The weather was downright pleasant – not too hot, with a cool breeze and clouds keeping the heat at bay.  Jim and Ruth Keegan were gracious and wonderful Guests of Honor, as was the always entertaining Paul Sammon. The banquet was full and the food from Cross Plains’ Mexico City Café was delicious.  Saturday night’s barbeque at Caddo Peak Ranch was fantastic as always — nothing like that Texas hospitality the Middelton family extends to the Howard Days attendees every year.

One new item that caught my attention was a sign on the front of the Howard House. The sign states that the house is Doc Howard’s residence and is an exact replica of the one that appears in the famous photo of a young Bob with Patch on the front walkway. I thought that was a nice little addition that added some historical authenticity. When times were particularly tough during The Depression, Doc had to work from the house and the sign helped folks find their way there.

Another neat addition to Howard days this year was a flatbed trailer with chairs pulled by a pick-up for the walking tour (which I suppose is now the riding tour). This certainly makes it easier than walking in the oppressive Texas heat, since in past years people dropped out of the tour early as the heat took its toll on them. The tour is even longer now that folks can ride in style through the streets of Cross Plains as Rusty tells all about the places around town where Bob lived, worked and played

Next year’s celebration will be a big one, with 2011 being the 100^th anniversary of the founding of Cross Plains, the 75^th anniversary of Howard’s death and the 25^th anniversary of the very first Howard Days.

As the old saying goes, be there or be square.

It’s dark outside and Robert E. Howard is wrapping up his latest story. Twelve hours banging away at his Underwood typewriter—a normal day’s work, short even, by his standards. Sometimes he writes for 18 hours.  He has to. He needs the money. The medical bills for his mother keep rising. Lately, ever since the operation on her spleen, he is constantly taking breaks from writing to feed her, change her clothes and bathe her. 

He wishes he could take a break now and go boxing. He wishes he had a beer. But with the pulp magazines rejecting half his stories, he has to work twice as hard to break even. Locked away in a tiny room next to his mom’s, he is putting the finishing touches on a story called “Red Nails.” It is his final adventure about Conan the Barbarian, the culmination of everything he wants to say about his favorite character.  There is gore, sex, action and mystery, and after 21 stories, he feels he’s finally got it right. This is his best one yet.

The whole piece can be found here.

Another item of interest I found is a split-screen postcard showing downtown Cross Plains, then and now.  Sure hasn’t changed much:

Tap the little REH Days 2010 bar at the top of this page and you’ll see the latest updates and find out *almost* everything you need to know about Howard Days. However, nothing counts like experience – if you’ve never been and have delayed making plans, I’m here to tell you there’s plenty of room for everybody. Texas is a really big state, and Cross Plains opens their doors and their hearts wide for the throngs of visitors to their little town.

And there are still tickets available for the Friday night Celebration Banquet, which is the premier event at Howard Days. I know the Guests of Honor, Jim & Ruth Keegan – artists extrordinaire – will be the highlight of the Banquet that features great Texas chow, a Silent Auction, and this year, the Robert E. Howard Foundation Awards. You have until Friday June 4th to pay the 12 bucks for the Banquet (and there may even be a few walk-ups available, but why take the chance?)

REH Days is the very best time to mingle with your fellow Howard fans from all over the US (and Scotland this year!), enjoy panels both fun and informative, sample the quiet small-town life afforded in Cross Plains and generally just enjoy the fellowship of like-minded people, all gathered to support the Legacy and Legend of Robert E. Howard. Plus, the gift shop at the Howard House is really cool, and a number of us will be buying and selling items at the REH Swap Meet in the Pavilion as well.

Check out the REH Days Info Page for all the skinny and we’ll hope to see you there! Any questions, e-mail me at 2cavaliers@sbcglobal.net. I’m happy to help, especially when Y’all Come!

Posted by Paul Herman on the Conan Forum:

Forthcoming from Edwin Mellen Press

More than Human: The Evolutionary Heroes of Robert E. Howard

A critical work by Justin Everett, Ph.D. and Deirdre Pettipiece, Ph.D.

Abstract:

Known best for the sword and sorcery stories he produced for the pulp fiction magazines of the 1930s, Robert E. Howard created a huge body of work that consisted of “around 3.5 million words” (Robert E. Howard Foundation, The Last of the Trunk), most of which focused on the creation of fantastic heroes of a depth and breadth unmatched by any writer before or since. Conan, King Kull, Solomon Kane and other complex characters populate civilizations Howard constructed and reconstructed in a wide-array of alternative worlds governed by competing principles of combat, survival, loyalty, and revenge. Tracing these heroes and the texts they occupy over the course of Howard’s interactions with evolutionary theories of human origin and behavior, Everett and Pettipiece reveal his dynamic and often conflicted engagement with ideas that changed the world. Howard’s interaction with the ideas of Darwin, Spencer, Freud and others who articulated fundamental principles of human behavior and social organization can be seen not only in the developing identities of his heroes, but also in the critical discussions he undertook with H.P. Lovecraft and other contemporaries. His intellectual engagement with some of the most important theories and philosophies of the 19th and 20th centuries demonstrates that Howard and his body of work are sufficiently representative of important themes and tropes to recognize him as part of the American canon. This volume therefore addresses the gap in the critical discussion of American literary production of the first half of the 20th century by presenting Howard and his heroes and the evolution they both undertook over the course of his active career.

Brief Table of Contents:

Preface
Forward by Terence McVicker
Introduction: Why American Literary Studies Need Robert E. Howard
Chapter One: Early Influences and the Little Blue Books
Chapter Two: Engaging with Ideas: What Howard Read and Its Impact on Howard’s Emerging Philosophy
Chapter Three: Sex and Sinews: Sexual Selection, Secondary Sex Characteristics and Howard
Chapter Four: Howard’s Men and Women and Their Potential Sources in Literature and Life
Chapter Five: Isolation and Community, Civilization and Barbarism: Binary Forces in Howard’s fiction
Chapter Six: Conclusions and Continuing Questions

Approx. 350 pps, approx. $150.00 hardback

Expected late 2010. I’d add, these two will be presenting on a panel at Howard Days. I’ve corresponded with these two several times, very serious REH fans, and serious academics, they have been promoting REH out there on the academic circuit. So I am looking forward to this book.

And how can you help out REH Days this year, you ask? Howzabout going through your “stuff” and donating Howard and Howard-related items to the Silent Auction, held every year at the Celebration Banquet at Howard Days? We’ve all got extras or dupes of Howard matter in our collections, and what better way to help out the fine folks of Project Pride in Cross Plains than to donate a few of those books or magazines or fanzines or posters or artwork or the odd things we’ve all acquired but really don’t need anymore. It’s a very good thing to perpetuate the Legacy of Robert E. Howard, and that’s exactly what Project Pride does with the Robert E. Howard Museum. It’s an all volunteer outfit, folks, so you’d be doing them a great favor by sending items to the Silent Auction. So box that stuff up today and send it to: Project Pride, POB 534, Cross Plains, TX 76443. Or, you can bring it with you to Howard Days, and we’ll find room! Indy sez Thanks!

Paul Sammon (author of Conan the Phenomenon) will be joining us this year to enhance the already fun-filled dance-card that is Howard Days. He will really help to round out this year’s theme, The Illustrators of REH, by joining our 2010 Guests of Honor Jim and Ruth Keegan on a couple of panels. Conan the Phenomenon is an award-winning book chock full of fantastic REH graphics, and if you haven’t checked it out yet, Crom may not be ignoring you… Plus, the erudite Mr. Sammon has worked on ALL THREE Conan movies, so you know he’s got some good stories. And he even told me he won’t charge his usual fee for autographs!

Arlene Stephenson of Project Pride tells me there will be a new t-shirt for sale this year, plus a new hat design and a polo shirt available in the Gift Shop at the Howard House. This year’s Keegan design for the Postal Cancellation is a wonderful addition to that ongoing collection, and there’s always some goodies at the Swap Meet held at the Pavilion as well.

Things are shaping up nicely for another great REH Days, so bring your sunscreen and Howard stuff, be prepared for a surprise or two (aren’t there always?) and we’ll see y’all real soon!

After reading about some of the real life episodes, one can see Howard lived in a part of Texas that saw more than its share of violence and sorrow back in days of the wild frontier when sudden death was cloaked in the guise of the Red Indian.  The blood that flowed through Howard’s veins was much the same as the hale and hearty settlers, soldiers and lawmen that preceded him.  While he did not have to deal with the same day to day death struggles the frontiersmen did, he was certainly made of the same mettle.

No doubt, late at night while working at his typewriter, he could hear the faint sounds of horse hooves pounding across  the plains, the cry of the Indian braves and the thunderous reports of pistols and rifles as the white man pushed the frontier further west. Howard did not have to venture far to find material to write about – the stories were all around him.

Well, not quite, as I will be doing updates (some of the Panel Info will need to be filled in) and I know a number of youse mugs and mugettes will remind Ol’ Indy of something he’s forgotten, or ‘what the heck does THAT mean?!’, but the solid, basic information is there, and it’s plenty for you get to planning your trip to Texas in June.

For all you REH Foundation members out there, be sure and slide over to www.rehfoundation.org and cast your ballots in the REH Foundation Awards by the end of March. The Awards ceremony presented at Howard Days on June 11th will double up this year with awards for both 2008 and 2009. Hmm, looks like I’ve just reminded myself to post this info in the Info Page.

Very well, carry on. Don’t smoke ‘em if you got ‘em, because they’re not good for you. Indy has spoken.

Like everywhere else in the U.S., Cross Plains, Texas is no stranger to the weird weather this winter is bringing us. Last Thursday (1-28-10), Arlene Stephenson of Project Pride let us know that a “mini-tornado” blew through town; while the Howard Museum escaped unscathed (other than the sign out front blowing down), it appears the 36 West Motel did not.

I don’t have any “official” damage reports other than what Arlene and Era Lee Hanke have related to us, (nobody in town was injured, Praise Crom!) but they tell us the 36 West was seriously trashed, sustaining major roof damge. As this motel is one block away from the Howard Museum, this will be quite a blow to those of us who come to Cross Plains in June for Howard Days if this place is not in operation.

I’m not going to try calling the 36 West for awhile – Crom, they’ve certainly got bigger fish to fry than someone wanting to know if they’ll have rooms for Howard Days. It might be difficult to call anyways, so I would ask the rest of you not to bother them right now either. We can hope for the best.

Last year at Howard Days, the 36 West owners asked Howard Days attendees to delay reserving rooms for 2010 until March 1st. That might be the time to see if the 36 West is still with us.

And if I hear more news and info, I’ll be sure and insert it here. Likewise, if anyone out there learns more info, let me know and we’ll keep you posted.

As the bloom wears off the rose of our new Holiday toys, we can now turn our attention to the activities of REH Days. Set aside June 11th and 12th, check your ammo and point your pony in the direction of Cross Plains, Texas, for at least two (and usually four) days chock full of Howard Mania.

The 2010 version of HD is geared towards The Illustrators of Robert E. Howard, and to that end we’ve invited Jim & Ruth Keegan to be our Guests of Honor. Jim & Ruth, in additon to being the fantastic Art Duo responsible for illustrating the Del Rey two-volume set of THE BEST OF ROBERT E. HOWARD and the upcoming EL BORAK The Desert Adventures, are the creators of The Adventures of Two-Gun Bob, the wonderful biographical graphic comic strip that appears in every edition of a REH title from Dark Horse Comics.

There is much more planned on the art side of programming, including an REH art display, at least one book, original drawings from pros like the Keegans, Gary Gianni, Mark Schultz (et al) to be auctioned off at the Banquet and sold at the Swap Meet – all for the benefit of the Howard House and Project Pride.

All the regular Howard activities are there as well: The REH House is open to all (as is the Gift Shop), there’ll be Walking and Bus Tours, Celebration Banquet & Silent Auction, Swap Meet, Caddo Peak BBQ, plus the great fellowship we afford each other in gathering and Talking ’bout Bob. The Poetry Throwdown is coming back in a revised, insect-free fashion, and this year we will present the First Annual Robert E. Howard Foundation Awards. Also, not all the panels are slanted to REH art, so there’ll be plenty of things going on to satisfy your Howard cravings.

The Robert E. Howard Days 2010 Information Page will be updated soon, and we’ll keep you posted as we revise it along the way. I wanted to get y’all to be thinking about the warmer days coming, filled with that good REH Fellowship we partake of every year. In the meantime, most of the basic information is still on the ’09 version (like hotels & such), so check that out. (A heads up: the folks who run the 36 West Motel in Cross Plains asked us this past HD to not contact them until March 1st for reservations, so be sure to mark that on your calendar – don’t everyone call at once!)

So start making your plans, check flight info, gather items to send to the Silent Auction and get ready for the Best Two Days in Howard Fandom. I’m looking forward to seeing y’all come to Texas in June!

Robert E. Howard Days 2009 was hot in more ways than the obvious one. In addition to both the 12th and 13th being over 100 degrees hot, we had hot guests and hot happenings.

After surviving a MONSTER thunderstorm while white-knuckling I-30 through Dallas, Cheryl and I arrived in Cross Plains to another nasty storm. It was like I was that guy with the rain cloud above his head from the Little Abner comic strip for the entire eight day trip! After the storms, it just got hot for the rest of the non-stormy weekend.

HD 09 featured not one but two incredibly hot Guests, Larry Thomas and Donald Sidney-Fryer. Mr. Thomas came in as New School Howard, DSF is Old School Howard, and they combined to give us all incredible insights on Howard the Man and Howard the Poet. The panel appearances of these two fine gentlemen, along with Barbara Barrett, gave us all some hot views of the Poetry of Robert E. Howard. Unfortunately, panelist Frank Coffman had to cool his heels in Chicago, a victim of storm-cancelled air flights. You were missed, Skipper!

While this won’t be a complete report, even though I’m starting to heat up here, suffice to say that all the regularly scheduled events turned out great, the Robert E. Howard House shined in the Texas sun, and a number of attendees wound up with shiny hot foreheads! We’ll change around the Poetry Throwdown for next year, the REH Foundation Awards will get started up, and we’re already planning for some more hot times. But that’s next year – this year was HOT!

Without question, the hottest event of the weekend, and one of the best show’n'tells ever from any Howard Days, happened on Saturday afternoon. Jack and Barbara Baum gave us a look into a heretofore unknown high school textbook that belonged to a 15 year old Robert E. Howard. How do we know it was Howard’s book? Well, he wrote his name and the date inside the front cover, along with drawing several cartoons. AND, to top it off, Howard made written comments after each section of the book. Wow! Talk about the icing on the cake of a fabulous weekend!

But, like all Howard Days, there’s never really enough time to do everything you want to do, so that’s why you keep coming back: to get to everything. Eventually I will, but in the meantime, I’ll bask in the heat from another well-spent weekend under a hot Texas sky.