Harold Lamb was a writer of historical adventure stories and a historian himself. Robert E. Howard was the creator of Conan and really the entire genre of sword and sorcery. As Deuce Richardson points out in his Forefathers of Sword and Sorcery, Lamb was highly influential on Howard. I personally believe that his Khlit the Cossack cycle of stories is one of the greatest achievements in adventure fiction.

There are many similarities in the work of both. Howard and Lamb wrote fast paced, highly colorful adventures. Though best known for his sword and sorcery, Howard also wrote historical adventures including a very good Cossack story, “The Road of Eagles.” Lamb, like Howard, had heroes who were outsiders and wanderers. Khlit journeys throughout most of Asia. There are many structural similarities in the stories they wrote.

(It is worth noting that Howard created the Hyborian Age because he did not have the time and resources to write accurately about history. What was historical adventure’s loss was fantasy’s gain. Since the Hyborian Age is based on many historical time periods, Conan fills many roles: a thief, a pirate, a kozaki (Cossack), and a frontiersman. Conan is in a sense the ultimate adventurer.)

In their longer works both divide their stories by chapters. This was true even in their shorter works. Lamb was at his best at the novella form. The Khlit stories are usually novellas that involve the wily Cossack entering some new part of Asia and coming upon a problem that only his cunning and sword skills could solve. Many of the Conan stories follow a similar pattern. In “Red Nails,” the Cimmerian enters an unknown land and encounters threats in the forms of a dragon (or really dinosaur) and a feuding culture. It is divided into chapters similar to the novellas of Lamb. Often a quotation heads the chapters. With Lamb these came from a real but often obscure source. While with Howard, though he sometimes used real quotes, these quotes were often made up. Think The Song of Belit in “Queen of the Black Coast” and Road of Kings in “Hour of the Dragon.”

The Lord of Samarcand by Robert E. Howard

There are also similarities between the Khlit stories and Howard’s Solomon Kane stories. Again the theme of wandering warriors appears in both their works. Both take place in roughly the same period though Khlit’s roaming grounds were Russia and Asia and Solomon Kane’s were usually Western Europe and Africa. (Though Kane mentions traveling to Asia and America in some stories.) Solomon Kane’s discovery of a village besieged by the akaanas in “Wings in the Night” bears similarities to Khlit arriving in a new part of Asia and finding some injustice.

Howard and Lamb also both wrote stories about the Crusades. Howard’s Crusades stories often involved a warrior from one side of the conflict developing a respect for a warrior from the other. This happens a great deal in the Khlit stories. The Cossack, who was raised as to view Muslims as the enemy, nevertheless develops a friendship with the Pathan Abdul Dost.

One of the major themes of Howard was famously the superiority of Barbarism to Civilization. This theme shows up at times in the Khlit stories. In “The Star of Ill Omen,” Khlit and the Manchu archer Arslan save the weak Chinese Emperor from the intrigues of the court. (The Manchus were at the time wandering nomads.) The decadence of the court is contrasted with the relative honesty of the barbarians.

Lamb and Howard are not identical in everything. One of the major differences is that Khlit, Lamb’s best known character, is elderly. Howard’s characters are usually in the prime of life. Khlit also relies mainly on cunning. Contrary to what some people think, Conan was not stupid, but he did rely mainly on his physical prowess and direct action. Khlit tended to be more circumspect. While still a skilled swordsman, Khlit’s age meant he was not always the best warrior, but his experience and natural intelligence often won through.

Another difference is that Conan, and a good deal of other Howard characters, is morally complicated. Khlit, despite a certain grumpiness, was more of a knight-errant. In “Tower of the Elephant,” Conan is a thief, albeit one who shows compassion to a prisoner. Khlit would more likely to be righting some wrong than robbing someone. In this the Cossack is more like Solomon Kane. Kane, for that matter, shows cunning equal to Khlit’s in his plan to destroy the akaana’s in “Wings in the Night.”

Another difference is that the Khlit stories form a cycle as he travels to Asia and back. One story follows the after the other. The Conan, however, stories are told outside of chronological order. “The Phoenix on the Sword” happens later in his life when he is an emperor. The next story, “The Frost Giant’s Daughter,” happens when Conan is a youth just adventuring out of Cimmeria. Howard, in fact, probably wanted the stories to be read out of order. The Solomon Kane stories too tend to jump around in time.

Also, while the theme of Barbarism versus Civilization shows up in Lamb, Howard had certain gloominess. This is absent in Lamb. While as historian he knew that civilizations fell, Lamb tended not to dwell on the negative. The one possible exception to that is “The Wolf-chaser,” where the protagonist’s last stand, while heroic, is shown to be forgotten.

There is much that the Howard fan will enjoy in Lamb. The stories of Lamb have been collected by Howard Andrew Jones in a number of volumes. If you are interested in Lamb, I would start with the first volume of the Khlit stories, Wolf of the Steppes. Both are well worth reading.