Robert E. Howard

Robert Ervin Howard (1906–1936) was an American pulp author and the foundational master of Sword & Sorcery. He is best known as the creator of Conan the Cimmerian, whose adventures first appeared in Weird Tales with “The Phoenix on the Sword” in December 1932.

Howard set the Conan stories during the Hyborian Age—an imagined epoch of ancient kingdoms, savage frontiers, lost civilizations and supernatural horrors. Rather than recounting Conan’s life chronologically, he presented vivid episodes from across the Cimmerian’s journey: thief, mercenary, outlaw, pirate, commander and king.

Through tales such as “The Tower of the Elephant,” “Rogues in the House” and “Queen of the Black Coast,” Howard united historical adventure, cosmic horror and mythic violence with a powerful distrust of tyranny and decaying civilization. His fierce narrative momentum, poetic imagery and larger-than-life heroism established a tradition that continues to shape fantasy literature.

Howard’s career was tragically brief, but Conan became one of the most enduring figures in popular culture. Nearly a century later, the original stories retain their primal force—inviting each new generation of readers into an age of steel, sorcery and adventure.