罗伯特·欧文·霍华德

生平

1906年出生在美国得克萨斯州帕克县，他是内科医生艾萨克·霍华德和海丝特·简·欧文·霍华德的唯一儿子。

霍华德的早年跟着家庭在得克萨斯州的各大新兴城市搬来搬去。

霍华德青年时期，家庭矛盾逐步上升，父亲和母亲经常吵架，他的父亲艾萨克·霍华德因为投资而成为富翁，而他的母亲认为自己已经配不上这个迷失的富豪。

霍华德的母亲对霍华德一生影响深远。他母亲虽然患有肺结核，但是仍旧天天为霍华德朗诵诗歌和美丽的文章，并且支持他的写作事业。

受到母亲的耳濡目染，霍华德喜欢阅读和写作，经常写作散文，并且对学校循规蹈矩的教育模式感到强烈的不满。而父亲在农场和牧场经营则带给他一个强悍的男人形象，并且深入到了他以后的创作中，例如“蛮王柯南”。

母亲病逝后，霍华德自杀了。

风格

霍华德的作品分为恐怖小说、冒险小说和奇幻小说。他的作品受到北欧神话和阿拉伯神话的强烈影响，节奏迅速，情节富有激情，多数作品被改编成漫画、电影、电视剧。代表作《蛮王柯南》在1981年由阿诺德·施瓦辛格出演，一时轰动全美。其代表作还有《女王神剑》、《所罗门凯恩》和《布兰麦克蒙》。

作品

《女王神剑》，Red Sonja。

《所罗门凯恩》，Solomon Kane。

《布兰麦克蒙》，Bran Mak Morn。

Robert Ervin Howard (January 22, 1906 – June 11, 1936) was an American author, known for writing 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; he also spent some time in his late teens bodybuilding. From the age of nine, he wanted to become an adventure fiction writer but did not have real success until he was 23. Thereafter Howard's writings were published in a wide selection of magazines, journals, and newspapers, and he became proficient in several subgenres. He died by suicide at age 30 while distraught over his mother's imminent 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. It was only after his death that his writings were collected and more widely read. With Conan and his other heroes, Howard helped create the sword and sorcery genre, spawning many imitators and giving him a large influence in the fantasy field.

Biography

Early years

Howard was born January 22, 1906, in Peaster, Texas, the only son of a traveling country physician, Dr. Isaac Mordecai Howard, and his wife, Hester Jane Ervin Howard. His early life was spent wandering through a variety of Texas cowtowns and boomtowns: Dark Valley (1906), Seminole (1908), Bronte (1909), Poteet (1910), Oran (1912), Wichita Falls (1913), Bagwell (1913), Cross Cut (1915), and Burkett (1917).

First writings

Voracious reading, along with a natural talent for prose writing and the encouragement of teachers, created in Howard an interest in becoming a professional writer.……

Health

Robert E. Howard's health, especially his mental health, has been the focus of the biographical and critical analysis of his life. In terms of physical health, Howard had a weak heart, which he treated by taking Digoxin. The precise nature of Howard's mental health has been much debated, both during his life and following his suicide.……

Character sketch

Attitudes

Howard's attitude towards race and racism is debated. Howard used race as shorthand for physical characteristics and motivation. He would also employ some racial stereotypes, possibly for the sake of simplification. He was also of the belief that, no matter who won the subsequent conflicts, it would only ever be a temporary victory. In "Wings in the Night", for instance, Howard writes that:

Physical

Physically, Howard was tall and heavily built.……

Writing

Howard's first published poem was "The Sea", in an early 1923 issue of local newspaper The Baylor United Statement. His first published story was "Spear and Fang", sold in late November 1924 and published in the July 1925 issue of the pulp magazine Weird Tales.……

Styles and themes

Howard's distinctive literary style relies on a combination of existentialism, poetic lyricism, violence, grimness, humor, burlesque, and a degree of hardboiled realism.……

Legacy

Robert E. Howard's legacy extended after his death in 1936. Howard's most famous character, Conan the Barbarian, has a pop-culture imprint that has been compared to such icons as Tarzan of the Apes, Count Dracula, Sherlock Holmes, and James Bond. Howard's critical reputation suffered at first but, over the decades, works of Howard scholarship have been published. The first professionally published example of this was L.……

Adaptations

The works of Robert E. Howard have been adapted into multiple media, such as the two Conan films released in the 1980s starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, and another in 2011 starring Jason Momoa. In addition to the Conan films, other adaptations have included Kull the Conqueror (1997) and Solomon Kane (2009).……

Works

Robert E. Howard bibliography (prose)

List of poems by Robert E. Howard (verse)