Editing L. Sprague de Camp (section)

==Body of work==
{{essaylike|section|a laudatory essay or eulogy|date=February 2025}}
De Camp was a [[materialism|materialist]] who wrote works examining society, history, technology and [[mythology|myth]]. He published numerous short stories, novels, non-fiction works and poems during his long career.<ref name=Robins />

De Camp had the mind of an educator, and a common theme in many of his works is a corrective impulse regarding similar previous works by other authors. A highly rational and logical thinker, he was frequently disturbed by what he regarded as logical lapses and absurdities in others' writings.<ref name=Robins /> Some, like Asimov, felt de Camp's conscientiousness about facts limited the scope of his stories: de Camp was reluctant to use technological or scientific concepts (e.g., hyperspace or faster-than-light travel) if he regarded them as impossible.<ref name=Robins /><ref name=Bleiler /> Thus, his response to [[Mark Twain]]'s ''[[A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court]]'' was to write a similar [[time travel]] novel (''[[Lest Darkness Fall]]'') in which the method of time travel was rationalized and the hero's technical expertise both set at a believable level and constrained by the technological limitations of the age.<ref name=Robins /><ref name=Bleiler />

In like fashion, he reimagined [[space opera]] and [[planetary romance]] in his "''[[Viagens Interplanetarias]]''" series, and the prehistoric precursor civilizations characteristic of much [[heroic fantasy]] in his [[Pusadian series]]. When he was not debunking literary conventions he was often explaining them. For example, in the [[Harold Shea]] stories co-written with his longtime friend [[Fletcher Pratt]] (1897–1956), the magical premises of some bodies of [[mythology|myths]] and [[legend]]s were accepted but examined and elucidated in terms of their own systems of inherent logic. The imaginative civilizations in [[The Complete Compleat Enchanter|''The Compleat Enchanter'']], for example, are built upon a cultural and technological reality based on scientific formulas. Characters may be transported to these different worlds, but the magic contained within those worlds is only feasible to the extent that it coincides with the technology of the day (e.g., the combustion engine).<ref name="Dean, J.">{{cite journal|last1=Dean|first1=John|title=Strangely Familiar Forms: Exploitations of Romance in American Science Fiction and Fantasy|journal=Revue française d'études américaines|date=April 1980|volume=9, L'Etranger dans la Culture Americaine|issue=9|pages=149–158|jstor=20872772|publisher=Editions Belin}}</ref> De Camp's explanatory tendency also carried over into his non-fictional writings, including advice to science fiction writers on handling the different states of languages in future worlds.<ref name="Meyers, W.E.">{{cite journal|last1=Meyers|first1=Walter E.|title=The Future History and Development of the English Language|journal=Science Fiction Studies|date=July 1976|volume=3|issue=2|pages=130–142}}</ref>

===Science fiction===
De Camp's science fiction is marked by his interests in linguistics, ancient history, and the history and philosophy of science.<ref name="Power"/><ref>Laughlin, Charlotte, and Levack, Daniel J. H. ''De Camp: An L. Sprague de Camp Bibliography''. San Francisco, Underwood/Miller, 1983, p. 192.</ref><ref>Knight, David, ed. ''First Flight: Maiden Voyages in Space and Time'', New York, Lancer Books, 1963, p. 9.</ref> His first published story was "[[The Isolinguals]]", in the September 1937 issue of ''[[Astounding Science Fiction]]''<ref name=Moskowitz />—the last issue edited by [[F. Orlin Tremaine]], prior to the long tenure of [[John W. Campbell]].<ref name=isfdb/> Most of his early science fiction stories were unrelated to each other, the exceptions being his "Johnny Black" tales about a black bear [[Uplift (science fiction)|uplifted]] to human-level intelligence, and his "Drinkwhiskey Institute" stories, a series of tall tales involving time travel. Campbell's fantasy magazine, [[Unknown (magazine)|''Unknown'']], was suited to de Camp's idiosyncratic imagination, logic, and sense of humor.<ref name="Pringle, D.">{{cite book|editor-last1=Pringle|editor-first1=David|title=St. James Guide to Fantasy Writers|date=1996|publisher=St. James Press|location=New York|isbn=9781558622050|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781558622050}}</ref> He contributed ten novels (five as collaborations), much of it characterized by humor and dry wit.<ref name=Bleiler /> De Camp eschewed the intention of being a satirist, insisting, instead, that the stories he wrote were meant less for instruction or improvement, as satire requires, and more for the amusement of his readers.<ref name=Moskowitz /><ref name=Bleiler />

De Camp's treatment of [[time travel]] and [[alternate history (fiction)|alternate history]] in stories such as ''[[Lest Darkness Fall]]'' (1939), "[[The Wheels of If]]" (1940), "[[A Gun for Dinosaur]]" (1956), "[[Aristotle and the Gun]]" (1958), and ''[[The Glory That Was]]'' (1960) challenged the popular notion of his time that history consisted of an arbitrary series of accidents. Instead, de Camp, through sound background knowledge and logical thought, systematically demonstrated how technological advances could determine the pattern of an eventful history. His display of technological determinism in historical recreation is considered a ''tour de force.''<ref name=Bleiler /><ref name="Remington, T.">{{cite journal|last1=Remington|first1=Thomas|title=SF as Structural Fabulation|journal=The North American Review|date=Winter 1975|volume=260|issue=4|pages=53–55|jstor=25117723}}</ref> ''Lest Darkness Fall'', "The Wheels of If" and "Aristotle and the Gun" have been recognized as seminal works in the field of alternate history.<ref name="SWfAH">[http://www.uchronia.net/sidewise/complete.html#achieve "Past Winners and Finalists"]. Sidewise Awards for Alternate History (''uchronia.net''). Retrieved April 23, 2013. This was a Special Achievement award "for seminal works in the field" among the first annual Sidewise Awards in 1996 (generally recognizing 1995 publications).</ref>

His most extended work was his "''[[Viagens Interplanetarias]]''" series, set in a future where Brazil is the dominant power, particularly a sub-series of [[sword and planet]] novels set on the planet Krishna, beginning with ''[[The Queen of Zamba]]''.<ref name="Power">Power, Colleen. "DeCamp, L. (Lyon) Sprague." ''Reader's Guide to Twentieth-Century Science Fiction'' (Chicago, American Library Association, 1989), pp. 170-74.</ref> His most influential ''Viagens'' novel was the non-Krishna work ''[[Rogue Queen]]'', a tale of a hive society undermined by interstellar contact, which was one of the earliest science fiction novels to deal with sexual themes.<ref name=Bleiler />

===Fantasy===
[[File:Fantastic universe 195901.jpg|thumb|A de Camp-Pratt "Gavagan's Bar" story was cover-featured on the January 1959 issue of ''[[Fantastic Universe]]'']]
[[File:Two complete science adventure books 1951win n4.jpg|thumb|right|de Camp's heroic fantasy novel ''[[The Tritonian Ring]]'' was cover-featured on ''[[Two Complete Science-Adventure Books]]'' in 1951]]
De Camp was best known for his light fantasy, particularly two series written in collaboration with Pratt, the [[Harold Shea]] stories (from 1940 et seq.) and [[Tales from Gavagan's Bar|Gavagan's Bar]] (from 1950).<ref name=isfdb/><ref name=Moskowitz /> [[Floyd C. Gale]] in 1961 said that they "were far and away the finest team of fantasy collaborators".<ref name="gale196112">{{Cite magazine
 |last=Gale
 |first=Floyd C.
 |date=December 1961
 |title=Galaxy's 5 Star Shelf
 |url=https://archive.org/stream/Galaxy_v20n02_1961-12_modified#page/n42/mode/1up 
 |magazine=Galaxy Science Fiction
 |pages=144–147
}}</ref> De Camp and Pratt also wrote some stand-alone novels similar in tone to the Harold Shea stories, of which the most highly regarded is ''[[Land of Unreason]]'' (1942), and de Camp wrote a few more of this genre on his own.<ref name="Pringle, D." />

He was also known for his [[sword and sorcery]], a fantasy genre revived partly by his editorial work on and continuation of [[Robert E. Howard]]'s [[Conan the Barbarian|Conan]] cycle.<ref name="obit"/><ref name="Pringle, D." /><ref>{{Cite book|title=Un laboratorio di fantastici libri. Riccardo Valla intellettuale, editore, traduttore. Con un'appendice di lettere inedite a cura di Luca G. Manenti|last=Iannuzzi|first=Giulia|publisher=Solfanelli|year=2019|isbn=9788833051031|location=Chieti (Italy)|pages=85–92}}</ref> He also edited a series of fantasy anthologies credited with helping to spark the renaissance of heroic fantasy in the late 1960s.<ref name="Stableford">Stableford, Brian M. "L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt." ''Supernatural Fiction Writers: Fantasy and Horror'', ed. [[Everett F. Bleiler]] (New York, Scribner, 1985), vol. 2, p. 929.</ref>

De Camp also created three noteworthy sword and sorcery sequences. The [[Pusadian series]] (from 1951), composed of the novel ''[[The Tritonian Ring]]'' and several short stories, is set in an [[antediluvian]] era similar to Howard's.

More substantial is the [[Novarian series]] (from 1968), of which the core is the ''[[The Reluctant King|Reluctant King]]'' trilogy, beginning with ''[[The Goblin Tower]]'', de Camp's most accomplished effort in the genre, continuing in ''[[The Clocks of Iraz]]'', and concluding with ''[[The Unbeheaded King]]''. The trilogy features the adventurer Jorian, ex-king of Xylar. Jorian's world is an alternate reality to which our own serves as an afterlife. Other novels in the sequence include ''[[The Fallible Fiend]]'', a satire told from the point of view of a demon, and ''[[The Honorable Barbarian]]'', a follow-up to the trilogy featuring Jorian's brother as the hero.

The Incorporated Knight series comprises some 1970s short stories by de Camp and two novels written in collaboration with Catherine Crook de Camp, ''[[The Incorporated Knight]]'' (1988) and ''[[The Pixilated Peeress]]'' (1991).<ref name=isfdb/> The early short stories were incorporated into the first of these. The sequence is set in the medieval era of another alternate world sharing the geography of our own, but in which a Neapolitan empire filled the role of [[Roman Empire|Rome]] and no universal religion like [[Christianity]] ever arose, leaving its nations split among competing pagan sects. The setting is borrowed in part from ''[[John Mandeville|Mandeville's Travels]]''.

===Historical fiction===
De Camp also wrote historical fiction set in the era of classical antiquity from the height of the [[Achaemenid Empire|First Persian Empire]] to the waning of the [[Hellenistic civilization|Hellenistic]] period. Five novels published by [[Doubleday (publisher)|Doubleday]] from 1958 to 1969<ref name=isfdb/> form a loosely connected series based on their common setting and occasional cross references. They were also linked by a common focus on the advancement of scientific knowledge, de Camp's chosen protagonists being explorers, artisans, engineers, innovators and practical philosophers rather than famous names from antiquity, who are relegated to secondary roles. The best known of his historical novels is ''[[The Dragon of the Ishtar Gate]]''.

===Nonfiction===
[[File:Galaxy 195202.jpg|thumb|right|In 1952, [[Richard M. Powers]] provided a ''[[Galaxy Science Fiction]]'' cover highlighting essays by de Camp and by [[Robert A. Heinlein]]]]
De Camp's first book was ''[[Inventions and Their Management]]'', co-written with Alf K. Berle and published by [[International Textbook Company]] in 1937: a 733-page book with a three-page list of law cases cited.<ref name=isfdb/><ref name=LCC1/>

He enjoyed [[debunker|debunking]] doubtful history and [[pseudoscience|pseudoscientific]] claims about the supernatural. He conducted extensive research for what was to be a book on magic, witchcraft and occultism, though only the first chapter, "The Unwritten Classics" (March 1947), was published in the ''Saturday Review of Literature''.<ref name=Moskowitz /> By May 1976, concerned with what [[Paul Kurtz]] described as "an enormous increase in public interest in psychic phenomena, the occult and pseudoscience," de Camp joined the newly formed [[Committee for Skeptical Inquiry|Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal]] along with astronomers [[George O. Abell|George Abell]], [[Bart Bok]], and [[Carl Sagan]]; philosophers [[Brand Blanshard]], [[Antony Flew]], [[Sidney Hook]], and [[Ernest Nagel]]; authors Isaac Asimov, [[Daniel Cohen (children's writer)|Daniel Cohen]], [[Charles Fair]], [[Martin Gardner]], and [[Phillip J. Klass]]; psychologists [[Ray Hyman]] and [[B.F Skinner]]; and magician [[James Randi]].<ref name="Frazier, K.">{{cite journal|last1=Frazier|first1=Kendrick|title=Science and the Parascience Cults|journal=Science News|date=May 29, 1976|volume=109|issue=22|pages=346–348+350|jstor=3961111|publisher=Society for Science and the Public|doi=10.2307/3961111}}</ref> Despite being a long-time writer of fantasy, de Camp did not believe in ghosts in the supernatural sense. His ghosts dwelt only in his mind as memories of his parents. His mother, he wrote in a ''New York Times Magazine'' article, died of an overdose of [[faith healing]].<ref name="Talking to Ghosts" /> When considering claims of UFO sightings, [[astrology]], and other subjects considered moot by the scientific community, de Camp would address the circular logic expressed by enthusiasts by insisting on first-hand, unbiased, measurable data to back up the claims. "In the history of cultism," de Camp said in a [[Science News]] interview, "one is always experiencing a feeling of deja vu."<ref name="Frazier, K." />

He explained how [[ancient civilization]]s produced structures and architecture that many considered to be impossible for them, such as the [[Pyramid]]s of [[Ancient Egypt]]. Works in this area include ''[[Lost Continents]]'', ''[[Citadels of Mystery]]'', and ''[[The Ancient Engineers]]''.

Some others of his many and wide-ranging nonfiction works were ''[[The Great Monkey Trial]]'' (about the [[Scopes Trial]]), ''[[The Ragged Edge of Science]]'', ''[[Energy and Power]]'', ''[[The Heroic Age of American Invention]]'', ''[[The Day of the Dinosaur]]'' (which argued, among other things, that evolution took hold after [[Charles Darwin|Darwin]] because of the [[Victorian era|Victorian]] interest spurred by recently popularized dinosaur remains, corresponding to [[legend]]s of [[dragons]]), ''[[Great Cities of the Ancient World]]'' and ''[[The Evolution of Naval Weapons]]'' (a United States government textbook).

Published in the July 1938 issue of ''Astounding Science Fiction'', "Language for Time Travelers" won de Camp the first non-fiction readership monthly honor awarded in the magazine for his exploration of the communication difficulties for time travelers as pronunciation and semantics shift over time.<ref name=Moskowitz />

De Camp's pioneering biographies of fantasy writers were many short articles and full-length studies of [[Robert E. Howard]] and [[H. P. Lovecraft]], the first major independent biographies of both writers. Matthew Hartman, in a review of de Camp's ''Lovecraft: A Biography'', stated that de Camp "does not defend his subject; he criticizes where criticism is due, and he explains in historical and sociological context, rather than attempting to excuse."<ref name="Hartman, M.">{{cite journal|last1=Hartman|first1=Matthew|title=De Camp, L. Sprague; Lovecraft: A biography|journal=Library Journal|date=February 15, 1975|volume=100|issue=4|page=387}}</ref> De Camp's "warts and all" approach to his subjects<ref name=Lehmann-Haupt>{{cite news|last1=Lehmann-Haupt|first1=Christopher|title=Book of the Times: The New England Horror|work=New York Times Book Review|date=January 29, 1975|page=30}}</ref> has been branded by some [[fan (person)|fans]] as unflattering and unbalanced. For instance, [[Mark Finn]], author of ''[[Blood & Thunder: The Life & Art of Robert E. Howard]]'', contends that de Camp deliberately framed his questions in regard to Howard to elicit answers matching his [[Freudian]] theories about him.<ref>Murphy, Brian. [http://thesilverkey.blogspot.com/2008/10/blood-and-thunder-life-art-of-robert-e.html "''Blood & Thunder: The Life & Art of Robert E. Howard'': A review"]. October 16, 2008.</ref>

De Camp also wrote nonfiction radio scripts for [[Voice of America]].<ref name=Thurber />

De Camp wrote a number of lesser-known but nonetheless significant works that explored such topics as racism, which he wrote could be more accurately described as [[ethnocentrism]], noting that no scholar comparing the merits of various ethnicities has ever sought to prove that his own ethnicity was inferior to others.<ref>De Camp, L. Sprague. "The Breeds of Man," ''Analog Science Fiction and Science Fact'', April 1976.</ref> Isaac Asimov recalled de Camp finding the tendency of authors to portray human characters in outer-space science fiction as superior to aliens analogous to northern Europeans imagining they had some inherent superiority over other races.<ref>Asimov, Isaac. [[Gold (Asimov book)|Gold: The Final Science Fiction Collection]], HarperPrism, 1996.</ref>