Robert E. Howard

The Random House College Dictionary, Revised Edition defines a legacy as “anything handed down from the past, as from an ancestor or predecessor.”

Legacies are not necessarily material things.  Often those who bequeath the legacy are completely unaware that they’ve done so at the times of their deaths.

That’s the case with Robert E. Howard.  Howard was 30 years old at the time of his death.  Thirty years old in 1936 was considered early middle age.  By the standards of his time, Howard had lived a significant portion of his life.  It’s easy from hindsight to see how much he had accomplished.  At the time, I’m not sure he would have been considered that much of a success by society at large.  Although he made enough money from his writings to support himself and afford a few luxuries, such as a car, most of his work had only appeared in low paying pulp magazines, the rest in amateur publications.  His first book, A Gent From Bear Creek, appeared in the UK the year after he died, and his short fiction wasn’t collected until years later.

Today his books can be found in any well-stocked bookstore.  What he wrote resonated with people.  Not just the fantasy, the stuff he’s known best for.  At its core much of his work in any genre is about outsiders trying to make their way in worlds where they don’t, and never will, fit in.  That describes the feelings of most adolescents at some point, which is probably why so many Howard fans and scholars first found him in their teenage years.  Not all of them.  But a lot.

And so they began to come to Cross Plains to learn more about the man whose characters had captured their imaginations.  Now, if you know anything about small rural towns in Texas, especially west of I-35 (draw a line from Dallas-Fort Worth down to Austin and San Antonio), you know that there are only two main industries:  oil and agriculture.  In spite of the rise in the price of oil, not a great deal of that money makes it to those towns.  And agriculture isn’t the most stable of growth industries either.  My point being, anything that brings cash into the local economy without breaking the law is a good thing.

Book Signing at the Pavilion next to the Howard House, 2011

Over the years, from what started as an informal gathering of fans, has grown to be one of the main economic events in Cross Plains:  Howard Days.  This year was the 25th Howard Days.  It was one of the biggest yet.  Starting Thursday night and continuing through Sunday morning, Howard fans descended on Cross Plains from literally all over the world.  They sell out the hotel, so if you decide to show up at the last minute, you’ll be commuting from one of the nearby towns, which means you’ll probably need to buy gas there.  They eat in the restaurants.  They spend money in the stores.  They make donations to Project Pride, either directly or through Project Pride’s fundraising activities.  They buy gas to get home.  And they come back every year, not always the same ones, new faces are always there and always welcome.  But return they do without fail.  The ones who have been coming for years have made many lifelong friends in town.

How is this heroic?  Well, simply put, heroes help people.  In our fiction we like that help to involve action and violence.  But in real life, the help is usually not so dramatic.  I know Howard fandom makes a difference to the economy because I’ve heard residents say so.  And not just during one weekend in June, although that’s the single biggest impact.  Visitors come to town all through the year to see the house.  And they eat in the restaurants, shop in the stores, maybe stay at the hotel, and buy gas to get home.

Mural on the Side of the Cross Plains Library

Cross Plains has a library.  It didn’t when Robert E. Howard lived there.  Because of the mutual support between the library and Howard fandom, the library has been able to expand and become a premier institution.  (Many of the people who founded Project Pride were associated with the library.)  Last year the Cross Plains library was one of three finalists for the Best Small Town Library in the United States.  Without Howard fandom, it’s questionable if they would have even been considered.  Wandering Star printed 26 lettered copies of one of Howard’s manuscripts, which were sold only through the library as a fund raiser.

Paul Herman Announcing the 2011 Winner of the Robert E. Howard Foundation Scholarship

Then we come to the Robert E. Howard Foundation.  The Foundation has as part of its mission to support young writers.  Each year the Foundation gives a $1000 college scholarship to a graduating high school senior.  The winner is determined by an essay written about one of Howard’s work.  This past June, the young lady who won wrote about his poetry.  Anything that gets high school students to read and write about poetry these days is heroic.  To many graduating seniors in that part of the state, a scholarship is crucial to attending college.  (I know; I’m from a town about 60 miles from Cross Plains.)

Yes, Howard Days allows fans and scholars (and there’s not much difference in the two at times) to meet, mingle, discuss, and debate.  There is a theme each year, with panels and guests.  There are always new treasures to be found in the gift shop at the Howard House, with proceeds going to Project Pride.  There’s the banquet Friday night, at which awards are presented, followed by the poetry throwdown.  There’s the barbeque at Caddo Peak on Saturday night, with people hanging out at the Pavilion afterwards.  I and others have written about these things in other places.

I wanted to take this opportunity to share how Robert E. Howard has passed on a legacy of quiet heroism by using the pen to write about the sword.  Howard fans are generous and giving.  By the accounts of his friends, so was he.  Regardless of your opinion of his relationship with his mother, you can’t deny the giving spirit he showed by caring for her.  That legacy of giving continues today.  And because it was through his writings that this ultimately came about, it makes him a success as a writer in a way that surpasses copies in print, royalties, or number of sales.

The Robert E. Howard House