I guess I'd vaguely thought R.E. Howard was a middle-aged Victorian. Surprising to find he was a Central Texas fellow who committed suicide in 1936 at the age of 30. I've never read his books, so my only exposure was the excellent "Conan" movie.
I probably had him confused with H. Rider Haggard, who died in 1925 at the age of 69 but wrote all the stuff that I ever read ("She," "People of the Mist," etc.) before 1900.
I had never noticed how easy it might be to confuse the two because of name similarity and adventure-writing. I read all the earliest Tolkien and early fantasy commentary I could get my hands on in the 1970's, and learned that JRRT had once claimed that Haggard was an influence. I was uninterested in Conan, so the two went into separate piles forever.
I started with Haggard, then got into Tolkien, and didn't read any Conan until last year. (Lively and creative story, but I had a heck of time with willing suspension of disbelief in Conan's ability to recover from dramatic injury.)
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I guess I'd vaguely thought R.E. Howard was a middle-aged Victorian. Surprising to find he was a Central Texas fellow who committed suicide in 1936 at the age of 30. I've never read his books, so my only exposure was the excellent "Conan" movie.
I probably had him confused with H. Rider Haggard, who died in 1925 at the age of 69 but wrote all the stuff that I ever read ("She," "People of the Mist," etc.) before 1900.
I had never noticed how easy it might be to confuse the two because of name similarity and adventure-writing. I read all the earliest Tolkien and early fantasy commentary I could get my hands on in the 1970's, and learned that JRRT had once claimed that Haggard was an influence. I was uninterested in Conan, so the two went into separate piles forever.
I started with Haggard, then got into Tolkien, and didn't read any Conan until last year. (Lively and creative story, but I had a heck of time with willing suspension of disbelief in Conan's ability to recover from dramatic injury.)
I read Conan years ago. Tolkien much later. I probably got to Conan from Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and Grey Mouser stories.
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