Lin Carter
Linwood Vrooman Carter, widely known as Lin Carter, was an influential American author and editor born on June 9, 1930, in St. Petersburg, Florida. After serving in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, he utilized the G.I. Bill to study at Columbia University. Carter began his literary career in the late 1950s, with his first story appearing in *The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction*, followed by his debut novel, *The Wizard of Lemuria*, in 1965. He was known for creating fantasy series featuring heroes reminiscent of Conan, such as Thongor and works inspired by Edgar Rice Burroughs. In addition to his own writing, Carter collaborated with L. Sprague de Camp to rework and complete many stories of Robert E. Howard's Conan, significantly contributing to the character's legacy during the 1960s. He also played a crucial role as an editor for Ballantine Books' Adult Fantasy series, reintroducing classic fantasy works to modern audiences. Carter's health declined in the 1980s, and he passed away in 1988 while continuing to work on stories in the Oz series that had captivated him since childhood. His contributions to both writing and editing have left a lasting impact on the fantasy genre.
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Lin Carter
Fiction Writer
- Born: June 9, 1930
- Birthplace: St. Petersburg, Florida
- Died: February 7, 1988
- Place of death: East Orange, New Jersey
Biography
Linwood Vrooman Carter, best known as Lin Carter, was born June 9, 1930, in St. Petersburg, Florida. He served in the United States Army in the Korean War and used the G.I. Bill to help pay for attendance at Columbia University during 1953 and 1954. He also had some training as a cartoonist. He wrote copy for law firms, advertising agencies, and book publishers until 1969, when he turned to full-time writing and editing. He married Judith Ellen Hershkowitz in 1959. They divorced in 1960. He married his second wife, Noel Vreeland, in 1963 and divorced in 1975.
His first story was “Masters of the Metropolis” (1957) with Randall Garrett, appearing in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. His first novel was The Wizard of Lemuria (1965), the first in a fantasy series featuring a Conan-like hero called Thongor set in a mythical land 500,000 years ago. Four sequels followed. Other series, similar to the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs, started with Under the Green Star (1972), followed by four more novels; Jandar of Callisto (1972), with seven sequels; and Journey to the Underground World (1979), with four following.
A prolific writer, he turned out dozens of fantasy and science-fiction novels, often in the styles of the earlier writers he admired. With L. Sprague de Camp, Carter helped complete or rework many Conan stories by Robert E. Howard in the 1960’s. Howard’s pulp hero enjoyed a revival as Carter and de Camp put Howard’s stories into a sequence of new books, prompting other authors to contribute new Conan novels and comic-book adaptations. Then bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger came to screen prominence when he portrayed the character in two popular 1980’s movies. Carter and de Camp did the novelization of the first movie, Conan the Barbarian.
As prolific a writer as he was, Carter probably influenced the fantasy field more as an editor and critic. He became a consulting editor for the new Adult Fantasy series at Ballantine Books, the first publisher to make science fiction a major category and to bring many of the field’s classics into print. In the 1960’s, the house published authorized editions of J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings (1955) with a publicity campaign which helped make them best sellers.
Under the new Adult Fantasy series program, Carter helped bring back into print for a new generation of readers such fantasy masters as Mervyn Peake (1911-1968), E. R. Eddison (1882- 1945), Lord Dunsany (1878-1957), Clark Ashton Smith (1893-1961), and H. P. Lovecraft (1890-1937).
Carter’s health began failing badly by 1984, when he was living in Montclair, New Jersey. He died in a Veterans Administration Hospital in East Orange in 1988, while working to continue the Oz stories of L. Frank Baum, which had attracted him to fantasy in his youth.