Lin Carter (June 9, 1930-February 7, 1988), though a skinny youngster, proved his mettle as an infantryman in the Korean War. Subsequently he continued the fight against the evil hordes on the printed page. After the war he worked as a copywriter, using his spare time writing the sort of fantastic literature that stimulated his imagination as a youth. His novel The Wizard of Lemuria (Ace Books, 1965) launched his writing career, which he pursued full-time as of 1969. He loved his favorite authors so much, he was content to devote his own writing to continuing their legacies, contributing numerous series of novels pastiching Robert E. Howard, Clark Ashton Smith, H.P. Lovecraft, Lord Dunsany, and others. His tales of Simrana form his pseudo-Dunsanian canon. He also brought several volumes of Dunsany's fiction to a new generation of readers in his acclaimed Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series.