Edited by L. Sprague de Camp
Conan the Usurper is a 1967 collection of four fantasy short stories by American writer Robert E. Howard and L. Sprague de Camp, featuring Howard’s sword and sorcery hero Conan the Barbarian. Most of the stories originally appeared in the fantasy magazine Weird Tales in the 1930s. The book has been reprinted a number of times by various publishers and has also been translated into German, Spanish, Italian, Swedish and Dutch.
Edited by L. Sprague de Camp
Conan of Cimmeria is a collection of eight fantasy short stories written by Robert E. Howard, L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter featuring Howard’s sword and sorcery hero Conan the Barbarian. Most of the stories were originally published in various fantasy magazines. The book was first published in paperback by Lancer Books in 1969, and reprinted in 1970, 1972 and 1973.
After the bankruptcy of Lancer, publication was taken over by Ace Books. Its first edition was published in May 1977, and was reprinted in August 1977, 1979, 1980, 1982 (twice), 1984, 1985, 1990 and 1993. The first British edition was published by Sphere Books in 1974, and was reprinted in 1976 and 1987. The book has also been translated into German, Japanese, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish and Italian. It was gathered together with Conan and Conan the Freebooter into the omnibus collection The Conan Chronicles (Sphere Books, August 1989).
Contains non-Howard material – edited by L. Sprague de Camp
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 was first published in paperback by Lancer Books in 1967, and was reprinted in 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972 (twice), and 1973.[1][2] After the bankruptcy of Lancer, the publication was taken over by Ace Books. Its first edition appeared in May 1977, and was reprinted in 1979, 1982 (twice), 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, and 1990. The first British edition was issued by Sphere Books in 1974, and was reprinted in 1977. The book has also been translated into German, Japanese, French, Spanish, Italian, Swedish and Dutch. It was gathered together with Conan of Cimmeria and Conan the Freebooter into the omnibus collection The Conan Chronicles (Sphere Books, August 1989).
Conan the Conqueror (also known as the Hour of the Dragon) is Howards only Conan novel.
The first British edition of Conan the Conqueror published by T.V. Boardman. T.V. Boardman, Ltd. (Boardman Books) was a London publishing houses that turned out both paperback and hardcover books, pulp magazines, and comic books. Boardman quickly learnt the value of republishing and repackaging original American material for the British market, and one of their earliest deals was with the US publisher Gnome Press, itself a small publisher specializing in science fiction and fantasy works. It was through Gnome Press that Boardman was able to published the first British hardcover edition of Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Conqueror.
The Return of Conan is the sixth book published by Gnome, but for some reason considered the last in the series. It contains four stories originally written by Howard, but changed into Conan stories by L. Spraque de Camp. Since de Camp was interested in placing the stories chronologically, the four short stories collected as Tales of Conan represent an add-on to Gnome’s Conan series, coming between stories published in the remaining volumes. The first “tale” would fall within the collection The Coming of Conan, the second between that volume and the collection Conan the Barbarian, the third within Conan the Barbarian, and the fourth between that volume and the collection The Sword of Conan.
King Conan is the THIRD published and contains five Howard stories.
The Gnome Press edition of Conan was the first hardcover collection of Howard’s Conan stories, including all the original Howard material known to exist at the time, some left unpublished in his lifetime. Not published in order of previous publication, Gnome’s volumes were organized to present the stories in order of their internal chronology, the sole exception being Tales of Conan, which skipped around to present random episodes from various points in the protagonist’s career. Some stories in two of the later volumes (The Coming of Conan and King Conan) were completed or revised by L. Sprague de Camp; another (Tales of Conan) consisted of non-Conan Howard stories that de Camp rewrote as Conan yarns. The last published volume of the Gnome edition was the first Conan story by an author other than Howard, namely Björn Nyberg, and was revised by de Camp.
The Sword of Conan is the second published and contains four Howard stories.
The Gnome Press edition of Conan was the first hardcover collection of Howard’s Conan stories, including all the original Howard material known to exist at the time, some left unpublished in his lifetime. Not published in order of previous publication, Gnome’s volumes were organized to present the stories in order of their internal chronology, the sole exception being Tales of Conan, which skipped around to present random episodes from various points in the protagonist’s career. Some stories in two of the later volumes (The Coming of Conan and King Conan) were completed or revised by L. Sprague de Camp; another (Tales of Conan) consisted of non-Conan Howard stories that de Camp rewrote as Conan yarns. The last published volume of the Gnome edition was the first Conan story by an author other than Howard, namely Björn Nyberg, and was revised by de Camp.
Conan the Conqueror (also known as the Hour of the Dragon) is Howards only Conan novel.
The Gnome Press edition of Conan was the first hardcover collection of Howard’s Conan stories, including all the original Howard material known to exist at the time, some left unpublished in his lifetime. Not published in order of previous publication, Gnome’s volumes were organized to present the stories in order of their internal chronology, the sole exception being Tales of Conan, which skipped around to present random episodes from various points in the protagonist’s career. Some stories in two of the later volumes (The Coming of Conan and King Conan) were completed or revised by L. Sprague de Camp; another (Tales of Conan) consisted of non-Conan Howard stories that de Camp rewrote as Conan yarns. The last published volume of the Gnome edition was the first Conan story by an author other than Howard, namely Björn Nyberg, and was revised by de Camp.
