Both of these
works are similar in length and follow REH’s life in (more or
less) chronological order. They seem ripe for comparison. The
Cross Plains Comics book is superior in format. It has a colorful
cover and several interesting photographs. The comic art, however,
is presented in a monotone wash effect and the art chosen is
arguably inferior to the well-reproduced black and white
illustrations in the Gerry de la Ree publication.
But the meat of
these booklets are the essays contained within. L. Sprague de
Camp, in the introduction, begins with calling HPL, CAS, and REH
all literary geniuses manque. Manque, as used in this
instance seems to mean "unfulfilled."
De Camp’s first
chapter deals with REH’s youth. De Camp begins psychoanalyzing
right away: As a boy, Robert Howard was puny and bookish, with
a schizoid personality. […] The schizoid is likely to be
detached from and indifferent to worldly matters, to be unable to
adapt himself realistically to his environment, to be shy,
seclusive, and over-sensitive, to avoid close or competitive human
relationships, and to be individualistic to the point of
eccentricity. Many psychologists […] believe that the schizoid
personality is likely to go with a creative, original mind … (p.
5)
De Camp relates
how REH began a fitness regimen and improved his strength and
physique. Using bits and pieces of quotes from REH’s letters, de
Camp paints a picture of a man with "a lasting streak of
cynical misanthropy." (p.6)
De Camp takes REH’s
letters at face value. He relates the letters where Howard tells
of lifelong grudges, enemies, etc. He accepts, without comment,
REH’s story about breaking into schoolhouses to get books to
read. Later in the essay de Camp accepts the details of a car
crash, and a (almost fatal) knife accident without comment.
De Camp then goes
into a factual overview of REH’s writing career. He complements
REH quite well on his self-taught writing career. He stresses the
fact that REH was by depression standards doing quite well for
himself.
De Camp relates
how Howard would take long drives to historic Texas sights and
also of excursions to Mexico. He gets into trivia. Howard drank
(iced) tea but never coffee. He dressed in shirts and pants. He
disliked that hat in the well-known photograph. It is all pretty
interesting in a fannish sort of way. Again de Camp interprets
Howard’s letters at face value. He suggests (from REH’s
letters and talking to REH’s friends) that Howard’s "personality
was introverted, moody, and unconventional." (p. 12)
De Camp relates
the usual literary influences: Burroughs, Chambers, Rohmer, and
London. He also suggests older writers like Arthur Machen, William
Prescott, and Charles Skinner as influences. De Camp sums up REH’s
major influences to be the primitivism of London and Burroughs;
his fascination with Celtic history; and his racial beliefs.
De Camp is very
forgiving of REH’s "racism." "If a racist,
Howard was, by the standards of his time, a comparatively mild
one." (p. 17) De Camp feels that REH’s main political
view was that of an anti-authoritarian liberal.
De Camp stresses
Howard’s fascination with suicide. "In assembling
Howard, the gods somehow left out the cogwheel that furnished love
of life." (p. 19) De Camp tells how upset Howard was when
his dog Patch died. Howard was a notable animal-lover. His
companions included the previously mentioned Patch, a pet raccoon,
and an entourage of (mostly feral) cats.
De Camp earned the
ire of most REH fans with his quote from Alan E. Nourse, MD:
"Howard’s
history implies a serious sexual maladjustment, such as can be
initiated by the combination of a domineering, coldly hostile
father and an overprotective mother." (p. 20) De Camp
goes on to say that there is no evidence of sexual deviation and
that posthumous psychoanalysis is a jejune form of speculation.
Obviously the
creation of Conan is an important point for de Camp. De Camp seems
to genuinely enjoy the Conan stories and praises Howard skills at
writing and world building. De Camp describes Howard’s
particular skill: "He could give the impression of a
highly colorful scene while making only sparing use of
action-slowing adjectives and adverbs." (p. 27)
De Camp says that
Howard’s main fault was haste. "He rarely wrote more
than two drafts of a story and sometimes only one. Hence his tales
contain many inconsistencies, anachronisms, and slipshod
carelessnesses." (p. 27) He goes on to say, "Withal,
Howard was a natural storyteller, and this is the sine qua non of
fiction-writing." (p. 27)
De Camp also
addresses a few of Howard’s other characters. Praise is given
for the humorous westerns but he dismisses the non-humorous
westerns as competent hackwork. De Camp expresses some skepticism
about REH’s ability to do realistic westerns that would require
a deeper grasp of human relationships and politico-economic
factors.
This seems a fair
speculation. Howard’s most anthologized and popular work is his
genre-shattering weird fiction stories: Conan showing
sympathy in "The Tower of the Elephant," Kull showing
existential doubt in "The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune" and
his ghostly western and boxing stories.
The final chapters
of de Camp’s essay, of course, cover the suicide. "This
suicide has long been a subject of amateur psychological
speculation. Suggestions include Oedipism, paranoid schizophrenia,
and latent homosexuality. All are guesses. Still, when a young man
in good health, with versatile abilities, wide interests, a
congenial occupation, good prospects, and a growing circle of
friends and admirers kills himself over a family tragedy of a
commonplace and inevitable kind, it is plain that he ‘wasn’t
wired up right.’" (p. 35)
De Camp expresses
sympathy for Dr. Howard and wonder that REH could leave his father
in such a way. But he considers that Howard simply didn’t think
about how his actions might affect others. He was determined to
die.
All in all,
"The Miscast Barbarian" is not a bad introduction to
Howard’s life. Several REH fans are uncomfortable with the
Nourse quotes and de Camp’s history of editing REH stories does
not sit well these days. But taken as a single item, "The
Miscast Barbarian" is an interesting read that is respectful
of its subject matter.
Rusty Burke begins
his essay by praising REH’s writing ability. Burke feels that
REH’s most popular character, Conan, has been a double-edged
sword. "It has helped keep his work in the public eye for
six decades since his death, but it has also obscured the
astonishing breadth of his imagination […]" In the
context of this paragraph, it is not clear exactly what Burke
means by this. It isn’t clear if he is referring to the de Camp
pastiches, comics, films, etc. as being the "obscuree"
or not.
Burke goes on in
straight biography mode. He covers REH’s birth, family, and
early life in short course. Burke tells us a little about Cross
Plains in the 1920s. This is excellent information that REH fans
can use. A whole chapter should be devoted to Cross Plains itself
in any Howard biography.
Burke, like de
Camp, brings up young Howard’s affinity for books. Burke, unlike
de Camp, places doubt on the story about breaking into
schoolhouses to borrow books.
Burke also
mentions the writers who influenced Howard. Burke covers some of
the same ground as de Camp about why REH chose writing as a
profession.
Burke does a
little better job than de Camp when covering Howard’s
correspondents and friends. More detail should be allotted to the
influences and friendship of Booth Mooney, Harold Preece, Tevis
Clyde Smith, and Truett Vinson on Howard in any full-fledged
biography.
Burke’s essay
begins to become more character oriented than biographical. He
covers Solomon Kane’s publication as a milestone. To the charge
that all REH characters are similar he quotes Howard scholar
Patrice Louinet: "[Howard’s] characters represent new
stages of the writer’s own emotional growth. As a person
matures, his basic nature or personality does not change
dramatically (thus the similarities among the characters), but
many of his ideas and his emotional responses to the world do
change […] [once REH] had psychologically outgrown them […]
[he could] no longer write convincingly from their point of
view."
Burke goes on to
write about Howard’s characters: El Borak, Bran Mak Morn, more
on Solomon Kane, and Kull. He breaks at this point to write about
Howard’s increasing interest in boxing. It would be very
interesting to learn more about this period in Howard’s life
where he possibly promoted local fight contests. Like de Camp,
Burke covers REH’s interest in things Celtic.
Burke believes
that toward the end of REH’s life he was developing a
"Texian" persona. (A term for Texans prior to
statehood.) Unlike de Camp, Burke suggests without reservation,
that Howard would have made one hell of a (presumably realistic)
western writer.
Burke covers Conan’s
creation quite well and relates the same story de Camp did about a
car crash that could have possibly ended Howard’s life. Burke
covers the Robert Howard/Novalyne Price relationship with only a
little more depth than de Camp does. This is probably because the
relationship was covered in depth in the feature film, "The
Whole Wide World." Burke leads from this into a brief
discussion of Howard’s female characters. Something that de Camp
ignored (except for Bêlit.)
Burke begins
dealing with Howard’s suicide. He states that Howard had a "long-standing
plan not to outlive his mother." Burke, like de Camp,
agrees that Howard thought about suicide since his early years.
But Burke tries to place doubt on the suicide being mother
related. For Burke it is more of a general ennui and a fear of
growing old.
Burke continues: "It
is a regrettable postscript that Robert E. Howard’s suicide has
tended to color interpretations of his mental health. While it is
hard to maintain that killing oneself at the age of 30 is ‘normal’
behavior, suicide is often a very complex response to real or
perceived problems." This seems a bit of a cheat since no
REAL problems are offered as reasons for the suicide.
Burke’s goal is
to make the oedipal associations disappear. But he sets up a straw
man argument. There have been purveyors of an oedipal view, the
best known being de Camp. But even de Camp does not say that
Howard killed himself SOLELY out of despondency or that there
weren’t other contributing factors. The fact remains that Howard
chose to kill himself once he learned that his mother would never
recover from her coma. Burke’s own earlier mention of "a
long-standing plan not to outlive his mother" is reason for
oedipal speculation. Burke never adequately explains why REH
should feel this way.
In the final
analysis, Burke’s book is better than de Camp’s. Burke does
REH fans a real service with more factual background info and an
emphasis on Howard’s other characters. Burke’s concentration
on all of REH’s characters brings a literary focus to Howard’s
art that de Camp’s book lacked. However, de Camp’s book reads
better and holds a reader’s interest more, due to de Camp’s
emphasis on Howard’s personality, which is primarily what
a biography should be about.
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