Editing Conan the Barbarian (section)

==Publication history==
Robert E. Howard created Conan the Barbarian in a series of fantasy stories published in ''Weird Tales'' from 1932.<ref>Herron (1984). p. 149: "Robert E. Howard of Cross Plains, Texas, created one of the great mythic figures in modern popular culture, the Dark Barbarian... [which] put Howard in the select ranks of the literary legend-makers"</ref> Howard was searching for a new character to market to the burgeoning pulp outlets of the early 1930s. In October 1931, he submitted the short story "People of the Dark" to Clayton Publications' new magazine, ''[[Strange Tales of Mystery and Terror]]'' (June 1932). "People of the Dark" is a story about the remembrance of "[[past lives]]", and in its first-person narrative, the protagonist describes one of his previous incarnations: Conan is a black-haired [[barbarian]] hero who swears by a deity called [[Crom (fictional deity)|Crom]]. Some Howard scholars believe this Conan to be a forerunner of the more famous character.<ref name="Hyborian Genesis">Louinet, pp. 429–453</ref>

In February 1932, Howard vacationed at a border town on the lower [[Rio Grande]]. During this trip, he further conceived the character of Conan and also wrote the poem "[[Cimmeria (poem)|Cimmeria]]", much of which echoes specific passages in [[Plutarch]]'s ''[[Parallel Lives|Lives]]''.<ref>"Hyborean Genesis: Notes on the Creation of the Conan Stories", by Patrice Louinet; in [https://books.google.com/books?id=mTFV7Q5Nd4IC The Coming Of Conan The Cimmerian], by Robert Ervin Howard, Del Rey/Ballantine Books, 2005, [https://books.google.com/books?id=mTFV7Q5Nd4IC&dq=howard%20conan%201932%20rio%20grande%20cimmeria&pg=PA424 p. 424]</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=SRDUAAAAQBAJ Conversations with Texas Writers], by Frances Leonard and Ramona Cearley, University of Texas Press, 1 Jan 2010, [https://books.google.com/books?id=SRDUAAAAQBAJ&dq=howard%20conan%201932%20rio%20grande%20cimmeria&pg=PT217 p. 217]</ref> According to some scholars, reading [[Thomas Bulfinch]] inspired Howard to "coalesce into a coherent whole his literary aspirations and the strong physical, autobiographical elements underlying the creation of Conan".<ref name="Hyborian Genesis"/>

Having digested these influences upon returning from his trip, Howard rewrote a rejected story, "[[By This Axe I Rule!]]" (May 1929), replacing his existing character [[Kull of Atlantis]] with his new hero and re-titling it "[[The Phoenix on the Sword]]". Howard also wrote "[[The Scarlet Citadel]]" and "[[The Frost-Giant's Daughter]]", inspired by the [[Greek mythology|Greek myth]] of [[Daphne]],{{citation needed|date=November 2011}} and submitted both stories to ''[[Weird Tales]]'' magazine. Although "[[The Frost-Giant's Daughter]]" was rejected, the magazine accepted "The Phoenix on the Sword" after it received the requested polishing, and published it in the December 1932 issue. "The Scarlet Citadel" was published the following month.<ref name="Hyborian Genesis"/>

"The Phoenix on the Sword" appeared in ''Weird Tales'' [[cover-date]]d December&nbsp;1932. Editor [[Farnsworth Wright]] subsequently prompted Howard to write an 8,000-word essay for personal use detailing "the [[Hyborian Age]]", the fictional setting for Conan. Using this essay as his guideline, Howard began plotting "[[The Tower of the Elephant]]", a new Conan story that was the first to integrate his new conception of the Hyborian world.<ref name="Hyborian Genesis"/>

The publication and success of "The Tower of the Elephant" spurred Howard to write more Conan stories for ''Weird Tales''. By the time of Howard's suicide in 1936, he had written 21&nbsp;complete stories, 17&nbsp;of&nbsp;which had been published, as well as multiple unfinished fragments.<ref name="Hyborian Genesis"/>

Following Howard's death, the copyright of the Conan stories passed through several hands. Eventually [[L. Sprague de Camp]] was entrusted with management of the fiction line and, beginning with 1967's ''[[Conan (short story collection)|Conan]]'' released by [[Lancer Books]], oversaw a paperback series collecting all of Howard's stories (Lancer folded in 1973 and [[Ace Books]] picked up the line, reprinting the older volumes with new [[trade dress]] and continuing to release new ones).<ref name="ps">{{cite book |last=Sammon |first=Paul |date=2013 |title=Conan the Phenomenon : the legacy of Robert E. Howard's fantasy icon |location=Milwaukie OR |publisher=Dark Horse Books |page=12-13 |isbn=9781616551889}}</ref> Howard's original stories received additional edits by de Camp, and de Camp also decided to create additional Conan stories to publish alongside the originals, working with [[Björn Nyberg]] and especially [[Lin Carter]]. These new stories were created from a mixture of already-complete Howard stories with different settings and characters that were altered to feature Conan and the Hyborian setting instead, incomplete fragments and outlines for Conan stories that were never completed by Howard, and all-new [[pastiche]]s.<ref name="ps" /> Lastly, de Camp created prefaces for each story, fitting them into a timeline of Conan's life that he created.<ref name="ps" />

For roughly 40 years, the original versions of Howard's Conan stories remained out of print. In 1977, the publisher Berkley Books issued three volumes using the earliest published form of the texts from ''Weird Tales'' and thus no de Camp edits, with [[Karl Edward Wagner]] as series editor, but these were halted by action from de Camp before the remaining three intended volumes could be released.<ref name="ps" /> In the 1980s and 1990s, the copyright holders permitted Howard's stories to go out of print entirely as the public demand for [[Sword and sorcery|sword & sorcery]] dwindled, but continued to release the occasional new Conan novel by other authors such as [[Leonard Carpenter]], [[Roland J. Green|Roland Green]], and [[Harry Turtledove]].<ref name="ps" />

In 2000, the British publisher [[Victor Gollancz Ltd|Gollancz Science Fiction]] issued a two-volume, complete edition of Howard's Conan stories as part of its ''Fantasy Masterworks'' imprint, which included several stories that had never seen print in their original form.<ref name="ps" /> The Gollancz edition mostly used the versions of the stories as published in ''Weird Tales''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://superherouniverse.com/wiki/Conan_the_Barbarian/|title=Conan the Barbarian - Superhero Wiki Encyclopedia|website=superherouniverse.com|language=en|access-date=2017-10-31|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171107015738/http://superherouniverse.com/wiki/Conan_the_Barbarian/|archive-date=2017-11-07|url-status=dead}}</ref>

The two volumes were combined and the stories restored to chronological order as ''The Complete Chronicles of Conan: Centenary Edition'' ([[Victor Gollancz Ltd|Gollancz Science Fiction]], 2006; edited and with an Afterword by Steve Jones).

In 2003, another British publisher, Wandering Star Books,<ref>[http://www.wanderingstarbooks.com/ Wandering Star Books] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130718135237/http://wanderingstarbooks.com/ |date=2013-07-18 }}, official website</ref> made an effort both to restore Howard's original manuscripts and to provide a more scholarly and historical view of the Conan stories. It published hardcover editions in England, which were republished in the United States by the Del Rey imprint of [[Ballantine Books]]. The first book, ''Conan of Cimmeria: Volume One (1932–1933)'' (2003; published in the US as ''[[The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian]]'') includes Howard's notes on his fictional setting as well as letters and poems concerning the genesis of his ideas. This was followed by ''Conan of Cimmeria: Volume Two (1934)'' (2004; published in the US as ''[[The Bloody Crown of Conan]]'') and ''Conan of Cimmeria: Volume Three (1935–1936)'' (2005; published in the US as ''[[The Conquering Sword of Conan]]''). These three volumes include all the original Conan stories.