Autor: Robert E. Howard

Robert Ervin Howard (1906-1936) całe życie spędził w Teksasie. Jako słabowity mól książkowy, gnębiony przez rówieśników, rozpoczął ostry trening i wstąpił do klubu bokserskiego. Pod silnym wpływem matki wybrał karierę pisarską, pierwsze opowiadanie zamieścił w "Adventure Magazine" już jako piętnastolatek. Dochody z pisarstwa nie starczały z początku na utrzymanie, stąd też dorabiał jako zbieracz bawełny, znakowacz bydła, sprzedawca w sklepie, pomoc biurowa czy pisząc "wieści z pól naftowych". Od 1925 roku współpracował z czasopismem "Weird Tales", publikując teksty uważane do dziś za najważniejsze w jego dorobku. Tworzył opowieści wszelkiego rodzaju: horrory, opowiadania sportowe i historyczne czy westerny, ale największą sławę przyniosła mu literatura fantasy. Uważany jest za jednego z autorów, którzy zmienili jej oblicze. Wykreował wielu barwnych bohaterów: purytanina Solomona Kane'a, Pikta Brana Mak Morna i Kulla z Atlantydy, jednak poczesną sławę zapewnił mu Conan z Cimmerii, który stał się archetypem dla wszystkich twórców spod znaku magii i miecza oraz fantasy bohaterskiej.

Karierę Howarda ucięła nagle samobójcza śmierć na wieść o tym, że dla jego chorej, leżącej w szpitalu matki nie ma już żadnej nadziei. Matka zmarła następnego dnia rano - pochowani zostali razem.

49
Ebook

The Blood of Belshazzar

Robert E. Howard

Once it was called Eski-Hissar, the Old Castle, for it was very ancient even when the first Seljuks swept out of the east, and not even the Arabs, who rebuilt that crumbling pile in the days of Abu Bekr, knew what hands reared those massive bastions among the frowning foothills of the Taurus. Now, since the old keep had become a bandits hold, men called it Bab-el-Shaitan, the Gate of the Devil, and with good reason.

50
Ebook

The Conan Saga

Robert E. Howard

This collection contains all of Robert E. Howards Conan the Cimmerian stories published during his lifetime, contextualized with biographical details of their author. His Conan stories feature a young barbarian warrior who carves himself a kingdom and rules with a degree of wisdom and justice. Neither supernatural fiends nor demonic sorcery could oppose the warrior as he wielded his mighty sword and dispatched his enemies to a bloody doom on the battlefields of the legendary Hyborian age. Collected together in one volume are besides the poem Cimmeria A Poem and the essay The Hyborian Age Conans World Robert E. Howards tales of the legendary hero, as fresh and atmospheric today as when they were first published in the pulp magazines of more than eighty years ago: The Tower Of The Elephant, Rogues In The House , Shadows In The Moonlight and so many others.

51
Ebook

The Country of the Knife

Robert E. Howard

This early work by Robert E. Howard was originally published in 1936. Knife Country is a novel from the El Borak series of Texans in the early 20th century in Afghanistan. Very interesting book.

52
Ebook

The Daughter of Erlik Khan

Robert E. Howard

The tall Englishman, Pembroke, was scratching lines on the earth with his hunting knife, talking in a jerky tone that indicated suppressed excitement: I tell you, Ormond, that peak to the west is the one we were to look for. Here, Ive marked a map in the dirt. This mark here represents our camp, and this one is the peak. Weve marched north far enough.

53
Ebook

The Devil in Iron

Robert E. Howard

The fisherman loosened his knife in its scabbard. The gesture was instinctive, for what he feared was nothing a knife could slay, not even the saw-edged crescent blade of the Yuetshi that could disembowel a man with an upward stroke. Neither man nor beast threatened him in the solitude which brooded over the castellated isle of Xapur.

54
Ebook

The Exploits of Buckner Jeopardy Grimes

Robert E. Howard

This having happened to me I sat still on my brother Bills horse, because thats the best thing you can do when a feller is pinting a cocked.45 at your wishbone. This feller was a mean-looking hombre in a sweaty hickory shirt with brass rivets in his leather hat band, and he needed a shave. He said, Who are you? Where you from? Where you goin? What you aimin to do when you get there?

55
Ebook

The Gods of Bal-Sagoth

Robert E. Howard

...Shipwrecked on a mysterious island, two sailors find traces of a lost civilization and memories of their own impossible part in it! ...The last words of an operatic tenor bring the music of hell to the man who destroyed him....Turlogh OBrien, mighty Gaelic warrior who serves no master but gold and blood, battles for a kingdom against the fearful ancient gods of Bal-Sagoth. All together for the first time in The Gods of Bal-Sagoth.

56
Ebook

The Grisly Horror

Robert E. Howard

The silence of the pine woods lay like a brooding cloak about the soul of Bristol McGrath. The black shadows seemed fixed, immovable as the weight of superstition that overhung this forgotten back-country. Vague ancestral dreads stirred at the back of McGraths mind; for he was born in the pine woods, and sixteen years of roaming about the world had not erased their shadows.