Editing Lin Carter (section)

==Writing career==

A longtime science-fiction and fantasy fan, Carter first appeared in print with entertaining letters to ''Startling Stories'' and other [[pulp magazines]] in 1943 and again in the late 1940s.<ref name=isfdb/> He issued two volumes of fantasy verse, ''Sandalwood and Jade'' (1951), technically his first book, and ''Galleon of Dream'' (1955) (see Poetry in Bibliography below) <!-- ISFDB gives first short story in print, ''The Fanscienct'', Winter 1950 http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?409985 -->His first professional publication{{Citation needed|date=November 2021}} was the short story "Masters of the Metropolis", co-written with [[Randall Garrett]], and published by [[Anthony Boucher]] in ''The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction'', April 1957.<ref name=isfdb/> Another early collaborative story, "The Slitherer from the Slime" (''Inside SF'', September 1958), by Carter, as "H. P. Lowcraft", with Dave Foley, is a parody of [[H. P. Lovecraft]]. The story "Uncollected Works" (''Fantasy and SF'', March 1965) was a finalist for the annual [[Nebula Award for Best Short Story]], from the SF and fantasy writers, the only time Carter was a runner-up for a major award.<ref name=SFAwards/>

Early in his efforts to establish himself as a writer, Carter gained a mentor in [[L. Sprague de Camp]], who critiqued his novel ''The Wizard of Lemuria'' in manuscript. The seventh novel Carter wrote, it was the first to find a publisher, appearing from Ace Books in March 1965.<ref>Lin Carter, "A Word from the Author", ''Thongor and the Wizard of Lemuria'' (revised version of ''The Wizard of Lemuria''), NY: Berkley Medallion Books, 1969, p.&nbsp;(6).</ref> Due in large part to their later collaborations, mutual promotion of each other in print, joint membership in both the Trap Door Spiders and SAGA, and complementary scholarly efforts to document the history of fantasy, de Camp is the person with whom Carter is most closely associated as a writer. A falling-out in the last decade of Carter's life did not become generally known until after his death.

Carter was a prolific writer, producing an average of six books a year from 1965 to 1969.{{efn|For 1965 to 1969 inclusive, ISFDB catalogs at least five Thongor novels and nine others, three anthologies, four Howard books ([[#posthumous|posthumous collaboration with Howard]], three by Carter and de Camp), and the Tolkien study.<ref name=isfdb/>}} He also wrote a nearly monthly column, "Our Man in Fandom", in ''[[If (magazine)|If]]'', edited by [[Frederik Pohl]],<ref name=isfdb/> and was a major writer on ABC's original ''[[Spider-Man]]'' [[Spider-Man (1967 TV series)|animated TV show]] during its fantasy-oriented second season in 1968–69.

Carter frequently cited his own writings in his non-fiction and almost always included at least one of his own pieces in each of the anthologies he edited. The most extreme instance of his penchant for self-promotion is in the sixth novel in his Callisto sequence, ''[[Lankar of Callisto]]'', which features Carter himself as the protagonist.

Carter was not reluctant to attack organized religion in his books, notably in his unfinished epic ''[[The Warrior of World's End|World's End]]'', in "Amalric the Man-God" (also unfinished), and in ''[[The Wizard of Zao]]''. He portrayed religions as cruel and repressive, and had his heroes escape from their inquisitions.

In most of his fiction, Carter was consciously imitative of the themes, subjects and styles of authors he admired. He usually identified his models in the introductions or afterwords of his novels, as well as in the introductory notes to self-anthologized or collected short stories. His best-known works are his [[sword and planet]] and [[sword and sorcery]] novels in the tradition of [[Edgar Rice Burroughs]], [[Robert E. Howard]], and [[James Branch Cabell]]. His first published book, ''[[The Wizard of Lemuria]]'' (1965), first of the "Thongor the Barbarian" series, combines both influences. Although he wrote only six Thongor novels, the character appeared in [[Marvel Comics]]'s ''Creatures on the Loose'' for an eight-issue run in 1973–74 and was often optioned for films, although none has been produced. His other major series, the "[[Callisto series|Callisto]]" and "Zanthodon" books, are direct tributes to Burroughs' [[Barsoom]] series and [[Pellucidar]] novels, respectively.

In other works Carter paid homage to the styles of contemporary [[pulp magazine]] authors or their precursors. Some of these, together with Carter's models, include his "Simrana" stories (influenced by [[Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron Dunsany|Lord Dunsany]]), his horror stories (set in the "[[Cthulhu Mythos]]" of [[H. P. Lovecraft]]), his "[[Green Star Series|Green Star]]" novels (uniting influences from [[Clark Ashton Smith]] and Edgar Rice Burroughs), his "Mysteries of Mars" series (patterned on the works of [[Leigh Brackett]]),<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/carter_lin|title=Authors : Carter, Lin : SFE : Science Fiction Encyclopedia|website=www.sf-encyclopedia.com|access-date=3 April 2018}}</ref> and his "Prince Zarkon" books (based on the "[[Doc Savage]]" series of [[Kenneth Robeson]]).  Later in his career Carter assimilated influences from [[mythology]] and [[fairy tales]], and even branched out briefly into [[pornography|pornographic]] fantasy.