Swords and Sorcery - More

In 1961, Michael Moorcock wrote a letter published in the magazine Amra asking for a name for the sort of story written by Robert E. Howard. Fritz Leiber responded with the following:

"I feel more certain than ever that this field should be called the sword-and-sorcery story. This accurately describes the points of culture-level and supernatural element and also immediately distinguishes it from the cloak-and-sword (historical adventure) story—and (quite incidentally) from the cloak-and-dagger (international espionage) story too!"

That's as good a definition as any I could need. It covers a wide gamut of authors and styles but they're all alike in tending to the grittier side of things and a melancholic tone. I just want to put out a list of who and what I consider important or foundational to the genre and make a view comments where possible.

This is a preview of something I'd like to do in the near future. I'd plan to make (once I master Wordpress) a site about S&S with links, pictures, maps and everything. We'll see how that goes.


The Foundations - The Creators and their Characters/Milieus
Robert E. Howard - Kull, Conan, Bran Mak Morn, Solomon Kane, etc.
Clifford Ball - Duar the Accursed
Henry Kuttner - Elak of Atlantis, Prince Raynor
C. L. Moore - Jirel of Joiry
Clark Ashton Smith - Hyperborea, Averoigne, and Zothique




The Second Generation
Fritz Leiber - Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser
Jack Vance - The Dying Earth
L. Sprague de Camp - Pusadian Tales
Poul Anderson - The Broken Sword, etc.

The Rebirth - Following the publication of the Conan books by Lancer in the sixties there was a market for new books. De Camp and Lin Carter led much of the way with their editing of these editions of Howard, their "completion" of his story fragments and their pastiches to fill in "gaps" in Conan's timeline. While more often mediocre or bad rather than good, these paved the way for the boom in S&S publishing that took place over the next decades.


For over ten years there was great new stuff by older authors as well as great new things by new authors. There were numerous story collections and even an association of S&S authors; SAGA

Michael Moorcock - Elric, Dorian Hawkmoon, Prince Corum, Erekose, etc., etc.
Fritz Leiber - A glorious return to the abandoned Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser saga
Lin Carter - numerous collections (Ballantine Adult Fantasy, Flashing Swords, Year's Best Fantasy), Thongor, etc. - Carter's novels tend to be poor pastiches of Howard or Edgar Rice Burroughs. His greatness lies solely with his enthusiasm for the genre and his tremendous editing efforts
John Jakes - Brak the Barbarian - unrepentant homage to Robert E. Howard
Andrew Offutt - editor (Swords Against Darkness) and numerous Howard pastiches
Karl Edward Wagner - Kane and several Howard pastiches - With Moorcock, the best of the newcomers. Succumbed to booze far too young and after having not written much for a decade prior to his death in 1994.
Charles Saunders - Imaro
Jessica Amanda Salmonson - editor (Amazons)



Newest Stuff - There's plenty of stuff that falls into the S&S genre being written nowadays. More often than not they like to call it "heroic fantasy". It's like science fiction being called speculative fiction in order to try and market it more upscale. It's all a little disingenuous and condescending. If you're already writing or reading about imaginary worlds with low levels of technology, wizards, dragons and treacherous viziers then you should be able to handle the words "Swords and Sorcery" (Note - I haven't read a lot of the newer stuff yet, but I'm working on it)

P.C. Hodgell - Jame
David Gemmell - Druss the Axe, etc.
Robert Jordan - Conan pastiches galore - I read one and it made me long for the duller works of Lin Carter
Brian Ruckley - Godless World

As I discover more I'll add them. Needless to say, there's plenty more authors to add to each of the sections above and I hope to do that on the full S&S site someday.

The Old Family Manse as It Appears Today

The House (Obviously) - Not taken from the exact same vantage spot as the house is fronted by a large hedge and there's a great big pine tree blocking the view.

The Garage - Taken from a similar spot as the 1939 picture, you can see that the doors and the driveway have been changed. The woods behind the building have grown and grown and grown. Since my friends and I stopped playing in them over 20 years ago they've grown wild and the paths trodden on by dozens of kids feet are fading away.

Whitewashing the Basement

Yesterday I emptied and cleaned the basement. Then, using a formula my wife found online, with lime purchased at Reiman's Hardware, I mixed up several gallons of old fashioned whitewash.

The results are crappy looking up close but the basement seems cleaner and it is brighter and it was very easy. I can't wait to see how much of the garbage I pulled out of the basement was actually taken by the garbagemen this morning. I know it was a lot but aren't they called New York's Strongest?

My Aunt's House Today

This is my aunt's house today. It's been vinyl sided and the lawn's been done and the trees have grown. You can't see in the present day photo but the house next door has been sided and modified in all sorts of uncomplimentary ways.

The House My Mother Lived In, My Aunt Lives In, and I Will Live In (Maybe)

This is the house (on the right) my grandparents bought after living in an apartment for the first year after they'd moved to Staten Island from the Scandinavian wonderland that was 1930s downtown Brooklyn. My grandfather had the desire to own a home, Staten Island was cheap and he had a contact who was able to get him jobs. Eventually he ended up a carpenter for the Erie Lackawanna Railway repairing barges at the foot of Pelton Avenue. (Later he cut off his thumb, got fired, went into business for himself scraping and finishing floors and made a bundle of money off the Todt and Emerson Hill crowds.)

From this house he and my poor, deeply neurotic grandmother successfully raised four girls. They taught all four to work hard, look out for each other and always extend a hand to whomever they encountered (Apparently my grandmother was always opening the house to wandering relatives, Swedes, Norwegians and the occasional hobo. My mother claimed there were actual hobo signs scratched on the sidewalk, but then my late mother was given to false and fanciful memories at times).

One of my aunts still lives in the house and someday, God willing, in the far future, it will pass to me and I might live in it. The street it's on is a little too busy but it's a quiet neighborhood with a good deli nearby.

The House That Was My Home

This is a 1939 picture of the house that I grew up in and spent most of my life until six years ago living in. The photo was taken by the WPA sometime between 1939 and 1941. They took pictures of every single piece of property. You can head down to the St. George Library and make copies of any of them if you know which block and lot you're looking for. It's a great resource for seeing what Staten Island looked like in its pre-bridge heyday.

My family bought the house in 1969 for a song and it's still in my family to this day. It's not a great shot but I like it. I remember when I was three and we moved in. Not a lot of clear, linear memories but plenty of distinct moments and sights.




The backyard seemed huge when I stood in it. I looked up at the immensity of the unpainted stucco house with brick red window frames and then at the woods rising up on the hill behind the garage. Then there were the men from Post Exterminators spraying for wasps in the attic and sinking holes in the foundation to make sure termites didn't show up.
It was beautiful and it still is even if the neighborhood around it's changed and the woods across the street from it have been murdered and filled crappy (I mean structurally) townhouses.

Rock 'n' Roll to me

For some reason this picture is worth all the thousands of words I could or ever would want to say about rock 'n' roll. And the album's sort of okay too.