I just learned that Glenn Lord, champion ofRobert E. Howard’s writings, passed away on New Year’s Eve 2011. If not for the efforts of Lord then your favorite fictional barbarian may not even be known to you, if, of course, your favorite fictional barbarian is Conan the Cimmerian.
After Howard died, Lord compiled the pulp writer’s stories, which were primarily published in Weird Tales magazine and other periodicals during Howard’s lifetime and championed their publication into collections. He published a fanzine by the name of The Howard Collector during the 1960s-70s, and a final volume in 2011. Lord’s dedication to collecting Howard’s work and providing an outlet for Howard studies and discussion can only be measured through the growing interest in all of Howard’s work, whether it be poetry, letters, or fictional characters such as the swashbuckling PuritanSolomon Kane, King Kull of Atlantis, Celtic adventure stories of Turlogh Dubh O’Brien, the comedic boxing stories of sailor Steve Costigan, the tall tales of mountain manBreckenridge Elkins, the Oriental adventures of El Borak, and, of course, sword and sorcery tales of Conan.
Thank you, Lord, for all you did to preserve the work of one of the world’s greatest writers.
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