Lin Carter - Posthumous Collaborations With Robert E. Howard and Clark Ashton Smith

Posthumous Collaborations With Robert E. Howard and Clark Ashton Smith

Some of Carter's most prominent works were what he referred to as "posthumous collaborations" with deceased authors, notably Robert E. Howard and Clark Ashton Smith. He completed a number of Howard's unfinished tales of Kull (see Kull (collection) and Conan the Barbarian, the latter often in collaboration with L. Sprague de Camp. He also collaborated with de Camp on a number of pastiche novels and short stories featuring Conan.

The posthumous 'collaborations' with Smith were of a different order, usually completely new stories built around title ideas or short fragments found among Smith's notes and jottings. A number of these tales feature Smith's invented book of forbidden lore, the Book of Eibon (Cthulhu Mythos arcane literature). Some of them also overlap as pastiches of H.P. Lovecraft's work by utilising elements of Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. These stories, which are uncollected, include:

• "The Descent into the Abyss" in Carter's anthology Weird Tales #2. Also in Robert M. Price (ed). The Book of Eibon (Chaosium, 2002). The story is a sort of rewrite of Smith's "The Seven Geases".
• "The Feaster from the Stars". In Crypt of Cthulhu No 26 (Hallowmas 1984). Also in Robert M. Price (ed) The Book of Eibon (Chaosium, 2002). Based on a plot idea by Smith found by Carter in Smith's holograph notes (one not printed in Smith's The Black Book of Clark Ashton Smith).
• "The Light from the Pole" in Carter (ed) Weird Tales #1. Also in Robert M. Price (ed) The Book of Eibon (Chaosium, 2002). Based on Smith's Commoriom myth-cycle, utilising an early draft of Smith's "The Coming of the White Worm".
• "The Secret in the Parchment". In Crypt of Cthulhu No 54 (Eastertide 1988). Also in Robert M. Price (ed) The Book of Eibon (Chaosium, 2002). Mingles material derived from Arthur Machen with Smith's Eibonic cyle.
• "The Scroll of Morloc". Fantastic (Oct 1975). Also in Carter's anthologies Year's Best Fantasy Stories No 2 (DAW 1976), pp. 143–157 ; and Lost Worlds, pp. 11–17. Also in Robert M. Price (ed) The Book of Eibon (Chaosium, 2002).
• "The Stairs in the Crypt". Fantastic 25, No 4 (Aug 1976), pp. 82–89. Also in Carter's anthologies Year's Best Fantasy Stories No 3 (DAW, 1977), pp. 129–40; and Lost Worlds, pp. 18–26and in Robert M. Price (ed) The Book of Eibon (Chaosium, 2002).The title comes from one of the stories said to have been written by Robert Blake in Lovecraft's The Haunter of the Dark. Carter also pays tribute to such Cthulhu Mythos stories as Henry Kuttner's "The Salem Horror" and E. Hoffmann Price's collaboration with Lovecraft, "Through the Gates of the Silver Key".
• "The Utmost Abomination" Weird Tales Autumn or Fall 1973; also in Mike Ashley (ed), Weird Legacies, pp. 81–91 and in Robert M. Price (ed) The Book of Eibon (Chaosium, 2002).
• "The Vengeance of Yig" in Carter's anthology Weird Tales #4, pp. 275ff.
• "The Winfield Inheritance" in Carter's anthology Weird Tales No 3, pp. 275–311.
• "Zoth-Ommog" in Edward Berglund (ed) The Disciples of Cthulhu Cthulhu Mythos anthology, pp. 141–193. Note: a sequel to this tale has been written by Leigh Blackmore (see Xothic legend cycle).

For further info see Steve Behrends, "The Carter-Smith Collaborations" in Robert M. Price (ed). The Horror of it All: Encrusted Gems from the Crypt of Cthulhu. See also Lin Carter deities.