The Coming of Conan, the Cimmerian, by Robert E. Howard (TPB, 2002, $3.50)
Howard is considered the father of the sword and sorcery genre, but he wrote in other genres as well. He loved poetry, and even had some published. Most of his last stories were westerns, but he even snuck in a few romances. Historical fiction was what he really wanted to write, but he didn't have the patience to do research. What he could write was epic fantasy drama, "escapist fiction with dark undercurrents".
Howard grew up in Texas where oil was found, and where oil was found, fights and crime soon followed. Civilization was fragile and fleeting, and Howard learned not to trust it. He later wrote, "Barbarism is the natural state of mankind... Civilization is unnatural. It is a whim of circumstance. And barbarism must always ultimately triumph."
The first Conan story was published in a 1932 Weird Tales. The story was a reworking of an earlier work. There seemed to be nothing special about it at the time. It wasn't even pictured on the cover, as some of Howard's stories had been.
After Conan was published, his character was adapted for comic books, movies, television and heaven knows what else. His stories were put into chronological order. Some were even altered, or finished when they weren't meant to be. Today, most people know the name Conan, but not the character Howard actually created.
Howard's parents were story tellers. Howard was even a better one. Reading his stories is like listening to stories told around the campfire. "In writing these yarns", he wrote, "I've always felt less as creating them than as if I were simply chronicling his adventures as he told them to me. That's why they skip about so much, without following a regular pattern." This edition presents them in the order and the words they were meant to be. Enjoy! Look for this book on the new fiction table. (L- scifi)
