AN IMPORTANT WORD ABOUT R.E.H. AND BAREKNUCKLE BARBARIAN
BY TEEL JAMES GLENN
I have used the historical
figure of Robert E. Howard in the two-fisted tales of Bob Howard (Bareknuckle Barbarian and Fist of the Fae) in a purely fictional,
dramatic, and somewhat whimsical fashion.
No approval, disrespect or disparagement of this individual – though I
very much admire R.E.H. – is meant or implied. The facts of R.E.H.’s life as it
tragically ended in this world, and the point where it enters the world of these
fictional stories should be clear to all.
Robert Irvin Howard (January
22, 1906 – June 11, 1936) was the consummate pulp author who wrote in a diverse
range of genres. He is best known for his character Conan the Barbarian and is
regarded as the father of the sword and sorcery subgenre, but he wrote western,
historical crusader, and horror fiction with equal aplomb.
Howard was born and raised in
the state of Texas. He spent most of his life in the town of Cross Plains. He
taught himself to box and sword fight and often engaged in ice house fights – bareknuckle competitions with the rough necks in
his area.
From the age of nine, he
dreamed of becoming a writer of adventure fiction. However, he did not have
real success until he was twenty-three. He was published in a wide selection of
magazines, journals and newspapers, but his main outlet was the pulp magazine, Weird Tales.
He was introduced (via
correspondence) to H.P. Lovecraft by an editor at Weird Tales, and the two veteran
writers were soon engaged in a vigorous correspondence, which would last for
the rest of Howard's life.
Howard was successful in
several genres and was on the verge of publishing his first novel when he
committed suicide at the age of thirty. His mother was terminally ill with
tuberculosis before she had even met his father, and so was slowly dying
throughout Howard's entire life.
A theme in most of his writings
was the atavist in us all, the barbarian,
would always triumph over civilization. If he could see today’s reality television, he might find
himself proven right.
His divergence from tragic reality
to the world of the two-fisted tales of Bob Howard is the moment, seated in his
car on a Texas road, when he chooses not shoot himself in grief (as he did in
real life), but returns to the hospital to have his last moments with his dying
mother.
Teel
James Glenn (Writing as Jack Tunney) ~ Union City, NJ, 2014
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