I picked up an anthology published by Centaur Press back in 1972: Swordsmen and Supermen. While not explicitly part of their “Time-Lost” series, as it doesn’t state so on the cover, it certainly seems connected.
The editor is not cited, but it is thought that Donald M. Grant, who was one of the publishers, organized this collection of five pieces, some reprints, some original. Before each work, we get a short blurb on it, no more than half a page or so.
So first up is a work by Robert E. Howard, which Centaur was reprinting. They had done three volumes of Solomon Kane. But surprisingly, they reprinted one of his Breckenridge Elkins stories, “Meet Cap’n Kidd,” which is kind of surprising for the time. It’s a western story, but different, as it’s humorous. The REH Foundation Press has reprinted all the Elkins stories.
Don’t be fooled by the title. “Cap’n Kidd” is not the pirate, but the name of a wild horse, which Elkins sets out to tame.
From French author Jean D’Esme, we get a selection from his lost-world novel The Red Gods, “The Death of a Hero.” The Red Gods was his only work translated into English, and published by E.P. Dutton in 1924. Yet it doesn’t appear it’s been reprinted since. Where is Armchair Fiction or Wildside Press? One of them needs to reprint this because reading this excerpt makes me want to get the full story.
Set in Indo-China, it focuses on the rescue of a group captured by priests who intend to execute them.
We get a new work by Darrel Crombie, actually Joseph Fraser Darby (1915-2001), “Wings of Y’Vern.” It’s a somewhat interesting sword-and-sorcery tale, but nothing to really seek out. He was apparently working on a trilogy at the time, but it doesn’t appear he ever finished it.
From pulpster Arthur D. Howden Smith (1887-1945), we get “The Slave of Marathon,” the second of his “Grey Maiden” series of stories about a magical sword through the ages, which appeared in Adventure in 1925 and ’26. While Centaur Press put out an incomplete collection of this series (four of eight stories), Steeger Books has put out the complete series. I plan on doing a review of that series as well as his Swain the Viking saga.
And finally, from Lin Carter (1930-88) is the short “How Sargoth Lay Siege to Zaremm,” part of his “Simrana Cycle” of stories that has since been collected by Robert M. Price. This one is down in the style of Lord Dunsany.
This is a nice little collection. While several of these works can be found elsewhere, a couple are unique to this one. But like others, maybe that’s not enough to seek this one out.
Your comments