The Conan Reader

The Conan Reader

The Conan Reader by L. Sprague de Camp, Mirage Press, 1968
Author	L. Sprague de Camp
Illustrator	Roy G. Krenkel
Cover artist	Bernie Wrightson
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre	Sword and sorcery essays
Publisher	Mirage Press
Publication date	1968
Media type	Print (Hardback)
Pages	148 pp

The Conan Reader is a 1968 essay collection by L. Sprague de Camp, published in hardcover by Mirage Press. The essays were originally published as articles in George H. Scithers' fanzine Amra. Mirage subsequently published two companion volumes of essays from Amra, The Conan Swordbook (1969) and The Conan Grimoire (1972). Most of the material in the three volumes, together with some additional material, was later reprinted in two de Camp-edited paperback anthologies from Ace Books; The Blade of Conan (1979) and The Spell of Conan (1980).

The book consists of thirteen pieces on fantasy writer Robert E. Howard and his seminal sword and sorcery hero Conan the Barbarian, Howard's sources and literary successors, and other fantasy authors such as Fletcher Pratt, Leslie Barringer, and L. Ron Hubbard.

Contents

• “Conan’s Ghost”
• “Memories of R.E.H.”
• “The Trail of Tranicos”
• “Hyborian Technology”
• “Pirettes”
• “Conan and Matho”
• “Conan and Pizarro”
• “Conan’s Great-Grandfather”
• “Conan’s Imitators”
• “Pratt’s Parallel Worlds”
• “Knights and Knaves in Neustria”
• “El-Ron and the City of Brass”
• “An Exegesis of Howard’s Hyborian Tales”

External links

• A Brief Comparison of The Conan Reader, The Conan Swordbook, and The Conan Grimoire with The Blade of Conan and The Spell of Conan