Happy Birthday, Mr. Howard

Today is Robert E. Howard's 120th birthday. The original classic Texas Fantasist. I've always liked him and his greatest creation, Conan, as any search of this blog will show. I've always kind of wanted to like him more. I've bought tons of related material; I've also found it fairly easy to part with them. His philosophy is peurile; his personal relationships were pitiable; yet there is a sort of spirit and verve to him and his work that makes the sale. He is the equivalent of a hamburger and fries compared to a quality restaurant meal. And a burger can be delicious and just what you want. So let's raise a glass to poor ol' Two-Gun Bob, gone far too soon.

Comic Books: The Savage Sword of Conan (#60 - #69)

This run covers from January 1981 to October 1981, so it took me out of high school, through the summer, and into my first semester of college. There were beginning to be excited rumblings (including a proposed storyboard) about the coming Conan film.

Robert E. Howard, although now firmly established in the broader Fantasy genre, was more of an all-purpose pulp writer. In fact, when he passed away, he was publishing a series of boxing stories. Whatever genre he wrote in, his heroes tended to be tough two-fisted loners, cowboys, sailors, or warriors who could fight their way out of almost any situation.  

But he is most closely associated with Weird Tales (‘The Unique Magazine’), where his Conan stories had their debut. He carried on a correspondence with fellow contributor H. P. Lovecraft, the cosmic horror writer. The stories in Weird Tales were … niche, to say the least, and though nerdy were seen to be lowbrow. If you wanted ‘real’ literature, you went to The Atlantic Monthly or Harper’s Magazine for your high-falutin’, prestigious fix. But Howard had something, something that persisted and grew in the popular culture, until now even academics have to sit up and take notice.

Howard’s tales appeal to ‘adolescents of all ages’, but especially to early teen boys, a situation parodied in National Lampoon’s ‘Cohen the Boybarian’. It was not so much his style as his substance that appealed, his set-up and his ‘philosophy’. Even when I was collecting the Del Rey volumes of his work (since sold), I found it a chore reading his prose and seldom read anything all the way through. But I HAD to be the Fantasy Guy. And they were deeply discounted in the Bargain Books catalog.

The Savage Sword (and later the Conan movie) was just about the right mediation level of Howard for me, that is, when they did actually adapt his work. They had plenty of other writers, writing plenty of new tales, all to formula. But even now I am tempted by the hardback omnibus volume of all the old authentic Robert E. Howard Conan tales. There is a part of me, too, that is always enduring (if only in memory) permanent adolescence.

The Ghost Kings

                           

 The Ghost Kings by Robert E. Howard

 

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 gleam like phantom arrows sped;
There is silence in the valleys and the moon is rising red.

The ghost kings are marching down the ages’ dusty maze;
The unseen feet are tramping through the moonlight’s pallid haze,
Down the hollow clanging stairways of a million yesterdays.

The ghost kings are marching, where the vague moon-vapor creeps,
While the night-wind, to their coming, like a thund’rous herald sweeps;
They are clad in ancient grandeur, but the world, unheeding, sleeps.

I first read these verses in an issue of The Savage Sword of Conan when I was in high school. While I never thought it was great poetry (it lacks a satisfying ending, for one thing) I always felt there was something there, if only an evocation of a mood. Howard was reaching, perhaps for some parity or just a comparison with other weird poets like Clark Ashton Smith. There are some days in fall (and the end of this day is one of them) when The Ghost Kings come treading through my mind, and I think he just maybe achieves good poetry when the mood is right. 

 

Robert E. Howard and Conan: The Shadow Library Re-Organized

 

Stan Lee Presents Conan the Barbarian: Volumes #2 and #5

The Hills of the Dead; The Hour of the Dragon; Worms of the Earth; Conan; Conan of Cimmeria; Conan of the Isles … Robert E. Howard, L. Sprague de Camp, Lin Carter

The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian; The Best of Robert E. Howard Vol. I: Crimson Shadows; The Best of Robert E. Howard Vol. II: Grim Lands; Bran Mak Morn: The Last King; The Conquering Sword of Conan; The Bloody Crown of Conan; The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard; Kull: Exile of Atlantis; The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane … Robert E. Howard

The Riot at Bucksnort and Other Western Tales; The Black Stranger and Other American Tales; El Borak and Other Desert Adventures; Boxing Stories … Robert E. Howard

The Blade of Conan … L. Sprague de Camp (ed.)

The Spell of Conan … L. Sprague de Camp (ed.)

Oh, Robert E., Robert E., the one authentic classical Texas fantasist. Fantasist almost by accident; he tried his hand at all sorts of pulp writing, so long as it was red-blooded adventure. He had his most lasting success with his character Conan and the Hyborian Age, though by the end of his short, tragic life he had turned from ‘weird tales’ to Westerns. He had more or less invented the Sword and Sorcery subgenre of Fantasy, but the appreciation of his work came too late to help him.

And how did I find him? “In 1966, [L. Sprague] de Camp made a deal with Lancer Books to republish the Conan series, which led to the "First Howard Boom" of the 1970s; their popularity was enhanced by the cover artwork of Frank Frazetta on most of the volumes. Many of his works were reprinted (some printed for the first time) and they expanded into other media such as comic books and films. The Conan stories were increasingly edited by de Camp and the series was extended by pastiches until they replaced the original stories. In response, a puristic movement grew up demanding Howard's original, un-edited stories. The first boom ended in the mid-1980s. In the late 1990s and early 21st century, the "Second Howard Boom" occurred. This saw the printing of new collections of Howard's work, with the restored texts desired by purists.” – Wikipedia.

By the late Seventies I was really into Fantasy, and Howard was pretty popular in the neighborhood. I was mostly engaged by the Marvel comics and later The Savage Sword of Conan comic magazines. I collected a smattering of the Lancer novels but on the whole did not find Sword-and-Sorcery as engaging as more ‘High Fantasy’ works, such as Tolkien. During that “Second Howard Boom” I tried getting all the Del Rey collected works and some of the Howard published by Bison Books. This led me to a realization: I did not really much care for his writing, even if purged of the additions of later editors. With a bit of a sentimental qualm and the regrets of a ‘student of fantasy’, I sold most of my Robert E. Howard materials, although I retain all my original comic magazines.

Lovecraft and Related Horrors

Hyperborea, by Clark Ashton Smith.

A collection of short stories by Lovecraft’s old pal. “Smith's work was praised by his contemporaries. H. P. Lovecraft stated that "in sheer daemonic strangeness and fertility of conception, Clark Ashton Smith is perhaps unexcelled", and Ray Bradbury said that Smith "filled my mind with incredible worlds, impossibly beautiful cities, and still more fantastic creatures". – Wikipedia. A Ballantine Books ‘Unicorn’ fantasy. He wrote most of these for “Weird Tales”. Can’t say I’ve read them all, but some I’ve enjoyed.

Ranking: Keeper.

File Code: Anthology. Fantasy. Paperback.

The Hounds of Tindalos, by Frank Belknap Long.

Long was basically the youngest member of the Lovecraft circle and wrote for Weird Tales. That is why I have this book. Haven’t read it.

     Ranking: Keeper.

     File Code: Anthology. Fantasy. Paperback.

Cthulhu: The Mythos and Kindred Horrors, by Robert E. Howard. Edited by David Drake.

     All of Howard’s Cthulhu-related and horror stories. He was, of course, the creator of Conan, and in Conan’s world there were plenty of Elder Gods and cultists running around. He and Lovecraft traded letters quite often and used each other’s lore in their stories as sly nods to each other.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Anthology. Fantasy/Horror. Paperback.

The Shadow Over Innsmouth and Other Stories of Horror, by H. P. Lovecraft.

The way I first got into Lovecraft was through running across him in horror anthologies in school libraries and reading about him in editor’s notes. A copy of this Scholastic volume in – Briesemeister? – was the first book of his that I remember seeing, though the Count Orlock inspired cover wasn’t doing it any favors. John bought this copy years later and gave it to me when I begged it for my Lovecraft collection.

Ranking: I’m going to say Essential Nostalgia.

File Code: Horror. Anthology. Paperback.

The Colour Out of Space, by H. P. Lovecraft.

A Harcourt Brace Jovanovich (HBJ) book, with a Preface by Frank Belknap Long and a cover by Rowena, I think this is the first Lovecraft I ever owned. A nice anthology of his stuff, including the seminal “The Call of Cthulhu”.

Ranking: Essential-ish.

File Code: Horror. Anthology. Paperback.

The Dunwich Horror and Others, By H. P. Lovecraft.

An HBJ book, with a preface by August Derleth and a cover by Rowena. It is a companion volume to HBJ’s edition of “The Colour Out of Space”, and I didn’t even know it existed until I picked up this copy at Half-Price. By then I had all the stories inside elsewhere but had to have it to match. The line on the cover - “It’s Evil Beyond Exorcism” – pretty much dates it to the 70’s, even if you couldn’t read the publisher’s date inside.

Ranking: Essential-ish.

File Code: Horror. Anthology. Paperback.

Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos Volume I, Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos Volume II, The Tomb and Other Tales, At the Mountains of Madness and Other Tales of Terror, The Lurking Fear and Other Stories, The Shuttered Room and Other Tales of Horror, by H. P. Lovecraft.

Having started into Lovecraft, we had to get them all, and for a while it was a race between John and me as to who could find the most. These Ballantine Book editions, with their monster-head covers by John Holmes, were advertised in all the Warren magazines we bought and the editions available in used bookstores. The “Mythos” books include stories by others; “Mythos I” is missing its cover and is “Collected” by August Derleth and “Mythos II” is “Edited” by August Derleth. “Room” and “Fear” are older editions in the series that John found and then later gave me (when I begged him).

Ranking: Essential-ish.

File Code: Horror. Anthology. Paperbacks.

The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath and Other Stories, by H. P. Lovecraft; and The Horror in the Museum and Other Revisions, by H. P. Lovecraft and Others.

     Before there were the monster-head run, Ballantine put out these horror/science fiction editions, with covers by Murray Tinkelman (same guy as did Del Rey’s E. R. Eddison covers, and a more 60’s-70’s artist there is not). “Dream-Quest” has Lovecraft’s more Dunsany-like work, and “Museum” is ‘collaborations’ that have works he did with others or continuations of his unfinished stories.

Ranking: Keepers.

File Code: Horror. Anthology. Paperbacks.

The Lurker at the Threshold, by H. P. Lovecraft with August Derleth.

A bit of an anomaly here. It is a 1971 Beagle Book, and although Lovecraft gets top billing, it is generally acknowledged to be mostly Derleth’s work. As HPL’s editor and literary executor he had a pretty free hand.

Ranking: Keeper.

File Code: Horror. Novel. Paperback.

The Case of Charles Dexter Ward and The Doom that Came to Sarnath and Other Stories, by H. P. Lovecraft.

These Del Rey Horror editions that came out in the early 80’s, with covers by Michael Whelan, helped plump out the elderly, crumbling tomes of the Lovecraft collection. “Ward” is a novella, perhaps the closest HPL ever got to a masterpiece, and of all his stuff (even over the “Mythos”) is the work I treasure most. Charles Dexter Ward goes in search of his ancestry and awakens an evil from the past. The story of Joseph Curwen and his evil wizardries, the horrors of “Essential Salts”, and the evocation of colonial times, all just hits me in the right spot.

Ranking: Essential Salt.

File Code: Horror. Novella. Paperback.

The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, by H. P. Lovecraft.

The Ballantine Books Adult Fantasy edition, with a cover by Gervasio Gallardo. Another copy (see elsewhere for comments on the book itself). It’s in the series, man!

Ranking: Essential/Keeper.

File Code: Fantasy. Anthology. Paperback.

Fungi from Yuggoth and Other Poems, by H. P. Lovecraft, Illustrated by Frank Utpatel.

I thought if I ever found this old Ballantine Book anywhere, it would have to be ordering it through E-bay for tons of cash, and I find it at Half-Price for like $2! I can’t say I’ve read every poem inside, but I’ve read plenty. Most of them are HPL trying to be Poe, but the ones I enjoy most are his satirical efforts, when he’s trying to be Alexander Pope. The pictures are a gas as they try to illustrate his delicate visions with pulp fiction bluntness. Cover by Gervasio Gallardo.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Poetry. Anthology. Paperback.

Lovecraft: A Look Behind the “Cthulhu Mythos”, by Lin Carter.

A 1972 Ballantine Book with a Gervasio Gallardo cover. In 1972 I was in 3^rd grade, and probably wouldn’t have known what to think if I saw this book; probably something like “Gee whiz golly, mister, that looks kind of Satanic to me.” I’d had Carter’s “Tolkien: A Look Behind “The Lord of the Rings” since high school, but only recently (2010) did I acquire this volume through the internet. I fear I got it about 35 years too late, since the cabbage that would have been fresh to me then has now been thoroughly chewed. Still, the portrait of a time in HPL studies.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Literary History. Horror. Paperback.

The Watchers Out of Time, by H. P. Lovecraft.

Though Lovecraft’s name is prominent on the cover, this is mostly August Derleth’s work, and his heirs are even listed as holding the copyright, so the old corpse-grinder continues to profit even after death by his association with the master.

Ranking: Keeper.

File Code: Horror. Anthology. Paperback.

The Loved Dead and Other Revisions, by H. P. Lovecraft.

More collaborations with younger writers in his day, or possibly more accurate to say these are tales where he was a confirmed ‘story doctor’. Haven’t read most of them. Still, completeness for the collection, eh?

Ranking: Keeper.

File Code: Horror. Anthology. Paperback.