Renegades and Rogues
266 pages, 6 x 9
Hardcover
Release Date:19 Jan 2021
ISBN:9781477321959
GO TO CART

Renegades and Rogues

The Life and Legacy of Robert E. Howard

University of Texas Press

2022 Atlantean Award, Robert E. Howard Foundation

You may not know the name Robert E. Howard, but you probably know his work. His most famous creation, Conan the Barbarian, is an icon of popular culture. In hundreds of tales detailing the exploits of Conan, King Kull, and others, Howard helped to invent the sword and sorcery genre.

Todd B. Vick delves into newly available archives and probes Howard’s relationships, particularly with schoolteacher Novalyne Price, to bring a fresh, objective perspective to Howard's life. Like his many characters, Howard was an enigma and an outsider. He spent his formative years visiting the four corners of Texas, experiences that left a mark on his stories. He was intensely devoted to his mother, whom he nursed in her final days, and whose impending death contributed to his suicide in 1936 when he was just thirty years old.

Renegades and Rogues is an unequivocal journalistic account that situates Howard within the broader context of pulp literature. More than a realistic fantasist, he wrote westerns and horror stories as well, and engaged in avid correspondence with H. P. Lovecraft and other pulp writers of his day. Vick investigates Howard’s twelve-year writing career, analyzes the influences that underlay his celebrated characters, and assesses the afterlife of Conan, the figure in whom Howard's fervent imagination achieved its most durable expression.

Vick’s deep dive work, using previously unknown research and documents, definitely builds on the two prior Howard bios...in Renegades & Rogues, this 'mysterious' Texas scribe gets his most complete story arc told. Houston Press
Vick manages to offer a biography of Robert E. Howard that marks a new phase for academic scholarship about Howard...Vick employs a vast array of sources to establish the details of Howard’s life. SFRA Review
A tour de force of [Robert E. Howard's] life and thought. Modern Age
Todd B. Vick surveys the entire panoply of Robert E. Howard's times and life. Early twentieth-century Texas, so important to a young writer who almost never crossed its borders except in the mighty treads of his imagination, becomes a player in the action fully as much as Conan or Solomon Kane—and Renegades and Rogues is a truly outstanding biography because of it. The book is a terrific read that will grab you like the brawny iron arms of Khosatral Khel and not let you go. Roy Thomas, former editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics and author of the Conan the Barbarian comic
Renegades and Rogues is a compelling read. Vick does an outstanding job in portraying Howard’s family life, in describing the major incidents of his literary career, and especially in providing insightful details into the remarkable resurgence of Howard’s work in various media after his death. S. T. Joshi, author of I Am Providence: The Life and Times of H. P. Lovecraft

Todd B. Vick, a researcher and independent scholar, has presented papers at multiple PCA/ACA conferences and runs "On an Underwood No. 5," an award-winning blog devoted to Howard and pulp studies. He has contributed to Weird Fiction Review, The Dark Man Journal: The Journal of Robert E. Howard and Pulp Studies, and REH Changed My Life.

  • Introduction. Who Is Robert E. Howard?
  • Chapter 1. Pioneering Stories: The Family of Robert E. Howard
  • Chapter 2. From Birth to Bagwell
  • Chapter 3. Cross Cut and Burkett
  • Chapter 4. The Birth of a Writer
  • Chapter 5. Tattlers and Yellow Jackets
  • Chapter 6. Pulp Fictioneer
  • Chapter 7. The Other Side of the Counter
  • Chapter 8. A New Species of Fantasy
  • Chapter 9. Friends and Letters
  • Chapter 10. Novalyne Price
  • Chapter 11. Broken on the Plowshare of Fate
  • Chapter 12. The Aftermath
  • Chapter 13. Writing a Legacy: Selected Stories
  • Chapter 14. Full Circle: The Publishing Journey of a Barbarian
  • Afterword
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • Index
Find what you’re looking for...

Free shipping on online orders over $40

Stay Informed

Receive the latest UBC Press news, including events, catalogues, and announcements.


Read past newsletters

Publishers Represented
UBC Press is the Canadian agent for several international publishers. Visit our Publishers Represented page to learn more.