The Cross Plains Library!

This year at Howard Days, the Cross Plains Library is hosting a fund-raiser BBQ dinner on Saturday June 13, at the Pavilion at the Robert E. Howard Museum. If you sign up by June 6th the cost is only $25. There will only be 100 dinner boxes provided by the Mexico City Cafe, so don't miss out on some great Texas vittles! The info you need can be found here:

And, as we celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Howard Days here in 2026, we can remind you of the importance of the Cross Plains Public Library as they celebrate their 47th year!

The very reason there IS a Howard Days is because Rusty Burke wandered into the CP Library in March of 1986 as he was planning for a fan gathering to view Bob Howard's house. He met up with two fine ladies who would help him shape the concept of Howard Days. Billie Ruth Loving, a former Cross Plains schoolteacher - and a pupil of Bob Howard's girlfriend Novalyne Price-Ellis when she taught in Cross Plains - was the Librarian at that time. Joan McCowen was a Library Board Member who happened to be at the library the same time. So, the charm of Rusty and the wisdom of Billie Ruth and Joan came together to establish a Robert E. Howard gathering in a tiny town that is now known the world over!

So, when you're at Howard Days, stop into the Library and sign the registry (to give them visitor's credits) and enjoy a visit. The Cross Plains Public Library has received numerous state and National awards over the years and is one of THE places to be at Howard Days! It is home to 29 original manuscripts direct from Bob Howard's Underwood No.5 and several dozen original pulp magazines containing Howard stories, and numerous Howard books and publications - all on display at Howard Days.

There will also be some REH D&D gaming on Friday & Saturday at HD, hosted by REHupan Jeb Boyt. And your donations are welcome, too - let's hope they have more coffee mugs!

So, the whole town of Cross Plains is ready to host the 40th Robert E. Howard Days. How can we NOT take advantage of their hospitality?!

Extra! Extra! New Poster in the Mix!

 Thanks go out to Jason Hardy, who sent us this fantastic poster!

Howard Days 2026 Posters

Thanks to the folks who have created posters for our 2026 version of Howard Days. They all look very spiffy! "Indy" Bill Cavalier always does the "official" poster and this year Staale Gismervik from The World of REH and Teri Brown of the Cross Plains Review have shared their own versions. And we hope Jason Hardy reads this so he can send his version to the Howard Days Facebook page. 

Howard Days starts next week, June 11-12-13 at the Robert E. Howard Museum in Cross Plains, Texas. Hope to see you there!

Y'all come!

LESS THAN TWO WEEKS NOW!

We're in the home stretch for Howard Days! In what has now become a 3 day event, the city of Cross Plains, Texas is all spiffed up for the gathering of Robert E. Howard fans from all over the world on June 11th-12th-13th! While the programming is set and plans are made, there is still enough of an extemporaneous air about Howard Days that it's totally ok to show up on a whim! Who would think that such a tiny house could be such a huge Museum!

2026 finds us celebrating a number of decades-anniversaries (scroll down) and heading up all the festivities is our Guest of Honor, Rusty Burke! He is the ideal GOH for the 40th Anniversary of Howard Days, as it is because of Rusty there IS a Howard Days! And because there was a first Howard Days, "Indy" Bill Cavalier gets to side-kick along as the Special Guest this year.

In 1985, Rusty and his friend Vern Clark made an impromptu trip from Houston to Cross Plains, just to check out where Robert E. Howard lived. Rusty's wheels started turning and he (correctly) surmised that other Howard Fans might want to make the same journey - and the game was afoot! 

Come March of 1986, Rusty made a second trip to Cross Plains on his own, to set plans in motion for a small group of fellow REHupa (The Robert E. Howard United Press Association) members to join him for a Howard celebration weekend in June. Rusty may be the luckiest boy in Puppetland, because on this second trip he stopped in at the Library on a whim and met the Librarian Billie Ruth Loving and Library Board member Joan McCowen. These two fine women were exactly who Rusty needed to meet - and the very first Howard Days was set in motion.

Over the last 40 years, Rusty Burke has acquired more Howard creds than anyone: Founder of Howard Days, a 45 year member of REHupa, founder and first editor of The Dark Man scholarly REH journal, Series Editor for the Wandering Star and Del Rey definitive editions of REH, author of A Short Biography of Robert E. Howard and countless published REH essays, introductions, forewords, guidebooks and mentor and advisors for each and every REH biography that is available today. And, he is the co-founder and only President of the 20 year old Robert E. Howard Foundation, along with being the recipient of numerous Cimmerian and REH Foundation Awards. Without a doubt, Rusty Burke is the Godfather of Robert E. Howard Studies.

As one of the original 10 attendees to that first Howard Days in 1986, "Indy" Bill Cavalier joins us as the 2026 Special Guest. He met Rusty through REHupa and joined everyone June 13-14-15 in Texas to celebrate Ol' Two-Gun Bob Howard. "Indy" has written that while his first trip to Texas changed his life through the involvement with Robert E. Howard, he says that it was really Rusty Burke who enabled that life-changing occurrence.  A Fan of Howard Fans, Indy is now the Fan Liaison with Project Pride in organizing the yearly event. He has a 40 year continuous streak of producing his Cold Steel fanzine in each REHupa, has written numerous articles, introductions and forewords for Howard publications, drawn a ton of REH art (including the cover for Pictures in the Fire) and takes pride in being part of the world-wide Robert E. Howard community.

Rusty and Indy will be regaling everyone at HD 2026 with stories of "the good ol' days" of Howard Fandom and that first Howard Days, so visit with them and together you can marvel at how great Robert E. Howard fandom has become! 

                                                    

HOWARD DAYS ANNIVERSARIES!

Howard Days 2026 on June 11-12-13 will turn out to be a great one for decades of anniversaries! Let's continue with our handy-dandy bullet points, shall we? The 2026 Anniversaries include:

• 120 years since Howard's birth
• 90 years since his passing
• 80 years since the publication of Skull Face and Others from Arkham House
• 60 Years since the publication of Conan the Adventurer from Lancer Books
• 50 years since the publication of The Last Celt by Glenn Lord from Don Grant Books
• 50 years since the first appearance of Damon Sasser's REH: Two-Gun Raconteur
• 40 years since the very first Robert E. Howard Days
• 40 years since the publication of One Who Walked Alone by Novalyne Price Ellis
• 30 years since the film The Whole Wide World
• 20 since the creation of the Robert E. Howard Foundation

All these and more will be celebrated at the Robert E. Howard Museum next month. We hope to see you there!

Here's a gorgeous poster created by Staale Gismervik, who will be in attendance this year. Be sure to thank him for all the great work he's doing for the REH Foundation website and also his own The World of REH site.

HOWARD DAYS IS ONE MONTH AWAY!

Yep! Howard Days on June 11-12-13 at the Robert E. Howard Museum in Cross Plains, Texas is happening just four weeks from now and everything is in place to show you The Best "Three" Days in Howard Fandom! Project Pride of Cross Plains, the Robert E. Howard Foundation and the Robert E. Howard United Press Association (REHupa) will be there to help you enjoy yourselves to the max!

This will be quite the year for anniversaries and we plan on celebrating them right! For Bob Howard's 120th birthday year - there will be cake at the Friday Hot Dog lunch! For the 60th Anniversary of the seminal book from Lancer, CONAN the ADVENTURER, there will be one on display on Howard's tombstone! For the 40th Anniversary of Howard Days, we have the event's originator Rusty Burke as Guest of Honor, along with original attendee Special Guest "Indy" Bill Cavalier. They'll both talk your ear off about Howard Days History. The award-winning film The Whole Wide World turns 30 this year, so we'll present a viewing along with commentary and a panel featuring the movie's screenwriter, Michael Scott Myers and cast member Ben Mouton! And the Robert E. Howard Foundation will be there, celebrating 20 years of good works perpetuating the Life and Legacy of Ol' Two-Gun Bob.

All the "regular" happenings are still, uh...happening! Tours of the REH Museum happen both Friday and Saturday (and the Museum & Gift Shop is open Thursday from 12-4 too!) Friday gives us the Bus Tour of the land surrounding Cross Plains to show some of Bob's haunts, Saturday a.m. is the Walking Tour of the downtown area and Saturday p.m. we'll do a Grounds Tour around the Museum. The Cross Plains Public Library is open to show off their collection of original Howard typescripts and pulp magazines with Howard stories in them. On Friday you can get a nifty souvenir postal cancellation stamp at the CPPO. The Cross Plains Review across the street will have a bunch of cool Howard Days merchandise too. Speaking of merchandise, the yard surrounding the Pavilion will have vendors displaying all sorts of REH and related items for sale. You can work on your Howard Collection there!

And don't forget the panels: check the EVENTS schedule for times and places - we've got six of them lined up with a wide variety of Howard topics, presented by Howard scholars and fans. And late Saturday afternoon come to the Barbara Barrett Memorial Porchlight Poetry and read Howard poetry aloud mere feet away from where he wrote it!

Hungry? Thirsty? Water and pop is found in the Pavilion's big cooler. We've got a Hot Dog Lunch on Friday at Noon and the Celebration Banquet (and Silent Auction) takes place starting at 5 over at the Cross Plains Community Center. The Cross Plains Library is doing a Tex-Mex fundraiser dinner on Saturday late afternoon. Saturday lunch can be had at Lowe's Grocery Store where the Cross Plains VFD will have brisket sandwiches as a fundraiser, too.

In attendance at HD there will be a passel of REH special guests, authors, artists, professionals, biographers, fans & enthusiasts - all to help fellow fans in their appreciation of Bob Howard. We've got bloggers, You Tubers, podcasters, comic book creators, publishers, fanziners and filmmakers all showing up to impart information, wisdom and opinions, much to the delight of everyone. Some extemporaneous events & happenings and impromptu conversations always are on tap and you just have to be there to experience the entire scope of Howard Days!

Howard Fellowship is probably the most important event of the entire weekend. While it is centered around hanging at the Pavilion, it happens all over Cross Plains during HD. Howard Days provides the best opportunity for all of us to be among like minded friends (old & new), gathered to celebrate, enjoy and honor the amazing career, life and legacy of our friend Bob Howard. 

So come on down to Howard Days. Just show up! It's a family reunion of Howard Fans - you don't need a special invite! There's plenty of room for everybody!

Howard Days Information for Attendees Part 1

With a little over 5 weeks until Howard Days, it's time to start doling out bits of info to make your experience even better. So, let's go to the infamous yet effective Bullet Points!

• The updated schedule has been posted under the EVENTS tab here. While there still will be some tweaks to it, this one is more complete with panelists and a touch more info.

• The REH Museum will be OPEN on Thursday June 11th from Noon until 4 pm. The Pavilion will be open all day, so please come and hang out - and maybe help with setting up tables & chairs. Much appreciated!

• Also, if you are in town Thursday, downtown lunches are available at the Backwoods Grill and at the Senior Center. The 32 Degrees Ice Cream Shop also serves some light lunch fare. The Writers Workshop will be going at the Cottonwood Downtown Cafe, so refresh yourself there as well and see what's going on with the Workshop.

• There will be a RPG event at the Cross Plains Library on both Friday and Saturday. Jeb Boyt will once again host a 5E Sword & Sorcery Hyborian Adventure. Times TBA.

• There *MAY* be a few Celebration Banquet tickets left as of 5-4-26 (if May the 4th be with you). Check at projpride@yahoo.com. The way this works this year is this: if you have sent your payment for a seat at the Banquet, there will be a name badge lanyard waiting for you at the Registration Table in the front yard of the Museum. When you arrive, pick up your badge and then you will use that for entry into the Banquet at the Community Center, starting at 5pm Friday. Remember that you don't need to register for ANYTHING at Howard Days to enjoy the festivities, The $35 registration is primarily for a seat at the Banquet, plus to help out with other expenses. 

• The Friday night Silent Auction of Howard and closely related articles (books, fanzines, magazines, comics, art and other esoteric collectibles - like a REH blanket) will be up for bidding before and during the banquet at the American Legion Hall next door. But these items don't magically appear! Howard Days needs Silent Auction donations! You can send items before HD to Howard Days Silent Auction, c/o Project Pride, POB 534, Cross Plains, Texas 76443. Or, bring them to the Gift Shop on Thursday or Friday when you come in for Howard Days. 100% of the money raised goes to Project Pride and to the Howard House Restoration Fund. So, thin that collection out and help the REH Museum!

Hope yu can join us June 11-12-13 in Cross Plains, Texas, for The Best Two THREE Days in Howard Fandom!