Category:Robert E. Howard

Robert Ervin Howard was an American writer of fiction, specializing in serialized stories of the fantasy genre. He was born in Peaster, Texas on January 22nd, 1906. He became one of the most renowned writers of the fantasy genre during the pulp fiction era, and is considered the father of the "Sword & Sorcery" genre. He is the creator of characters such as Conan the Barbarian, Red Sonja, Kull the Conqueror, and Solomon Kane. Howard's most celebrated heroic figure, Conan, first appeared in a series of stories published in Weird Tales in 1932. Conan's predecessor however was actually the Atlantean king known as Kull. Kull first came to "life" in 1929 in a story titled "The Shadow Kingdom", published in Weird Tales. This was Howard's first major published work in the genre. By the mid 1930s, Howard turned away from the fantasy genre, focusing more on Westerns. Having suffered from severe mental issues for several years, Robert E. Howard eventually took his own life. With the loss of his mother, who had been in a coma following a long-term bout with tuberculosis, Robert E. Howard shot himself in the head on the morning of June 11th, 1936.