"THIS MAN IS A SAVAGE—A FELLOW OF NO CULTURE OR BREEDING!": FIRST EDITION OF GNOME PRESS' CONAN THE BARBARIAN

HOWARD, Robert E. Conan the Barbarian. New York: Gnome Press, (1954). Octavo, original red cloth, original dust jacket. $2200.

First edition of this collection of five stories of Robert E. Howard's iconic, foe-crushing sword-and-sorcery hero, published by Gnome Press—a lovely copy in the original dust jacket.

Robert E. Howard "set the most important precedents of all for the future evolution of imaginative fiction in America" (Anatomy of Wonder, 35). In the 17 stories about Conan, the primeval warrior king, that he sold to Weird Tales between 1932 and his death in 1936, Howard created a character "whose exuberance is almost irresistible… He is a fomenter, a shaker of the world" (Clute & Grant, 482-83). "Conan… has become one of the myth figures of our time… This is the original, unadulterated Sword-and-Sorcery, and as such it has been extremely influential. Robert E. Howard managed to create a genre" (Pringle, Modern Fantasy, 42-43). In the 1950s Gnome Press published all of Howard's tales of Conan known to exist at that time in five separately issued volumes, including some material that not previously seen print—this is the fifth of those volumes. This volume contains "Black Colossus," "Shadows in the Moonlight," "A Witch Shall be Born," "Shadows in Zamboula," and "The Devil in Iron." Mighty Conan has waged his violent way to the silver screen several times, most notably incarnated by Arnold Schwarzenegger in Conan the Barbarian (1982) and Conan the Destroyer (1984). See Fantasy and Horror 5-144.

Light spotting to first and last few leaves, minor rubbing to board edges. Dust jacket with slight toning to spine and price inked on front flap. An about-fine copy.