“That teller of marvelous tales, Robert Howard,
did indeed create a giant [Conan] in whose shadow other ‘hero
tales’ must stand”
“Howard wrote pulp adventure stories of every kind, for
every market he could find, but his real love was for supernatural
adventure and he brought a brash, tough element to the epic
fantasy which did as much to change the course of the American
school away from precious writing and static imagery as Hammett,
Chandler, and the Black Mask pulp writers were to change the
course of American detective fiction.”
“In this, I think, the art of Robert E. Howard was hard
to surpass: vigor, speed, vividness. ...he fulfilled the story
teller’s prime obligation: to make scenes and events come
real. Howard was a highly visual writer; I imagine what he treated
of stood clearly before him as he wrote. And not all that he
saw was dark, evil, or violent. There are scattered passages
of considerable beauty. ... And always there is that furious,
galloping narrative pace.”
“The late Karl Edward Wagner and I are two of a number
of writers of our generation – we were born in 1945 –
who started writing in high school because we’d run into
the works of Robert E. Howard. ... My guess ... as to why Howard
made a writer of me (and Karl, and others) is that Howard honestly
believed the basic truth of the stories he was telling. It’s
as if he’d said, ‘This is how life really was lived
in those former savage times!’”
“For vivid, violent, gripping, headlong action, the stories
of Robert E. Howard ... take the prize among heroic fantasies.”
“... the stories have a livingness about them impossible
to fake. ... Not one of them is boring – there is always
some special touch – and most, of course, are rousers
of one kind or another.”
“The best pulp [fantasy] writer was Robert E. Howard ...
. He painted in about the broadest strokes imaginable. A mass
of glimmering black for the menace, an ice-blue cascade for
the hero, between them a swath of crimson for battle, passion,
blood – and that was the picture, or story, rather, except
where a vivid detail might chance to spring to life, or a swift
thought-arabesque be added.”
“Howard’s archetypal characters, his emphasis on
atavism and racial memories are closely allied to Jung’s
theories of psychology, and he would observe them with understanding.
... [Behind Howard’s stories] lurks a dark poetry, and
the timeless truth of dreams. That is why these tales have survived.
They remain a fitting heritage of the poet and dreamer who was
Robert E. Howard.”
“Weird, fantastic, but peopled with real men who think
and act as we conceive the thoughts and acts of men. And good
fighting stuff ... savage and hairy-chested! Good character
portrayal, too. None of the dummies that pirouette through some
stories, using stilted, supposedly archaic language, and moving
in response to the author’s obvious string-pulling. All
of which leads you to believe that I like it. Correct. I do.”
“In his best work, Howard’s writing seems so highly
charged with energy that it nearly gives off sparks. Stories
such as “The People of the Black Circle” glow with
the fierce and eldritch light of his frenzied intensity. At
his best, Howard was the Thomas Wolfe of fantasy...”
“Howard’s work has a gritty vitality that is magnificently
raw.”
“For stark, living fear ... what other writer is even
in the running with Robert E. Howard?”