Howard was a lifelong student of world history. He read extensively on the subject, both fiction and non-fiction, and was familiar with the sweep of mankind and its subsequent rise and fall. In particular, Howard was interested in the decay of civilizations, the backward slide into barbarism. Given his interest in history, Howard’s preoccupation with gothic themes is self-evident. Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary defines gothic as: “...of or relating to a style of fiction characterized by the use of desolate or remote settings and macabre, mysterious, or violet incidents.” That can apply judiciously to most of Howard’s fiction in some way or another; most of his horror and fantasy stories include throwback civilizations, ancient cults, and forgotten secrets of one kind or another. But there is another meaning to the word gothic, and curiously, it is listed before the more familiar definition quoted above: “uncouth, barbarous.” Also of interest to Howard was “the Orient,”
