Robert E. Howard

Robert E. Howard
Howard in 1934
Born	Robert Ervin Howard (1906-01-22)January 22, 1906 Peaster, Texas, U.S.
Died	June 11, 1936(1936-06-11) (aged 30) Cross Plains, Texas, U.S.
Pen name	Patrick Mac Conaire, Steve Costigan, Patrick Ervin, Patrick Howard, Sam Walser[nb 1][1][2]
Nickname	REH, Two-Gun Bob[nb 2]
Occupation	Short story writer poet novelist epistolean
Genre	Sword and sorcery, dark fantasy, historical, western, horror, boxing stories, southern gothic, detective fiction
Literary movement	Sword and sorcery, weird fiction
Notable works	Conan the Cimmerian (series), Solomon Kane (series), Bran Mak Morn, King Kull, El Borak, The Shadow of the Vulture
Signature
Literature portal

Robert Ervin Howard (January 22, 1906 – June 11, 1936) was an American writer who wrote pulp fiction in a diverse range of genres. He created the character Conan the Barbarian and is regarded as the father of the sword and sorcery subgenre.

Howard was born and raised in Texas. He spent most of his life in the town of Cross Plains, with some time spent in nearby Brownwood. A bookish and intellectual child, he was also a fan of boxing, eventually taking up amateur boxing, and spent some time in his late teens bodybuilding. From the age of nine, he longed to become a writer of adventure fiction but did not have real success until he was 23. Thereafter, until his death by suicide at age 30, Howard's writings were published in a wide selection of magazines, journals, and newspapers, and he became proficient in several subgenres. His greatest success occurred after his death.

Although a Conan novel was nearly published in 1934, Howard's stories were never collected during his lifetime. The main outlet for his stories was Weird Tales, where Howard created Conan the Barbarian. With Conan and his other heroes, Howard helped fashion the genre now known as sword and sorcery, spawning many imitators and giving him a large influence in the fantasy field. Howard remains a highly read author, with his best works still reprinted, and is one of the best-selling fantasy writers of all time.

Howard's suicide and the circumstances surrounding it have led to speculation about his mental health. His mother had been ill with tuberculosis her entire life, and upon learning she had entered a coma from which she was not expected to wake, he walked out to his car parked outside his kitchen window and shot himself in the head while sitting in the driver's seat. He died eight hours later.

Cite error: There are <ref group=nb> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=nb}} template (see the help page).