The Sad Strange Story of Robert E Howard

[Mad_Mac]

I like de Camp's fiction (I must like it, I have 18 of his books on my shelves), but his work in genre criticism is bad and his attempts at biography are shallow, mean-spirited, and very bad.

[Mad_Mac]

Some of my family live in Brownwood, Texas, where Howard went to school and is buried. This past spring I attended my nephew's graduation from Brownwood High School, REaH's alma mater (class of '23). It isn't a literary hotbed. I wonder if Howard was such an imaginative writer in spite of the local culture or because of it. Probably a bit of both.

[Steve]

My second disagreement is with the notion that "...Finn blames REH's parents, that they were too controlling...", because I felt that Finn wrote a biography that largely presents the life, times, family, and relationships of REH, and he does it with clean objectivity, leaving all conclusions to be drawn by the reader. This is diametrically opposite to what the armchair psychologist, L. Sprague de Camp, presented in his biography decades earlier.

Finn does largely stick to the facts during the body of his book, but he provides his own opinion on the cause of REH's suicide in the chapter All Fled, All Done. Before elaborating, Finn summarizes his opinion with this sentence: "It begins and ends with Robert's parents."

REH's problem wasn't his parents, nor the town of Cross Plains. He was in a prison of his own making. Like so many creative geniuses, he was his own worst enemy.

Some people are different because they went through unusual traumatic experiences, like Edgar Allan Poe. But some people are different because they are born different. There was nothing that unusual about the circumstances surrounding REH. A manipulating mother? Parents in a dysfunctional marriage? Moved a lot as a child? Didn't fit in at school? Those are all pretty normal circumstances.

REH loved Novalyne, but he pushed her away. REH resented his controlling mother, yet refused to face life without her. REH didn't fit in at Cross Plains, yet when he finally had the opportunity to leave, he leaves this life. With the imminent death of his mother, and a profession he could make good money working anywhere that had a post office, REH was on the cusp of total freedom. Instead of seizing it with relish, he killed himself.

REH was the kind of person who would have been miserable regardless of parents or town. He was mentally different than normal folks.

[Steve]

Some of my family live in Brownwood, Texas, where Howard went to school and is buried. This past spring I attended my nephew's graduation from Brownwood High School, REaH's alma mater (class of '23). It isn't a literary hotbed. I wonder if Howard was such an imaginative writer in spite of the local culture or because of it. Probably a bit of both.

Finn talks about this in Blood & Thunder. REH grew up in a semi-literate area, but he himself was a book worm by influence of his mother. He also grew up in an environment (including his father) that cherished the telling of tall tales.

[Mad_Mac]

I think Blood & Thunder just moved to the top of my reading list.

Thanks for posting about it.

[thedungeondelver]

We're not taking into consideration August Derleth's work I see x-D

[Kellri]

We're not taking into consideration August Derleth's work I see x-D

In much the same manner Ed Greenwood's name rarely comes up in the What Are You Reading Thread.

[Badmike]

I finally made the trek out to Crossplains a few years ago and toured the Howard house. Very informative and interesting trip (just to see how far out in the middle of nowhere it is). House is very small, even smaller before they added on the back porch area where Howard slept/worked. The town has done a great job fixing the place up with period furniture (most of the original furniture was taken out of the house by townies after Dr. Howard left following his son's death).

Mike B.