History YMMV / RobertEHoward

** Conan. Despite Howard's 1930s stories being seminal in the sword-and-sorcery field, which ultimately led to a boom in books and comics based on his stories and sword and sorcery in general in the 1960s and 1970s, the Conan movies from the 1980s starring Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger have since become the dominant image of the character in pop culture, despite the differences between them and the stories (and comics). And even before the movies, the Marvel comics were already doing a fair bit of this themselves (though they were closer to Howard's originals than the movies would be). For instance, Conan is automatically known as "the Barbarian" largely due to the first movie's title and the flagship comic's title before it (though they didn't coin the title, it first was on a 1950s collection), as Howard instead referred to him as "the Cimmerian", "of Cimmeria", etc.

* HarsherInHindsight: The so-called "devil worship" references in "Literature/DigMeNoGrave" were pretty ignorant to begin with (Shintoism = black magic? Since when?). But now, following the rise of ISIS and their open genocide of the Yazidis, Kirowan's rant about that ethnic/religious minority's "foul god" and "idolatrous symbol" - the same twisted misconceptions about their faith which are getting them exterminated in RealLife - have become a ''lot more'' repugnant.

* FairForItsDay: Although, usually under pressure from his publishers, Howard had many DamselInDistress types, he also wrote several strong, intelligent female characters including Belit and Valeria from his Conan stories, and Red Sonya of Rogatino from his historical fiction.[[note]]Like many pulp comics at the time, Weird Tales was transgressive and didn't shy away from nudity like other works of the time, but they also had a policy of paying writers a bonus if a scene from their story was illustrated on the cover; the problem came about when publishers and writers noticed that [[SexSells surprise, surprise, covers depicting sweaty, distressed scantily-clad women chained up to the scenery tended to sell really well]]. So writers all began cheaply writing DamselInDistress situations into their stories to get the bonus.[[/note]] Unfortunately the same can't be said of his racial views [[ValuesDissonance which were pretty typical for the time and place he grew up in.]] Although he did become less racist as he aged and his later works tried to include more sympathetic black characters.
** Howard occasionally wrote stories that weren't screamingly racist, or at least had some non-racist plot elements. In the Solomon Kane stories set in Africa, most of them have something along these lines. In ''The Hills of the Dead'', N'Longa the shaman can actually be read as the hero, since he does all the major work necessary to put down the vampires, while Kane just keeps the vampires off N'Longa's back during the process. N'Longa also speaks eruditely when he's using his own language...he just can't speak English well. The Bogondan villagers of ''Wings in the Night'' are presented as basically good people trapped in a '''horrible''' situation. During the ''The Footfalls Within'', Kane attacks a band of Arabs who've been enslaving Africans, and is (temporarily) captured. A minor Arab character, who had only been traveling with the slavers' caravan for protection, is sympathetic to Kane's plight. In ''The Moon of Skulls'', Howard makes the following point about the villainous African culture of the piece: "These savages are '''not like the other natives of the region.''' A latent insanity lurks in the brain of each and every one." (Mind you, ''Moon'' is still jaw-droppingly racist, but at least Howard managed to slightly ameliorate his attitude.)
*** Other non-racist moments show up from time to time. In Howard's historical short story ''The Road of Azrael'' (not public domain, but recently reprinted in ''Lord of Samarcand and Other Tales of the Old Orient''), the viewpoint character is a Chagatai Turk. Several of his horror/supernatural works feature sympathetic characters of color: The viewpoint character in ''The Thunder-Rider'' is Native American, while In ''The Spirit of Tom Molyneaux'' (aka ''Apparition in the Prize Ring'') the hero (but not the viewpoint character) is an African-American, whom Howard actually describes as possessing "great nobility." In ''The Noseless Horror'', Ganra Singh (a Sikh) saves the day at the end. Meanwhile, ''The Horror from the Mound'' features a Mexican who has got a damn sight more common sense than the story's white viewpoint character. ''Pigeons from Hell'' involved a haunted American plantation that was owned by an evil Southern family who tortured their slaves. It also featured an elderly African-American man who gives the protagonists valuable knowledge about the plantation's sordid history. Finally, ''The Dead Slaver's Tale'' and ''The Dead Remember'' feature black victims getting ghostly revenge on the whites who murdered them.
*** Also in his defense, he wrote some stories that showed plenty of racism existing between conflicting clans and tribes that were either [[FantasticRacism purely imaginative]], or ''all'' ultimately Indo-European, at least in name. Picts? Northern Britain. Atlanteans? Supposed "Aryan" progenitors. In other words, Howard's fiction contains racism, itself, as an common accepted fact.
** Double Cross, also staring Ace Jesse from "The Spirit of Tom Molyneaux", is one of the few Howard stories to address white-on-black racism directly and it portrays the racism that the main character is subjected to as exclusively negative and erroneous. There are also minor examples like Conan believing black people to be inherently cowardly in Literature/QueenOfTheBlackCoast and the narrative going out of its way to prove him wrong.
** There's also the screamingly racist ''Literature/TheValeOfLostWomen'', which was never published in Howard's lifetime and only had one known draft. It's not known for certain that Howard ''never'' submitted it for publication, but the evidence suggests he did not. Whether it was because the story (based on a tall tale from Howard's native Texas) wasn't quite working and he planned to revisit it later, whether it wasn't working and he intended it never to see the light of day, or whether its constant racism was horrid even by his standards is unknown, but it's widely believed Howard never intended anyone to read the story in its only extant form.
* HarsherInHindsight: The so-called "devil worship" references in "Dig Me No Grave" were pretty ignorant to begin with (Shintoism = black magic? Since when?). But now, following the rise of ISIS and their open genocide of the Yazidis, Kirowan's rant about that ethnic/religious minority's "foul god" and "idolatrous symbol" - the same twisted misconceptions about their faith which are getting them exterminated in RealLife - have become a ''lot more'' repugnant.
* {{Macekre}}: In addition to some of his stories being completed upon his death, many of his less-popular stories were rewritten, often to create [[DolledUpInstallment dolled-up installments]] in his more popular franchises ([[http://www.barbariankeep.com/fake.html source]]), and many of his actual stories were {{{bowdlerise}}d in paperback printings ([[http://www.barbariankeep.com/edited.html source]], and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_E._Howard#L._Sprague_de_Camp_and_the_Howard_Boom see also]]). In addition Creator/LSpragueDeCamp and Creator/LinCarter wrote several published fanfics ''[[RunningTheAsylum which they declared canon]].'' The fanbase [[FanonDiscontinuity refused to go along with this]], however, and all these bad decisions have long since been reversed.

* {{Macekre}}: In addition to some of his stories being completed upon his death, many of his less-popular stories were rewritten, often to create [[DolledUpInstallment dolled-up installments]] in his more popular franchises ([[http://www.barbariankeep.com/fake.html source]]), and many of his actual stories were {{{bowdlerise}}d in paperback printings ([[http://www.barbariankeep.com/edited.html source]], and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_E._Howard#L._Sprague_de_Camp_and_the_Howard_Boom see also]]). In addition Creator/LSpragueDeCamp and Lin Carter wrote several published fanfics ''[[RunningTheAsylum which they declared canon]].'' The fanbase [[FanonDiscontinuity refused to go along with this]], however, and all these bad decisions have long since been reversed.

** Conan. Despite Howard's 1930s stories being seminal in the sword-and-sorcery field, which ultimately led to a boom in books and comics based on his stories and sword and sorcery in general in the 1960s and 1970s, the Conan movies from the 1980s starring Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger have since become the dominant image of the character in pop culture, despite the differences between them and the books (and comics). And even before the movies, the Marvel comics were already doing a fair bit of this themselves (though they were closer to Howard's originals than the movies would be). For instance, Conan is automatically known as "the Barbarian" largely due to the first movie's title and the flagship comic's title before it (though they didn't coin the title, it first was on a 1950s collection), as Howard instead referred to him as "the Cimmerian", "of Cimmeria", etc.

** Conan. Despite Howard's 1930s stories being seminal in the sword-and-sorcery field, which ultimately led to a boom in books and comics based on his stories and sword and sorcery in general in the 1960s and 1970s, the Conan movies from the 1980s starring Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger have since become the dominant image of the character in pop culture. And even before the movies, the Marvel comics were already doing a fair bit of this themselves (though they were infinitely closer to Howard's originals than the movies would). For instance, Conan is automatically known as "the Barbarian" largely due to the first movie's title and the flagship comic's title before it (though they didn't coin the title, it first was on a 1950s collection), as Howard instead referred to him as "the Cimmerian", "of Cimmeria", etc.

** Conan is the biggest example. Despite Howard's 1930s stories being seminal in the sword-and-sorcery field, which ultimately led to a boom in books and comics based on his stories and sword and sorcery in general in the 1960s and 1970s, the Conan movies from the 1980s starring Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger have since become the dominant image of the character in pop culture.

* FairForItsDay: Although, usually under pressure from his publishers, Howard had many DamselInDistress types, he also wrote several strong, intelligent female characters including Belit and Valeria from his Conan stories, and Red Sonya of Rogatino from his historical fiction. Unfortunately the same can't be said of his racial views [[ValuesDissonance which were pretty typical for the time and place he grew up in.]] Although he did become less racist as he aged and his later works tried to include more sympathetic black characters.

** Double Cross, also staring Ace Jesse from "The Spirit of Tom Molyneaux", is one of the few Howard stories to address white-on-black racism directly and it portrays the racism that the main character is subjected to as exclusively negative and erroneous. There are also minor examples like Conan believing black people to be inherently cowardly in Literature/QueenOfTheBlackCoast and the narrative going out of it's way to prove him wrong.

*** Other non-racist moments show up from time to time. In Howard's historical short story ''The Road of Azrael'' (not public domain, but recently reprinted in ''Lord of Samarcand and Other Tales of the Old Orient''), the viewpoint character is a Chagatai Turk. Several of his horror/supernatural works feature sympathetic characters of color: The viewpoint character in ''The Thunder-Rider'' is Native American, while In ''The Spirit of Tom Molyneaux'' (aka ''Apparition in the Prize Ring'') the hero (but not the viewpoint character) is an African-American, whom Howard actually describes as possessing "great nobility." In ''The Noseless Horror'', Ganra Singh (a Sikh) saves the day at the end. Meanwhile, ''The Horror from the Mound'' features a Mexican who's got a damn sight more common sense than the story's white viewpoint character. ''Pigeons from Hell'' involved a haunted American plantation that was owned by an evil Southern family who tortured their slaves. It also featured an elderly African-American man who gives the protagonists valuable knowledge about the plantation's sordid history. Finally, ''The Dead Slaver's Tale'' and ''The Dead Remember'' feature black victims getting ghostly revenge on the whites who murdered them.

** Main/AvertedTrope. Howard was absolutely obsessed with race – race and purity (or otherwise) of blood run rampant through his essay Literature/TheHyborianAge. – and he was well aware that other people weren't. He wrote to Creator/HPLovecraft about Literature/RedNails, "I have been dissatisfied with my handling of decaying races in stories, for the reason that degeneracy is so prevalent in such races that it can not be ignored as a motive and as a fact if the fiction is to have any claim to realism. I have ignored it in all other stories, as one of the taboos, but I did not ignore it in this story..." Yes he painted himself as the bold taboo-buster (do we have a trope for that?), a trait common in bigots today.

*** Other non-racist moments show up from time to time. In Howard's historical short story ''The Road of Azrael'' (not public domain, but recently reprinted in ''Lord of Samarcand and Other Tales of the Old Orient''), the viewpoint character is an Arab. Several of his horror/supernatural works feature sympathetic characters of color: The viewpoint character in ''The Thunder-Rider'' is Native American, while In ''The Spirit of Tom Molyneaux'' (aka ''Apparition in the Prize Ring'') the hero (but not the viewpoint character) is an African-American, whom Howard actually describes as possessing "great nobility." In ''The Noseless Horror'', Ganra Singh (a Sikh) saves the day at the end. Meanwhile, ''The Horror from the Mound'' features a Mexican who's got a damn sight more common sense than the story's white viewpoint character. ''Pigeons from Hell'' involved a haunted American plantation that was owned by an evil Southern family who tortured their slaves. It also featured an elderly African-American man who gives the protagonists valuable knowledge about the plantation's sordid history. Finally, ''The Dead Slaver's Tale'' and ''The Dead Remember'' feature black victims getting ghostly revenge on the whites who murdered them.

*** Other non-racist moments show up from time to time. In Howard's historical short story ''The Road of Azrael'' (not public domain, but recently reprinted in ''Lord of Samarcand and Other Tales of the Old Orient''), the viewpoint character is an Arab. Several of his horror/supernatural works feature sympathetic characters of color: The viewpoint character in ''The Thunder-Rider'' is Native American, while In ''The Spirit of Tom Molyneaux'' (aka ''Apparition in the Prize Ring'') the hero (but not the viewpoint character) is an African-American, whom Howard actually describes as possessing "great nobility." In ''The Noseless Horror'', Ganra Singh (a Sikh) saves the day at the end. Meanwhile, ''The Horror from the Mound'' features a Mexican who's got a damn sight more common sense than the story's white viewpoint character. Finally, ''The Dead Slaver's Tale'' and ''The Dead Remember'' feature black victims getting ghostly revenge on the whites who murdered them.

* FairForItsDay: Although, usually under pressure from his publishers, Howard had many DamselInDistress types, he also wrote several strong, intelligent female characters including Belit and Valeria from his Conan stories, and Red Sonya of Rogatino from his historical fiction. Unfortunately the same can't be said of his racial views [[ValuesDissonance which were pretty typical for the time and place he grew up in.]]

* HarsherInHindsight: The so-called "devil worship" references in "Dig Me No Grave" were pretty ignorant to begin with (Shintoism = black magic? Since when?). But now, following the rise of ISIS and their open genocide of the Yazidis, Kirowan's rant about that religious minority's "foul god" and "idolatrous symbol" - the same twisted misconceptions about their faith which are getting them exterminated in RealLife - have become a ''lot more'' repugnant.

* HarsherInHindsight: The so-called "devil worship" references in "Dig Me No Grave" were pretty ignorant to begin with (Shintoism = black magic? Since when?), but following the rise of ISIS and their open genocide of the Yazidis, Kirowan's rant about that religious minority's "foul god" and "idolatrous symbol" - the same twisted misconceptions about their faith which are getting them exterminated in RealLife - have become a ''lot more'' repugnant.

* HarsherInHindsight: The so-called "devil worship" references in "Dig Me No Grave" were pretty ignorant to begin with (Shintoism = black magic? Since when?), but following the rise of ISIS and their open genocide of the Yazidis, Kirowan's rant about that religious minority's "foul god" and "idolatrous symbol" - the same twisted misconceptions about their faith which are getting them exterminated in RealLife - is a ''lot'' more repugnant.

* FairForItsDay: Although, usually under pressure from his publishers, Howard had many DistressedDamsel types, he also wrote several strong, intelligent female characters including Belit and Valeria from his Conan stories, and Red Sonya of Rogatino from his historical fiction. Unfortunately the same can't be said of his racial views [[ValuesDissonance which were pretty typical for the time and place he grew up in.]]

* {{Macekre}}: In addition to some of his stories being completed upon his death, many of his less-popular stories were rewritten, often to create [[DolledUpInstallment dolled-up installments]] in his more popular franchises ([[http://www.barbariankeep.com/fake.html source]]), and many of his actual stories were [[BowdlerIzation bowdlerized]] in paperback printings ([[http://www.barbariankeep.com/edited.html source]], and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_E._Howard#L._Sprague_de_Camp_and_the_Howard_Boom see also]]). In addition Creator/LSpragueDeCamp and Lin Carter wrote several published fanfics ''[[RunningTheAsylum which they declared canon]].'' The fanbase [[FanonDisContinuity refused to go along with this]], however, and all these bad decisions have long since been reversed.

** Double Cross, also staring Ace Jesse from "The Spirit of Tom Molyneaux", is one of the few Howard stories to address racism directly and it portrays the racism that the main character is subjected to as exclusively negative and erroneous. There are also minor examples like Conan believing black people to be inherently cowardly in Literature/QueenOfTheBlackCoast and the narrative going out of it's way to prove him wrong.

** The racist setting in Howard's stories set in the modern age also tends to make a difference between Black characters - darker skinned "true" Blacks are usually brutal warriors, while [[ButNotTooBlack lighter-skinned characters]] are either sympathetic or towards the more [[WickedCultured mysterious and intellectual]] end of the villains' spectrum:
*** SolomonKane story ''The Moon Of Skulls'': the savage warriors are true Blacks. Evil Queen Nakari is brown-skinned and very beautiful by comparison.
*** SolomonKane story ''Hills Of The Dead'': [[DamselInDistress the girl saved by Kane from a lion]] is brown-skinned and delicate.
*** SolomonKane story ''Red Shadows'': Gulka [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast the Gorilla-Slayer]] is the strongest, most brutal hunter and warrior and also one of the blackest.
*** Old South story ''Black Canaan'': [[HotWitch the mysterious witch]] is a very beautiful quadroon (1/4 Black) and light skinned.
**** Of-course, [[TheCynic this being Howard]], being a brutal warrior is not inherently a bad thing. And for a more rounded view note again Ace Jessel, "ebony" hero The Spirit of Tom Molyneaux, whose character-flaw was that he was not brutal at all (which he needed to be in order to succeed at boxing). Another Ace story, Double Cross, is one of the few Howard stories to address racism directly and it portrays the racism the main character is subjected to as exclusively negative and wrong. There are also minor things like Conan believing black people to be inherently cowardly in Literature/QueenOfTheBlackCoast and the narrative going out of it's way to prove him wrong.