Supriya Ghosh (Editor)

Swords and Sorcery

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Illustrator
  
Virgil Finlay

Country
  
United States

Genre
  
Fantasy short stories

Cover artist
  
Virgil Finlay

Language
  
English

Author
  
edited by L. Sprague de Camp

Swords and Sorcery is an anthology of fantasy short stories in the sword and sorcery subgenre, edited by L. Sprague de Camp and illustrated by Virgil Finlay. It was first published in paperback by Pyramid Books in 1963. It has the distinction of being the first sword and sorcery anthology ever assembled, and paved the way for three additional such anthologies edited by de Camp and many more produced by other editors and publishers. It has also been translated into German.

The book collects eight sword and sorcery tales by various authors, with an overall introduction by de Camp. The piece by Poul Anderson introduced his Cappen Varra character, later one of the foundational characters of the Thieves' World shared world anthologies edited by Robert Asprin and Lynn Abbey.

Contents

  • "Introduction: Heroic Fantasy" (L. Sprague de Camp)
  • "The Valor of Cappen Varra" (Poul Anderson)
  • "The Distressing Tale of Thangobrind the Jeweler" (Lord Dunsany)
  • "Shadows in the Moonlight" (Robert E. Howard)
  • "The Citadel of Darkness" (Henry Kuttner)
  • "While the Sea King's Away" (Fritz Leiber)
  • "The Doom that Came to Sarnath" (H. P. Lovecraft)
  • "Hellsgarde" (C. L. Moore)
  • "The Testament of Athammaus" (Clark Ashton Smith)

    • References

    Swords and Sorcery Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA