This early work by Robert E. Howard was originally published in 1939 and
we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography.
'Almuric' is one of Howard's science fiction novels and features Esau
Cairn as he travels to a distant world and fights monsters. Robert Ervin
Howard was born in Peaster, Texas in 1906. During his youth, his family
moved between a variety of Texan boomtowns, and Howard - a bookish and
somewhat introverted child - was steeped in the violent myths and
legends of the Old South. At fifteen Howard began to read the pulp
magazines of the day, and to write more seriously. The December 1922
issue of his high school newspaper featured two of his stories, 'Golden
Hope Christmas' and 'West is West'. In 1924 he sold his first piece - a
short caveman tale titled 'Spear and Fang' - for $16 to the
not-yet-famous Weird Tales magazine. Howard's most famous character,
Conan the Cimmerian, was a barbarian-turned-King during the Hyborian
Age, a mythical period of some 12,000 years ago. Conan featured in
seventeen Weird Tales stories between 1933 and 1936 which is why Howard
is now regarded as having spawned the 'sword and sorcery' genre. The
Conan stories have since been adapted many times, most famously in the
series of films starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.
