The Blade of Conan
The Blade of Conan is a 1979 collection of essays edited by L. Sprague de Camp, published in paperback by Ace Books. The material was originally published as articles in George H. Scithers' fanzine "Amra". The book is a companion to Ace's later volume of material from "Amra", "The Spell of Conan" (1980). Most of the material in the two volumes, together with some additional material, was reprinted from three previous books issued in hardcover by Mirage Press; de Camp's collection "The Conan Reader" (1968), and the de Camp and Scithers-edited anthologies "The  Conan Swordbook" (1969). and "The Conan Grimoire" (1972). Summary. The book consists of thirty-one pieces, mostly essays on fantasy writer Robert E. Howard and his seminal sword and sorcery hero Conan the Barbarian, Howard's sources and literary successors, and other fantasy authors such as E. R. Eddison, A. Merritt and Talbot Mundy.