The Spell of Conan

The book consists of thirty-seven pieces, mostly essays on fantasy writer Robert E. Howard and his seminal sword and sorcery hero Conan the Barbarian, Howard's sources and literary successors, and other fantasy authors such as Edgar Rice Burroughs, E. R. Eddison, Lord Dunsany, Jack Vance, Fletcher Pratt, Leslie Barringer, Fritz Leiber, Sax Rohmer and Talbot Mundy. Some original material by Howard, a number of fantasy poems and a few fictional pieces are also included.

• “Swordsmen and Sorcerers at Play” (Lin Carter)
• “Skald in the Post Oaks” (L. Sprague de Camp)
• “Howard’s Style” (Fritz Leiber)
• “The Ghost of Camp Colorado” (Robert E. Howard)
• “Conan’s Ghost” (L. Sprague de Camp)
• “Untitled Fragment” (“The wind from…”) (Robert E. Howard)
• “The Trail of Tranicos” (L. Sprague de Camp)
• “Balthus of Cross Plains” (George H. Scithers)
• “Something About Eve” (Robert E. Howard)
• “The Testament of Snefru” (John Boardman)
• “The Lion’s Bridge” (Ray Capella)
• “When Set Fled” (Fritz Leiber)
• “Eddison’s Zimiamvian Trilogy” (Robert E. Briney)
• “Conan’s Great-Grandfather” (L. Sprague de Camp)
• “The Dying Earth” (Robert E. Briney)
• “Pratt’s Parallel Worlds” (L. Sprague de Camp)
• “Of Worms and Unicorns” (David Hulan)
• “Knights and Knaves in Neustria” (L. Sprague de Camp)
• “Fafhrd and Me” (Fritz Leiber)
• “Conan’s Imitators” (L. Sprague de Camp)
• “The Thong of Thor” (John Boardman)
• “Woe is Me” (Avram Davidson)
• “Transposition” (L. Sprague de Camp)
• “Thoth-Amon’s Complaint” (L. Sprague de Camp)
• “The Gray Mouser 1” (Fritz Leiber)
• “The Gray Mouser 2” (Fritz Leiber)
• “Precursors and Prototypes: 1. Pirettes” (L. Sprague de Camp)
• “Precursors and Prototypes: 2. The Insidious Doctor Conan” (L. Sprague de Camp)
• “Precursors and Prototypes: 3. The Conans of Albion” (L. Sprague de Camp)
• “Who Were the AEsir?” (Poul Anderson)
• “Howard and the Celts” (L. Sprague de Camp)
• “Who Was Crom?” (Albert E. Gechter)
• “Conan and Matho” (L. Sprague de Camp)
• “John Carter: Sword of Theosophy” (Fritz Leiber)
• “Conan and Pizarro” (L. Sprague de Camp)
• “Lord of the Black Throne” (P. Schuyler Miller)
• “The Heroic Barbarian” (L. Sprague de Camp)

• Laughlin, Charlotte; Daniel J. H. Levack (1983). De Camp: An L. Sprague de Camp Bibliography. San Francisco: Underwood/Miller. p. 113.

• A Brief Comparison of The Conan Reader, The Conan Swordbook, and The Conan Grimoire with The Blade of Conan and The Spell of Conan