Robert E. Howard Books in Order (Updated August 6, 2026)

Robert E. Howard was an American pulp writer who created Conan the Cimmerian, Kull of Atlantis, Solomon Kane, Bran Mak Morn, El Borak, Dark Agnes, Breckinridge Elkins, Sailor Steve Costigan, and many other characters.

Howard died in 1936, before most of his fiction appeared in book form. As a result, his bibliography does not work like a modern series bibliography. Most Robert E. Howard books are posthumous collections assembled by different editors, sometimes with overlapping contents, altered titles, rewritten texts, unfinished fragments, or stories completed by other writers.

The main reading decision is therefore not chronological order. It is choosing editions that present Howard’s own texts clearly and with as little later rewriting as possible.

The Essential Robert E. Howard Reading Shelf

A reader who wants the major characters without buying dozens of overlapping collections can begin with these books:

1. The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian (2003): The first volume of the modern three-book Conan collection presents Howard’s earliest Conan stories in the order he wrote them, including “The Phoenix on the Sword,” “The Tower of the Elephant,” and “Queen of the Black Coast.”
2. The Bloody Crown of Conan (2004): The second Conan volume collects three substantial adventures, including the only full Conan novel, The Hour of the Dragon.
3. The Conquering Sword of Conan (2005): The final Conan volume gathers Howard’s later stories, including “Beyond the Black River,” “The Black Stranger,” and “Red Nails.”
4. Kull: Exile of Atlantis (2006): This comprehensive Kull collection follows the Atlantean exile who becomes king of Valusia and confronts conspiracy, ancient races, and the instability of civilization.
5. The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane (2004): Howard’s Puritan wanderer travels through Europe and Africa, hunting murderers, tyrants, sorcerers, vampires, and creatures outside ordinary human experience.
6. Bran Mak Morn: The Last King (2005): The collection centers on the last king of Howard’s ancient Picts and includes “Worms of the Earth,” one of his most important horror fantasies.
7. El Borak and Other Desert Adventures (2010): Francis Xavier Gordon and other adventurers face tribal warfare, political intrigue, lost cities, and violent rivalries across Central Asia and the Middle East.
8. Sword Woman and Other Historical Adventures (2011): Dark Agnes, Cormac FitzGeoffrey, Turlogh O’Brien, and other fighters appear in historical adventures ranging from medieval Europe to the age of the Crusades.
9. The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard (2008): This broad collection includes Southern Gothic, supernatural horror, occult investigations, and stories such as “Pigeons from Hell” and “Black Canaan.”
10. The Best of Robert E. Howard, Volume 1: Crimson Shadows (2007): The first general anthology samples Howard’s fantasy, horror, boxing, western, historical, and adventure writing.
11. The Best of Robert E. Howard, Volume 2: Grim Lands (2007): The companion anthology continues the overview with stories and poems drawn from several genres and character cycles.

This route gives readers Howard’s most influential fantasy characters while also showing that his career extended far beyond Conan.

Why Robert E. Howard Has No Single Book Order

Howard wrote primarily for pulp magazines. His stories appeared individually in publications such as Weird Tales, Fight Stories, Oriental Stories, Action Stories, and Magic Carpet Magazine.

Later publishers grouped those stories into books. One Conan collection may follow fictional chronology, another may follow composition order, and another may mix Howard’s original stories with revisions or continuations by later writers.

That creates three important boundaries:

Howard originals: Stories, poems, drafts, and fragments written by Robert E. Howard.

Posthumous editorial collections: Books assembled after Howard’s death but presenting his work without adding new adventures.

Pastiches and continuations: New Conan, Kull, Solomon Kane, or related stories written or substantially completed by other authors.

This guide prioritizes collections of Howard’s own work. Later-author continuations are separate continuity and are not included in the central reading order.

Conan Books in Order

Howard wrote one Conan novel and a larger body of short stories, novellas, fragments, synopses, and essays. He did not write the stories in the order of Conan’s fictional life.

For first-time readers, composition order is preferable because it shows Howard discovering and reshaping the character. The three Del Rey collections provide the most practical modern route.

The Definitive Three-Volume Conan Order

1. The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian (2003): This opening collection presents the first phase of Howard’s Conan writing, moving from Conan as king in “The Phoenix on the Sword” to younger adventures involving thieves, pirates, soldiers, sorcerers, and lost civilizations.
2. The Bloody Crown of Conan (2004): The middle volume contains “The People of the Black Circle,” The Hour of the Dragon, and “A Witch Shall Be Born,” emphasizing rebellion, kingship, captivity, and large political conflicts.
3. The Conquering Sword of Conan (2005): The concluding volume collects later stories in which Conan operates on frontiers, in ruined cities, and against both human conquest and supernatural corruption.

Together, these books gather Howard’s completed Conan fiction, surviving drafts, outlines, notes, and related material in a sequence based broadly on composition.

What Is in The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian?

The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian (2003): This collection includes early Conan stories such as “The Phoenix on the Sword,” “The Frost-Giant’s Daughter,” “The God in the Bowl,” “The Tower of the Elephant,” “The Scarlet Citadel,” “Queen of the Black Coast,” “Black Colossus,” and “Rogues in the House.”

The book begins with Howard’s earliest conception of Conan rather than with the character’s childhood. This allows readers to encounter the Cimmerian as Howard developed him.

What Is in The Bloody Crown of Conan?

The Bloody Crown of Conan (2004): This collection contains three of Howard’s longest Conan narratives and places greater emphasis on kingdoms, armies, religious power, and contested thrones.

Its central work, The Hour of the Dragon, follows King Conan after conspirators remove him from Aquilonia’s throne and restore an ancient sorcerer to power.

What Is in The Conquering Sword of Conan?

The Conquering Sword of Conan (2005): This volume includes “The Servants of Bit-Yakin,” “Beyond the Black River,” “The Black Stranger,” “Man-Eaters of Zamboula,” and “Red Nails,” along with drafts and supporting material.

The later stories frequently place Conan at the edge of civilization, where imperial expansion, tribal conflict, decadence, and supernatural survival meet.

The Hour of the Dragon

The Hour of the Dragon (1935 to 1936): Howard’s only completed Conan novel follows the Cimmerian after he has become king of Aquilonia and is overthrown by conspirators backed by the resurrected sorcerer Xaltotun.

The novel was serialized in Weird Tales and later published under the title Conan the Conqueror. Both titles refer to the same central work, although particular editions may contain textual differences.

Readers using the three-volume Conan set will find it inside The Bloody Crown of Conan. A separate copy is unnecessary unless a preferred illustrated or annotated edition is desired.

Conan Chronological Order

Howard never finalized a complete chronology for Conan’s life. Later scholars and editors have proposed timelines, but those arrangements require interpretation.

A broad fictional progression places Conan in these stages:

1. Young thief and wandering adventurer
2. Mercenary and soldier
3. Pirate and outlaw leader
4. Frontier scout
5. Military commander
6. King of Aquilonia

Reading the stories in that order can create the impression of a conventional biography, but it removes the unpredictability of Howard’s original presentation. Howard moved freely across Conan’s life, first showing him as a king and later returning to earlier adventures.

For new readers, the three-volume composition-based order is safer. Chronological arrangements are better for rereading.

Older Conan Collections and Editorial Versions

Numerous Conan books appeared before the modern restored-text collections.

Gnome Press Conan Books

1. Conan the Conqueror (1950): This early hardcover edition presents The Hour of the Dragon under an alternate title and helped establish Conan in book form.
2. The Sword of Conan (1952): This collection gathers several adventures into an editorial sequence designed to resemble part of Conan’s life story.
3. The Coming of Conan (1953): Earlier Conan adventures were assembled into another stage of the character’s supposed chronology.
4. King Conan (1953): Stories featuring or associated with Conan’s kingship were grouped together.
5. Conan the Barbarian (1954): Additional stories were arranged as part of the developing book sequence.
6. Tales of Conan (1955): Non-Conan Howard stories rewritten into Conan adventures were included in this collection, making it separate from a pure Howard-original reading list.
7. The Return of Conan (1957): This continuation was written by Björn Nyberg with revisions by L. Sprague de Camp and is not a Robert E. Howard novel.

These volumes are historically important but do not offer the simplest route to Howard’s original texts.

Lancer and Ace Conan Series

The Lancer and later Ace paperbacks arranged Conan’s life into an influential chronological sequence. They mixed Howard stories with editorial revisions, completions, and new stories by L. Sprague de Camp, Lin Carter, and others.

The series helped make Conan internationally popular, but it should be labeled Separate editorial continuity when the goal is to read Howard alone.

Conan the Barbarian

Conan the Barbarian (2011): This later single-volume collection offers a selection of Howard’s Conan stories rather than the complete original sequence.

It is useful as a compact introduction, but readers who want all of Howard’s Conan material should choose the three-volume set beginning with The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian.

Kull Books in Order

Kull is an Atlantean warrior who becomes king of Valusia during a prehistoric age before Conan’s Hyborian world. His stories examine kingship, identity, law, conspiracy, and the fragile distinction between civilization and barbarism.

Howard’s Kull material is most easily read in one comprehensive collection.

1. Kull: Exile of Atlantis (2006): This restored-text collection gathers the Kull stories, poems, fragments, drafts, and related material, including “The Shadow Kingdom,” “The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune,” and “By This Axe I Rule!”

“Kull: Exile of Atlantis” is therefore both the title of a collection and a phrase associated with Kull’s early life. It is not the first volume of a multi-book modern series.

Important Kull Stories

The Shadow Kingdom (1929): Kull discovers that serpent people may have infiltrated the Valusian court, creating an early model for modern sword-and-sorcery fiction.

The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune (1929): A weary Kull becomes fascinated by mirrors that challenge his understanding of reality, identity, and the limits of kingship.

By This Axe I Rule! (1975): Kull confronts legal restrictions, political rebellion, and the conflict between inherited law and a ruler’s judgment in a story published long after Howard’s death.

Kull and Conan Continuity

Kull’s age precedes Conan’s in Howard’s fictional prehistory. “Kings of the Night” also brings Kull into the Bran Mak Morn cycle through supernatural time displacement.

The settings are connected through recurring ideas, legendary history, and Howard’s imagined succession of ages. Readers still do not need to read Kull before Conan.

Publication and composition history matter more than fictional chronology.

Solomon Kane Books in Order

Solomon Kane is a wandering English Puritan of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. He travels through Europe and Africa, driven by an uncompromising need to confront cruelty and supernatural evil.

1. The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane (2004): This comprehensive collection gathers Howard’s completed Kane stories, poems, fragments, and drafts in one volume.

The collection is the best single starting point. No separate modern multi-volume order is required.

Major Solomon Kane Stories

Red Shadows (1928): Kane pursues the French criminal Le Loup from Europe into Africa, where revenge becomes entangled with sorcery and colonial violence.

Skulls in the Stars (1929): A haunted road forces Kane to investigate a murder whose victim cannot rest.

Rattle of Bones (1929): Kane stops at an isolated inn where the host’s secrets and a chained skeleton create a compact supernatural confrontation.

The Moon of Skulls (1930): Kane searches for a missing Englishwoman in the ancient African city of Negari.

The Hills of the Dead (1930): Kane and the African sorcerer N’Longa confront vampires with the help of a powerful magical staff.

Wings in the Night (1932): Kane encounters a community preyed upon by winged creatures and responds with increasingly destructive determination.

The Footfalls Within (1931): Kane faces enslavement, an ancient temple, and a supernatural entity connected to forgotten history.

Solomon Kane Chronological Order

The stories can be arranged around Kane’s journeys from Europe into Africa, but Howard did not construct them as a tightly plotted serial.

Reading the comprehensive collection in its editorial order is sufficient. The fragments should be treated as unfinished glimpses, not complete later installments.

Bran Mak Morn Books in Order

Bran Mak Morn is the last king of Howard’s ancient Picts during the Roman occupation of Britain. His cycle links historical conflict with racial memory, horror, and supernatural survival.

1. Bran Mak Morn: The Last King (2005): This collection gathers the principal Bran stories, poetry, drafts, and Pict-related material in restored form.

The volume includes works that expand Howard’s wider vision of the Picts, not only stories in which Bran serves as the central viewpoint.

Major Bran Mak Morn Stories

Men of the Shadows (1969): Bran and the Picts are placed within a long racial history stretching through migrations, wars, and cultural decline.

Kings of the Night (1930): Bran summons Kull from a distant age to help lead the Picts and their allies against Roman forces.

Worms of the Earth (1932): Bran seeks supernatural aid against Rome and discovers that the price of vengeance is more degrading than he expected.

Bran Mak Morn (1983): This fragment and associated material provide another unfinished glimpse of Howard’s Pictish king.

El Borak Books in Order

El Borak is the name given to Francis Xavier Gordon, a Texan adventurer active across Afghanistan and surrounding regions during the early twentieth century.

The stories combine frontier adventure, political intrigue, tribal warfare, espionage, lost treasure, and occasional strange or supernatural atmosphere.

1. El Borak and Other Desert Adventures (2010): This broad collection gathers major El Borak stories alongside adventures featuring Kirby O’Donnell and Steve Clarney.
2. The Early Adventures of El Borak (2010): This specialist collection preserves juvenilia, fragments, synopses, and early versions connected to Gordon and the Sonora Kid.

Read El Borak and Other Desert Adventures first. The Early Adventures of El Borak is archival material intended for readers already interested in Howard’s development.

Major El Borak Stories

The Daughter of Erlik Khan (1934): Gordon becomes involved in a dangerous rescue and political struggle in the mountains of Central Asia.

Hawk of the Hills (1935): Tribal rivalries, revenge, and military strategy draw Gordon into a conflict where alliances change quickly.

Blood of the Gods (1935): A search for treasure and a missing man develops into a contest involving betrayal and violence.

The Country of the Knife (1936): Gordon enters another regional conflict in which political motives and personal loyalties remain difficult to separate.

Son of the White Wolf (1936): El Borak confronts a plan capable of destabilizing British influence and local power across the region.

Three-Bladed Doom (1976 and 1977): Gordon faces a secretive cult and a plot involving assassination, with both shorter and longer versions surviving.

Dark Agnes Books in Order

Dark Agnes de Chastillon is a French swordswoman who rejects an arranged marriage and creates a life defined by danger, independence, and violence.

Howard completed two Dark Agnes stories and left a third unfinished.

1. Sword Woman and Other Historical Adventures (2011): This collection includes the Dark Agnes stories alongside other historical adventures and is the most convenient modern source.

Dark Agnes Stories

Sword Woman (1975): Agnes escapes a forced marriage and begins remaking herself as a fighter in sixteenth-century France.

Blades for France (1975): Agnes and Etienne Villiers become involved in conspiracy, betrayal, and violent competition among powerful factions.

Mistress of Death (1971): Howard’s unfinished Agnes story was later completed by Gerald W. Page, so editions containing the completion should identify the added authorship.

Dark Agnes is not the same character as Red Sonya. Red Sonya of Rogatino appears in a separate historical story and was later transformed by comics into the more familiar fantasy heroine Red Sonja.

Cormac FitzGeoffrey Books in Order

Cormac FitzGeoffrey is a warrior of mixed Norman and Gaelic heritage who fights during the period of the Crusades.

1. Sword Woman and Other Historical Adventures (2011): This collection contains Howard’s principal Cormac stories in their wider historical-fiction setting.

Cormac FitzGeoffrey Stories

Hawks of Outremer (1931): Cormac pursues revenge in the Crusader states after the murder of a friend.

The Blood of Belshazzar (1931): Rival warriors gather around a valuable jewel, creating a violent contest inside an isolated stronghold.

The Slave-Princess (1979): This unfinished fragment begins another Cormac adventure without providing a complete resolution.

Turlogh O’Brien Books in Order

Turlogh Dubh O’Brien is an exiled Irish warrior whose adventures combine historical conflict with supernatural or mythic elements.

1. Sword Woman and Other Historical Adventures (2011): This collection includes Turlogh material alongside stories of other historical fighters.
2. Swords of the North (2014): This specialist collection gathers Howard’s Celtic and Viking adventures, giving Turlogh and related northern stories a broader historical context.

Major Turlogh Stories

The Dark Man (1931): Turlogh pursues abductors to an island where Norse violence and an ancient Pictish idol become part of the same conflict.

The Gods of Bal-Sagoth (1931): Turlogh reaches a lost island civilization divided by political struggle, forgotten gods, and impending destruction.

Historical Adventure Collections

Howard wrote extensively about Crusaders, Vikings, Irish warriors, pirates, mercenaries, and fighters caught between cultures.

1. Sword Woman and Other Historical Adventures (2011): This accessible collection gathers Dark Agnes, Cormac FitzGeoffrey, Turlogh O’Brien, Red Sonya of Rogatino, and other historical characters.
2. The Sowers of the Thunder (1973): Crusader-era and medieval adventures are collected around warfare, religious conflict, and personal ambition.
3. Gates of Empire and Other Tales of the Crusades (2004): This collection concentrates on stories set during the Crusades and the violent political world surrounding them.
4. Swords of the North (2014): Celtic, Irish, Norse, and northern European stories are brought together in a specialist volume.
5. Pirate Adventures (2013): Howard’s non-Conan and non-Solomon Kane pirate stories are collected, including material featuring Black Vulmea.
6. The Road of Azrael (1979): Historical adventures involving the Middle East, Central Asia, and violent clashes among empires are assembled under one title.

These books overlap in characters, settings, or individual stories. Readers should check contents before buying several historical collections.

Breckinridge Elkins Books in Order

Breckinridge Elkins is an immensely strong, good-natured, and destructive mountain man whose attempts to help relatives or neighbors usually produce gunfights, feuds, and widespread property damage.

Unlike Howard’s darker heroes, Breckinridge belongs to a comic western tradition.

1. A Gent from Bear Creek (1937): Published shortly after Howard’s death, this linked collection presents Breckinridge’s misadventures in a form approaching an episodic comic novel.
2. The Pride of Bear Creek (1966): Additional Breckinridge stories were gathered in another collection of exaggerated frontier comedy.
3. Mayhem on Bear Creek (1971): More feuds, misunderstandings, fights, and family obligations extend the Bear Creek material.
4. The Adventures of Breckinridge Elkins, Volume 1 (2016): This specialist collection begins a more extensive presentation of the Breckinridge stories.
5. The Adventures of Breckinridge Elkins, Volume 2 (2017): The second specialist volume completes the paired collection with further stories and supporting material.

Readers seeking one inexpensive introduction can choose A Gent from Bear Creek. Collectors wanting a broader restored set should use the two-volume edition.

Pike Bearfield Books

Pike Bearfield is another exaggerated western figure whose comic adventures resemble the Bear Creek stories while retaining a separate identity.

1. Pike Bearfield (2004): This collection gathers Howard’s humorous stories about the powerful and quarrelsome western character.

Pike’s stories do not continue Breckinridge Elkins’s life, even though both cycles use tall-tale violence, frontier feuds, and comic misunderstanding.

Traditional and Weird Western Collections

1. The Black Stranger and Other American Tales (2005): This collection gathers western, regional, and American-set stories, including works that move between adventure and horror.
2. Western Tales (2013): Traditional westerns, weird westerns, fragments, and rarities are assembled in a large specialist volume.
3. Vultures of Wahpeton (2006): Howard’s western stories about corruption, gunfighters, lawlessness, and violent frontier communities are collected around one of his best-known western novellas.
4. The End of the Trail (2005): A selection of western stories presents Howard’s harsher vision of frontier survival and fading outlaw culture.

These collections overlap. Western Tales is the broadest specialist choice, while The End of the Trail offers a more accessible introduction.

Sailor Steve Costigan Books in Order

Sailor Steve Costigan is a merchant seaman and boxer whose stories combine prizefighting, travel, comedy, and repeated misunderstandings.

The narrator is tough and sincere but rarely understands a situation as clearly as he believes he does.

1. Sailor Steve Costigan (1975): A selection of Costigan’s boxing and seafaring stories introduces the character’s comic voice and recurring companion, Mike the bulldog.
2. The Iron Man (1976): Boxing stories, including material not always limited to Costigan, are collected around Howard’s interest in fighters and physical endurance.
3. Waterfront Fists and Others (2003): Costigan and related boxing stories appear in a broader collection of ring and waterfront fiction.
4. Fists of Iron, Round 1 (2013): The first volume of the Robert E. Howard Foundation’s collected boxing fiction begins the comprehensive sequence.
5. Fists of Iron, Round 2 (2014): The second volume presents the first major portion of the Sailor Steve Costigan stories.
6. Fists of Iron, Round 3 (2015): The third volume completes the remaining major Costigan material.
7. Fists of Iron, Round 4 (2016): The final volume focuses on Kid Allison and completes the four-volume boxing collection.

The four Fists of Iron volumes are the specialist route. Casual readers can begin with a smaller Costigan collection.

Kid Allison Books

Kid Allison is another Howard boxing character, distinct from Sailor Steve Costigan.

1. Fists of Iron, Round 4 (2016): The final volume of the collected boxing fiction gathers the Kid Allison stories and associated material.

These stories are separate from the Costigan continuity, although both cycles draw on Howard’s experience with boxing culture.

Steve Harrison Books in Order

Steve Harrison is a hardboiled detective whose cases often begin as crime fiction and move toward horror, exotic menace, or apparent supernatural danger.

1. Skull-Face and Others (1946): This early major collection includes several horror and adventure stories, with some material associated with Howard’s detective and occult fiction.
2. Steve Harrison’s Casebook (2011): Harrison’s principal cases are gathered into a dedicated collection.
3. Tales of Weird Menace (2011): Crime, horror, and menace stories are collected around the pulp tradition in which apparently supernatural threats often conceal human violence, or prove stranger than expected.

Major Steve Harrison Stories

Fangs of Gold (1934): Harrison investigates a violent mystery involving wealth, deception, and a criminal threat hidden behind ordinary appearances.

Graveyard Rats (1936): A case involving murder and a cemetery turns into a grim pursuit through an environment filled with physical and psychological danger.

Names in the Black Book (1934): Harrison confronts a criminal network and a case shaped by secrets recorded in a dangerous document.

The Tomb’s Secret (1976): The detective enters another mystery involving death, concealment, and a past that refuses to remain buried.

John Kirowan and Conrad Stories

John Kirowan is an occult scholar who appears with John Conrad and other recurring figures in stories about forbidden knowledge, cursed objects, and supernatural investigation.

1. The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard (2008): Several Kirowan-related stories appear within Howard’s wider horror output.
2. Tales of Weird Menace (2011): Related occult and menace stories provide another route into Howard’s recurring investigators.
3. Skull-Face and Others (1946): This historically important collection includes horror, fantasy, and occult stories from several cycles.

The Kirowan stories are loosely connected rather than structured as a novel series. They can be read in collection order.

Horror Collections in Order

Howard’s horror fiction includes Southern Gothic, cosmic horror, haunted places, racial memory, occult investigators, werewolves, ghosts, and ancient survivals.

1. Skull-Face and Others (1946): This foundational posthumous collection helped establish Howard’s reputation beyond Conan by gathering horror, fantasy, and adventure fiction.
2. Cthulhu: The Mythos and Kindred Horrors (1987): Stories connected to cosmic horror and the wider Mythos tradition are collected together.
3. People of the Dark (2005): Horror and dark fantasy stories emphasize reincarnation, ancient memory, underground survivals, and violent supernatural encounters.
4. The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard (2008): This substantial restored-text collection provides the strongest general overview of Howard’s horror writing.
5. Tales of Weird Menace (2011): Menace, crime, and horror stories reflect the pulp tradition of concealed cults, sadistic villains, and apparently supernatural danger.

Essential Robert E. Howard Horror Stories

Pigeons from Hell (1938): Two travelers enter an abandoned Southern plantation and encounter a family history shaped by murder, decay, and supernatural vengeance.

Black Canaan (1936): A returning Southerner confronts racial tension, swamp magic, and a plan to unleash violence across an isolated community.

The Black Stone (1931): An occult researcher investigates a monolith, a forbidden book, and traces of an ancient cult.

The Thing on the Roof (1932): Scholars dismiss a warning about an ancient object until the consequences appear directly above them.

The Children of the Night (1931): An ordinary gathering triggers ancestral memory and a violent identification with a warrior from the distant past.

The People of the Dark (1932): Reincarnation and buried memory connect modern jealousy to an ancient underground horror.

Skull-Face (1929): A damaged veteran becomes entangled with a criminal mastermind whose origins may lie outside accepted history.

James Allison Stories

James Allison is a physically disabled modern man who remembers earlier lives as warriors in prehistoric or legendary ages.

1. The Valley of the Worm (1974): This collection centers on heroic-fantasy and reincarnation stories, including material associated with Allison.
2. The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard (2008): Some Allison-related or thematically connected stories appear among Howard’s wider horror fiction.
3. The Ultimate Triumph: The Heroic Fantasy of Robert E. Howard (1999): Heroic-fantasy stories from outside the major character cycles are gathered into one specialist collection.

Major James Allison Stories

The Valley of the Worm (1934): Allison remembers a prehistoric life in which a tribal warrior confronts an inhuman creature worshipped by a degraded people.

The Garden of Fear (1934): Another remembered life involves a winged enemy, a captive woman, and a strange tower rising from a dangerous landscape.

The Tower of Time (1975): This fragment offers another incomplete vision of Allison’s remembered heroic past.

Almuric

Almuric (1939): Esau Cairn, a powerful man unable to fit into modern society, is transported to a savage planet where he encounters humanlike peoples, winged enemies, and constant physical conflict.

This sword-and-planet novel was serialized after Howard’s death. Questions have been raised about the extent of posthumous editorial involvement in its final published form, so readers should avoid treating every sentence as unquestionably finalized by Howard.

The novel is separate continuity from Conan, Kull, and Howard’s other heroic cycles.

Post Oaks and Sand Roughs

Post Oaks and Sand Roughs (1990): Howard’s partly autobiographical novel follows young writers in small-town Texas and offers a fictionalized view of ambition, friendship, frustration, and literary life.

The book is not fantasy and does not share continuity with his adventure characters.

Post Oaks and Sand Roughs & Other Autobiographical Writings (2015): This expanded specialist edition combines the novel with additional autobiographical material, providing a broader view of Howard’s life and self-perception.

Other Major General Collections

1. The Dark Man and Others (1963): Fantasy and adventure stories from several periods of Howard’s career are gathered in an influential early collection.
2. The Gods of Bal-Sagoth (1979): Heroic fantasy, lost-race adventure, and supernatural stories are collected around the Turlogh O’Brien title story.
3. The Book of Robert E. Howard (1976): Fiction, poetry, and other writings are combined in a broad posthumous selection.
4. The Second Book of Robert E. Howard (1976): The companion volume adds further stories and poems from Howard’s varied output.
5. Black Vulmea’s Vengeance (1976): Pirate and historical adventures are collected around the Irish pirate Terence Vulmea.
6. Night Images (1976): Poetry and dark imaginative writing reveal Howard’s work outside conventional adventure prose.
7. The Last Ride (1978): Western and adventure stories focus on gunfighters, violence, and the end of frontier lives.
8. The Howard Collector (1961 to 1973): This periodical series published rare stories, fragments, poetry, letters, and scholarship rather than forming a conventional book sequence.
9. The Ultimate Triumph: The Heroic Fantasy of Robert E. Howard (1999): Heroic-fantasy stories outside the main Conan and Kull collections are gathered with restored texts and editorial material.
10. The Black Stranger and Other American Tales (2005): American-set stories move among western, regional, boxing, crime, and horror traditions.
11. The Last of the Trunk (2007): Rare, unpublished, unfinished, and previously difficult-to-find material from Howard’s surviving papers is assembled for specialist readers.
12. Sentiment: An Olio of Rarer Works (2009): Rare stories and miscellaneous pieces from small-press sources are gathered in a large archival collection.

These books contain substantial overlap with character-specific editions. They are better for collectors than for readers building a first Howard shelf.

The Best of Robert E. Howard Books in Order

1. The Best of Robert E. Howard, Volume 1: Crimson Shadows (2007): This anthology moves among Kull, Solomon Kane, Bran Mak Morn, horror, boxing, western, El Borak, poetry, and other parts of Howard’s career.
2. The Best of Robert E. Howard, Volume 2: Grim Lands (2007): The second anthology offers another cross-genre selection, allowing readers to sample Howard without committing to every character collection.

These volumes complement each other. They are not a continuous narrative, so reading them out of order causes no continuity problem.

Robert E. Howard Poetry Books

Howard wrote hundreds of poems, including historical verse, fantasy, horror, regional pieces, and reflections on violence, death, time, and civilization.

1. Always Comes Evening (1957): This early poetry collection helped preserve Howard’s verse and established that his literary output extended beyond pulp fiction.
2. Echoes from an Iron Harp (1972): Additional poems present Howard’s fascination with lost ages, warriors, landscape, and mortality.
3. Night Images (1976): Darker poetry and imaginative writing are gathered in another posthumous volume.
4. A Rhyme of Salem Town and Other Poems (2007): Rare and selected poems were collected as an early Robert E. Howard Foundation Press publication.
5. The Collected Poetry of Robert E. Howard (2009): More than seven hundred known poems and prose poems are assembled in the most comprehensive single-volume poetry edition.
6. A Word from the Outer Dark (2009): Selected poems present Howard’s verse in a more accessible format than the large collected edition.

A new multi-volume edition of Howard’s collected poetry has been planned, but no completed replacement set had been confirmed by August 6, 2026.

Robert E. Howard Letters in Order

Howard’s letters discuss fiction, history, boxing, politics, travel, Texas, publishing, poetry, and his long correspondence with H. P. Lovecraft.

The current expanded Robert E. Howard Foundation editions form the clearest sequence:

1. The Collected Letters of Robert E. Howard, Volume 1 (2021): The opening volume gathers early correspondence and restores material unavailable when the original letter set was prepared.
2. The Collected Letters of Robert E. Howard, Volume 2 (2022): Letters from the central years of Howard’s career show his professional growth, intellectual debates, and relationships with fellow writers.
3. The Collected Letters of Robert E. Howard, Volume 3 (2022): The final volume covers 1933 through 1936 and follows Howard through his most productive later years.

These books replace the earlier three-volume edition for readers seeking the most complete currently available version.

Robert E. Howard Foundation Specialist Collections

The Robert E. Howard Foundation Press has issued limited and scholarly volumes aimed at collectors.

1. The Last of the Trunk (2007): Surviving unpublished, unfinished, and rare material from Howard’s papers is brought together in a large archival collection.
2. Sentiment: An Olio of Rarer Works (2009): Stories and miscellaneous writings once scattered through scarce publications are restored and collected.
3. The Early Adventures of El Borak (2010): Juvenilia, fragments, and early Gordon material document Howard’s development of the adventurer.
4. Spicy Adventures (2011): Howard’s stories for the spicy pulps are presented with material restored where earlier publication had reduced or altered the intended content.
5. Adventures in Science Fantasy (2012): Howard’s science-fictional and science-fantasy stories are assembled outside his better-known sword-and-sorcery work.
6. Pirate Adventures (2013): Non-Conan and non-Kane pirate fiction, including Black Vulmea material, is collected in one specialist volume.
7. Fists of Iron, Round 1 (2013): The collected boxing sequence begins with fighters and stories outside the principal Costigan block.
8. Fists of Iron, Round 2 (2014): The first half of the Sailor Steve Costigan material is presented.
9. Western Tales (2014): Traditional westerns, weird westerns, alternate texts, and fragments are gathered together.
10. Fists of Iron, Round 3 (2015): The remaining major Costigan stories continue the boxing collection.
11. Swords of the North (2015): Celtic and Viking adventures are assembled around Howard’s interest in northern history and legend.
12. Post Oaks and Sand Roughs & Other Autobiographical Writings (2015): Howard’s autobiographical novel is joined by additional material reflecting his life and ambitions.
13. Fists of Iron, Round 4 (2016): Kid Allison and related boxing material complete the four-volume sequence.
14. The Adventures of Breckinridge Elkins, Volume 1 (2016): The comic western collection begins a comprehensive presentation of the Bear Creek hero.
15. The Adventures of Breckinridge Elkins, Volume 2 (2017): The second volume completes the paired Breckinridge collection.

These editions are often limited and may be difficult to obtain. They are optional for readers who already own the principal trade collections.

Books Written by Other Authors

Conan and several other Howard characters continued after his death. Those books should not be attributed solely to Robert E. Howard unless they contain his original material.

Posthumous Completions

A later writer may complete an unfinished Howard draft or fragment. The published result contains Howard material but is not entirely his work.

Examples include completed versions of Dark Agnes fragments and Conan stories developed from outlines or unrelated Howard narratives.

Status: Separate editorial text.

Conan Pastiches

Writers including L. Sprague de Camp, Lin Carter, Björn Nyberg, Poul Anderson, Karl Edward Wagner, Robert Jordan, John Maddox Roberts, Leonard Carpenter, and many others have written Conan adventures.

These works form various licensed continuities and publishing sequences.

Status: Separate continuity.

Comic and Media Adaptations

Conan, Solomon Kane, Kull, and other characters have appeared in comics, films, games, and novelizations.

Those adaptations may borrow Howard titles or characters without reproducing the original stories.

Status: Adaptation or new licensed continuity.

Common Duplicate Books

Howard collections overlap heavily. Before buying a book, check whether its contents already appear in a comprehensive character collection.

Conan Duplicates

The Hour of the Dragon, Conan the Conqueror, and the version included in The Bloody Crown of Conan contain the same central novel.

Older Conan collections may repeat stories found in the three modern restored-text volumes.

Solomon Kane Duplicates

Smaller books titled after individual stories may contain material already included in The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane.

Kull Duplicates

Collections called King Kull, Kull, or Kull: Exile of Atlantis may cover much of the same material but use different texts or editorial arrangements.

General Anthology Duplicates

Crimson Shadows, Grim Lands, The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard, and historical or western collections may repeat individual stories while serving different editorial purposes.

Latest Robert E. Howard Book Status

Robert E. Howard died on June 11, 1936. There can therefore be no newly written Howard novel.

New books bearing his name are posthumous collections, restored editions, facsimiles, newly illustrated versions, or publications of surviving drafts and archival material.

As of August 6, 2026, no newly discovered complete novel by Howard had been reliably announced. Recent publishing activity continues to concentrate on new editions of known work, including illustrated Conan volumes and specialist Robert E. Howard Foundation publications.

Readers should distinguish a newly released edition from a newly written story. A 2026 publication date does not mean Howard composed the work recently or that it continues an established series.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Robert E. Howard book should I read first?

Start with The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian for sword and sorcery.

Start with The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard when supernatural fiction interests you more than heroic fantasy.

Start with Crimson Shadows when you want to sample several genres before choosing a character collection.

What is the correct order of the Conan books?

Read The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, The Bloody Crown of Conan, and The Conquering Sword of Conan.

This order follows Howard’s development of Conan more closely than fictional chronology and keeps the restored original stories together.

Did Robert E. Howard write Conan novels?

He completed one Conan novel, The Hour of the Dragon.

Most Conan adventures are short stories or novellas. Later full-length Conan novels were written by other authors.

Is Conan the Conqueror a different book from The Hour of the Dragon?

No. Conan the Conqueror is an alternate book title for The Hour of the Dragon.

The text may vary among editions because of editorial changes, but the underlying novel is the same.

Should Kull be read before Conan?

Not necessarily. Kull’s age occurs earlier in Howard’s fictional prehistory, but the Conan stories do not require prior knowledge of him.

Read Kull first only when you specifically want to follow Howard’s development of sword and sorcery before Conan.

Are Kull and Conan in the same world?

Their settings belong to different prehistoric ages within Howard’s broad imagined history.

The connection is thematic and historical rather than a direct continuing narrative between the two heroes.

Are Bran Mak Morn and Kull connected?

Yes. “Kings of the Night” uses sorcery to bring Kull into Bran’s era so he can help lead warriors against Rome.

Read the story in Bran Mak Morn: The Last King. Kull’s own collection provides additional context but is not mandatory.

Is Solomon Kane connected to Conan?

Not through a direct series narrative. Kane lives in a fictionalized early modern world, while Conan belongs to the prehistoric Hyborian Age.

Howard’s recurring themes and imagined historical cycles create echoes between them, but one series does not continue the other.

Who is El Borak?

El Borak is Francis Xavier Gordon, a Texan adventurer active in Afghanistan and neighboring regions.

His stories are primarily adventure fiction rather than sword and sorcery.

Is Dark Agnes the original Red Sonja?

No. Dark Agnes is a separate French swordswoman created by Howard.

The comic-book Red Sonja was inspired partly by Red Sonya of Rogatino, a firearm-using character from Howard’s historical story “The Shadow of the Vulture,” but the familiar fantasy heroine was developed later by other creators.

Is Almuric part of the Conan universe?

No. Almuric is a separate sword-and-planet adventure.

Its protagonist, planet, cultures, and conflict do not belong to the Hyborian Age.

Are the Lancer Conan books original Robert E. Howard?

Only partly. The sequence combines Howard stories with edited texts, completed fragments, and new stories by later writers.

They are historically important but should not be confused with a Howard-only collection.

Which Conan editions use Howard’s original texts?

The three-volume sequence beginning with The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian was prepared from early authoritative sources, including surviving typescripts when available.

Those books are the most practical widely available choice for readers seeking Howard’s own Conan.

Are Robert E. Howard’s series complete?

Howard’s principal character cycles ended with his death, but many contain unfinished stories, fragments, and unrealized plans.

The surviving Conan, Kull, Solomon Kane, Bran Mak Morn, and El Borak material can be read as complete bodies of work, even though Howard did not write formal endings for most characters.

Do the short stories need to be read chronologically?

Usually not. Howard wrote episodic adventures and often moved between different periods in a character’s life.

Composition or collection order better preserves how the characters developed.

What is the newest Robert E. Howard book?

There is no single permanent answer because publishers continue releasing new collections and illustrated editions of existing material.

These should be described as new editions, not new stories written by Howard.

The Best Reading Order for New Readers

Begin with the three Conan collections:

1. The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian
2. The Bloody Crown of Conan
3. The Conquering Sword of Conan

Then move outward through Howard’s other major heroic characters:

4. Kull: Exile of Atlantis
5. The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane
6. Bran Mak Morn: The Last King
7. El Borak and Other Desert Adventures
8. Sword Woman and Other Historical Adventures

Finish the introductory shelf with Howard’s broader genres:

9. The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard
10. The Best of Robert E. Howard, Volume 1: Crimson Shadows
11. The Best of Robert E. Howard, Volume 2: Grim Lands

After those books, choose specialist collections according to interest. Read A Gent from Bear Creek for comic westerns, the Fists of Iron sequence for boxing fiction, Steve Harrison’s Casebook for detective stories, and The Collected Poetry of Robert E. Howard or The Collected Letters for archival study.

The decisive rule is to choose Howard-only or restored-text editions before entering the many later Conan continuities. His characters rarely require strict fictional chronology, but the edition you select can determine whether you are reading Howard’s prose, an editorial revision, or an entirely new adventure written after his death.