Monday, April 17, 2006

More Breaking News

Brownwood Bulletin: "Robert E. Howard centennial celebration planned for June

By Gene Deason — Brownwood Bulletin

CROSS PLAINS — Fans of fantasy fiction writer Robert E. Howard have been returning to his hometown for 20 years, but Cross Plains is expecting the largest crowd ever in June for the centennial of the author’s birth.

“A centennial celebration is only going to happen once in your lifetime, so you don’t want to miss it,” said Era Lee Hanke, president of Cross Plains Project Pride.

Howard created the fantasy hero Conan, who decades later captivated a new generation in the 1982 movie “Conan the Barbarian.”

She said the Robert E. Howard United Press Association is joining the organization she leads in co-hosting the annual Robert E. Howard Days. The amateur press association founded in 1972 is dedicated to the study and discussion of Howard and his writings.

Registration forms and a tentative schedule of events for the three-day centennial set June 8-10 were mailed to interested individuals last week.

Featured as guests of honor at this year’s event will be Glenn Lord and Roy Thomas.

The agenda is still being finalized, but among the scheduled activities are the viewing of Howard Payne University’s Howard book collection, a bus and walking tours of Cross Plains, a reading by Howard biographer Mark Finn from his new book, a screening of a portion of a Howard documentary by Ethan Naht/, tours of the Howard homestead museum and panel discussions by a group of Howard scholars."

The interesting thing about Howard Payne University's Howard book collection is that nobody really cared about it until Dr. Charlotte Laughlin joined the Department of English. Charlotte went through the library and pulled out Howard's books, which were in the stacks for general circulation. Some of them had already left the library in one way or another. I'm glad to see that they're being cared for now.

1 comment:

mybillcrider said...

The Brownwood Bulletin probably doesn't have a clue about the WFC.