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Lin Carter
Lin Carter about 1975 (by Judy Appleton and Gloria Martin)
Born	Linwood Vrooman Carter (1930-06-09)June 9, 1930 St. Petersburg, Florida, USA
Died	February 7, 1988(1988-02-07) (aged 57) Montclair, New Jersey, USA
Occupation	Writer, editor, critic
Nationality	American
Period	1965–1988
Genre	Fantasy, science fiction
Subject	High fantasy (as critic)
Notable works	Imaginary Worlds

Linwood Vrooman Carter (June 9, 1930 – February 7, 1988) was an American author of science fiction and fantasy, as well as an editor, poet and critic. He usually wrote as Lin Carter; known pseudonyms include H. P. Lowcraft (for an H. P. Lovecraft parody) and Grail Undwin. He is best known for his work in the 1970s as editor of the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series,^[1] which introduced readers to many overlooked classics of the fantasy genre.

Life

Carter was born in St. Petersburg, Florida. He was an avid reader of science fiction and fantasy in his youth, and became broadly knowledgeable in both fields. He was also active in fandom.

Carter served in the United States Army (infantry, Korea, 1951–53), and then attended Columbia University and took part in Leonie Adams's Poetry Workshop (1953–54).^[2] He was an advertising and publishers' copywriter from 1957 until 1969, when he took up writing full-time. He was also an editorial consultant. During much of his writing career he lived in Hollis, New York.

Carter was married twice, first to Judith Ellen Hershkovitz (married 1959, divorced 1960) and second to Noel Vreeland (married 1963, when they were both working for the publisher Prentice-Hall; divorced 1975).

Carter was a member of the Trap Door Spiders, an all-male literary banqueting club^[3] which served as the basis of Isaac Asimov's fictional group of mystery-solvers, the Black Widowers.^[4] Carter was the model for Asimov's character Mario Gonzalo.^[4] Carter was also a member of the Swordsmen and Sorcerers' Guild of America (SAGA), a loose-knit group of Heroic fantasy authors founded in the 1960s, some of whose work he anthologized in the Flashing Swords! series.

In the 1970s Carter published one issue of his own fantasy fanzine Kadath, named after H. P. Lovecraft's fictional setting (see The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath). It was printed in extremely low numbers and was scarcely circulated. It contained Carter's Cthulhu Mythos story "The City of Pillars" (pp. 22–25).

Carter resided in East Orange, New Jersey, in his later years, and drank and smoked heavily. It was probably smoking that gave him oral cancer in 1985. Only his status as a Korean War veteran enabled him to receive extensive surgery. However, it failed to cure the cancer and left him disfigured.

In the last year before his death, he had begun to reappear in print with a new book in his Terra Magica series, a long-promised Prince Zarkon pulp hero pastiche, Horror Wears Blue, and a regular column for the magazine Crypt of Cthulhu.^[5] Despite these successes, Carter increased his alcohol intake, becoming an alcoholic. His cancer resurfaced, spreading to his throat and leading to his death in Montclair, New Jersey, in 1988.

Robert M. Price, the editor of Crypt of Cthulhu, who had published a Lin Carter special issue (Vol. 5, No 2, whole number 36, Yuletide 1985), was preparing a second all-Carter issue when Carter died. It was turned into a memorial issue (Vol. 7, No 4, whole number 54, Eastertide 1988). Two further issues of the magazine were devoted to Carter alone (see References below). Price was also appointed Carter's literary executor.

Writing career

A longtime science-fiction and fantasy fan, Carter first appeared in print with entertaining letters to Startling Stories and other pulp magazines in 1943 and again in the late 1940s.^[6] He issued two volumes of fantasy verse, Sandalwood and Jade (1951), technically his first book, and Galleon of Dream (1955) (see Poetry in Bibliography below) His first professional publication was the short story "Masters of the Metropolis", co-written with Randall Garrett, and published by Anthony Boucher in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, April 1957.^[6] Another early collaborative story, "The Slitherer from the Slime" (Inside SF, September 1958), by Carter, as "H. P. Lowcraft", with Dave Foley, is a parody of H. P. Lovecraft. The story "Uncollected Works" (Fantasy and SF, March 1965) was a finalist for the annual Nebula Award for Best Short Story, from the SF and fantasy writers, the only time Carter was a runner-up for a major award.^[7]

Early in his efforts to establish himself as a writer, Carter gained a mentor in L. Sprague de Camp, who critiqued his novel The Wizard of Lemuria in manuscript. The seventh novel Carter wrote, it was the first to find a publisher, appearing from Ace Books in March 1965.^[8] Due in large part to their later collaborations, mutual promotion of each other in print, joint membership in both the Trap Door Spiders and SAGA, and complementary scholarly efforts to document the history of fantasy, de Camp is the person with whom Carter is most closely associated as a writer. A falling-out in the last decade of Carter's life did not become generally known until after his death.

Carter was a prolific writer, producing an average of six books a year from 1965 to 1969.^[a] He also wrote a nearly monthly column, "Our Man in Fandom", in If, edited by Frederik Pohl,^[6] and was a major writer on ABC's original Spider-Man animated TV show during its fantasy-oriented second season in 1968-69.

Carter frequently cited his own writings in his non-fiction and almost always included at least one of his own pieces in each of the anthologies he edited. The most extreme instance of his penchant for self-promotion is in the sixth novel in his Callisto sequence, Lankar of Callisto, which features Carter himself as the protagonist.

Carter was not reluctant to attack organized religion in his books, notably in his unfinished epic World's End, in "Amalric the Man-God" (also unfinished), and in The Wizard of Zao. He portrayed religions as cruel and repressive, and had his heroes escape from their inquisitions.

In most of his fiction, Carter was consciously imitative of the themes, subjects and styles of authors he admired. He usually identified his models in the introductions or afterwords of his novels, as well as in the introductory notes to self-anthologized or collected short stories. His best-known works are his sword and planet and sword and sorcery novels in the tradition of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert E. Howard, and James Branch Cabell. His first published book, The Wizard of Lemuria (1965), first of the "Thongor the Barbarian" series, combines both influences. Although he wrote only six Thongor novels, the character appeared in Marvel Comics's Creatures on the Loose for an eight-issue run in 1973-74 and was often optioned for films, although none has been produced. His other major series, the "Callisto" and "Zanthodon" books, are direct tributes to Burroughs' Barsoom series and Pellucidar novels, respectively.

In other works Carter paid homage to the styles of contemporary pulp magazine authors or their precursors. Some of these, together with Carter's models, include his "Simrana" stories (influenced by Lord Dunsany), his horror stories (set in the "Cthulhu Mythos" of H. P. Lovecraft), his "Green Star" novels (uniting influences from Clark Ashton Smith and Edgar Rice Burroughs), his "Mysteries of Mars" series (patterned on the works of Leigh Brackett),^[9] and his "Prince Zarkon" books (based on the "Doc Savage" series of Kenneth Robeson). Later in his career Carter assimilated influences from mythology and fairy tales, and even branched out briefly into pornographic fantasy.

Posthumous collaborations with Howard and Smith

Some of Carter's most prominent works were what he referred to as "posthumous collaborations" with deceased authors, notably Robert E. Howard and Clark Ashton Smith. He completed a number of Howard's unfinished tales of Kull (see Kull (collection) ^[10] and Conan the Barbarian, the latter often in collaboration with L. Sprague de Camp. He also collaborated with de Camp on a number of pastiche novels and short stories featuring Conan.

The "posthumous collaborations" with Smith were of a different order, usually completely new stories built around title ideas or short fragments found among Smith's notes and jottings. A number of these tales feature Smith's invented book of forbidden lore, the Book of Eibon (Cthulhu Mythos arcane literature). Some of them also overlap as pastiches of H.P. Lovecraft's work by utilising elements of Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. These stories, which are uncollected, include:

• "The Descent into the Abyss" in Carter's anthology Weird Tales #2. Also in Robert M. Price (ed). The Book of Eibon (Chaosium, 2002). The story is a sort of rewrite of Smith's "The Seven Geases".


• "The Feaster from the Stars". In Crypt of Cthulhu No 26 (Hallowmas 1984). Also in Robert M. Price (ed) The Book of Eibon (Chaosium, 2002). Based on a plot idea by Smith found by Carter in Smith's holograph notes (one not printed in The Black Book of Clark Ashton Smith).


• "The Light from the Pole" in Carter (ed) Weird Tales #1. Also in Robert M. Price (ed) The Book of Eibon (Chaosium, 2002). Based on Smith's Commoriom myth-cycle, utilising an early draft of Smith's "The Coming of the White Worm".


• "The Secret in the Parchment". In Crypt of Cthulhu No 54 (Eastertide 1988). Also in Robert M. Price (ed) The Book of Eibon (Chaosium, 2002). Mingles material derived from Arthur Machen with Smith's Eibonic cyle.


• "The Scroll of Morloc". Fantastic (Oct 1975). Also in Carter's anthologies Year's Best Fantasy Stories No 2 (DAW 1976), pp. 143–157 ; and Lost Worlds, pp. 11–17. Also in Robert M. Price (ed) The Book of Eibon (Chaosium, 2002).


• "The Stairs in the Crypt". Fantastic 25, No 4 (Aug 1976), pp. 82–89. Also in Carter's anthologies Year's Best Fantasy Stories No 3 (DAW, 1977), pp. 129–40; and Lost Worlds, pp. 18–26and in Robert M. Price (ed) The Book of Eibon (Chaosium, 2002).The title comes from one of the stories said to have been written by Robert Blake in Lovecraft's "The Haunter of the Dark". Carter also pays tribute to such Cthulhu Mythos stories as Henry Kuttner's "The Salem Horror" and E. Hoffmann Price's collaboration with Lovecraft, "Through the Gates of the Silver Key".


• "The Utmost Abomination" Weird Tales Autumn or Fall 1973; also in Mike Ashley (ed), Weird Legacies, pp. 81–91 and in Robert M. Price (ed) The Book of Eibon (Chaosium, 2002).


• "The Vengeance of Yig" in Carter's anthology Weird Tales #4, pp. 275ff.


• "The Winfield Inheritance" in Carter's anthology Weird Tales No 3, pp. 275–311.


• "Zoth-Ommog" in Edward Berglund (ed) The Disciples of Cthulhu Cthulhu Mythos anthology, pp. 141–193. Note: a sequel to this tale has been written by Leigh Blackmore (see Xothic legend cycle).

For further information see Steve Behrends, "The Carter-Smith Collaborations" in Robert M. Price (ed). The Horror of it All: Encrusted Gems from the Crypt of Cthulhu. See also Lin Carter deities.

Pastiches of H. P. Lovecraft

Carter wrote numerous stories in the Cthulhu Mythos of H. P. Lovecraft. Many have been collected in The Xothic Legend Cycle: The Complete Mythos Fiction of Lin Carter, edited by Robert M. Price. Despite the title, there are many uncollected Mythos stories by Carter. These include:

• "Acolyte of the Flame". In Crypt of Cthulhu No 36 (Yuletide, 1985). Reprint in The Book of Eibon (Chaosium, 2002), edited by Robert M. Price. The latter notes that both the Crypt and Chaosium versions are the "later" version of the story, and that an earlier version exists.


• " The Burrowers Beneath". In Cthulhu Cultus No 6 (1997) Title taken from one of the stories said to have been written by Robert Blake in Lovecraft's The Haunter of the Dark. Not to be confused with Brian Lumley's novel The Burrowers Beneath (see Chthonian (Cthulhu Mythos)) nor with the Robert Price story in Price's anthology The Book of Eibon (Chaosium, 2002).


• "The City of Pillars". First published in Carter's own magazine Kadath (1974). To be reprinted in Crypt of Cthulhu. Purportedly a translation from The Necronomicon.


• "The Descent into the Abyss". In Carter's anthology Weird Tales #2. Also in The Book of Eibon (Chaosium, 2002), edited by Robert M. Price.


• "The Doom of Yakthoob". In The Arkham Collector No 10 (Summer 1971). Purportedly a translation from The Necronomicon.


• "The Double Tower" in Year's Best Fantasy Stories #1 (DAW Books, 1975). Also in The Book of Eibon (Chaosium, 2002), edited by Robert M. Price.


• "Dreams in the House of Weir". In Carter (ed), Weird Tales" #4.
  


• "In the Vale of Pnath" in Gerald Page (ed) Nameless Places. (This story takes its title from Lovecraft, and some of its content from Lovecraft's Dreamlands series, while also featuring CA Smith's Book of Eibon.


• "The Offering" in Crypt of Cthulhu 1, No 7 (Lammas 1982). Based primarily on "Out of the Aeons" and "Bothon" (a story collaboration between H.P. Lovecraft and Henry S. Whitehead).


• "Shaggai". In Dark Things, edited by August Derleth. The title is taken from one of the stories said to have been written by Robert Blake in Lovecraft's "The Haunter of the Dark". Purportedly a chapter from the Book of Eibon.


• "Something in the Moonlight" in Weird Tales #1, edited by Carter himself.


• "The Stone from Mnar: A Fragment from the Necronomicon".Appeared in "Crypt of Cthulhu" #36 and reprinted as purportedly, part of the first 5 sections of the Necronomicon, in Crypt of Cthulhu #70


• "The Thing Under Memphis". In Crypt of Cthulhu 3, No - (WN 22)(Roodmas 1984), 3-5.


• "Them From Outside". In "Crypt of Cthulhu" #23 as "Concerning Them from Outside" and reprinted in Crypt of Cthulhu #70 as purportedly, part of the first 5 sections of the Necronomicon.


• "The Thing in the Pit". In Carter's Lost Worlds. (Purportedly a translation from the Zanthu Tablets).

See also Xothic legend cycle. For further info see Robert M. Price "The Statement of Lin Carter", Crypt of Cthulhu 1, No 2 (Yuletide 1981), 11-19.

Pastiches of Lord Dunsany

Carter wrote two cycles of stories set in "dreamlands," paying tribute to the fantasy of Lord Dunsany, Ikranos, from his fan days, and Simrana, after he became a professional writer.

Ikranos

• "The Kings of Yu-Istam" in Scientifantasy, v. 1, no. 3, Spring 1949.


• "The Castle Beyond the World" in The Fanscient, no. 10, Winter 1940.


• "The Milk of Paradise" (published as "The Poet") in Gorgon, v. 1, no. 2, 1950.


• "King of the Golden City" in Nekromantikon, v. 1, no. 4, Winter 1950/51.


• "The Quest of Glorian the Troubadour" (unpublished).


• "The Castle in the Clouds" (unpublished).


• "Crysarion of Ith" (unpublished).


• "The Gate of Dreams" (unpublished).


• "The Crystal Key" (unpublished).


• "The Gods of Neol-Shendis" in Amra, v. 2, no. 41, July 1966 (later revised as the Simrana tale "The Gods of Niom Parma").


• "Shanizar of the Sea" (unpublished).


• "Shanizar and the City of Glass" (unpublished).


• "Aviathar and the Sword of Swords" (unpublished).

Simrana

• "The Gods of Niom Parma" in Warlocks and Warriors (1970) (revised from the Ikranos tale "The Gods of Neol-Shendis").


• "The Whelming of Oom" in The Young Magicians (1969).


• "Zingazar" in New Worlds for Old (1971).


• "How Sargoth Lay Siege to Zaremm" in Swordsmen and Supermen (1972).


• "The Laughter of Han" in Fantasy Tales, v. 5, no. 9, Spring 1982.


• "The Benevolence of Yib" in Crypt of Cthulhu, no. 51, Hallowmas 1987.


• "How Ghuth Would Have Hunted the Silth" in Crypt of Cthulhu, no. 54, 1988.


• "The Thievery of Yish" in Fantasy Tales, v. 10, no. 1, Autumn 1988.


• "How Doom Came Down at Last on Adrazoon" in Crypt of Cthulhu, no. 57, 1988.


• [Untitled] (complete draft)


• "How Shand Became King of Thieves" (unfinished draft)


• "Dzimadazoul" (unfinished draft)

Unfinished projects

Carter left a number of projects unfinished. He regularly announced plans for future works that never came to fruition, even including some among lists of other works printed in the fronts of his books. His 1976 anthologies Kingdoms of Sorcery and Realms of Wizardry both included such phantom books among his other listed works, titled Robert E. Howard and the Rise of Sword & Sorcery, The Stones of Mnar and Jungle Maid of Callisto. The first of these, presumably a non-fiction study along the lines of his Tolkien: A Look Behind "The Lord of the Rings" (1969), never saw print; the second seems to be related to The Terror Out of Time, a collection of Cthulhu Mythos tales he had pitched unsuccessfully to Arkham House (the existing material for which was eventually gathered into his The Xothic Legend Cycle (1997)); the third was apparently a working title for Ylana of Callisto (1977), published the year after the anthologies.^[11]

Several of his series were abandoned due to lack of publisher or reader interest or to his deteriorating health. Among these are his "Thongor" series, to which he intended to add two books dealing with the hero's youth; only a scattering of short stories intended for the volumes appeared. His "Gondwane" epic, which he began with the final book and afterwards added several more covering the beginning of the saga, lacks its middle volumes, his publisher having canceled the series before he managed to fill the gap between. Similarly, his projected Atlantis trilogy was canceled after the first book (The Black Star), and his five-volume "Chronicles of Kylix" ended with three volumes published and parts of another (Amalric).

Another unfinished project was Carter's self-proclaimed magnum opus, an epic literary fantasy entitled Khymyrium, or, to give it its full title, Khymyrium: The City of the Hundred Kings, from the Coming of Aviathar the Lion to the Passing of Spheridion the Doomed. It was intended to take the genre in a new direction by resurrecting the fantastic medieval chronicle history of the sort exemplified by Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae and Saxo Grammaticus's Gesta Danorum. It was also to present a new invented system of magic called "enstarment", which from Carter's description somewhat resembles the system of magical luck investment later devised by Emma Bull and Will Shetterly for their "Liavek" series of shared world anthologies. Carter claimed to have begun the work about 1959, and published at least three excerpts from it as separate short stories during his lifetime – "Azlon" in The Young Magicians (1969), "The Mantichore" in Beyond the Gates of Dream (also 1969) and "The Sword of Power" in New Worlds for Old (1971). A fourth episode was published posthumously in Fungi #17, a 1998 fanzine. His most comprehensive account of the project appeared in Imaginary Worlds: the Art of Fantasy in 1973. While he continued to make claims for its excellence throughout his lifetime, the complete novel never appeared. Part of the problem was that Carter was forcing himself to write the novel in a formal style more like that of William Morris and quite unlike his own.

Career as editor and critic

Carter was influential as a critic of contemporary fantasy and a pioneering historian of the genre. His book reviews and surveys of the year's best fantasy fiction appeared regularly in Castle of Frankenstein, continuing after that magazine's 1975 demise in The Year's Best Fantasy Stories. His early studies of the works of J. R. R. Tolkien (Tolkien: A Look Behind "The Lord of the Rings") and H. P. Lovecraft (Lovecraft: A Look Behind the Cthulhu Mythos) were followed up by the wide-ranging Imaginary Worlds: the Art of Fantasy, a study tracing the emergence and development of modern fantasy from the late nineteenth century novels of William Morris through the 1970s.
Peter Beagle faulted Carter's scholarship, saying "He gets so many facts embarrassingly wrong, so many attributions misquoted, that the entire commentary is essentially worthless."^[12]

His greatest influence in the field may have been as an editor for Ballantine Books from 1969–1974, when Carter brought several then obscure yet important books of fantasy back into print under the "Adult Fantasy" line.^[1] Authors whose works he revived included Dunsany, Morris, Smith, James Branch Cabell, Hope Mirrlees, and Evangeline Walton. David G. Hartwell praised the series, saying it brought "into mass editions nearly all the adult fantasy stories and novels worth reading."^[13] He also helped new authors break into the field, such as Katherine Kurtz, Joy Chant, and Sanders Anne Laubenthal.

Carter was a fantasy anthologist of note, editing a number of new anthologies of classic and contemporary fantasy for Ballantine and other publishers. He also edited several anthology series, including the Flashing Swords! series from 1973 to 1981, the first six volumes of The Year's Best Fantasy Stories for DAW Books from 1975 to 1980, and an anthology format revival of the classic fantasy magazine Weird Tales from 1981 to 1983.

Together with SAGA he sponsored the Gandalf Award, an early fantasy equivalent to science fiction's Hugo Award, for the recognition of outstanding merit in authors and works of fantasy. It was given annually by the World Science Fiction Society from 1974 to 1981, but went into abeyance with the collapse of Carter's health in the 1980s. Its primary purpose continues to be fulfilled by the initially rival World Fantasy Awards, first presented in 1975.

Posthumous revival

Wildside Press began an extensive program returning much of Carter's fiction to print in 1999. All remain in print, and one original book was issued in 2012, collecting the short stories about Thongor. See the bibliography for Wildside reissues.

Awards

• Nova Award, 1972.^{[clarification needed]}
  

Bibliography

Science fiction

Hautley Quicksilver

• 
  The Thief of Thoth (1968)


• 
  The Purloined Planet (1969)

The History of the Great Imperium

• 
  Outworlder (1971)


• 
  The Man Without a Planet (1966)


• 
  Star Rogue (1970) (Wildside reissue 2008, .mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"""""""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Lock-green.svg/9px-Lock-green.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-gray-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-red-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration{color:#555}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription span,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration span{border-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg/12px-Wikisource-logo.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output code.cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:inherit;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#33aa33;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration,.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-right{padding-right:0.2em}
  ISBN 978-1-4344-9805-2 paperback,
  ISBN 978-1-4344-9806-9 hardcover)

Callisto

1. 
   Jandar of Callisto (1972)


2. 
   Black Legion of Callisto (1972)
   Callisto Volume 1 (2000 - omnibus including Jandar of Callisto and Black Legion of Callisto)


3. 
   Sky Pirates of Callisto (1973) (Wildside reissue 2008,
   ISBN 978-1-4344-9803-8 paperback,
   ISBN 978-1-4344-9804-5 hardcover)


4. 
   Mad Empress of Callisto (1975) (Wildside reissue 2007,
   ISBN 1434494977)


5. 
   Mind Wizards of Callisto (1975)


6. 
   Lankar of Callisto (1975)


7. 
   Ylana of Callisto (1977)


8. 
   Renegade of Callisto (1978)

The Green Star

1. 
   Under the Green Star (1972) (Wildside reissue 2002,
   ISBN 1587156474)


2. 
   When the Green Star Calls (1973) (Wildside reissue 2008,
   ISBN 978-1-4344-9809-0 trade paperback,
   ISBN 978-1-4344-9810-6 hardcover)


3. 
   By the Light of the Green Star (DAW Books, 1974) (Wildside reissue 2008,
   ISBN 978-1-4344-9795-6 paperback,
   ISBN 978-1-4344-9796-3 hardcover)


4. 
   As the Green Star Rises (1975) (Wildside reissue 2008,
   ISBN 978-1-4344-6689-1)


5. 
   In the Green Star's Glow (1976)

The Mysteries of Mars

• 
  The Valley Where Time Stood Still (1974) (Wildside reissue 2008,
  ISBN 978-1-4344-6546-7)


• 
  The City Outside the World (1977) (Wildside reissue 1999,
  ISBN 1587150670)


• 
  Down to a Sunless Sea (1984) (Wildside reissue 2008,
  ISBN 978-1-4344-9797-0)


• 
  The Man Who Loved Mars (1973) (Wildside reissue 1999,
  ISBN 1587150301)

Zarkon-Lord of the Unknown

1. 
   The Nemesis of Evil (1975) (Wildside reissue 1999,
   ISBN 1587150573)


2. 
   Invisible Death (1975) (Wildside reissue 1999,
   ISBN 1587150581)


3. 
   The Volcano Ogre (1976) (Wildside reissue 1999,
   ISBN 158715059X)


4. 
   The Earth-Shaker (Doubleday, 1982)


5. 
   Horror Wears Blue (1987)

Zanthodon

1. 
   Journey to the Underground World (DAW Books, 1979)


2. 
   Zanthodon (DAW Books, 1980)


3. 
   Hurok of the Stone Age (DAW Books, 1981)


4. 
   Darya of the Bronze Age (DAW Books, 1981)


5. 
   Eric of Zanthodon (DAW Books, 1982)
   The Zanthodon MEGAPACK (2014,
   ISBN 978-1-4794-0450-6) (Wildside omnibus ebook of all five novels)

Other novels

• 
  Destination Saturn (1967) (with Donald Wollheim writing as David Grinnell)


• 
  The Flame of Iridar (1967)


• 
  Time War (1974)


• 
  Tower at the Edge of Time (1968) (Wildside reissue 1999,
  ISBN 158715093X)


• 
  Tower of the Medusa (1969) (Wildside reissue 2011,
  ISBN 978-1-4344-3064-9)

Fantasy

Thongor of Valkarth

1. 
   Young Thongor, by Lin Carter, Robert M. Price, and Adrian Cole (Wildside Press, 2012) (
   ISBN 978-1-4344-4101-0)


2. 
   The Wizard of Lemuria (1965; revised/expanded as Thongor and The Wizard of Lemuria (1969)). In his introduction to the revised edition, "A Word from the Author", Carter reveals that the revisions consist of restoring certain passages cut by the editor from the first edition, conforming certain portions of the book to details described in later books of the series, and adding a few thousand words of new material.


3. 
   Thongor of Lemuria (1966; revised/expanded as Thongor and the Dragon City (1970))


4. 
   Thongor Against the Gods (1967)


5. 
   Thongor in the City of Magicians (1968)


6. 
   Thongor at the End of Time (1968)


7. 
   Thongor Fights the Pirates of Tarakus (1970)


8. 
   The Sword of Thongor, by Robert M. Price with some material by Carter (Surinam Turtle Press, 2016)

Note: Carter's literary executor Robert M. Price has written eleven Thongor stories, some based on titles or outlines by Carter, most included in The Sword of Thongor (three also in Young Thongor), and the remaining one in The Mighty Warriors (Ulthar Press, 2018). Three are also available online: "The Creature in the Crypt," "Witch-Queen of Lemuria" and "Mind Lords of Lemuria."

In 1978 a Thongor movie was in production for release in 1979. It was titled Thongor in the Valley of Demons; however the movie was never produced.

Conan

• 
  Conan (1967) (with Robert E. Howard and L. Sprague de Camp)


• 
  Conan of the Isles (1968) (with L. Sprague de Camp)


• 
  Conan the Wanderer (1968) (with Robert E. Howard and L. Sprague de Camp) [O/N+ Conan the Adventurer (Howard & de Camp) + Conan the Buccaneer (Carter & de Camp);= The Conan Chronicles 2 (1990)]


• 
  Conan of Cimmeria (1969) (with Robert E. Howard and L. Sprague de Camp) [O/2N+ Conan the Freebooter (Howard & de Camp);= The Conan Chronicles (1989)]


• 
  Conan the Buccaneer (1971) (with L. Sprague de Camp)


• 
  Conan of Aquilonia (1977) (with L. Sprague de Camp)


• 
  Conan the Swordsman (1978) (with L. Sprague de Camp and Björn Nyberg)


• 
  Conan the Liberator (1979) (with L. Sprague de Camp)


• 
  Conan the Barbarian (1982) (with L. Sprague de Camp)


• 
  Sagas of Conan (2004) (with L. Sprague de Camp and Björn Nyberg)

The Chronicles of Kylix

• 
  The Quest of Kadji (1971) (Wildside reissue 1999,
  ISBN 1587150867)


• 
  Amalric (unpublished in complete form)
  
  
  
  • "The Higher Heresies of Oolimar" (1973)
  
  
  • "The Curious Custom of the Turjan Seraad" (1976)
  
  
  
  


• 
  The Wizard of Zao (1978)


• 
  Kellory the Warlock (1984) (Wildside reissue 2007,
  ISBN 978-1-4344-9278-4)

Gondwane (World's End)

• 
  The Warrior of World's End (1974) (Wildside reissue 2000,
  ISBN 1587153394)


• 
  The Enchantress of World's End (1975) (Wildside reissue 2000,
  ISBN 1587153408)


• 
  The Immortal of World's End (1976) (Wildside reissue 2000,
  ISBN 1587153416)


• 
  The Barbarian of World's End (1977) (Wildside reissue 2000,
  ISBN 1587153424)


• 
  The Pirate of World's End (1978) (Wildside reissue 2000,
  ISBN 1587153432)


• 
  Giant of World's End (1969)

Terra Magica

1. 
   Kesrick (1982) (Wildside reissue 2001,
   ISBN 1587153130)


2. 
   Dragonrouge (1984) (Wildside reissue 2001,
   ISBN 1587153149)


3. 
   Mandricardo (1987) (Wildside reissue 2001,
   ISBN 1587153157)


4. 
   Callipygia (1988) (Wildside reissue 2001,
   ISBN 1587153165)

Tara of the Twilight

• 
  Tara of the Twilight (1979)


• "For the Blood is the Life" (1984)


• "The Love of the Sea" (1984)


• "Pale Shadow" (1985)

Oz

Published posthumously by Tails of the Cowardly Lion and Friends

• 
  The Tired Tailor of Oz (2001)


• 
  The Merry Mountaineer of Oz (collection of four complete Oz novels: The Awful Ogre of Ogodown, High Times on Tip Top Mountain, The Wooden Soldier of Oz, No Joy in Mudville) (2004)

Other novels

• 
  The Black Star (1973) (Wildside reissue 1999,
  ISBN 1587150956)


• 
  Found Wanting (1985) (Wildside reissue 2008,
  ISBN 978-1-4344-9799-4 paperback,
  ISBN 978-1-4344-9800-7 hardcover)


• 
  Lost World of Time (1969) (Wildside reissue 2008,
  ISBN 978-1-4344-9801-4 paperback,
  ISBN 978-1-4344-9802-1 hardcover)


• 
  The Star Magicians (1966)

Collections

• 
  King Kull (1967) (Robert E. Howard)


• 
  Beyond the Gates of Dream (Nordon Publications/Leisure Books, 1969)
  ISBN 978-0-8439-0519-9 (Wildside reissue 1999,
  ISBN 1587150786)


• 
  Lost Worlds (DAW Books, 1980) (Wildside reissue 2008,
  ISBN 978-1-4344-6784-3 trade paperback,
  ISBN 978-1-4344-6785-0 hardcover)


• 
  The Xothic Legend Cycle: The Complete Mythos Fiction of Lin Carter (Chaosium, 1997)


• 
  Lin Carter's Anton Zarnak, Supernatural Sleuth. Edited by and with intro "The Many Incarnations of Anton Zarnak" by Robert M. Price. (Marietta Publishing, 2000). Collects Carter's three stories of this occult detective character together with stories of Zarnak by other authors including Price, Joseph S. Pulver, Pierre Comtois, C.J. Henderson, John L. French and James Chambers.


• 
  Lin Carter's Simrana Cycle. Edited by Robert M. Price. (Celaeno Press, 2018)

Poetry

• 
  Sandalwood and Jade: Poems of the Exotic and the Strange (St Petersburg, FL:Sign of the Centaur Press, 1951; 100 copies).


• 
  Galleon of Dream: Poems of Fantasy and Wonder (NY: Sign of the Centaur Press, 1955; 200 copies)


• 
  A Letter to Judith (New York, 1959; 500 copies).


• 
  Dreams from R'lyeh (Arkham, 1975). Note: The Sonnet sequence "Dreams from R'lyeh" from this volume has been reprinted in The Xothic Legend Cycle: The Complete Mythos Fiction of Lin Carter
  


• "Shadow Song" in Kotan September 1948, Vol. 1, No. 1. Edited by Gordon Mack, Jr.

Hobby games

• 
  Royal Armies of the Hyborian Age: A Wargamers' Guide to the Age of Conan (with Scott Bizar). Fantasy Games Unlimited, 1975.^[14] Illustrated by Roy Krenkel.


• 
  Flash Gordon & the Warriors of Mongo (with Scott Bizar). Fantasy Games Unlimited, 1977. Illustrated by Alex Raymond.

Non-fiction

• 
  Tolkien: A Look Behind "The Lord of the Rings" (1969) (Ballantine) (Wildside reissue 2008,
  ISBN 978-1-4344-9807-6 paperback,
  ISBN 978-1-4344-9808-3 hardcover)


• 
  Lovecraft: A Look Behind the Cthulhu Mythos (1972) (Ballantine)


• 
  Imaginary Worlds: the Art of Fantasy (1973) (Ballantine Adult Fantasy)


• 
  Middle-earth: The World of Tolkien Illustrated (text by Carter, paintings by David Wenzel, 1977)


• "H. P. Lovecraft: The Gods" in August Derleth ed. The Shuttered Room and Other Pieces (1959) (Arkham House)

Anthologies edited

Ballantine Adult Fantasy series

"Ballantine Adult Fantasy" was inaugurated in April 1969, in words on the front cover of The Mezentian Gate by E. R. Eddison, and in May, with the logo on The Blue Star by Fletcher Pratt, cataloged as #1. Some later volumes also carried the unicorn's head Adult Fantasy logo without numerical assignment to the series.^[1]

• 
  Dragons, Elves, and Heroes (1969)


• 
  The Young Magicians (1969)


• 
  Golden Cities, Far (1970)


• 
  New Worlds for Old (1971)


• 
  The Spawn of Cthulhu (1971) French ed. as Les Adorateurs de Cthulhu, Champs-Élysées (Masque fantastique 12), 1979.


• 
  Double Phoenix (1971)


• 
  Discoveries in Fantasy (1972) (Wildside reissue 2008,
  ISBN 978-1-4344-6549-8)


• 
  Great Short Novels of Adult Fantasy I (1972)


• 
  Great Short Novels of Adult Fantasy Volume II (1972) (Wildside reissue 2008,
  ISBN 978-1-4344-6636-5)

Flashing Swords!

• 
  Flashing Swords! #1 (1973)


• 
  Flashing Swords! #2 (1973)


• 
  Flashing Swords! #3: Warriors and Wizards (1976)


• 
  Flashing Swords! #4: Barbarians and Black Magicians (1977)


• 
  Flashing Swords! #5: Demons and Daggers (1977). Dell Books, 191
  ISBN 0-440-12590-1
  

Weird Tales

• 
  Weird Tales #1 (Zebra Books, 1981)


• 
  Weird Tales #2 (Zebra Books, 1981)


• 
  Weird Tales #3 (Zebra Books, 1981)


• 
  Weird Tales #4 (Zebra Books, 1983)

The Year's Best Fantasy Stories

• 
  The Year's Best Fantasy Stories (DAW Books, 1975)


• 
  The Year's Best Fantasy Stories: 2 (DAW Books, 1976)


• 
  The Year's Best Fantasy Stories: 3 (DAW Books, 1977)


• 
  The Year's Best Fantasy Stories: 4 (DAW Books, 1978)


• 
  The Year's Best Fantasy Stories: 5 (DAW Books1980)


• 
  The Year's Best Fantasy Stories: 6 (DAW Books, 1980)

Other anthologies

• 
  The Magic of Atlantis (1970)


• 
  Kingdoms of Sorcery (1976)


• 
  Realms of Wizardry (1976)

See also

• Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series


• Swordsmen and Sorcerers' Guild of America


• Trap Door Spiders


• Black Widowers


• Lin Carter deities


• Gandalf Award

Notes

References

Sources

• 
  Carter, Lin (1973). Imaginary Worlds: the Art of Fantasy. Ballantine Books.
  


• 
  Servello, Stephen J. (2005). Apostle of Letters: The Life and Works of Lin Carter. Wild Cat Books.
  


• 
  Crypt of Cthulhu magazine. No less than five issues of this Lovecraftian fanzine edited by Robert M. Price, all published in Upper Montclair, N.J., were devoted to Lin Carter as special issues:
  
  
  
  • No. 36 (v. 5, no. 2), Yuletide 1985
  
  
  • No. 54 (v. 7, no. 4), Eastertide 1988 [Lin Carter memorial issue, titled The Fishers from Outside; Carter died on Feb. 7, 1988, just as this issue had been typeset and laid out. The back cover carries an unsigned obituary]
  
  
  • No. 69 (v. 9, no. 2), Yuletide 1989
  
  
  • No. 70 (v. 9, no. 3), Candlemas 1990 [titled The Necronomicon: Book One: The Episodes]
  
  
  • No 95 (v.16, no 2) Eastertide 1997. Contains "Cthulhu and Co" (essay on Lovecraft) and "The Light in the East" (essay on the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn) both by Carter.
  
  
  
  

External links

• 
  Lin Carter at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
  


• 
  The Lin Carter Literary Archive The Ohio State University Rare Books and Manuscripts Collection


• 
  In Memoriam Lin Carter 1930-1988, a tribute site by Ken St. Andre
  


• 
  Barbarians of Lemuria, a free role-playing game set in the world of Carter's Thongor series.


• tribute site displaying many Lin Carter book covers


• 
  "Why Lin Carter's Name keeps Coming Up"^{[permanent dead link]} by David Bruce Bozarthl


• 
  "My Life with Lin Carter" by Noel Vreeland Carter


• Information on Thongor of Lemuria as a character in Marvel Comics adaptations


• 
  "An Unnatural History of Thongor's Lemuria" by Den Valdron


• Stephen J. Servello, "Lin Carter and Clark Ashton Smith"


• 
  Lin Carter Papers at David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Duke University