Robert Ervin Howard (January 22, 1906 – June 11, 1936) was an American writer of historical and fantastic adventures, published primarily in Weird Tales magazine in the 1930s. He is regarded as one of the parents of the undergenre known as "sword and witchcraft" and is world-renowned for being the creator of famed popular characters such as Conan the Barbarian, Kull of Atlantis and Solomon Kane. He is, along with J. R. R. Tolkien, one of the most influential writers of modern heroic fantasy.