like to see it all and make up my mind from that).

As for Arnie... well, I encountered Conan many years before the film was made, so that wasn't a problem for me. Besides, with that description of the Cimmerian standing over his former mistress' paramour (after he'd gutted him) "ghoul-like, his eyes burning in the gloom" in "Rogues in the House"... I rather think I'd not have been seeing Arnie at that point, regardless.....

Basically, that was what I liked about the way Howard presented the character. He had (despite his supernatural adventures) a feeling of depth and reality to him; he could be brutal, cruel, and sinister (as above), at the same time, he could even react to an alien creature (once over his initial shock) with compassion and empathy:

Tears rolled from the sightless eyes, and Conan's gaze strayed to the limbs stretched on the marble couch. And he knew the monster would not rise to attack him. He knew the marks of the rack, and the searing brand of the flame, and tough-souled as he was, he stood aghast at the ruined deformities which his reason told him had once been limbs as comely as his own. And suddenly all fear and repulsion went from him, to be replaced by a great pity. What this monster was, Conan could not know, but the evidences of its sufferings were so terrible and pathetic that a strange aching sadness came over the Cimmerian, he knew not why. He only felt that he was looking upon a cosmic tragedy, and he shrank with shame, as if the guilt of a whole race were laid upon him.

Incidentally, as of August, there's a new book that might be of interest for those wanting to try different aspects of Howard's work; especially those coming to him for the first time:

Del Rey Online | The Best of Robert E. Howard Volume 1 by Robert E. Howard

There's to a follow-up volume this month (or perhaps next, with scheduling being off with so many publishers lately):

Del Rey Online | The Best of Robert E. Howard Volume 2 by Robert E. Howard

There's a lot more to Howard than Conan, certainly... even though I do have a great deal of fondness for the character the young Robert Bloch once called "the Cimmerian chipmunk"....