Two years into their well-known correspondence, Robert E.
Howard commented in a letter to H.P. Lovecraft about how strongly he identified
with the barbarians of history, rather than with any civilizations. Lovecraft
[HPL], who identified strongly with
Rome,
and who considered himself a civilized intellectual, evidently took this as a
challenge and began to argue with Howard [REH] about this preference. While
discussing the subject in three subsequent letters, REH expressed a wish to
have been born into barbarism, and argued that there was contentment to be
found outside of civilization, even if the latter is generally better for
humanity. But by his fourth letter, prodded by HPL's insistence to argue for
civilization's obvious superiority, REH started inching into debate mode, criticizing
civilization and glorifying barbarism.
This entry is the third part in a project to examine this
debate, letter-by-letter (see also
part one and
part two.), as found in the two
volume set,
A Means to Freedom: The Letters of H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E.
Howard, edited by S.T. Joshi, David E. Schultz, and Rusty Burke. (All page
numbers refer to these volumes.) The previous two parts of this series each
covered four letters, two by each man. As a result of the growing intensity of
their debate, the arguments grow more involved, and material from other parts
of their letters becomes more relevant. As a result, this third part examines
only two letters, one by REH and the response by HPL.
