Robert Ervin Howard was an American pulp writer and is especially noted for his memorable depictions of ""a sombre universe of swashbuckling adventure and darkling horror."" He is well known for having created the character Conan the Barbarian. This collection includes Howard's short horror and fantasy stories, including the masterpiece "Pigeons from Hell," which Stephen King calls "one of the finest horror stories of century," a tale of two travelers who stumble upon the ruins of a Southern plantation-and into the maw of its fatal secret. In "Black Canaan" even the best warrior has little chance of taking down the evil voodoo man with unholy powers-and none at all against his wily mistress, the diabolical High Priestess of Damballah. In these and other lavishly illustrated classics, such as the nightmare "The Cairn on the Headland," Howard spins tales of unrelenting terror, the legacy of one of the world's great masters of the macabre.