Robert E. Howard

[Connavar]

I think im more of purist when its about REH. He opened my classic fantasy inexperienced mind to a world and stories that i rate highly and didnt know could exist so well.

I wouldnt want to read anyone writing in his world, it would be like someone breaking in where they dont belong. Its not about how good or bad they are.

 

[nomadman]

I was never enamored enough with Conan or his world to bother with much of the pastiche; De Camp's short stories (adapted from several of Howard's non-fantastical historical adventures) aren't bad, and have quite a bit of the Howardian flavor to them. Hocking, Maddox Roberts, and Wagner are generally considered among pastiche fans as the best of the lot. Wagner's Kane tales are an excellent alternative to Howard, as are some of Poul Anderson's Nordic fantasies, particularly, The Broken Sword.

 

[GOLLUM]

That reinforces my resolve to never read a Conan story written or finished by others.

Im afraid it will taint my picture of Conan and his world.

Would you J.D read today others work,finished REH stories of Conan ? Gollum ?

I lean a little with JD on this one but it really would depend on how good a job the author did at maintaining Howard's style. My bio I referred you to mentions the disquiet a lot of Howard fans have over De Camp's revisions of Howard's work and I generally prefer fragments and synopsis left by any author to be published as is. I suppose I'm a purist but that's my opinion.

 

[Lobolover]

I prefer his "lovecraftian" tales over his fantasy sword and shield stories.
"The Black Stone" is very memmorable and id just love to read the other 3 .

 

[Connavar]

Its such a thrill reading The Horror Stories of Robert.E Howard.

Its really different from his fantasy. I like the european,1600s settings of some the stories. It was a surprise seeing the historical settings.

So far i have read Rattle of the Bones,In the Forest of Villefere,Wolfshead.

Its wierd his early story Wolfshead was better written than the Solomon Kane story Rattle of The Bones. Im not talking about the story,horror feel but his writing,his vibrant style.

 

[thepaladin]

I found the Howard Conan tales back in the 60s. Then later I read (had all) the Lancer compilations. I liked them to. I have a few tattered books left though not the entire set. They are different from the REH "pure tales", but worth reading. I wish someone would get the rights and re-release these.

My feeling on that front was (is) that Lynn Carter is a pretty good editor, but it would have been best if he’d left the writing to De camp...just me.

I don’t know if anyone is interested but the Science Fiction Book Club has released collections in "book club hard cover editions" (not quite as nice as regular hard covers but far more resilient than paper backs) of all the REH Conan stories. They’ve also released the Kull, Bran Mak Morn, and Solomon Kane stories by REH. First time I’ve been able to find the Kane stories in maybe 30 years, I was glad to find them.

 

[dask]

My feeling on that front was (is) that Lynn Carter is a pretty good editor, but it would have been best if he’d left the writing to De camp...just me.

I like Carter's non-fiction a lot more than his fiction. Except TIME WAR, his homage to A.E. van Vogt, was pretty good.

 

[Fried Egg]

I just read an excellent story by Howard called "The Horror from the Mound". The first vampire story of his I have read and it's set in Texas where an unlucky farmer unwittingly releases and imprisoned vampire when digging up a burial mound looking for gold.

I think that Howard really successfully managed to weave a dark and menacing atmosphere for this story (that I've not so far seen in his other horror stories I've read) that really sent shivers down my spine.

A real treat, especially reading it as it follows the deeply disappointing "Thing on the Roof". That one seemed like an attempt gone wrong to imitate Lovecraft. "The Black Stone" worked better in that regard...

 

[Connavar]

I just read an excellent story by Howard called "The Horror from the Mound". The first vampire story of his I have read and it's set in Texas where an unlucky farmer unwittingly releases and imprisoned vampire when digging up a burial mound looking for gold.

I think that Howard really successfully managed to weave a dark and menacing atmosphere for this story (that I've not so far seen in his other horror stories I've read) that really sent shivers down my spine.

Heh i read the same story for the first time last month in Horror collection of REH. It was really good, more creepy than any vampire horror i have read. How he drew out the horror in that story REH. You were like that cowboy who imagined a horror in every dark corner. The atmosphere was amazing.

You should read his werewolf stories, not bad either. He gave them his usual vivid,stark fear like the vamp story.

I have had many creepy nights with that collection.

 

[Fried Egg]

You should read his werewolf stories, not bad either. He gave them his usual vivid,stark fear like the vamp story.

I've read a couple of those already. I liked "In the forest of Villefore" but was less keen on "Wolfshead".

 

[Connavar]

I've read a couple of those already. I liked "In the forest of Villefore" but was less keen on "Wolfshead".

I liked how they were connected stories with the same character. I was surprised to see that. I liked The Forest of Villefore more too.
The hole european setting was interesting. A horrofic historical stories. I hope he wrote more stories in that setting.

 

[Connavar]

REH is gonna be added to Library of America !!
Finally they understand his greatness. Lets face it there arent many great american authors in the fantastic tales. Not many Edgar Allan Poe's compared to brits,irish.

American Fantastic Tales: Contents of Volume 1

Introduction by Peter Straub.

CHARLES BROCKDEN BROWN - Somnambulism: A Fragment (1805)
WASHINGTON IRVING - Adventure of the German Student Irving (1824)
EDGAR ALLAN POE - Berenice (1835)
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE - Young Goodman Brown (1835)
HERMAN MELVILLE - The Tartarus of Maids (1855)
FITZ-JAMES O’BRIEN - What Was It? (1859)
BRET HARTE - The Legend of Monte del Diablo (1863)
HARRIET PRESCOTT SPOFFORD - The Moonstone Mass (1868)
W. C. MORROW - His Unconquerable Enemy (1889).
CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN - The Yellow Wallpaper (1892)
KATE CHOPIN - Ma’ame Pélagie (1893)
JOHN KENDRICK BANGS - Thurlow’s Christmas Story (1894)
ROBERT W. CHAMBERS - The Repairer of Reputations (1895)
RALPH ADAMS CRAM - The Dead Valley (1895)
MADELEINE YALE WYNNE - The Little Room (1895)
GERTRUDE ATHERTON - The Striding Place (1896)
SARAH ORNE JEWETT - In Dark New England Days (1896)
EMMA FRANCIS DAWSON - An Itinerant House (1897).
STEPHEN CRANE - The Black Dog (1898)
MARY WILKINS FREEMAN - Luella Miller (1902)
FRANK NORRIS -. Grettir at Thornhall-Stead (1903)
LAFCADIO HEARN - Yuki-Onna (1904)
F. MARION CRAWFORD - For the Blood Is the Life (1905)
AMBROSE BIERCE - The Moonlit Road (1907)
EDWARD LUCAS WHITE - Lukundoo (1907)
OLIVIA HOWARD DUNBAR - The Shell of Sense (1908)
HENRY JAMES - The Jolly Corner (1908)
ALICE BROWN - Golden Baby (1910)
EDITH WHARTON - Afterward (1910)
WILLA CATHER - Consequences (1915)
ELLEN GLASGOW - The Shadowy Third (1916)
JULIAN HAWTHORNE - The Island of Ghosts (1919)
FRANCIS STEVENS - Unseen, Unfeared (1919)
F. SCOTT FITZGERALD - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (1922)
SEABURY QUINN - The Curse of Everard Maundy (1927)
STEPHEN VINCENT BENET - The King of the Cats (1929)
DAVID H. KELLER - The Jelly-Fish (1929)
CONRAD AIKEN - Mr. Arcularis (1931)
ROBERT E. HOWARD - The Black Stone (1931)
HENRY S. WHITEHEAD - Passing of a God (1931)
AUGUST DERLETH - The Panelled Room (1933)
H.P. LOVECRAFT - The Thing on the Doorstep (1933)
CLARK ASHTON SMITH - Genius Loci (1933)
ROBERT BLOCH - The Cloak (1939)

The Library of America - America's best and most significant writing

For 25 years, the nonprofit Library of America has been publishing authoritative and unabridged editions of our nation's most significant writing.

 

[j d worthington]

Actually, that volume looks to be a very mixed bag. Some absolutely top-notch stuff there, but also some absolutely pulpish crap (the Seabury Quinn tale, for instance or, not much better, Dr. Keller's piece). I'd also argue that the pieces picked by Howard and Lovecraft are by no means their best, even in the shorter story form. "The Thing on the Threshold", in fact, is in many ways very far down the list; while "The Black Stone" is far from Howard's best weird fantasy, either.

My feeling is that it is very nice to see him represented in the Library of America series, but they certainly could have picked a better tale; while some of the contents (not, thankfully, the majority) bring this down in tone considerably below the usual for this set....

 

[Connavar]

Seabury Quinn is prolly in it because he was popular in REH days, i read that his character beat Conan as the best story of the month in bonus material in my complete Conan collection just last night when i was reading it.

Thats why i said there is not many great authors in american fantastic compared to others and why REH is special and should be in library of america. He should have been there a long time ago along side his pulp letter friends like HPL,Asthon Smith,Derleth etc

Yeah the Black Stone isnt near any of the similar stories of fantastic that he wrote. Its one of those Lovecraftian inspired stories that i dont like. Only REH stories i dont want to read.

The story can be his worst ever but its very nice to see him there. Just like other genre greats getting literary credit like Hammett,Philip K Dick in the same series.

Also i read the news in REHforum that Penguin will publish him in one of their classic series. That will make him availible in the library to a hole different type readers,future generations.
Which is extra nice now that i see several of his new collections are out of print and expensive as hell.

 

[j d worthington]

Seabury Quinn is prolly in it because he was popular in REH days, i read that his character beat Conan as the best story of the month in bonus material in my complete Conan collection just last night when i was reading it.

The thing is, the Library of America series is not designed to take such things into consideration in publishing stories (or essays, or whatever). They are designed as exemplars of the best of American literature, and Quinn at his best (which could indeed be quite good, though it was far too seldom) never came anywhere in sight of that sort of quality; nor did David H. Keller... and I still can't figure out why he is represented. I suppose the introduction by Straub may answer that one, but I still think it was a poor choice to have what amounts to pulp hackwork included in a volume intended to represent the best of American fantastic literature; if nothing else, it is likely to perpetuate the prejudice against fantastic fiction with both the average literate reader and the more academically-inclined readers as well....

Thats why i said there is not many great authors in american fantastic compared to others and why REH is special and should be in library of america. He should have been there a long time ago along side his pulp letter friends like HPL,Asthon Smith,Derleth etc

Again, I don't think Derleth really belongs there, either. His supernatural fiction was, frankly, potboiler stuff. Smith (until this volume, at any rate) hasn't been represented in the series before, either; and HPL only made it into the series relatively recently...

The story can be his worst ever but its very nice to see him there. Just like other genre greats getting literary credit like Hammett,Philip K Dick in the same series.

Also i read the news in REHforum that Penguin will publish him in one of their classic series. That will make him availible in the library to a hole different type readers,future generations.
Which is extra nice now that i see several of his new collections are out of print and expensive as hell.

I still maintain that it would be better for REH in the long run to be represented in this prestigious series by a better tale, as it would be more likely to having him taken seriously by those who would normally dismiss him outright. This choice may, as I note above, only confirm the prejudice.

I am a bit more interested that Penguin may be doing a Howard volume (or more); that could be well worth getting, especially if they do a good job with the annotations -- that would be something any genuine REH fan or scholar of fantastic literature would likely find an inavluable resource....

 

[Connavar]

I havent read Derleth, i meant if anyone fantastic pulp era author are getting into this series its REH. HPL has a genre that is easier to get literary credit just like Hardboiled crime pulp writers. So i wasnt surprised to see HPL in the series even if he was added in recent years.

Hopefully they will realese other stories of him in the other volumes. I hope then they use his wierd western,horror or Bran or Conan or Solomon Kane.

By the way have you read his wierd westerns ? I have read those in my horror collection like The Man on The Ground,The Dead Remember,Old Garfield's Heart,The Valley of The Lost.

They are excellent in a total different way than his heroic fantasy stories. Less pulpy words wise describing everything like a panther,other things like sex that fantasy pulp crowd wanted.His writing style is more mature,gritty and makes those stories so good.

 

[j d worthington]

By the way have you read his wierd westerns ? I have read those in my horror collection like The Man on The Ground,The Dead Remember,Old Garfield's Heart,The Valley of The Lost.

They are excellent in a total different way than his heroic fantasy stories. Less pulpy words wise describing everything like a panther,other things like sex that fantasy pulp crowd wanted.His writing style is more mature,gritty and makes those stories so good.

It has been some years, but yes, I have read quite a few of those. And I think I'd agree with your assessment. Of course, there's also the odd bits of regional folklore he includes, as well, such as "Pigeons from Hell"... and his bits on that particular belief in his letters makes for an interesting reread of the story....

 

[Connavar]

I have been saving Pigeons from Hell for a while now. Im on Black Canaan in the reading of Horror collection.

His interest for folklore is very interesting, already there has been several stories i have read with indian folklore. I hope he wrote more "negro" folklore like The Dead Remember.

If Lord Samarcand collection didnt cost me so much i would get End of trails collection too. Its nice thing discovering other sides of REH writing. You assume he would be great in the same way he was in S&S stories. Its like he was several writers in one person.

 

[j d worthington]

Well, at least in one sense, he was a professional writer -- though his practices weren't always what one might call professional, as I understand it, he tried his hand at darned near every type of story going in his day. Some, of course, he really didn't have a talent for (detective tales being among them); others, such as the westerns, weird, and combination of these, he had an enormous talent for, and they are worth reading. (His humorous westerns are an odd mix: sometimes brilliant, sometimes repetitive; but the best of them are very good indeed.)

 

[Connavar]

Yeah i have read alot about the reasons he wrote for so many different markets,publishers. Wierd how the need to make money on other type of stories,his interest in other genres is a great legacy left for us now. I mean if he could survive only on Conan,his fantasy friends there wouldnt be as many REH collections,stories in the other genres to read now.


Heh i wondered about the detective tales,his talent or lack of for it. I mean he had documented interest in historical times,stories,westerns that its understandble he was good at them.