Roundabout 2002 I discovered some old pulp
paperback copies of Conan stories in a used bookstore in Maryland, while out
there working on the SOHO spacecraft at NASA Goddard. Over the years I read more of those Conan
tales, and reveled in the re-publication of the original tales over the next
several years during the rest of my time back east and back in Kansas in grad
school. At some point I came across the
fact that there was not only the opportunity to visit Robert E. Howard’s old
home in Cross Plains, TX, but that once each year folks gather there for the
Robert E. Howard Days event that celebrates the author and his works. It seemed like year after year I was either
in school, in Antarctica, or in aggressive job hunting mode and could never
make the trek to attend REH Days.
That changed in 2014. With a launch schedule delay at work the week
before, I grabbed the galloping charger that is destiny by the reins and took a
couple days off work to journey to Cross Plains.
The first stop was the Fort Worth Museum of
Science and History, though. Here I took
in a traveling exhibit called Indiana Jones and the Adventure of Archaeology. They had a good number of
real relics, as well as a bunch of original props and costumes from the Indy
films. And, yes, that included the cross
of Coronado, where it belongs…in a museum.
In Cross Plains I got to see the fabled
Howard house, where REH did a lot of his writing. It was rewarding to see this very familiar
and un-exotic home, which had been the site of the generation of such
imaginative tales.
That front porch was the site of a reading
of some of REH’s poetry on the Friday night of the festivities. I contributed an impromptu rendition of “Attila
Rides No More”.
A lot of the panel discussions about a
variety of topics germane to the man and his works were held in the excellent
Cross Plains Public Library. Strangely
enough, they had a main landing gear tire from a Space Shuttle flight long
past.
There was also a morning tour around some
of the outlying areas near Cross Plains.
This included a stop at a ranch where some top-class longhorn cattle are
raised. They were mostly really shy this
day, but one very pregnant cow was convinced to come up close to the fence by a
bucket of treats.
All in all, it was a very pleasant
excursion. Getting to chat with other
folks that were often times far more knowledgeable and passionate about REH and
his works was really interesting. If you
have not read any Conan, Kull, Solomon Kane, El Borak, or any of the host of
other characters created by Howard then you are really missing out. If you are skeptical of his writing, then at
least take a look at the author himself.
His tragically brief life is another story worth discovering, and a visit to his grave in Brownwood will be all the more poignant.
"Hither came Conan, the Cimmerian, black-haired, sullen-eyed, sword in hand, a thief, a reaver, a slayer, with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth, to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandaled feet."~Robert E. Howard
