And Their Memory Was A Bitter Tree

Not Fled, Not Done, Not Ever!

The universal popularity of writer ROBERT E. HOWARD (1906-1936), the creator of Conan the Cimmerian, appears as strong now in the year 2009 as it ever was before, even in the author's initial heyday and subsequent paperback boom of the sixties and seventies.

This resurgence in all things Howard seems to have started anew back in 1996 with the release of the motion picture The Whole Wide World, a biographical feature film based on the memoir by Novalyne Price and her brief romance with the legendary pulp writer. The movie starred Vincent D'Onofrio and rising star Renee Zellweger.

Coinciding with the release of the film, Baen Books issued a series of paperback collections featuring Howard's non-Conan related fiction, adorned with some of fantasy artist Ken Kelly's most striking cover illustrations to date. Then in 1999 Wandering Star, a small press publisher located in the United Kingdom, issued the first of their many deluxe limited edition books of Howard's fiction. These were high quality illustrated hardcovers of the type that had not been seen since Donald Grant's deluxe Conan editions published way back in the mid-seventies. On their heels came hardcover and trade collections from Wildside Press, softcover trade reprints from Del Rey Books, more hardcovers from the University of Nebraska's Bison Books, new graphic novels and comics from Dark Horse Publications, reprint volumes of Marvel's Savage Sword of Conan magazine, and paperback reprints from Cosmos Books.

Almost the entire spectrum of Robert E. Howard's fiction has been republished in the last fourteen years, including a handy Ultimate Guide book from DK Publishing about Conan and his Hyborian Age, with additional items looming on the horizon. Big Bob Howard just keeps on rolling...

There are electronic computer games devoted to his fictional worlds and even some audio versions of select Conan stories are forthcoming from Tantor Media. In 2006 (the centennial year of Howard's birthday) a new biography was published; Blood And Thunder: The Life and Art of Robert E. Howard by Mark Finn. Also nearing completion in 2009 are two films: Red Nails, an animated effort and Solomon Kane, a big budget live action feature. There are even rumors of a new Conan movie for 2011.

Subterranean Press became involved too. Their first Howard title, Kull: Exile of Atlantis, is a limited signed edition, patterned after the Wandering Star editions, with illustrations by the fantasy artist Justin Sweet. This high-volume small press publisher is promising even more volumes to mirror their first Howard entry.

Each year in June, devotee's of the pulp writer can participate in an annual pilgrimage to Howard's hometown in Cross Plains, Texas, where the author's house is open for tours during "Robert E. Howard Remembrance Days." The Cross Plains residence has been recently added to the National Register of Historic Places, and is now considered a museum.

Some credit for this renewed popularity can be attributed directly to the internet, where fans have been able to build specific forums based around Howard and his literary legacy. At the forefront of these are a pair of exceptional web sites: www.rehupa.com (the Robert E. Howard United Press Association), and www.thecimmerian.com (an online & paper journal). Both sites are committed to REH studies, pulp fiction, and heroic fantasy in general, bringing a didactic approach to Howard's domain, and perhaps even helping to rekindle a grudging respect from high fantasy academia. They are blogged by hardened fans, critics, and professional writers, but their intent is earnest, their discourse quodlibetic. The combined efforts of their many contributors have uncovered new and revised information about Howard's life and career, removing, or at least tempering some of the stigmatism and myths normally associated with the popular pulp author.

Some of those myths began when L Sprague de Camp published his lengthy biography of Howard back in 1983. At the time, most fans probably felt that Dark Valley Destiny: The Life of Robert E. Howard was the definitive statement about Howard and his career, but in retrospect, that preeminent biography appears less than definitive now in the 21st Century, especially in the wake of increased scholarly research into Howard's background, and more than dozen years of spirited internet debates. Enlightened fans now openly disregard the book's assessments, calling de Camp's facts distortions, and his statements conjectures.

One controversial aspect of the Howard's life that's been amended, or arguably so, was his supposed abnormal relationship with his mother. Even after reading de Camp's biography I never fully believed his de facto suggestion that Howard had a full-blown Oedipus complex, even if his mother did hold unusual sway and influence over her son's affairs. It simply made more sense to me then-- and now supported by revised modern perceptions-- that Howard was merely fulfilling his role as a joint caretaker for his ailing mother, who was suffering from tuberculosis. Naturally, that in-house nursing led to a deeper dependence between mother and son, which was inevitable given the situation.

Residing with his parents as Howard did for most of his adult life and providing for his ill mother would have been regarded as an acceptable family arrangement by almost anybody during the Great Depression, but especially by Howard's father who benefitted directly. And yet, if we were to compare Robert E. Howard to the average Cross Plains resident back then he would definitely stand out, almost like an anomaly, or at least in the way he plied his living by writing yarns for the pulp magazines.

In Dark Valley Destiny, de Camp had us believing that Howard's extreme behavior and eccentricities were probably caused by mental illness, or by some type of personality disorder, induced no doubt, by his mother's consanguineous affections. But is it even possible today to build an accurate profile of Howard's personality, when more than 70 years have passed since his untimely demise. A devoted son and a terrific writer, that much we do know, that much is unassailable. A young man suffering from the effects of clinical depression and an Oedipus complex-- who among us can really say? To fill in more of the gaps we would have to thoroughly examine all the evidence he left behind; his relatively large body of work, his letters to both colleagues and friends (which gives us our best chance at real insight), and the few testimonies that friends and peers recorded, some long after his death.

But if Robert E. Howard was different according to the standards for normality set by society, he isn't alone in that regard; many of literature's best practitioners have also been labeled eccentric, strange, and even "crazy" by a few hyper-critical observers and jealous detractors. Howard's distinct genius can find steadfast company with the likes of Franz Kafka, Philip K. Dick, Jack London, Karl Edward Wagner, Richard Brautigan, H.P. Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe. These enormously gifted writers all share that common ground, but they also embody similar characteristics like potent intellectualism, protean imagination, and the ability to compose unique and original prose. Robert E. Howard is also notable for creating an entirely new genre format called Sword & Sorcery (much like Poe was for inventing the Detective genre), and there are few writers out there who can claim such an audacious feat.

Ironically, one of my favorite books published during this current Howard revival period has the curious distinction of actually reinforcing some of those earlier conjectures about the writer's life.

"... and their memory was a bitter tree..." Queen of the Black Coast & Others by Robert E. Howard, is a brand new hardcover edition by Black Bart Books containing eight Conan stories, with an oft-reprinted afterword by H. P. Lovecraft, and an unexpected foreword by veteran anthologist, Arnie Fenner.

The title is derived from a line taken out of the Conan story, Queen of the Black Coast:

"The Tigress ranged the sea, and the black villages shuddered. Tom-toms beat in the night, with a tale that the she-devil of the sea had found a mate, an iron man whose wrath was as that of a wounded lion. And survivors of the butchered Stygian ships named Belit with curse, and a white warrior with fierce blue eyes; so the Stygian princes remembered this man long and long, and their memory was a bitter tree which bore crimson fruit in the years to come."

The book itself is quite handsome; glossy illustrated boards, large typeset, white pages, elegant page decorations, solid construction, and with dustjacket art and interior plates by artists Jerold Brom and Frank Frazetta, all of which contribute to make this one of the most attractive editions of Conan stories ever published. Sure, Frazetta's interior paintings have been randomly chosen without real regard for the actual stories their supposed to illustrate, and ridiculously cropped to provide a greater measure of detail, and the end-leaf map by George Barr contains numerous geographical errors, and several of the best Conan stories were omitted, and the cover illustration has the top half of Conan's head cut-off inexplicably, but nevertheless, it remains a distinctively designed book that looms large against competing hardcover editions.

I really do like this stylish made but somewhat flawed Conan book-- but there's also that damned foreword to contend with.

In Whispers of Immortality, Arnie Fenner belabors all the myths (or truths) surrounding Robert E. Howard; his real-life's fictional constructs, his outsider image, his co-dependent relationship with his overprotective mother, his depression, and his eventual suicide. That biographical information has always fascinated readers, and always will. Fenner then espouses some hardnosed opinions about Howard, calling his writing "more rudimentary that lyrical-- with very little variety in his fiction" and then saying brashly, "that he simply wasn't a great writer." Fenner goes on to say that Howard "often recycled his plots and repeated situations, phrases and descriptions" and as a writer he suffered from "his own limitations."

Fenner is certainly entitled to his views, even if they are entirely out of place in a book which is purportedly trying to celebrate its author. However, his sharp views didn't dissuade me from purchasing the book as they probably would other, more proprietary type fans. In fact, much like Fenner, I've always felt a portion of Howards fiction was pedestrian, and he was clearly guilty of recycling plots and situations (as most writers are apt to do). But when his writing was at it's zenith, as it was for most of his horror and Conan stories, Robert E. Howard's virtuosity was hardly ever exceeded, let alone matched, by any writer, living or otherwise.

But Fenner does make some good points about Howard's resurgence when paired with Frank Frazetta. I bought my first Lancer paperback partly in response to the amazing Frazetta cover art, but it was the strength of Howard's stories and prose that kept me buying more, not the continuing cover art supplied by Frazetta, even as good as it was.

Which leads me directly to Brom's rendition of Conan (pictured above-right). Brom provides a solid interpretation here, giving Conan an intelligent handsome countenance and a grossly muscled (but not grotesque) body, but the face looks very similar to Frazetta's own realized barbarian image, which were actually modeled on Frank's very own features, thin lips and all. Those Frazetta images, painted back in the 1960s, helped define how Conan would be drawn ever since, on paperback covers, in limited edition hardcovers and especially in comic and graphic adaptations. Even Brom, an immensely talented artist, cannot escape the influence of that indelible image spun by Frank Frazetta over forty years ago.

But Frazetta's powerfully iconic image of the barbarian hero is not my favorite from amongst the myriad artists who have translated Conan. That honor goes to Barry Windsor-Smith, who brilliantly depicted Howard's famous character for the ground-breaking 1970 Marvel comic book, Conan the Barbarian (pictured at right). Barry Windsor-Smith's pantherish rendition of Conan, developed freely during the course of the comic's first 24 issues, will always remain for me as the best literal depiction of the mighty Cimmerian warrior ever conceived (sans the bouffant hairstyle, of course).

* Note -- The Cimmerian website closed on June 11, 2010 for various reasons, but its archives remain online. REHupa is still very active, and in that site you can find links to other relevant Howard blogs, like the "Two Gun Raconteur."