H. Warner Munn was born on this date, November 5, in 1903. Munn passed away in 1981. He is largely forgotten today, but he wrote for Weird Tales. Near the end of his life, he returned to writing.
Munn is best known for writing a series known as the Merlin saga. The first two installments, King of the World’s Edge and The Ship From Atlantis were first published Merlin’s Ring was to have been published in the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series, but the imprint was canceled. Ballantine still published the book along with its sequel, Merlin’s Godson. The latter book combined King of the World’s Edge and The Ship From Atlantis.
Neither of these books (Merlin’s Ring and Merlin’s Godson) are currently available in electronic format in English. My understanding is that there were other books planned in this series, but Munn died before he could write them. King of the World’s Edge was favorably compared to the works of Robert E. Howard when it was serialized in Weird Tales.
Munn’s other series involved werewolves. It was also started in Weird Tales. When he returned to writing, Munn was convinced by Robert Weinberg to write more stories, which Weinberg published. These are available in electronic format.
I have to confess I’ve not read much of Munn’s work. I need to correct that.
I reviewed King of the World’s Edge on my blog. It’s a very entertaining book – fast moving but not hectic. If I had more time, I’d read the rest of his stuff. I do have the two sequels, but my TBR just keeps getting bigger – mainly with old stuff!
https://paullucaswriter.wordpress.com/2017/09/21/king-of-the-worlds-edge-by-h-warner-munn/
After reading your review, I decided to move Merlin’s Godson, which contains both King of the World’s Edge and The Ship From Atlantis, to the top of the TBR pile. I looked all over the place for it before it found it, having overlooked it twice during the search. I thought I had more than one copy, but I only found the one. I did find four copies of Merlin’s Ring, though.
I have to say that I’m more of a fan of Munn’s werewolf tales–ALSO very Howardian–than his “World’s Edge” stuff, which started out pretty strong but weakened with each book, IMO. I need to do a write-up on his werewolf stories.
I’m going to try to read both series. Please post a link here when you do the write-up on the werewolf stories.
I’d be interested in reading your write-up as well, deuce. I read and liked The Lost Legion, but I don’t believe I’ve read any of Munn’s werewolf stories.
Thanks for posting this, H. Warner Munn deserves to be remembered.
You’re welcome. I’m going to try to read several of his works over the next few months, Real Life allowing.