Robert Ervin Howard (1906–1936) was an American author of pulp fiction, renowned for his seminal contributions to the sword-and-sorcery genre. Born in Peaster, Texas, Howard spent most of his life in the town of Cross Plains, with only some time spent in nearby Brownwood. A bookish and imaginative child plagued by ill health, Howard was very close to his mother and grew up immersed in a world of s...