The Conan Grimoire


The Conan Grimoire is a 1972 collection of essays, poetry and fiction edited by L. Sprague de Camp and George H. Scithers, published in hardcover by Mirage Press. The essays were originally published as articles in Scithers' fanzine Amra. The book is a companion to Mirage’s previous two volumes of material from Amra, The Conan Reader and The Conan Swordbook. 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 and The Spell of Conan.

Summary

The book consists of thirty-seven pieces, mostly essays 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 Edgar Rice Burroughs, E. R. Eddison, Jack Vance, Fritz Leiber and Talbot Mundy. Some original material by Howard, a number of fantasy poems and a few fictional pieces are also included.

Contents

  • “Swordsmen and Sorcerers at Play”
  • “Letters to Clark Ashton Smith”
  • “Balthus of Cross Plains”
  • “Something About Eve”
  • “Howard’s Style”
  • “Untitled Fragment”
  • “John Carter and His Electric Barsoom”
  • “The Agent”
  • “When Set Fled”
  • “The Testament of Snefru”
  • “The Lion’s Bridge”
  • “Eddison’s Zimiamvian Trilogy”
  • “Of Worms and Unicorns”
  • “The Dying Earth”
  • “Fafhrd and Me”
  • “A Man Named John”
  • “Transposition”
  • “The Gray Mouser 1”
  • “The Gray Mouser 2”
  • “I Remember Conan”
  • “Stamford Bridge”
  • “The Free-Speaking Verses”
  • “The Loss of a Son”
  • “Woe is Me”
  • “Carter’s Little Whiskey Stills”
  • “The Thong of Thor”
  • “Ghost Ships”
  • “Tiger in the Rain”
  • “What Really Happened”
  • “One Man’s BEM”
  • “Kush”
  • “A Furthest Note on the Red Planet”
  • “Arming the Incomplete Enchanter”
  • “Richard the Lion-Hearted is Alive and Well in California”
  • “Mundy’s Vendhya”
  • “Young Man Mulligan”, with Key
  • “Drinking Songs from ‘Silverlock’”