The continuing popularity of heroic fantasy owes a great debt to the work of Texan writer Robert E. Howard, with his character "Conan of Cimmeria" being his most well-known creation. In the 1930s, the Conan short stories initially appeared in the pulp magazine Weird Tales. Decades later the various "overseers" of the Howard legacy (such as L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter) repackaged these in re-edited form as paperbacks, which led to depictions of Conan in comic books and film. However, it was not until more recent years that Howard's Conan tales have been presented in volumes designed with a true eye towards faithfulness to the original text. From 2002 to 2005, Del Rey books published three illustrated Conan volumes prepared by Patrice Louinet, Rusty Burke and Dave Gentzel (with assistance from Glenn Lord).
The following links lead to summaries of the Conan stories in the order presented in the Del Rey collections. They also include illustrations from the stories' original appearances in Weird Tales.
- "Cimmeria" (1965) (poem)
- "The Phoenix on the Sword" (1932)
- "The Frost-Giant's Daughter" (1976)
- "The God in the Bowl" (1952)
- "The Tower of the Elephant" (1933)
- "The Scarlet Citadel" (1931)
- "Queen of the Black Coast" (1934)
- "Black Colossus" (1933)
- "Iron Shadows in the Moon" (1934) (variant of "Shadows in the Moonlight")
- "Xuthal of the Dusk" (1933) (variant of "The Slithering Shadow")
- "The Pool of the Black One" (1933)
- "Rogues in the House" (1934)
- "The Vale of Lost Women" (1967)
- "The Devil in Iron" (1934)
The Bloody Crown of Conan (Conan tales from 1934)
- "The People of the Black Circle"
- The Hour of the Dragon (serialized novel)
- "A Witch Shall Be Born"
- "The Servants of Bit-Yakin" (1934, published as "Jewels of Gwahlur")
- "Beyond the Black River" (1934)
- "The Black Stranger" (1935)
- "The Man-Eaters of Zamboula" (Mar 1935, published as "Shadows in Zamboula")
- "Red Nails" (June 1935)
