Blood and Thunder: The Life and Art of Robert E. Howard [Paperback]

Mark Finn (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 31, 2006

Robert E. Howard, creator of Conan, King Kull, and others that defined heroic fantasy, lived and died in the small town of Cross Plains, Texas. While his books remain in print, Howard himself has fallen into obscurity, his life mired in speculation and half-truth. This engaging biography traces the roots of his writings, correcting long-standing misconceptions, and offers a tour of Howard's world as he saw it: through his own incomparable imagination.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Conan the Barbarian is an internationally known icon. His creator, Robert E. Howard, remains to most an Oedipal figure who created the Cimmerian swordsman as a wish-fulfillment fantasy. Finn quietly and expertly demolishes these and other misconceptions about Howard. Rather than use Conan as the yardstick to measure his creator's life, he discusses Howard in the context of a populist writer whose dyspeptic view of civilization was forged in the corrupt Texas oil boomtowns in which he grew up. Howard was a natural storyteller who used the techniques of folklore to create his own "tall tales" in an economical yet poetic style. Finn handles his charged subject in a straightforward, even-handed manner. This is a worthy addition to the 100th anniversary of Howard's birth that all readers of fantasy and regional fiction will enjoy.
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Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Monkeybrain (October 31, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 193226521X
• ISBN-13: 978-1932265217
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #910,246 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding and revelatory., November 11, 2006

By 

John J. Nevins "jess nevins" (Riverside, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Blood and Thunder: The Life and Art of Robert E. Howard (Paperback)

With enthusiasm, skill, and expertise Mark Finn has written the new and definitive biography of Robert E. Howard. Finn not only corrects a number of errors previous biographies and biographers made about Howard and his writings, Finn also describes, with sensitivity and nuance, Howard's environment and upbringing and the context in which Howard's work should be placed. Finn neither places Howard on a pedestal nor demeans him, but instead gives Howard the credit he deserves.

Howard could not hope for a better biographer than Mark Finn, nor a better biography than Blood and Thunder.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb, December 1, 2006

By 

Hulagu Khan (Northern Virginia, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blood and Thunder: The Life and Art of Robert E. Howard (Paperback)

Mark Finn's biography of "Conan the Cimmerian" creator Robert E. Howard is superb - very fair and measured across the board, especially on such controversial subjects such as REH's suicide and chronically overlooked issues such as his non-Conan literary production. You really get a very full and illuminating examination of the author's upbringing, family and Texas background. One could had hope more about Howard's poetry or about his heritage and influence on the writing of heroic fantasy and on specific writers such as Karl Edward Wagner or David Gemmell but that would be nitpicking. The only criticism is that the book is too short!

32 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book!, January 9, 2007

By 

Cwn_Annwn (Copenhagen, Denmark) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blood and Thunder: The Life and Art of Robert E. Howard (Paperback)

I read the old Conan 1-12 Ace published paperbacks religiously as a teenager, and have delved back into them (or the Del Ray Conan re-prints) for a re-read from time to time. I have always counted Howards Conan stories among my favorite books. As far as Howard himself I always found him to be a fascinating but confusing figure. I had heard such wildly varying stories of how he was. On one hand he had been portrayed as a macho, brawling, boxing, roughneck fitness fanatic, that in some ways mirrored Conan and some of the characters in his other work, and on the other hand I had heard he was a mental basketcase mamas boy that died a virgin when he commited suicide at the age of 30. Since reading this book I have come to the conclusion that there is a ring of truth to both of those extremes.

Finn does a great job with this book connecting the dots and proving and disproving much of the mythology that is out there about Robert E. Howard. A big thing Finn does here, in fact it comprises a good bulk of the book, is he talks about Howards Texas environment and how much of an influence it was on his writing. From the day to day violence that he was exposed to in the scoundrel and roughneck infested oil boom towns that he grew up in, to the local Texas folklore, to the front porch story tellers that held court while Howard gave listen. All of these had a big impact on Howard and his writing. REH even stated that Conan himself was to a large degree a mix of various boxers, oil field workers and cowboys that he knew over the years.

This book also goes into greater depth with Howards non Conan work than anything else I have ever read. In some ways this book is as much a literary analysis of Howards writings as much as it is about Howard himself. Other subjects delved into are his relationship with his only girlfriend, his ups and downs as a pulp fiction writer, his physical fitness and boxing obsession, his feelings as an outcast in the small town he lived mainly because he earned a living as a writer instead of in the oil field or as a farmer, his legendary correspondses with HP Lovecraft, and especially his strange relationship with his parents (he never moved out of his parents house) and Howards suicide.

I do think this is a great book. There is so much great information in this and Finn is an engrossing writer, I could hardly put this book down once I started reading it. But I do have a few criticisms. One he goes into apologetics over Howards attitudes on race. Downplaying and even denying that Howard was a racist as well as making the false statements that Eugenics have been scientificly discredited, the Aryan race does not exist and Finn also makes the wacky statement at one point that what was once called race are now referred to as "cultures". Huh? We must be living on another planet. But anyway while I think you could make a solid argument that he wasn't a racist in the stereotypical Nazi way and he certainly wasn't mean or abusive to people because they were not white it can't be denied that Howard was a man who was heavily into and obsessed with his own "dark Irish" heritage and other northern European cultures, in particular the Picts and he certainly had no problem portraying other races in less than complimentary ways. Not to mention the multitudes of stories he wrote with "racial memory" themes. It can't be denied that Howard was a heavily racially concious man and in my mind it makes him that much more admirable.

Another criticism I have is there is only one chapter dedicated to the Conan character and that chapter weighs in at only 10 pages! I think its great that Howards other work was explored in depth here but so many people do not understand the true nature, depth, and greatness of the Conan character only seeing him as the corny comic book muscleman Arnold Schwarzenegger movie cliche. The Conan stories are often as much horror stories as much as they are sword and sorcery adventure tales, or at least a fusion of the two. There is also a philosophical side of Conan that is one part might is right style social darwinism, mixed with an Aryan warriors sense of honor and chivalry along with a Viking berserkers battle ecstacy. These things, especially the philosophical side of Conan should have been delved into much more.

I would have also liked to have heard more (they are covered but just not as much or as in depth as I would have liked) about Howards barbarism vs civilization debate that went on through mail with HP Lovecraft as well as REH being a hardcore Celtophile.

But those criticisms aside I really thought this was a great book. I can't help but think while gazing at a photograph of REH at the end of this book where he has a huge almost viking like beer glass raised to his lips in an almost salutatory manner that Howard is one of the great divínely inspired Odinic writers who were given a drink of Odins mead of inspiration. I hope to have a drink in Valhalla with you some day Bob.