Lin Carter
| Lin Carter | |
|---|---|
Lin Carter about 1975
(by Judy Appleton and Gloria Martin) |
|
| Born | Linwood Vrooman Carter June 9, 1930 St. Petersburg, Florida, USA |
| Died | February 7, 1988 (aged 57) Montclair, New Jersey, USA |
| Occupation | Writer, editor, critic |
| Nationality | American |
| Period | 1965–1988 |
| Genre | Fantasy, science fiction |
| Subject | High fantasy (as critic) |
| Notable works | Imaginary Worlds |
Linwood Vrooman Carter (June 9, 1930 – February 7, 1988) was an American author of science fiction and fantasy, as well as an editor, poet and critic. He usually wrote as Lin Carter; known pseudonyms include H. P. Lowcraft (for an H. P. Lovecraft parody) and Grail Undwin. He is best known for editing the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series in the 1970s, which introduced readers to many overlooked classics of the fantasy genre.
Carter was born in St. Petersburg, Florida. He was an avid reader of science fiction and fantasy in his youth and became broadly knowledgeable in the field. He was also quite active in fandom.
Carter served in the United States Army (Infantry, Korea, 1951–53), after which he attended Columbia University (1953–54), during which time he attended Leonie Adams's Poetry Workshop. He was a copywriter for some years before writing full-time. He married twice, first to Judith Ellen Hershkovitz (married 1959, divorced 1960) and later to Noel Vreeland (married 1963, while they both worked for Prentice-Hall publishers; divorced 1975). He was an advertising and publishers copywriter (1957–69). From 1969 he was a freelance writer and editorial consultant. During much of his writing career he lived in Hollis, New York.
He was a member of the all-male literary banqueting club the Trap Door Spiders, which served as the basis of Isaac Asimov's fictional group of mystery solvers the Black Widowers. Carter himself was the model for the Mario Gonzalo character. He was also a member of the Swordsmen and Sorcerers' Guild of America (SAGA), a loose-knit group of Heroic fantasy authors founded in the 1960s, some of whose work he anthologized in the Flashing Swords! series. In the 1970s Carter issued his own fantasy fanzine, titled Kadath, after H. P. Lovecraft's fictional setting (see The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath). Only one issue appeared; it was well-printed but in extremely low numbers, and it was scarcely circulated. The magazine contained Carter's Cthulhu Mythos story "The City of Pillars" (pp. 22–25).
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