Lin Carter was born on June 9, 1930.  He passed away in 1988. I’m not going to review any of his fiction for this birthday post.  It’s been one of those days. I’m going to try to read something by Keith Laumer for Futures Past and Present.

Lin Carter

Today I want to discuss what was arguably his greatest contribution to the field of fantasy. No, I’m not talking about his involvement with L. Sprague de Camp and the Conan revival of the 1960s. I mean, of course, the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series.

BENE NOTE: If you want to do a web search, type “Ballantine Fantasy” in your search engine.  Don’t say “Ballantine Adult Fantasy” unless you want to set off all kinds of bells and whistles. Especially at work.

It was through the books he published, both reprint and original, as well as the artists hired for the covers, that I think he will be best remembered. Carter was extremely knowledgeable about the field and was familiar with many obscure authors and stories. The mass market editions of The Lord of the Rings had been published in the US a few years prior, and there was a demand for more of that sort of thing.

He was the first to publish a paperback collection of Clark Ashton Smith. There were the anthologies containing short work that was available nowhere else. He took a chance on new authors, such as Katherine Kurtz; yes, the first Deryni books were part of the BAF line. There were collections by H. P. Lovecraft and Lord Dunsany,

A few years ago, I had begun reading through the series and reviewing them (mostly) in order over at Black Gate. I dropped the series mainly due to time constraints that were making the whole project feel too much like a job.  Recently I reviewed Zothique by Clark Ashton Smith on this site. I asked John O’Neill if he objected to my using the title of the series here. I didn’t have to, but as a courtesy to John, I wanted to make sure there would be no hard feelings. I had started the series for him on his site, after all.

I was blown away by the generosity and graciousness of John’s response. He not only was okay with it, he encouraged me to revive the series here on this blog.

So that’s what I’m going to do. I’ll be doing more Ballantine Adult Fantasy posts here at Adventures Fantastic.Just not in order. The next book in the series is one by James Branch Cabell, of whose work I’m not greatly enamored. I had decided to skip it and read Poul Anderson’s The Broken Sword when I threw in the towel. I’ll reread that one and definitely do a post on it.

Just not yet.

I’m going to read the other three Clark Ashton Smith books first. And maybe a few other things. I’m hoping to eventually read through the entire set. Just not in order. I’ll skip around a bit first.  I’m also not planning on following a fixed schedule on this project.