The Books Of Amra!

Robert E. Howard died in 1936 after a blistering decade of writing for the pulps. He created characters in all sorts of genres such as Steve Costigan for his boxing tales, Breckenridge Elkins for his frontier adventures, Solomon Kane for weird tales of the supernatural, and Conan the Barbarian for stories of sword and sorcery, a genre Howard largely invented. There were many, many others, but with his death no new stories were forthcoming to keep his fans satisfied, so they chose to satisfy themselves. 

The did this with the invention of a fanzine title Amra. Amra was published by a group of fans dubbed "The Hyborian Legion" and it was headed by George Scithers among others. (This was not the first fanzine dedicated to REH, that would be The Howard Collector helmed by Glenn Lord who was instrumental in preserving and publishing so many of Howard's unpublished poems and stories and was instrumental in bringing REH's work to Marvel Comics.) L. Sprague De Camp who had edited the Gnome book series which gathered the extant Conan stories and added to them with pastiches by De Camp, Lin Carter, and others was a part of this fan movement and contributed to Amra. The first collection of articles by De Camp is titled The Conan Reader and is a slim collection from Mirage Press of a mere fifteen hundred copies. I'm a proud owner of volume #1034. Under an incredibly handsome Berni Wrightson slipcover, this tome runs clocks in at one hundred and fifty pages. 

The Conan Swordbook from 1969 is a thicker volume coming in at over two hundred and fifty pages, and this book takes advantage of the wide range of articles and art and wide array of authors. The volume is divided into sections such as "Robert E. Howard and his Fiction", "His Colleagues", and "The Complete Sword and Sorcery Hero". Among the writers in this volume are Fritz Lieber, Poul Anderson, and L. Sprague De Camp among many others. There are letters from REH, as well as articles which explore The Hyborean Age. Gregg Barr created the very handsome cover. I have volume #16. 

The Conan Gimoire is structured much like its predecessor and sports some lovely artwork by Berni Wrightson on the slipcover. This two-hundred-and-sixty page volume features writers such as E. Hoffman Price, Fritz Lieber, Jerry Pournelle, and Poul Anderson among many others. REH is represented by new letters. This volume edited by De Camp and George H. Scithers was published in 1972. The books in this last run seem not to have been numbered. 

 

At the end of the 1970's another fantasy boom was peeking and to service that renewed interest in heroes like Conan and all things Robert E. Howard. Much of the material from the three volumes above was reprinted in two paperbacks from ACE. The first was titled The Blade of Conan and the second The Spell of Conan. The latter features several new pieces as well as heady reprints. 

I've owned the paperbacks since they were first published. The original hardbacks came into my possession around a decade ago. I was able to buy The Conan Reader, the first volume of the trio. (It just so happens it has been autographed by L. Sprague De Camp also.) Alas, a friend of mine had already picked up the other two volumes. I was a bit strapped for cash back then, and when I expressed interest in them, he graciously gave them to me. His generosity makes me treasure them all the more. 

To read more about these volumes check out this link to The Barbarian Keep. 

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George H. Scithers RIP

In another related story of sorts, I regret to report the passing of George Scithers. Mr.Scithers was an important force in my life as he was the very lively editor of many of the science fiction digests I absorbed as a young man discovering the genre in the late 70's and early 80's. When Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine started up, I anticipated a short life for it, playing as it did off the fame of the sci-fi's most famous writer of the time. But thanks to Scithers it became a vital read, one filled with a bit more blood and thunder than its more ascetic companions like Analog and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.

Even more important was his revival of Weird Tales the venerable title which debuted so many wonderful fantasy concepts like Solomon Kane, King Kull, and Conan by Robert E. Howard.


Scithers was a force in Howard fandom, the force behind Amra, the central fanzine for the genre. Out of that source he helped put together two volumes of sword and sorcery material called The Conan Swordbook and The Conan Grimoire.


As it happens I just came into possession of these two volumes thanks to a friend who knew I lusted after them, but didn't have the needed nickels to land them. He gave them to me as a gift, a much cherished present indeed. With the passing of George Scithers, I will treasure them even more.

For more on George Scithers see this link and this one.

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