Robert E. Howard

Robert E. Howard was an American writer in the 1920s who, during his brief time alive, wrote prolifically for pulp fiction magazines. Alongside his good friends H.P. Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith, he is considered one of "The Big Three of Weird Tales"; the most prolific authors of that venerable pulp serial with its embrace of weird fantasy. He defined, if not created, the genre of Sword & Sorcery, and his many contributions to pulp fiction include Hyperborea and its attendant characters - Conan the Barbarian, and King Kull of Atlantis (although he didn't create Red Sonja, she was based on a female warrior who appeared in one of his stories), Solomon Kane, Turlogh Dubh O'Brien, Cormac Mac Art, and Bran Mak Morn. He also contributed heavily to the development of Yog-Sothothery and wrote one of the first Weird Western stories to ever appear in pulp fiction.

Tragically, family and financial issues made Robert suicidal in his final year, and when being told his mother would not survive her tuberculosis, the man an-heroed, dying one day before his mother did. This didn't just cost us any future Conan material, but also the shock of it helped send Clark Ashton Smith into his late-life lack of literary productivity. Please do not do this, frens. If you feel like it, don't, and seek help.