Howard's Editor -- Adilbrand Noblesword's Hall of Warriors

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Date Posted: 17:18:50 07/01/02 Mon
Author: Adilbrand
Subject: Howard's Editor
In reply to: mvd 's message, "Horray for Howard!" on 12:36:40 07/01/02 Mon

For the Cormac Mac Art stuff, I think Farnsworth Wright was his editor, although Otis Kline may have had a hand in some of it. I think, for the book you have, the stories are unedited. Due to the things L. Sprague de Camp did (which went far and away over mere editing for fine-tuning), people have gone overboard in the other direction, insisting on a chance to read Howard without ANY edits.

Farnsworth Wright changed a lot of Howard's titles (often for the better, in my opinion), because Howard seemed to use the word "black" in A LOT of the titles, or were just strange, and Wright got tired of that. Howard's Conan story, "The Slithering Shadow" was actually titled by Howard as "Xuthal of the Dusk". Personally, I think Wright's title is a lot better (I also like the word "slithering").

I am glad you are enjoying the Cormac Mac Art stores. Not his best stuff, but certainly very pulse-pounding and exciting. Sword and sorcery as it should be written.

A lot of folks don't understand why I don't just devour the Robert Jordan "Wheel of Time" series... but if you compare the verbose volumes in that series with the excitement and carnage of the average Cormac story... well, Jordan leaves a lot to be desired. I think Howard really believed in the basic truth of the stories he wrote; he believed that was what life was like in savage times. He wrote his fictions as if they were true stories. I remember what impressed me the most when I first picked up my very first Conan book ("Conan the Adventurer") was that I felt like I was reading a translation of an ancient scroll that had been lost through time.

The first story in that volume was "People of the Black Circle", and I hope I never forget what it was like reading it the first time. My uncle Richard had loaned me the book. It smelled like stale cigarettes. But it felt like I was reading something ancient and forgotten. It seemed very "real" to me. (One of these days I have to remember to thank Richard for loaning me that volume.)

Anyways, I digress. Farnsworth Wright did most of his editing work. He wasn't the greatest editor of all time, since he had to edit a lot of people's work (he was in charge of Weird Tales at that time), but he did a fair job.

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Replies:

Howard and Jordan -- mvd, 17:40:57 07/01/02 Mon
- Re: Howard and Jordan -- theefool, 19:44:35 07/01/02 Mon
  - Re: Howard and Jordan -- mvd, 12:16:59 07/02/02 Tue