Conan (collection)

Conan
Conan by Robert E. Howard, L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter, Lancer Books, 1967
Author(s)	Robert E. Howard, L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter
Cover artist	Frank Frazetta
Country	United States
Language	English
Series	Conan the Barbarian
Genre(s)	Sword and sorcery Fantasy short stories
Publisher	Lancer Books
Publication date	1967
Media type	Print (Paperback)
Pages	221 pp
ISBN	NA
Followed by	Conan of Cimmeria

Conan is a 1967 collection of seven fantasy short stories and associated pieces written by Robert E. Howard, L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter featuring Howard's seminal sword and sorcery hero Conan the Barbarian. Most of the stories were originally published in various pulp magazines. The book has been reprinted a number of times since by various publishers, including Ace Books, and has also been translated into German, Japanese, French, Spanish, Italian, Swedish and Dutch. It was later gathered together with Conan of Cimmeria and Conan the Freebooter into the omnibus collection The Conan Chronicles (1989).

Contents

• "Introduction" (L. Sprague de Camp)
• "Letter from Robert E. Howard to P. Schuyler Miller" (Robert E. Howard)
• "The Hyborian Age, Part 1" (Robert E. Howard)
• "The Thing in the Crypt" (L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter)
• "The Tower of the Elephant" (Robert E. Howard)
• "The Hall of the Dead" (Robert E. Howard and L. Sprague de Camp)
• "The God in the Bowl" (Robert E. Howard)
• "Rogues in the House" (Robert E. Howard)
• "The Hand of Nergal" (Robert E. Howard and Lin Carter)
• "The City of Skulls" (L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter)

Plot summary

After a letter reflecting on Conan's life written by Howard to P. Schuyler Miller and John D. Clark, both fans of Howard's work, is an essay on the invented prehistory in which the hero's adventures are set tracing its development up to Conan's own time. The stories gathered in this collection then follow the Cimmerian from his escape from slavery in Hyperborea through his days as a youthful thief in Zamora, Corinthia and Nemedia, to the beginning of his stint as a mercenary soldier for King Yildiz of Turan. To Conan's discomfiture, the supernatural is his constant companion.

Chronologically, the seven short stories collected as Conan are the earliest in Lancer's Conan series. The stories collected as Conan of Cimmeria follow.

References

• Laughlin, Charlotte; Daniel J. H. Levack (1983). De Camp: An L. Sprague de Camp Bibliography. San Francisco: Underwood/Miller. pp. 33–35. 

External links

• Conan #1 Review