|
|
172 of 176 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Meeting the Man Behind "Conan", February 10, 2002
Robert E. Howard was perhaps the greatest, and the most prolific, pulp fiction writer ever, working in no less than six genres at once, from the fantasy/action tales of his most well known character, Conan the Barbarian, to poetry. He would often sit at his typewriter for up to eighteen hours at a stretch, hammering out his "yarns," as he liked to call his stories, at times producing upward of ten to twelve thousand words a day. But he was the consummate loner, an enigmatic individual who lived vicariously through the characters of his own creation, and under the same roof as his parents until his untimely death in 1936. "One Who Walked Alone," by Novalyne Price Ellis, is a chronicle of the final years of his life, recounted by the person who, in the whole wide world, probably knew him better than anyone. Novalyne Price first met Bob Howard in the late spring of 1933, at her farm in Brownwood, Texas, where they were introduced by a mutual friend, Clyde Smith. Clyde knew that Novalyne, just out of college and an aspiring writer, wanted to meet him-- a real writer who actually made his living doing what he loved. It was a brief visit, and Novalyne would not see Bob again until the fall of 1934, when she landed a job teaching drama and speech at the local High School in the small town of Cross Plains, not too far from her family farm in Brownwood. She was happy to have the job, times being what they were, but she was even more thrilled because Cross Plains was where Bob Howard lived with his parents. And once she had settled in at the Hemphill's boarding house that would be her home during the school year, she took the initiative and contacted Bob. It was the beginning of a close and sometimes stormy relationship, during which Novalyne got as close to Bob as any woman could possibly get. Because there was an obstacle in Bob's life that was nearly insurmountable-- as Novalyne would soon discover. Robert E. Howard was a big man; six feet, two hundred pounds. But he was "different" than most men, in that he had few friends and led a predominantly solitary existence. He was an outsider who had trouble negotiating the simple aspects of day-to-day living, especially when it came to the social amenities, but most significantly, there was that obstacle: His mother. By 1934, Mrs. Howard was in poor health, and inexplicably, Bob somehow felt that it fell to him to take care of her, to nurse her and see to her every need, even though his father was a doctor, with a practice right there in Cross Plains. It was something that Novalyne could never understand. One explanation is that it was because Mrs. Howard was the only person who ever encouraged Bob to write, and who stood by him in his endeavors unconditionally. Which was no small thing in this time and place. Bob was a victim of a small town mentality that held that a man should have a "real" job, earning his living by the sweat of his brow. And sitting at a typewriter was no job for a "real" man. Bob would say he didn't care about what people said about him or thought-- but, of course, he did; and Novalyne knew it. She also knew that between his mother and his environment, Bob Howard had encountered demons he could neither control nor dispel. This account is taken from the journals Novalyne kept during the all too brief time she had with Bob (a period just short of two years), and what emerges is a tragic portrait of a young man-- vital and filled with life, intelligent, with so much to offer the world and with so much to live for-- who instead lived a tormented existence and suffered needlessly. He was a man who loved history and longed to travel and discover adventure in the real world. But he never had the chance. He was endowed with a sensitivity-- a gentle, poetic nature which his physical appearance belied-- that kept him out of step with his environment. He was a man born in the wrong century, and decidedly in the wrong part of the world. His sensibilities were more conducive to a larger, more vibrant local, like New York City or any of the larger cities of Europe; places in which he would have been accepted and appreciated for who and what he was, where he and his writing could have thrived. But it was not to be; and at the age of thirty, Robert E. Howard died, right there in Cross Plains, Texas. Novalyne Price held on to her journals for many years, hoping to someday put Bob's story-- which is her story, as well-- down for posterity. Finally, after retiring from a long and satisfying career as a teacher, she did just that, and "One Who Walked Alone" is the result. First published in 1986 (and made into an outstanding film, "The Whole Wide World," in 1996), not only is it a wonderful, moving and heartfelt story, well written and presented, but the kind of first hand account that is extremely rare; an account that puts you in the car with Bob and Novalyne during their many long drives through the Texas countryside, when Bob would "shoot his mouth off" and offer his "best girl" a beautiful sunset while they spoke of writing, religion, politics, our "rotting civilization" and just about everything else. And, reading this book, one can be thankful that she kept those journals. Because this book-- the story of Robert E. Howard's final years-- was definitely worth the wait.
|
DVD ~ Vincent D'Onofrio
by Mark Finn
by Benjamin Szumskyj
by Robert E. Howard
by Robert E. Howard
