I just finished watching The Whole Wide World
, with Renee Zellweger and Vincent D'Onofrio. "A true story about the true love of the greatest pulp fiction writer of all time." Where the hell was I when this movie was out? Oh, I know: we were having our first baby. That knocked a whole lot of BS out of my head. I didn't get around to throwing out my Conan collection, though. My daughter just pulled them out of my paperback shelf and read them last year.
If you decide to read one, "Beyond the Black River" is the best story. I think it's in Conan: The Warrior
. Ah, yes it is. There are other great ones, but there's something more in that one. Je ne sais quoi.It's a beautiful movie. Howard was more than the bios in the books, apparently - though he was quite a lot in those. The movie is based on the memoir by Novalyne Price of her time with him. Brought a tear to my eye. Get it and watch it.
Oh, Novalyne Price's book is One Who Walked Alone
.
2 comments:
There's no cause to consider Howard a guilty pleasure: his work's collected in the Library of America and Penguin Classics, dozens of journals and books are dedicated to literary criticism of his work, and there's an upcoming academic study from Mellen Press.
A word of warning: the bios in the old Lancer and Ace books are largely inaccurate and debunked with subsequent research. I recommend you read "Blood and Thunder: The Life and Art of Robert E. Howard" by Mark Finn, which is the best and most up-to-date biography on Howard yet.
Cool! I'll check that out.
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