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

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).

Contents

• 6 •  A Map of the World of Conan in the Hyborian Age • (1966) • interior artwork by John D. Clark, Ph.D. and L. Sprague de Camp and Robert E. Howard and David A. Kyle and P. Schuyler Miller [as by John D. Clark and L. Sprague de Camp and Robert E. Howard and David Kyle and P. Schuyler Miller]
• 9 • Introduction (Conan) • (1967) • essay by L. Sprague de Camp
• 15 •  Letter to P. Schuyler Miller, March 10, 1936 (“Dear Mr. Miller: / I feel indeed honored…”) • (1953) • essay by Robert E. Howard
• 19 • The Hyborian Age, Part 1 • [Conan] • (1967) • short fiction by Robert E. Howard (variant of The Hyborian Age 1938)
• 29 • The Thing in the Crypt • [Conan] • (1967) • short story by Lin Carter and L. Sprague de Camp
• 43 • The Tower of the Elephant • [Conan] • (1933) • novelette by Robert E. Howard
• 69 • The Hall of the Dead • [Conan] • (1967) • novelette by L. Sprague de Camp and Robert E. Howard
• 91 • The God in the Bowl • [Conan] • (1952) • short story by Robert E. Howard
• 111 • Rogues in the House • [Conan] • (1934) • novelette by Robert E. Howard
• 137 • The Hand of Nergal • [Conan] • (1967) • novelette by Lin Carter and Robert E. Howard
• 160 • The City of Skulls • [Conan] • (1967) • novelette by Lin Carter and L. Sprague de Camp

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 employment as a mercenary 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.

Notes

Se complete Sphere publishing story.