Literary Swordsmen and Sorcerers
Dust-jacket illustration by Tim Kirk for Literary Swordsmen and Sorcerers
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| Author | L. Sprague de Camp |
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| Cover artist | Tim Kirk |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Subject | biography |
| Publisher | Arkham House |
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Publication date
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1976 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback) |
| Pages | xxix, 313 pp |
| ISBN | 0-87054-076-9 |
| OCLC | 2782776 |
| 809/.933/7 | |
| LC Class | PR830.F3 D4 |
Literary Swordsmen and Sorcerers: The Makers of Heroic Fantasy is a work of collective biography on the formative authors of the heroic fantasy genre by L. Sprague de Camp (1907-2000), first published in 1976 by Arkham House in an edition of 5,431 copies. Most of its chapters are revised versions of articles that initially appeared in the magazine Fantastic and the fanzine Amra between 1971 and 1976.[1][2]
The work presents the history of the genre through a discussion of the lives and works of its most important early writers.[1] After a general survey of the development of modern fantasy, individual chapters deal with William Morris, Lord Dunsany, H. P. Lovecraft, E. R. Eddison, Robert E. Howard, Fletcher Pratt, Clark Ashton Smith, J. R. R. Tolkien, and T. H. White. A final chapter concerns lesser or later literary lights C. L. Moore, Leslie Barringer, Nictzin Dyalhis, Clifford Ball, Henry Kuttner, Norvell W. Page and Fritz Leiber.
The book includes an introduction by de Camp's colleague Lin Carter, who remedies what he considers de Camp's most egregious omission by providing a profile of de Camp himself (also a formative author in the genre).
De Camp also produced separate full-length biographies of two of the authors treated, H. P. Lovecraft (Lovecraft: A Biography [1975]) and Robert E. Howard (Dark Valley Destiny: the Life of Robert E. Howard [1983]).
The book has been translated into French.[2]
Contents
- "Introduction: Neomythology", by Lin Carter
- Chapter I. "The Swords of Faërie"
- Chapter II "Jack of All Arts: William Morris"
- Chapter III. "Two Men in One: Lord Dunsany"
- Chapter IV. "Eldritch Yankee Gentleman: H. P. Lovecraft"
- Chapter V. "Superman in a Bowler: E.R. Eddison"
- Chapter VI. "The Miscast Barbarian: Robert E. Howard"
- Chapter VII. "Parallel Worlds: Fletcher Pratt"
- Chapter VIII. "Sierran Shaman: Clark Ashton Smith"
- Chapter IX. "Merlin in Tweeds: J.R.R. Tolkien"
- Chapter X. "The Architect of Camelot: T.H. White"
- Chapter XI. "Conan's Compeers"
- Notes
- Index
Reception
Richard A. Lupoff praised de Camp as "an honest, thoroughgoing, and effective researcher, declaring that LS&S "will almost instantly become a standard reference."[3]
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Literary Swordsmen and Sorcerers title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- ↑ "Lupoff's Book Week", Algol 28, 1977, p.56.
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