Recent correspondence with a member about Sword and Sorcery has reminded me of an author who was in fact the husband of the better known C. L. Moore, author of female S&S heroine Jirel Of Joiry. I speak of course of one Henry Kuttner (1914 - 1958).
His famous character is Elak Of Atlantis who is a self-exiled adventurer and heir to a city on the lost continent of Altantis. Elak is quite tall and alongside his much smaller sidekick they fight the good fight as it were. Sounds a little like Leiber's Fahrd and the Grey Mouser hey? Well Kuttner was certainly influenced by Robert E Howard's Conan but also when writing SF in collaboration with his wife in turn influenced such illumniaries as Ray Bradbury, Marion Zimmer Bradley and Zleazny's Amber series. His Elak series also has several similarities to Moorcock's Elrik, although this may be more of a coincidence than anything else.
I know a collection of Elak Of Atlantis series was published in the mid 1980s but generally these books are not easy to find. The 4 main Elak stories originally published in the late 30s and early 40s in the famous pulp magazine Weird Tales are: The Thunder In The Dawn, The Spawn Of Dagon, Beyond The Phoenix and Dragon Moon.
So do yourself a favour and keep an eye out for this author and his works, you might be pleasantly surpised. BTW his pen name when writing collaborative works with Moore was Lewis Padget.
He's alo apparently writtten a Lovecraft inspired piece which is supposed to be very good although I've never read it. It's called The Graveyard Rats.
Hope this sparks someone else's interest....
His famous character is Elak Of Atlantis who is a self-exiled adventurer and heir to a city on the lost continent of Altantis. Elak is quite tall and alongside his much smaller sidekick they fight the good fight as it were. Sounds a little like Leiber's Fahrd and the Grey Mouser hey? Well Kuttner was certainly influenced by Robert E Howard's Conan but also when writing SF in collaboration with his wife in turn influenced such illumniaries as Ray Bradbury, Marion Zimmer Bradley and Zleazny's Amber series. His Elak series also has several similarities to Moorcock's Elrik, although this may be more of a coincidence than anything else.
I know a collection of Elak Of Atlantis series was published in the mid 1980s but generally these books are not easy to find. The 4 main Elak stories originally published in the late 30s and early 40s in the famous pulp magazine Weird Tales are: The Thunder In The Dawn, The Spawn Of Dagon, Beyond The Phoenix and Dragon Moon.
So do yourself a favour and keep an eye out for this author and his works, you might be pleasantly surpised. BTW his pen name when writing collaborative works with Moore was Lewis Padget.
He's alo apparently writtten a Lovecraft inspired piece which is supposed to be very good although I've never read it. It's called The Graveyard Rats.
Hope this sparks someone else's interest....
