Catherine Lucille Moore was an American science fiction and fantasy writer, who first came to prominence in the 1930s writing as C. L. Moore. She was among the first women to write in the science fiction and fantasy genres, though earlier woman writers in these genres include Clare Winger Harris, Greye La Spina, and Francis Stevens, amongst others. Nevertheless, Moore's work paved the way for many other female speculative fiction writers.
Sword and sorcery (S&S) is a subgenre of fantasy characterized by sword-wielding heroes engaged in exciting and violent adventures. Elements of romance, magic, and the supernatural are also often present. Unlike works of high fantasy, the tales, though dramatic, focus on personal battles rather than world-endangering matters. Sword and sorcery commonly overlaps with heroic fantasy.
Jirel of Joiry is a fictional character created by American writer C. L. Moore, who appeared in a series of sword and sorcery stories published first in the pulp horror/fantasy magazine Weird Tales. Jirel is the proud, tough, arrogant and beautiful ruler of her own domain — apparently somewhere in medieval France. Her adventures continually involve her in dangerous brushes with the supernatural.
Donald M. Grant, Publisher, Inc. is a fantasy and science fiction small press publisher in New Hampshire that was founded in 1964. It is notable for publishing fantasy and horror novels with lavish illustrations, most notably Stephen King's The Dark Tower series and the King/Peter Straub novel The Talisman.
Northwest Smith is a fictional character, and the hero of a series of stories by science fiction writer C. L. Moore.
Gnome Press was an American small-press publishing company primarily known for publishing many science fiction classics. Gnome was one of the most eminent of the fan publishers of SF, producing 86 titles in its lifespan — many considered classic works of SF and Fantasy today. Gnome was important in the transitional period between Genre SF as a magazine phenomenon and its arrival in mass-market book publishing, but proved too underfunded to make the leap from fan-based publishing to the professional level. The company existed for just over a decade, ultimately failing due to inability to compete with major publishers who also started to publish science fiction. In its heyday, Gnome published many of the major SF authors, and in some cases, as with Robert E. Howard's Conan series and Isaac Asimov's Foundation series, was responsible for the manner in which their stories were collected into book form.
Galaxy novels, sometimes titled Galaxy Science Fiction Novels, were a series of mostly reprint American science fiction novels published between 1950 and 1961.
The Coming of Conan is a collection of eight fantasy short stories by American writer Robert E. Howard, featuring his sword and sorcery heroes Kull and Conan the Barbarian, together with the first part of his pseudo-history of the "Hyborian Age" in which the Conan tales were set. It was first published in hardcover in the United States by Gnome Press in 1953 and by Boardman Books in the United Kingdom in 1954. The stories originally appeared in the 1930s in the fantasy magazine Weird Tales. The collection never saw publication in paperback; instead, its component stories were split and distributed among other "Kull" and "Conan" collections.
The Tower of the Elephant is a 1975 collection of two fantasy short stories written by Robert E. Howard featuring his sword and sorcery hero Conan the Barbarian. The book was published in 1975 by Donald M. Grant, Publisher, Inc. as the third volume of their deluxe Conan set. The title story originally appeared in the magazine Weird Tales. "The God in the Bowl" is the original version of the story that first appeared, edited by L. Sprague de Camp, in the magazine Space Science Fiction.
"Shambleau" is a short story by American science fiction and fantasy writer C. L. Moore. Though it was her first professional sale, it is her most famous story. It first appeared in the November 1933 issue of Weird Tales and has been reprinted numerous times. It features one of Moore's best-known heroes, Northwest Smith, a gun-toting spacefarer, and is a retelling of the Medusa myth; it looks at themes of sexuality and addiction.
Robots Have No Tails is a 1952 collection of science fiction short stories by Lewis Padgett. It was first published by Gnome Press in 1952 in an edition of 4,000 copies. The stories all originally appeared in the magazine Astounding Stories.
Judgment Night is a 1952 collection of science fiction short stories by American writer C. L. Moore. It was first published by Gnome Press in 1952 in an edition of 4,000 copies. The collection contains the stories that Moore selected as the best of her longer work. The stories all originally appeared in the magazine Astounding SF.
Mutant is a 1953 collection of science fiction short stories by Lewis Padgett. It was first published by Gnome Press in 1953 in an edition of 4,000 copies. The stories all originally appeared in the magazine Astounding.
Northwest of Earth is a 1954 collection of science fiction and fantasy short stories by C. L. Moore. It was first published by Gnome Press in 1954 in an edition of 4,000 copies. The collections contains stories about Moore's characters Northwest Smith and Jirel of Joiry. The stories all originally appeared in the magazine Weird Tales.
The Black Star Passes is a collection of science fiction short stories by American author John W. Campbell Jr.. It was first published in 1953 by Fantasy Press in an edition of 2,951 copies. The book is the first in Campbell's Arcot, Morey and Wade series, and is followed by the novels Islands of Space and Invaders from the Infinite. The stories originally appeared in the magazines Amazing Stories and Amazing Stories Quarterly, and were "extensively edited" for book publication, with Campbell's approval, by Lloyd Arthur Eshbach.
Science-Fantasy Quintette is a collection of science fiction short stories by authors L. Ron Hubbard and Ed Earl Repp and edited by William L. Crawford. It was published in 1953 by Fantasy Publishing Company, Inc. in an edition of 300 copies. The book is an omnibus of Repp's The Radium Pool and Hubbard's Triton. The stories originally appeared in the magazines Unknown, Amazing Stories, Fantasy Book and Science Wonder Stories.
Black God's Shadow is a collection of fantasy short stories by American writer C. L. Moore and illustrator Alicia Austin. It was first published in 1977 by Donald M. Grant, Publisher, Inc. in an edition of 2,550 copies, of which 150 were bound in buckram, boxed, and signed by the author and artist. The stories feature Moore's character Jirel of Joiry, and originally appeared in the magazine Weird Tales. The stories were previously collected in a different configuration under the title Jirel of Joiry (1969).
Scarlet Dream is a collection of science fiction short stories by C. L. Moore with illustrations by Alicia Austin. It was first published in 1981 by Donald M. Grant, Publisher, Inc. in an edition of 1,820 copies, of which 220 were bound in buckram, boxed, and signed by the author and artist. The stories feature Moore's character Northwest Smith. All but the last story originally appeared in the magazine Weird Tales.
Jirel of Joiry is a collection of five fantasy stories by C. L. Moore, often characterized as sword and sorcery. The volume compiles all but one of Moore's stories featuring the title character, a female warrior in an imagined version of medieval France. All the stories were published in Weird Tales during the 1930s. After being published as a paperback original by Paperback Library in 1969, the collection was reissued by Ace Books in the 1980s and 1990s.
The Best of C. L. Moore is a collection of science fiction and fantasy short stories by American author C. L. Moore, edited by Lester del Rey. It was first published in hardback by Nelson Doubleday in November 1975 and in paperback by Ballantine Books in March 1976 as a volume in its Classic Library of Science Fiction. A second hardcover edition was issued by Taplinger in 1977, and the paperback edition was reissued by Del Rey/Ballantine in December 1980 and January 1981. The book has been translated into German and Italian.
