The Conan Chronicles, 1

Last updated
The Conan Chronicles: Volume 1: The People of the Black Circle
Conan chronicles volume 1.jpg
Cover of the first edition
Author Robert E. Howard
Cover artist John Howe
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Series Gollancz Conan Chronicles
Genre Fantasy
Publisher Gollancz
Publication date
2000
Media typePrint (paperback)
Pagesxii, 548 pp
ISBN 1-85798-996-1
OCLC 59568599
Followed by The Conan Chronicles, Volume 2: The Hour of the Dragon  

The Conan Chronicles: Volume 1: The People of the Black Circle is a collection of fantasy short stories written by Robert E. Howard featuring his sword and sorcery hero Conan the Barbarian. The book was published in 2000 by Gollancz as eighth volume of their Fantasy Masterworks series. The book, edited by Stephen Jones, presents the stories in their internal chronological order. Most of the stories originally appeared in the magazines The Phantagraph, Weird Tales , Super-Science Fiction , Magazine of Horror and Fantasy Fiction .

Contents

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Conan the Barbarian</span> Fictional character created by Robert E. Howard

Conan the Barbarian is a fictional sword and sorcery hero who originated in pulp magazines and has since been adapted to books, comics, films, television programs, video games, and role-playing games. Robert E. Howard created the character in 1932 for a series of fantasy stories published in Weird Tales magazine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert E. Howard</span> American author (1906–1936)

Robert Ervin Howard was an American writer who wrote pulp fiction in a diverse range of genres. He created the character Conan the Barbarian and is regarded as the father of the sword and sorcery subgenre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Karl Edward Wagner</span> American writer (1945–1994)

Karl Edward Wagner was an American writer, poet, editor, and publisher of horror, science fiction, and heroic fantasy, who was born in Knoxville, Tennessee and originally trained as a psychiatrist. He wrote numerous dark fantasy and horror stories. As an editor, he created a three-volume set of Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian fiction restored to its original form as written, and edited the long-running and genre-defining The Year's Best Horror Stories series for DAW Books. His Carcosa publishing company issued four volumes of the best stories by some of the major authors of the so-called Golden Age pulp magazines. He is possibly best known for his creation of a series of stories featuring the character Kane, the Mystic Swordsman.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hyborian Age</span> Fictional period created by Robert E. Howard

The Hyborian Age is a fictional period of Earth's history within the artificial mythology created by Robert E. Howard, serving as the setting for the sword and sorcery tales of Conan the Barbarian.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black Colossus</span> Fantasy novelette by Robert E. Howard

"Black Colossus" is one of the original short stories starring the fictional sword and sorcery hero Conan the Cimmerian, written by American author Robert E. Howard and first published in Weird Tales magazine, June 1933. Howard earned $130 for the sale of this story.

"The Slithering Shadow" is one of the original short stories starring the fictional sword and sorcery hero Conan the Cimmerian, written by American author Robert E. Howard and first published in the September 1933 issue of Weird Tales magazine. "The Slithering Shadow" is the original title, but the story is also known as "Xuthal of the Dusk" in further publications. It is set in the pseudo-historical Hyborian Age, and concerns Conan discovering a lost city in a remote desert while encountering a Lovecraftian demon known as Thog.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The People of the Black Circle</span> Conan novella by Robert E. Howard

"The People of the Black Circle" is one of the original novellas about Conan the Cimmerian, written by American author Robert E. Howard and first published in Weird Tales magazine in three parts over the September, October and November 1934 issues. Howard earned $250 for the publication of this story.

"The Hyborian Age" is an essay by Robert E. Howard pertaining to the Hyborian Age, the fictional setting of his stories about Conan the Cimmerian. It was written in the 1930s but not published during Howard's lifetime. Its purpose was to maintain consistency within his fictional setting.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Drury Clark</span> American chemist and writer

John Drury Clark, Ph.D. was an American rocket fuel developer, chemist, and science fiction writer. He was instrumental in the revival of interest in Robert E. Howard's Conan stories and influenced the writing careers of L. Sprague de Camp, Fletcher Pratt, and other authors.

<i>The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian</i> Collection of stories by Robert E. Howard

The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian is the first of a three-volume set collecting the Conan stories by author Robert E. Howard. It was originally published in 2002, first in the United Kingdom by Wandering Star Books under the title Conan of Cimmeria: Volume One (1932–1933) and the following year in the United States by Ballantine/Del Rey under the present title. The Science Fiction Book Club reprinted the complete set in hardcover; the set presents the original, unedited versions of Howard's Conan tales. This volume includes thirteen short stories as well as miscellanea for Howard fans and enthusiasts and is illustrated by comic book artist Mark Schultz.

<i>The Bloody Crown of Conan</i> Collection of stories by Robert E. Howard

The Bloody Crown of Conan is the second of a three-volume set collecting the Conan stories by author Robert E. Howard. It was originally published in 2004, first in the United Kingdom by Wandering Star Books, under the title Conan of Cimmeria: Volume Two (1934), and then in the United States by Ballantine/Del Rey under the present title in 2005. The Science Fiction Book Club subsequently reprinted the complete set in hardcover. The set is noted for presenting the original, unedited versions of Howard's Conan tales. This volume includes three short novels as well as miscellanea for Howard fans and enthusiasts, and is illustrated by artist Gary Gianni.

<i>The Conquering Sword of Conan</i> Collection of stories by Robert E. Howard

The Conquering Sword of Conan is the third of a three-volume set collecting the Conan the Barbarian stories by author Robert E. Howard. It was originally published in 2005, first in the United States by Ballantine/Del Rey under the present title and thereafter in 2009 by Wandering Star Books in the United Kingdom under the title Conan of Cimmeria: Volume Three (1935–1936). The Science Fiction Book Club subsequently reprinted the complete set in hardcover. The set presents the original, unedited versions of Howard's Conan tales. This volume includes short stories as well as such miscellanea as drafts, notes, and maps, and is illustrated by Greg Manchess.

<i>Conan the Swordsman</i> 1978 Bantam Books short story collection

Conan the Swordsman is a collection of seven fantasy short stories and associated pieces by writers L. Sprague de Camp, Lin Carter and Björn Nyberg featuring Robert E. Howard's sword and sorcery hero Conan the Barbarian. It was first published in paperback by Bantam Books in August 1978, and reprinted in 1981. Later paperback editions were issued by Ace Books. The first hardcover edition was published by Tor Books in December 2002. The first British edition was issued by Sphere Books in 1978. The book has also been translated into Italian and French. It was later gathered together with Conan the Liberator and Conan and the Spider God into the omnibus collection Sagas of Conan.

<i>The Coming of Conan</i> Book by Robert E. Howard

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.

<i>Red Nails</i> (collection) 1977 collection of short stories and an essay by Robert E. Howard

Red Nails is a 1977 collection of three fantasy short stories and one essay by American writer Robert E. Howard, featuring his sword and sorcery hero Conan the Barbarian. The collection was edited by Karl Edward Wagner. It was first published in hardcover by Berkley/Putnam in 1977, and in paperback by Berkley Books the same year. It was reprinted in hardcover for the Science Fiction Book Club, also in 1977, and combined with the Wagner-edited The Hour of the Dragon and The People of the Black Circle in the book club's omnibus edition The Essential Conan in 1998. The stories originally appeared in the fantasy magazine Weird Tales in the 1930s.

<i>The Conan Chronicles, 2</i> 2001 collection of short stories written by Robert E. Howard

The Conan Chronicles: Volume 2: The Hour of the Dragon is a collection of fantasy short stories written by Robert E. Howard featuring his sword and sorcery hero Conan the Barbarian. The book was published in 2001 by Gollancz as sixteenth volume of their Fantasy Masterworks series. The book, edited by Stephen Jones, presents the stories in their internal chronological order. Most of the stories originally appeared in the magazines Weird Tales, Fantasy Magazine and The Howard Collector.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert E. Howard bibliography</span> Bibliography

A list of prose works by Robert E. Howard. The works are sorted by genre, by series and then alphabetically. Untitled works and fragments are listed separately by their opening line.

<i>The Complete Chronicles of Conan</i> 2006 collection of short stories written by Robert E. Howard

The Complete Chronicles of Conan: Centenary Edition is a collection of fantasy short stories written by Robert E. Howard featuring his sword and sorcery hero Conan the Barbarian. The book was published in 2006 by Gollancz and is an omnibus of their earlier collections The Conan Chronicles, Volume 1: The People of the Black Circle and The Conan Chronicles, Volume 2: The Hour of the Dragon, though the stories are rearranged. The collection is edited by Stephen Jones and was issued to celebrate the centenary of Howard's birth. Most of the stories originally appeared in the magazines The Phantagraph, Weird Tales, Super-Science Fiction, Magazine of Horror, Fantasy Fiction, Fantasy Magazine and The Howard Collector.

<i>The Essential Conan</i> 1998 collection of short stories written by Robert E. Howard

The Essential Conan is a collection of fantasy short stories written by Robert E. Howard featuring his sword and sorcery hero Conan the Barbarian. The book was published in 1998 by the Science Fiction Book Club. It collects the editions of the Conan books, edited by Karl Edward Wagner and published by Berkley Books in 1977. Most of the stories originally appeared in the magazines Weird Tales, The Phantagraph and The Howard Collector. The Wagner editions were the first to virtually reproduce Howard's original stories without any editorial changes other than typo fixes.

References