Untrodden Fields: Robert E. Howard’s Sex Library, Part 1 by Bobby Derie

Some considerable work has been done by Howard scholars Dr. Charlotte Laughlin, Glenn Lord, L. Sprague de Camp, Steve Eng, and Rusty Burke to identify the books that comprised Robert E. Howard’s personal library, based primarily on the holograph list of books that Dr. I. M. Howard donated to form the Robert E. Howard Memorial Collection after his son’s death, as well as Robert E. Howard’s surviving letters and papers. Among these books are a number of works of erotica or curiosa which, while not pornographic to contemporary tastes, were nevertheless concerned with some aspect of sexuality (usually from a scholarly or pseudo-scholarly perspective) and were often treated as such. It is interesting to see, based on these books, what light if any they can shed on Howard’s life and work.

William J. Robinson

Birth Control, or, The Limitation of Offspring by the Prevention of Conception by William J. Robinson was originally published as Fewer and Better Babies in 1915 by Robinson’s Critic and Guide company, later reprinted in many editions. Dr. Robinson was the author of numerous sexological tracts, serious and devoid of commercialized smut, aimed at educating the public about contraceptive devices. (Gertzman 186) The bulk of this book deals more with the moral and philosophical questions of birth control than the practical matters of condoms, diaphragms, and spermicides, which were actually eliminated by censors (and otherwise technically illegal under Comstock laws). For Howard, his interest in the subject may or may not have been due to speculative encounters with prostitutes; given the period it is not surprising that the subject does not come up in his published fiction. The only mention of abortion I have yet found in his writings is a reference in his play “Song of Bastards” in a letter to Tevis Clyde Smith (CL1.344). The subject seems to have formed at least an occasional subject of conversation with Howard’s intimate friends, as in the copy of The Leather Pushers that Truett Vinson gifted to Robert E. Howard, Vinson inscribed to his friend:

Also don’t
forget our opinions on
other subjects ranging
from prize-fighting to
birth control!
(Burke)

L. Sprague de Camp: Looking Beyond the Hyperbole and Amateur Psychoanalysis to Find the Real Robert E. Howard , Part 1

In the break-room on a tired afternoon at work a co-worker and I were talking about Robert E. Howard. The co-worker had explained to me that he had been reading Howard's work for some time. In fact, he described REH as, "the best short story writer I have ever read." Then after a few minutes he declared, "It's too bad what L.Sprague de Camp did, huh?" A huge grin came over my face. I immediately knew what side of the fence he stood on. Besides the fans and scholars I encountered at this year's REH Days in Cross Plains, Texas, and the friend I grew up with who actually introduced me to Howard, this co-worker is the only person I have encountered who understood some of the negative ramifications de Camp had on REH's reputation and writings.

Drop the name L. Sprague de Camp around core REH fans and you're likely to hear swearing and gnashing of teeth. Yet, not all REH fans feel this way, but the ones who know what they're talking about when it comes to Howard and his work do. de Camp has been a whipping post for core REH fans and scholars for some time now, and rightly so. Over the last three or more decades de Camp has been the bane of genuine and honest scholarly research into the life and works of Howard. It's no secret that de Camp's non-fiction work about Howard is filled with hyperbole, psychoanalysis, conjecture, and dishonest rumors. These non-fiction works include Dark Valley Destiny: The Life of Robert E. Howard, de Camp's introduction to the Lancer and Ace paperback collections of Howard's Conan stories, his various reviews about REH's work, his writings in past fanzines, and various other works.


I was introduced to REH in the middle of the de Camp era of information about Howard. So, to a degree I was indoctrinated into thinking certain things about Howard. Granted, I could discern the ridiculous from the credible. Regardless, getting rid of some of that information occurred over time, as new information became available. And, I was fortunate that I did not read Dark Valley of Destiny back in the early 80s. Back then all of my info about Howard came from two sources. First, the introductions to the Conan series that L. Sprague de Camp wrote with Lin Carter, published by Ace paperbacks, and second, Glenn Lord's work titled The Last Celt. I bought a copy of Lord's book back in 1983 from a nice second hand bookstore in my hometown called Kingston Books.


So what exactly is so bad about de Camp's influence on REH studies? Why do certain core fan's get bent out of shape when de Camp's name is mentioned? I hope to answer these questions and demonstrate why this is the case in part 2 of this post.