Who the hell is Harold Lamb? I mean -- okay, I looked him up, I know who he is...plus his stories have been being reprinted recently, in SAGES AND SWORDS and RETURN OF THE SWORD at least (and hopefully will be available in Rogue Blades upcoming reprint DIY anthology project). But where the hell did he come from?
It's like this. I have been reading s-f, fantasy, mysteries, etc., for at least 40 of my (almost) 47 years. If nothing else, you notice names, even if you never get around to reading them. Case in point: H. Warner Munn. Seen his name, seen the Merlin books, never read 'em. Just read a beautiful interview done w/ him Way Back In The Day by Jessica Amanda Salmonson (who is quite the essayist/interviewer), now I've got his books in my Amazon queue, just waiting for payday.
But Harold Lamb? I swear to god, it's like I've fallen into a parallel universe. Back where I was? No Harold Lamb. He never existed. Never wrote these "sword and sandal" pulp stories, never went on to write these great-looking historical nonfiction books (although I just checked out an obviously oft-read copy of his THE CRUSADES from my university's small but elegant library).
Now the multiverse axis has shifted, and suddenly his name is everywhere. Harold Lamb. Harold Lamb. Why hasn't anybody in S&S given a shit about Harold Lamb the past thirty years? Am I just deaf dumb and blind? Possibly so...
Any thoughts on this?
About Me
- Don
- I teach English at a great state university in Arkansas: formerly a newspaperman, cab driver, cook, teacher, single father of one remarkable son, und so weiter. Writing a space opera at the moment.
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3 comments:
Lamb is back in the consciousness mostly because of one man, Howard Jones. He has spent the past ten years (more or less) bringing Lamb back into print.
Lamb was an influence on REH.
Why did no one mention Lamb 30 years ago? I don't know. Maybe they were too busy pushing aside (or re-adapting) REH's historicals in favor of Conan, et al, that they didn't care about REH's historical influences.
Which is a mistake, because even REH's fantasies had strong historical roots. (a point where alot of pastiche writers fail to grasp REH, I think.)
I was introduced to Lamb via the Bantam series of biographies a few decades back. It was years later I discovered he wrote pulp. Like Paul, Iwant to pass along kudos to Howard Andrew Jones for bringing this amazing author's fiction back to life in a series of collected works. Lamb's biographies on Hannibal, Alexander, Charlemagne and Genghis Khan remain among my favourites.
Pretty much ditto what Bruce said. I'd been collecting the Lamb biographies for years, at least a decade, and never knew or thought to look for fiction short or long by him.
When I came to SFReader, the now-defunct Pitch-Black and now-ignored swordandsorcery.com, I was shocked to learn of his fiction writing. I was anxious to read some, as I loved his biographies, so finding the original Flashing Swords ezines online and then Sages and Swords was simply delightful. Ever since, I've read up on him, Howard's work, and am working on adding all of Howard's edited compilations to my library.