Today, as I’m writing this, is November 7, the birthday of L. Sprague de Camp (1907-2000).. As I mentioned in the post on Poul Anderson two days ago, de Camp was one of the writers from the pulp era who was equally adept at both science fiction and fantasy.
One of the favorite things among Howard fans is to discuss, if that isn’t too light a word, his impact on Robert E. Howard’s legacy. That isn’t going to be the point of this post.
Rather, I want to comment on his own fiction. L. Sprague de Camp was a prolific writer at both novel and short story lengths. He started out in the pulps, so much of his early fiction was of shorster lengths. Near the end of his career, most of his fiction was in the form of novels. The market had changed.
One exception, though, was the series of stories he wrote about Reginal Rivers, He was a time safari guide who made his debut in the classic story “A Gun for Dinosaur” in 1956. De Camp didn’t write another story about him until 1992. There were four Regiinald Rivers stories published in 1992 and five published in 1993. They were collected in Rivers of Time. Also 1993.
De Camp’s fantasy stories tended to have a dry humor coupled with an ironic wit. That was probably most evident in his Harold Shea stories and the Gavagan’s Bar stories, both series written in collaboration with Fletcher Pratt.
That’s not to say he only wrote humorous fantasy with Pratt. A number of de Camp’s early and later short fantasys stories contain humor.
In addition to writing fiction, de Camp also wrote poetry. This was during a time when poetry wasn’t widely published in genre publications.
Much of L. Sprage de Camp’s science fiction was in the series Viagens Interplanetarianis. Those weren’t all the science fiction he wrote. but nearly all of it was novel length. Most of de Camp’s science fiction was in the forms of short stories or novellette.
De Camp also wrote a handful of historical novels of the sword and Sandals variety. I’ll try to do a post on one or more of those in the future.
So he have another birthday of another pulp era author who was adept at both science fiction and fantasy. And sadlyl, another whose work is fading into obscurity.
What’s your favorite L. Sprague de Camp story?
I read the “Wheels of If” eons ago. I remember nothing about it.
His flawed biography of Lovecraft is what I most remember him for.
His biography of Robert E. Howard was pretty flawed as well.
Many years ago Sprague and I were co-guests-of-honor at a convention in Morgantown, West Virginia. My wife and I found him to be charming, gracious, and worldly, ready to discourse on multiple topics. He was fun to be around.
I had the opportunity to meet him several times after he moved to Plano. I was in graduate school at UT Dallas at the time. I liked both Sprague and Catherine. They were great people to talk to. Each time I met them, they were warm, friendly, and easy to talk to. The signed copies I have of his books are among my most prized possessions.
Thank you for your comment. You are the first “adult” science fiction writer I read when I was twelve. I’ve been a fan ever since. It’s an honor to have you read my blog. We have a mutual friend, D. Ables. I saw him recently, and I know he would want me to say hello on his behalf.
I’m a big fan of the DeCamp/Prat “Gavagan’s Bar” stories. And his later solo stories about Willy Newburry. For that matter, I love all his short fiction!
I really like his short fiction.
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I am a major fan of De Camp’s historical novels. If you do a post on one of them I would recommend “The Dragon of the Ishtar Gate”. It tells the story of how Bessas, a mighty Persian warrior and his wily lieutenant Myron, a Greek “lover of wisdom” are sent out on a quest for certain crucial ingredients for an immortality potion the Great King’s wizard has promised to make for the King. These ingredients are the blood of a dragon and the ear of a king. Their quest takes them from the capital of the vast Persian empire to the sources of the Nile and back again. What they don’t know is that there is a third ingredient on the list: the heart of a hero. With truly epic level cynicism the wizard points out to the King that if Bessas can return with a live dragon (the blood has to be fresh) and a royal ear he will be perfectly qualified to provide the heart as well. In his afterword De Camp points out that there is solid archeological evidence that someone actually made such amazing journey to Central Africa and back again to Persepolis at that time.
I haven’t read any of his historical novles, although I have some of them and am looking forward to them. I have the one you mention, and I’ve heard it’s the best. I’m going to have to move it up in the queue.
I hope you enjoy it. I would recommend all but one of his other historical novels. “An Elephant for Aristotle”, “The Bronze God of Rhodes” and “The Arrows of Hercules” are all good reads. The last historical novel he wrote “The Golden Wind” I found disappointing. Overall I find De Camp a very reliably entertaining writer whether he was writing science fiction, fantasy, historical fiction or non-fiction.