COMING SOON COMING SOON

Dr Bridges is a Texas native, writer, and history professor He can be reached at drkenbridges@gmail.com.

Writers are often asked where their story ideas originate It is a question that writers sometimes have trouble answering The final product only comes from imagination and a lot of work One of many great Texas writers, Robert E Howard, had a significant cultural impact in a short career and certainly put in a lot of work His publishing career lasted only 12 years, but he produced hundreds of stories Guided by his imagination and love for storytelling, Howard became a popular writer, whose influence was felt far beyond his short life

Robert Ervin Howard was born in January 1906 in Peaster, a tiny community west of Fort Worth His father, Dr Isaac M Howard, was a physician The family moved often but finally settled in the small town of Cross Plains, between Brownwood and Abilene, in 1919

As a youngster, he absorbed the tales told to him, from ghost stories to folk tales to war stories from surviving Civil War veterans, and developed a great love of reading. In particular, he enjoyed reading tales of ancient cultures and civilizations By all accounts, he had an excellent memory and noticed details very easily, but he disliked authority and often had problems with his teachers He decided at an early age to be a writer By the age of 15, he was quickly writing stories and sending them off to various magazines in hopes of being published Like many young writers, he faced rejection after rejection for his stories He pushed forward nevertheless, propelled by his own faith in his writing and his love of storytelling

He moved to nearby Brownwood in 1922 to complete high school He began writing for the school