Who's had more influence on fantasy literature: J.R.R. Tolkien or Robert E. Howard?

[Slam_Bradley]

Say, that's true! I had forgotten that bit, but I remember thinking how cool it was for a hero to not win every fight he was in. I even swiped the idea for a barbarian story I wrote back then (don't laugh, that was in 1980 and I had delusions of being a writer some day): my Conan-lookalike fought a city guard... and lost! No cheating, no magic, just an opponent that was better with a sword. Oh, to be young again.

Farmer is a very good writer. His Opar series was certainly more believable than most of Burroughs' novels, which rely wayyyy to much on implausible concidences. His Tarzan books were quite successful in France when they were translated in the late 70s-early 80s (probably in part because of their risky material!) and his biography of Lord Greystoke (Tarzan alive!) was pretty funny. (I never did finish his Riverworld series, though... it seemed to meander(!) after a few books).

Riverworld started out incredibly strong and then circled the drain downward ever downward to the cesspool that was Gods of Riverworld.

One thing that tends to get forgotten about Farmer in the midst of Wold Newton, his pastiches and the many series' he wrote is the fact that he was a very gifted short story writer and started off at a high level of craft. "Sail On! Sail On!", "The Alley Man" and "My Sister's Brother" are all excellent short stories written very early in his career.

[kane]

Ditto for someone like David Eddings.

I stopped reading his books after Althalus, but I do not really see him copying Tolkien. He was inspired to write fantasy by the (financial) success of Tolkien`s books (as stated by him in the Rivan Codex) and they both have "the quest for/because of a magical item". But thats it. Belgarath is an old sorcerer, but his character is nothing like Gandalf. And there are no elves etc.
But I have to admit, that I have not read LotR (I started it, but it bored me to death) and my knowledge of it stems from other sources, so maybe there are similarities that I miss.

To make clear: He was influenced by Tolkien, no doubt. But it was not a blatant copy like other fantasy books.

[berk]

Meant to ask this earlier when John Jakes's Conan imitation Brak the Barbarian was mentioned: Jakes has another 2-book series I've seen around that I might try one of these days, even though I didn't think the Brak books were all that good. But I like the titles and covers of this Gavin Blake series. The first one's called Master of the Dark Gate, and sports what looks like a Steranko cover to me. Flimsy motivation, but with this kind of throw-away reading that's often enough to catch my eye. Anyone read these? Looks like it might be REH style supernatural adventure of some sort.

[dan bailey]

He did one atypical set of stories about a gentleman-thief in an SF-setting, collected into an Ace paperback called THE MANY WORLDS OF MAGNUS RIDOLPH, but I haven't read that one in years.

Ummm ... that's by Jack Vance, not Lin Carter.

(Had to double-check via Google just to make sure I wasn't losing my mind.)

[Libaax]

Of course Howard type fantasy isn't as popular as Tolkien copy cats, his sub genre today. There are still tons of authors who follow Howard subgrenre.

As Howard fan i don't care about competing with Tolkien , he is still big legend that isn't forgotten.

When I read Gemmell, Abercrombie, Kearney and. Co i see Howard.

He is penguin classic now. It's like HPL, king has more followers today in horror and not like he is forgotten.

[dan bailey]

FHoward also gets a boost that way from Lovecraft, given they worked together

That strikes me as rather an overstatement.

[Joe no Sleep]

Neither. Both were influenced by H. Rider Haggard.

[Slam_Bradley]

Neither. Both were influenced by H. Rider Haggard.

Which doesn't answer the question at all.

[CromagnonMan]

every English teacher in this country (UK) will have heard of Tolkien. Im certain less know of Howard. Tolkien has been accepted within literary circles for decades (probably because he was, i think, some sort of Oxford literature academic himself) whereas Howard has been up against snobbery within this field due to his background as a cheap, throwaway pulp fantasy writer. This has all got to effect peoples awareness and hence wider influence of the two authors.

[Inkthinker]

It doesn't help that Howard fed himself a bullet in his mid-30's.

Had he lived to old age and written more, I think his influence would have been MUCH stronger.

[aNamored]

I definitely prefer Howard. I love that sword and sorcery stuff and his Conan is so much fun. The older I get the more I respect the pulp style of writing (and that is not a slight to Howard or anyone else), I just find it so much more fun.

Tolkien: the less I say, the better. I enjoy the Hobbit because it's so simple and I love the dwarves. I'll leave the rest though.