The Age of Conan community news feed has a piece up on Robert E. Howard, creator of Conan and the world of Hyboria, who died 73 years ago. They call him “a true Teller of Tales” which is true. He was in fact one of the creator of the fantasy genre sword and sorcery, with his Salomon Kane and King Kull stories.

Conan entered later. This from the Wikipedia page:

Conan first appeared in Weird Tales in December 1932’s “The Phoenix on the Sword”, and was such a hit that Howard was able to place seventeen more Conan stories in the magazine between 1933 and 1936. The character had a wide and enduring influence among other WT writers, including C. L. Moore and Fritz Leiber, and over the ensuing decades the genre of Sword and Sorcery grew up around Howard’s masterwork, with dozens of practitioners evoking Howard’s creation to one degree or another.

True lovers of Conan and his world should definitely find Howard’s stories. There are collections available.