As mentioned in an earlier post, L. Sprague de Camp attempted to turn Sword & Sorcery down a logical, Science Fictional route (ala John W. Campbell’s Unknown) with his Pusadian stories, but in this he failed largely because of his other activities in Fantasy: the Gnome Press release of Conan in hard cover.
Gnome Press began in 1948, under the guidance of Martin Greenberg and David A. Kyle, to reprint classics of the SF Pulps in hard covers. Their first book was The Carnelian Cube by Fletcher Pratt and L. Sprague de Camp, a Harold Shea novel. Gnome would eventually publish Robert A. Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Clifford Simak and many other SF giants. They also, starting in 1950, reprinted Conan. The first book was the novel “The Hour of the Dragon” re-issued as Conan the Conqueror.
Read the rest:
https://amazingstories.com/2013/07/l-sprague-de-camp-2-hyborian-times/
https://amazingstories.com/2013/07/l-sprague-de-camp-2-hyborian-times/
I didn’t think that ” The Carnealean Cube” was a Harold Shea novel
You are correct.
Good article. De Camp (and Carter) were good for Sword & Sorcery.