Robert Ervin Howard (1906-1936) was an American short story writer who grew up the son of a travelling doctor in small Texas cattle and oil towns. The boom-and-bust cycle of the oil business affected his views of civilization and was to later affect his writing style. An avid reader with a near photographic memory, Robert was a collector of tall tales and was a professional storyteller himself. Many of his stories, to the annoyance of neighbors, were being banged out on his typewriter while he was orally telling the story for the first time.

Although he is best known for his sword and sorcery stories, his writings span many other genres including dark fantasy, westerns, horror, boxing stories, detective stories, and southern gothic. With over 100 stories written in his short lifespan, he created such notable characters as Conan, King Kull, Solomon Kane, Bran Mak Morn and El Borak. Although Weird Tales magazine was his main outlet, he also contributed stories to other magazines of different genres. His stories had a common theme of history as a repeating pattern of civilizations reaching their peak, becoming decadent, decaying, and then being conquered by others.

Here at Fadedpage we have over 40 Howard stories with more to come including Conan stories here, horror stories such as “The Valley of the Worm” and “Wings in the Night”, westerns such as “The Last Ride”, and fantasy such as “The Scarlet Citadel”. Come join us and proof a few pages to help us bring more of these public domain titles to Canada. More information about volunteering is available on our companion site Distributed Proofreaders Canada.