Updates for Howard Days on this page are closing out now as we saddle our pintos and head for Texas. All the info you need to know is right here and the updates will happen on our Facebook page.
Hope to see you at Howard Days - we guarantee a great time!
Howard Days is one week away now, so here are some reminders of what you will experience at the Robert E. Howard Museum in Cross Plains, Texas, next Thursday, Friday & Saturday, June 11-12-13.
The REH Museum is the center of activity for the weekend. Starting on Wednesday June 10, Howard Fans will be arriving in Cross Plains. The Museum is the logical place to meet up, so drive on by and see who's hanging out. The adjacent Pavilion is always open and it's a natural place to congregate and make plans; maybe a drive to Brownwood to see Bob's grave site or grabbing a lunch or dinner bite in Cross Plains is in the offing. Or, just sitting around shooting the breeze - always a fine endeavor!
The "family reunion" feel certainly begins as we meet up with our Howard Family and Friends, to catch up and enjoy the company of folks from all over the world who have gathered in Bob Howard's name. This, of course, is the main activity for the entire weekend!
Thursday the 11th finds us enjoying the officially unofficial start to Howard Days. Brand new to the event is the Emerging Writers Workshop, held for pre-registered aspiring writers at the Cottonwood Downtown Cafe. Stop by and listen in while enjoying some of the great beverages served there and slide down to the Cross Plains Senior Center for a bit of lunch and to 32 Degrees Ice Cream Shop for a tasty treat.
The Robert E. Howard Museum will be open from 12 to 4 on Thursday, so you can visit early and tour the house and grounds and meet and greet old & new friends in the Pavilion. The Gift Shop is also open. Again, the Pavilion is the focal point now for gathering for the weekend - everyone who shows up is SO glad to be there! Restaurants like Mexico City, Bubba's BBQ, Backwoods Grill and Jeans Feed Barn are waiting for your business and the chains Subway and Dairy Queen are always happy to see you! There are several new variety shops in town now, as well. (We always like to buy a new pocketknife at Higginbotham's!) Howard Days attendees are always very generous in supporting the Cross Plains economy!
The Friday and Saturday activities are well-detailed and documented on this site: there are tours, panels, readings, a souvenir postal cancellation stamp, original Howard manuscripts on display, a Banquet and Silent Auction, a showing of The Whole Wide World, a dealer's area with cool stuff, a REH Poetry Reading - all for you to enjoy yourself while you soak up the hot sun and the warm hospitality.
The festivities begin in a week! The excitement is growing as we look forward to The Best Two Three Days in Howard Fandom! See y'all soon!
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:
Thanks go out to Jason Hardy, who sent us this fantastic poster!
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!
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 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:
