32 Facts About Lin Carter

Linwood Vrooman Carter was an American author of science fiction and fantasy, as well as an editor, poet and critic.

Lin Carter is best known for his work in the 1970s as editor of the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series, which introduced readers to many overlooked classics of the fantasy genre.

Lin Carter was an avid reader of science fiction and fantasy in his youth, and became broadly knowledgeable in both fields.

Lin Carter was an advertising and publishers' copywriter from 1957 until 1969, when he took up writing full-time.

Lin Carter was married twice, first to Judith Ellen Hershkovitz and second to Noel Vreeland.

Lin Carter was a member of the Trap Door Spiders, an all-male literary banqueting club which served as the basis of Isaac Asimov's fictional group of mystery-solvers, the Black Widowers.

When Lin 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.

Lin Carter believed that only about 30 copies of the issue survived, thus the magazine was scarcely circulated.

Lin Carter resided in East Orange, New Jersey, in his later years, and drank and smoked heavily.

Lin Carter's cancer resurfaced, spreading to his throat and leading to his death in Montclair, New Jersey, in 1988.

Lin Carter issued two volumes of fantasy verse, Sandalwood and Jade, technically his first book, and Galleon of Dream 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.

The story "Uncollected Works" was a finalist for the annual Nebula Award for Best Short Story, from the SF and fantasy writers, the only time Lin Carter was a runner-up for a major award.

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 Lin Carter wrote, it was the first to find a publisher, appearing from Ace Books in March 1965.

Lin Carter was a prolific writer, producing an average of six books a year from 1965 to 1969.

Lin 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.

Lin Carter was not reluctant to attack organized religion in his books, notably in his unfinished epic World's End, in "Amalric the Man-God", and in The Wizard of Zao.

Lin Carter portrayed religions as cruel and repressive, and had his heroes escape from their inquisitions.

In most of his fiction, Lin Carter was consciously imitative of the themes, subjects and styles of authors he admired.

Lin Carter 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.

Lin Carter's first published book, The Wizard of Lemuria, first of the "Thongor the Barbarian" series, combines both influences.

In other works Lin Carter paid homage to the styles of contemporary pulp magazine authors or their precursors.

Later in his career Lin Carter assimilated influences from mythology and fairy tales, and even branched out briefly into pornographic fantasy.

Lin Carter collaborated with de Camp on a number of pastiche novels and short stories featuring Conan.

Many have been collected in The Xothic Legend Cycle: The Complete Mythos Fiction of Lin Carter, edited by Robert M Price.

Lin 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.

Lin Carter wrote the introduction to the book, Over the Hills and Far Away.

Lin Carter 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.

Part of the problem was that Lin Carter was forcing himself to write the novel in a formal style more like that of William Morris and quite unlike his own.

Lin Carter spoke about publishing a magazine titled Yoh-Vombis, which he intended to consist of stories he would have published in his paperback Weird Tales series had he been permitted to continue editing it.

Lin Carter was influential as a critic of contemporary fantasy and a pioneering historian of the genre.

Lin Carter was a fantasy anthologist of note, editing a number of new anthologies of classic and contemporary fantasy for Ballantine and other publishers.