Lin Carter | |
|---|---|
 Carterc. 1975 | |
| Born | Linwood Vrooman Carter (1930-06-09)June 9, 1930 |
| Died | February 7, 1988(1988-02-07) (aged 57) |
| Occupation |
|
| Education | Columbia University |
| Period | 1965–1988 |
| Genre | Fantasy,science fiction |
| Subject | High fantasy (as critic) |
| Notable works | Imaginary Worlds |
| Spouse | Noël Vreeland |
Linwood Vrooman Carter (June 9, 1930 – February 7, 1988) was an American author ofscience fiction andfantasy, as well as an editor and critic. He usually wrote asLin Carter; known pseudonyms includeH. P. Lowcraft (for anH. P. Lovecraftparody) andGrail Undwin. In the 1970s he was editor of theBallantine Adult Fantasy series,[1] which introduced readers to many overlooked classics of the fantasy genre.
Carter was born inSt. 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 attendedColumbia University and took part inLeonie 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 inHollis, 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 publisherPrentice-Hall; divorced 1975).
Carter was a member of theTrap Door Spiders, an all-male literary banqueting club[3] which served as the basis ofIsaac Asimov's fictional group of mystery-solvers, theBlack Widowers.[4] Carter was the model for Asimov's character Mario Gonzalo.[4] Carter was also a member of theSwordsmen and Sorcerers' Guild of America (SAGA), a loose-knit group ofHeroic fantasy authors founded in the 1960s, some of whose work he anthologized in theFlashing Swords! series.
In the 1970s Carter published one issue of his own fantasyfanzineKadath, named afterH. P. Lovecraft's fictional setting (seeThe Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath). About 3,000 copies were printed; however the printer was in a dispute with the binder, who held the copies. While Carter paid the printer, the printer decamped into California. When Carter went to see the binder, he was told that the copies had been kept for a while, but then most had been thrown out. Carter believed that only about 30 copies of the issue survived, thus the magazine was scarcely circulated.[5] It contained Carter'sCthulhu Mythos story "The City of Pillars" (pp. 22–25).
Carter resided inEast 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.[citation needed] However, it failed to cure the cancer and left him disfigured.
Carter held gatherings of writers under the aegis of 'the New Kalem Club' (in tribute to the originalKalem Club) - meetings which were attended byRobert M. Price,S. T. Joshi,Peter Cannon and others, including occasionallyFrank Belknap Long.[6]
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 magazineCrypt of Cthulhu.[7]
A longtime science-fiction and fantasy fan, Carter first appeared in print with entertaining letters toStartling Stories and otherpulp magazines in 1943 and again in the late 1940s.[8] He issued two volumes of fantasy verse,Sandalwood and Jade (1951), technically his first book, andGalleon of Dream (1955) (see Poetry in Bibliography below) His first professional publication[citation needed] was the short story "Masters of the Metropolis", co-written withRandall Garrett, and published byAnthony Boucher inThe Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, April 1957.[8] 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 ofH. P. Lovecraft. The story "Uncollected Works" (Fantasy and SF, March 1965) was a finalist for the annualNebula Award for Best Short Story, from the SF and fantasy writers, the only time Carter was a runner-up for a major award.[9]
Early in his efforts to establish himself as a writer, Carter gained a mentor inL. Sprague de Camp, who critiqued his novelThe 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.[10] 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", inIf, edited byFrederik Pohl,[8] and was a major writer on ABC's originalSpider-Mananimated 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 epicWorld's End, in "Amalric the Man-God" (also unfinished), and inThe 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 hissword and planet andsword and sorcery novels in the tradition ofEdgar Rice Burroughs,Robert E. Howard, andJames 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 inMarvel Comics'sCreatures 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 andPellucidar novels, respectively. Because of his imitative tendencies, Carter is not always regarded with critical favour. David Pringle'sThe Ultimate Encyclopedia of Fantasy, for instance, remarks that "As a writer Lin Carter specialized in derivative hackwork of no conspicuous merit..." though acknowledging "he was enormously influential as an editor, playing a key role in the establishment of fantasy as a popular genre."[11]
In other works Carter paid homage to the styles of contemporarypulp magazine authors or their precursors. Some of these, together with Carter's models, include his "Simrana" stories (influenced byLord Dunsany), his horror stories (set in the "Cthulhu Mythos" ofH. P. Lovecraft), his "Green Star" novels (uniting influences fromClark Ashton Smith and Edgar Rice Burroughs), his "Mysteries of Mars" series (patterned on the works ofLeigh Brackett),[12] and his "Prince Zarkon" books (based on the "Doc Savage" series ofKenneth Robeson). Later in his career Carter assimilated influences frommythology andfairy tales, and even branched out briefly intopornographic fantasy.
Carter also produced what he referred to as "posthumous collaborations" with deceased authors, notablyRobert E. Howard andClark Ashton Smith. He completed a number of Howard's unfinished tales ofKull (seeKull (collection))[13] andConan the Barbarian, the latter often in collaboration withL. Sprague de Camp. He also collaborated with de Camp on a number ofpastichenovels andshort stories featuring Conan.
Few had escaped the holocaust of inconceivable cold that blew ravening down the boreal Pole...
— Lin Carter,The Acolyte of the Flame fromThe Book of Eibon
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, theBook of Eibon (Cthulhu Mythos arcane literature). Some of them also overlap as pastiches of H.P. Lovecraft's work by utilising elements of Lovecraft'sCthulhu Mythos. These stories are uncollected. For further information see Steve Behrends, "The Carter-Smith Collaborations" inRobert M. Price (ed).The Horror of it All: Encrusted Gems from the Crypt of Cthulhu. See alsoLin Carter deities.
Carter wrote numerous stories in theCthulhu Mythos ofH. P. Lovecraft. Many have been collected inThe 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. See alsoXothic legend cycle. For further info see Robert M. Price "The Statement of Lin Carter",Crypt of Cthulhu 1, No 2 (Yuletide 1981), 11–19.
Carter wrote two cycles of stories set in "dreamlands", paying tribute to the fantasy ofLord Dunsany, Ikranos, from his fan days, and Simrana, after he became a professional writer.[citation needed]
Carter was in declining health for several years in the 1980s. He suffered from cancer from a heavy smoking habit, which led to facial disfigurement. The subsequent failure of an experimental prosthesis forced Carter to become a hermit. But in 1987 he had begun to reappear in print with a new book in hisTerra Magica series, a long-promised Prince Zarkon pulp hero pastiche,Horror Wears Blue, and a regular column forCrypt of Cthulhu. DAW published his latest fantasy,Callipygia, in Feb 1988. Despite these successes, Carter increased his alcohol intake, becoming an alcoholic.
His cancer resurfaced, spreading to his throat and leading to his death inMontclair, New Jersey. The cancer was not the cause of Carter's death, however. He had developed emphysema, and experienced severe breathing problems the day he died. Rushed to a hospital, he went into cardiac arrest, was revived by doctors, but subsequently had a second, fatal heart attack.
Robert M. Price, named in Carter's will as his literary executor and the editor ofCrypt of Cthulhu, who had published a Lin Carter special issue (Vol. 5, No 2, whole number 36, Yuletide 1985), was about to send an all-Lin Carter issue ofCrypt of Cthulhu to press when word of the writer's death came. It was immediately turned into a memorial issue.[14] The memorial issue wasCrypt of Cthulhu Vol. 7, No 4, whole number 54, (Eastertide 1988). Two further issues of the magazine were devoted to Carter alone (see References below).
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 anthologiesKingdoms of Sorcery andRealms of Wizardry both included such phantom books among his other listed works, titledRobert E. Howard and the Rise of Sword & Sorcery,The Stones of Mnar andJungle Maid of Callisto. The first of these, presumably a non-fiction study along the lines of hisTolkien: A Look Behind "The Lord of the Rings" (1969), never saw print; the second seems to be related toThe 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 hisThe Xothic Legend Cycle (1997)); the third was apparently a working title forYlana of Callisto (1977), published the year after the anthologies.[15]
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 projectedAtlantis 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-proclaimedmagnum opus, an epic literary fantasy entitledKhymyrium, 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 byGeoffrey of Monmouth'sHistoria Regum Britanniae andSaxo Grammaticus'sGesta Danorum. It was also to present a new invented system of magic called "Enstarrment", which from Carter's description somewhat resembles the system of magicalluck investment later devised byEmma Bull andWill Shetterly for their "Liavek" series of shared world anthologies. Carter claimed to have begun the work about 1959, and published three excerpts from it as separate short stories during his lifetime – "Azlon" inThe Young Magicians (1969), "The Mantichore" inBeyond the Gates of Dream (also 1969) and "The Sword of Power" inNew Worlds for Old (1971). A fourth episode was published posthumously inFungi #17, a 1998 fanzine. His most comprehensive account of the project appeared inImaginary 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.
His obituary inCrypt of Cthulhu additionally mentions projects such as "an epic poem onAlexander the Great, a history of theOrder of the Golden Dawn, a new Prince Zarkon novel,The Moon Menace, a detective novel, and a Star Pirate novella called 'Beyond the Worlds We Know'".[16]
Carter also spoke about publishing a magazine titledYoh-Vombis, which he intended to consist of stories he would have published in his paperbackWeird Tales series had he been permitted to continue editing it. As well as new fantastic stories, he intended to publish stories and verse byRobert E. Howard andClark Ashton Smith; unpublished letters from Smith,H. P. Lovecraft; and art by Smith,Roy Krenkel,Mahlon Blaine, etc.[17] However, this mooted magazine never eventuated.
Carter was a critic of contemporary fantasy and a historian of the genre. His book reviews and surveys of the year's best fantasy fiction appeared regularly inCastle of Frankenstein, continuing after that magazine's 1975 demise inThe Year's Best Fantasy Stories. His early studies of the works ofJ. R. R. Tolkien (Tolkien: A Look Behind "The Lord of the Rings") andH. P. Lovecraft (Lovecraft: A Look Behind the Cthulhu Mythos) were followed up by the wide-rangingImaginary Worlds: the Art of Fantasy, a study tracing the emergence and development of modern fantasy from the late nineteenth century novels ofWilliam 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."[18]
He was an editor forBallantine Books from 1969 to 1974, when Carter brought several then obscure books of fantasy back into print under the"Adult Fantasy" line.[1] Authors whose works he revived includedDunsany,Morris,Smith,James Branch Cabell,Hope Mirrlees, andEvangeline Walton.David G. Hartwell praised the series, saying it brought "into mass editions nearly all the adult fantasy stories and novels worth reading."[19] He also helped new authors break into the field, such asKatherine Kurtz,Joy Chant, andSanders Anne Laubenthal.[citation needed]
Carter was a fantasy anthologist, editing a number of new anthologies of classic and contemporary fantasy for Ballantine and other publishers. He also edited several anthology series, including theFlashing Swords! series from 1973 to 1981, the first six volumes ofThe Year's Best Fantasy Stories forDAW Books from 1975 to 1980, and ananthology format revival of the classic fantasy magazineWeird Tales from 1981 to 1983.
Together with SAGA he sponsored theGandalf Award, an early fantasy equivalent to science fiction'sHugo Award, for the recognition of outstanding merit in authors and works of fantasy. It was given annually by theWorld 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 rivalWorld Fantasy Awards, first presented in 1975.[citation needed]
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.
