— Ch. 1 · The Army And The Typewriter —
Lin Carter.
~3 min read · Ch. 1 of 7
Linwood Vrooman Carter stood in the infantry during the Korean War from 1951 to 1953. He served as a soldier before he ever became a professional author. After his military service ended, he attended Columbia University and joined Leonie Adams's Poetry Workshop between 1953 and 1954. This period marked a shift from his early life in St. Petersburg, Florida, toward a career in writing. He worked as an advertising and publishers' copywriter from 1957 until 1969. During these years, he lived in Hollis, New York, while building a foundation for his future work. His transition from poetry to fiction began slowly but eventually led him to full-time writing.
Six Books A Year
Carter produced an average of six books per year from 1965 to 1969. This pace defined his prolific output during those four years. His first published book appeared in March 1965 when Ace Books released The Wizard of Lemuria. That novel launched the Thongor the Barbarian series. He wrote only six novels featuring this character, yet Thongor later appeared in Marvel Comics's Creatures on the Loose for eight issues between 1973 and 1974. Other major series included Callisto and Zanthodon, which directly paid tribute to Edgar Rice Burroughs Barsoom and Pellucidar novels. Carter frequently cited his own writings within his non-fiction works. In Lankar of Callisto, the sixth novel in his sequence, he even made himself the protagonist.The Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series
Carter served as editor for Ballantine Books from 1969 until 1974. During that time, he brought several obscure fantasy titles back into print under the Adult Fantasy line. Authors whose works he revived included Lord Dunsany, William Morris, Clark Ashton Smith, James Branch Cabell, Hope Mirrlees, and Evangeline Walton. David G. Hartwell praised the series for bringing nearly all adult fantasy stories worth reading into mass editions. He also helped new authors break into the field, such as Katherine Kurtz, Joy Chant, and Sanders Anne Laubenthal. The series played a key role in establishing fantasy as a popular genre. Carter edited numerous anthologies for Ballantine and other publishers during this period.