The Young Magicians

by Lin Carter (Editor)

Contains the stories and excerpts:

"Rapunzel", by William Morris
"The Sword of Welleran" by Lord Dunsany
"In Valhalla", excerpt by E. R. Eddison
"The Way of Ecben", by James Branch Cabell
"The Quest of Iranon", by H. P. Lovecraft
"The Cats of Ulthar", by H. P. Lovecraft
"The Maze of Maal Dweb", by Clark Ashton Smith
"The Whelming of Oom", by Lin Carter
"Through the Dragon Glass", by A. Merritt
"The Valley of the Worm", by Robert E. Howard (James Allison)
"Heldendämmerung", by L. Sprague de Camp
"Cursed Be the City", by Henry Kuttner (Prince Raynor)
"Ka the Appalling", by L. Sprague de Camp (Pusadian)
"Turjan of Miir", by Jack Vance (Dying Earth)
"Narnian Suite", by C. S. Lewis
"Once Upon a Time", by J. R. R. Tolkien
"The Dragon's Visit", by J. R. R. Tolkien
"Azlon", by Lin Carter (Khymyrium fragment)

Genres: Fantasy, Short Stories, Fiction, Anthologies, Classics, High Fantasy, Magic

278 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1969

About the author

Lin Carter was an American author, editor, and critic best known for his influential role in fantasy literature during the mid-20th century. Born in St. Petersburg, Florida, he developed an early passion for myth, adventure stories, and imaginative fiction, drawing inspiration from authors such as Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert E. Howard, H. P. Lovecraft, and J. R. R. Tolkien. After serving in the U.S. Army, Carter attended Columbia University, where he honed his literary skills and deepened his knowledge of classical and medieval literature, myth, and folklore — elements that would become central to his work.
Carter authored numerous novels, short stories, and critical studies, often working within the sword-and-sorcery and high fantasy traditions. His own creations, such as the “Thongor of Lemuria” series, paid homage to pulp-era adventure fiction while adding his distinctive voice and world-building style. His nonfiction book Tolkien: A Look Behind The Lord of the Rings was one of the first major studies of Tolkien’s work and its mythological roots, and it helped establish Carter as a knowledgeable commentator on fantasy literature.
Beyond his own writing, Carter was a central figure in bringing classic and forgotten works of fantasy back into print. As editor of the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series from 1969 to 1974, he curated and introduced dozens of volumes, reintroducing readers to authors such as William Morris, Lord Dunsany, E. R. Eddison, and James Branch Cabell. His introductions not only contextualized these works historically and literarily but also encouraged a new generation to explore the breadth of the fantasy tradition.
Carter was also active in the shared literary universe of the “Cthulhu Mythos,” expanding upon the creations of H. P. Lovecraft and other members of the “Lovecraft Circle.” His collaborations and solo contributions in this genre further cemented his reputation as both a creative writer and a literary preservationist.
In addition to fiction and criticism, Carter was an active member of several science fiction and fantasy organizations, including the Science Fiction Writers of America. He frequently appeared at conventions, where he was known for his enthusiasm, deep knowledge of the genre, and willingness to mentor aspiring writers.
Though sometimes critiqued for the derivative nature of some of his work, Carter’s influence on the fantasy revival of the late 20th century remains significant. His combination of creative output, editorial vision, and scholarly enthusiasm helped bridge the gap between the pulp traditions of the early 1900s and the expansive fantasy publishing boom that followed.
Lin Carter’s legacy endures through his own imaginative tales, his critical studies, and the many classic works he rescued from obscurity, ensuring their place in the canon of fantasy literature for generations to come.

Reviews

[Derek]

Carter claims that this is "roughly, at least, a chronological arrangement of representative authors prominent in the genre from William Morris down to Tolkien", which is the same thesis and same general procession later used for Kingdoms of Sorcery. So he is nothing if not consistent. Unfortunately this version lacks the internal structure separating the Lord Dunsany tradition from Robert E Howard from Jack Vance. As a result this version has a number of abrupt transitions as the literary influence of Lord Dunsany, for instance, is chased to the end and becomes something else. I would wonder if the duology of this and Dragons, Elves, and Heroes would have been better served by splitting it at or slightly before Robert E Howard, to make a trilogy piece.

He omits Fritz Leiber, for some reason, and includes his own work, regrettably. His own Khymyrium fragment he adds as a suggestion for what sort of fantasy "comes after Tolkien" chronologically. In hindsight, appending a piece of doomed-from-the-start pet project is the wrong answer, but I'm having a hard time figuring the right answer, given the context of 1969. Michael Moorcock, possibly?

[Fergus Nm]

(At the time of writing I've actually misplaced this, so I didn't read a couple of bits at the end here - but tbh I wasn't particularly interested in the Tolkien or Lewis pieces anyway.)

Picked this up on a whim at a local second-hand bookshop, mainly due to the Carter and Dunsany pieces. It's a decent grab of various classic fantasy* pieces from (roughly) the late Victorian period to just after WW2, which somewhat fits the period of this genre that interests me. Some names are still very much remembered and now part of the cultural mainstream (Tolkien, Lewis, Lovecraft), others are more niche but still well-regarded to connoisseurs of the genre and beyond (Howard, Smith, Vance, Dunsany, Morris), and further more are relegated to the sidelines, unfairly or in some cases not (Kuttner, Cabell, Merritt, etc). It's interesting to read these pieces and witness a genre start to come together and form, witnessing the various subgenres and tropes rising up from the primordial fantasty-soup. Sadly a lot of modern fantasy lacks the spark for me of the best stuff here, but that's just how things go sometimes.

Personal highlights skew towards the more dreamlike and arguably poetic pieces here: Dunsany's mythlike "The Sword of Welleran", Lovecraft's "The Quest of Iranon" (I've always preferred the more subtle/Dunsanian pieces from ol' racist Uncle Howard to his very much overrated Cthulhu bits), Smith's decadent swashbuckler "The Maze of Maal Dweb", and Jack Vance's "Turjan of Miir" (there's definitely some of cringe-inducing sexual politics in this one, but if you're getting your moral code from 1950s fantasy novels you're probably beyond help at this point anyway).

Worth picking up if you find it for cheap (like I did), and a decent introduction to the protean period when fantasy, sci-fi, weird fiction were all beginning to take form.

*or in some cases phantasy, as I so pretentiously refer to the more eerie/decadent/dreamlike style in order to separate it from the codified modern form(s) of modern fantasy.

[Jordan]

This was a spectacular collection of older fantasy short stories from some of the greats. The tales have a fairytale feel to them, exotic and imaginative. Though it contains two poems of Tolkien’s, the majority of the works pre-date Lord of the Rings massive influence. Before so much of fantasy literature became codified by following Tolkien’s tropes.

[Blakerton Barwick]

This is an anthology of older fantasy stories, mostly written in the first half of the 1900s, before and up to Lord of the Rings, meant to give readers some introductory guidance to fantasy works and authors.
And where fantasy was prior to Lord of the Rings. (Save for the parts where Lin Carter inserts his own works 🤣)
The following is a quick recommendation review of the stories herein:

Rapunzel -William Morris 👎
The Sword of Welleran - Lord Dunsany 👍
In Valhalla - E.R. Eddison 👎
The Way of Ecben - James Breach Cabell 👎
The Quest of Iranon - Lovecraft 👍👍👍
The Cats of Ulthar - Lovecraft 👍👍
The Maze of Maal Dweb - Clark Ashton Smith 👍👍👍
The Whelming of Oom - Lin Carter 👍
Through the Dragon Glass - A. Merritt 👎
The Valley of the Worm - Robert E. Howard 👍
Heldendammerung - L. Sprague de Camp 👍
Cursed be the City - Henry Kuttner 👍
Ka the Appalling - L. Sprague de Camp 👍
Turjan of Miir - Jack Vance 👍👍
Narnian Suite - C.S. Lewis 👍
Once Upon a Time - J.R.R. Tolkien 👍
The Dragon’s Visit - J.R.R. Tolkien 👍👍
Azlon - Lin Carter 👎

[Alien]

Grossteils Fantasy-Stories, die in mysteriösen Reichen spielen. Sie verlassen sich mehr auf Athmosphäre und den Sense of Wonder als auf Handlung oder Charaktere.
Bei mir funktioniert das leider nicht so recht.
Mir dünkt mal wieder, dass sich die Autoren aus dem Bausteinkasten der Fantasy-Klischees bedienen.
Ganz ordentlich waren "Turjan von Miir" von Jack Vance und "Der Fluch der Stadt" von Henry Kuttner.

[Kerry]

I came to reread this book with a sense of nostalgia. Published in 1969, with cover design by Sheryl Slavitt, The Young Magicians was the seventh volume in the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series edited by Lin Carter. I read the book in the mid-1970's, not so long after its initial publication, and it guided my taste in fantasy for decades afterwards.

Carter himself selected the stories in this volume and wrote the introductions to the stories. It was intended as a companion volume to Dragons, Elves, and Heroes, which latter dealt with pre-modern fantasy. Carter's theory is that the modern fantasy genre began with William Morris' The Wood Beyond the World, published in 1895; the stories and poems in The Young Magicians were all written during the twentieth century, up to the 1960's. My preference would be to date the beginning of modern fantasy to publication of Lord Dunsany's The Gods of Pegāna in 1905, ten years later, rather than with Morris. There is little of Morris in The Young Magicians, just one of his poems, which is not written in the antiquated style that dominates his novels.

Carter includes Dunsany's "The Sword of Welleran," an excerpt from E. R. Edison's Styrbiorn the Strong, and "The Way of Ecben" by James Branch Cabell—representing three of the greatest stylists in all of fantasy. I may have selected Cabell's unusual werewolf story instead, "The White Robe," but "The Way of Ecben" is a good choice. And of course, "The Sword of Welleran" is one of Dunsany's most famous fantasy tales.

Two H. P. Lovecraft stories follow, written in his Dunsany phase, and then good stories by Clark Ashton Smith, A Merritt, Robert E. Howard, L. Sprague de Camp, Henry Kuttner, and Jack Vance. Carter includes also some fantasy poetry by J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis. Howard's "The Valley of the Worm" reminded me both why I read Howard and why I stopped reading Howard! Lastly, Carter selects two pieces of his own. Something by William Hope Hodgson would have been welcome, but maybe Carter couldn’t find anything appropriate.

In his introduction to one of the Tolkien poems, Carter lists what he thinks were the greatest fantasy novels of the twentieth century up to that time: Cabell's Jurgen, T. H. White's The Sword in the Stone, Merritt's Dwellers in the Mirage, Eddison's The Worm Ouroboros, Dunsany's The King of Elfland's Daughter, Fletcher Pratt's The Well of the Unicorn, Vance's The Dying Earth, Charles G. Finney's The Circus of Doctor Lao, Mervyn Peake's Titus Groan, and David Lindsay's A Voyage to Arcturus.

Elsewhere, Carter makes it clear that Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings is in a class of its own, towering over all other twentieth-century fantasy. Would we say the same now? Perhaps. Dunsany, Cabell, Eddison, and Clark Ashton Smith were all better stylists than Tolkien, in my view—though none of them matched Tolkien's fantastically detailed world-building.

Following Carter's recommendations, I had read all the books he listed by the end of the 1970's, except for The Sword in the Stone, which didn’t grab me. Perhaps either The Trial or The Castle by Franz Kafka deserved inclusion in the list, and of course George Orwell’s 1984 and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, both of them terrifying dystopian visions. Richard Adams' Watership Down and the Ursula K. Le Guin Earthsea novels came a little late for inclusion. I’m surprised Carter doesn’t mention Peter S. Beagle’s The Last Unicorn, but maybe that, too, was published too recently. To his credit, Carter notes that everyone will have their own list of greatest fantasy novels.

In The Young Magicians itself, as well as in the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series as a whole, Carter helped establish the modern fantasy genre by reacquainting us with the great works that had gone before, outlining the history and development of the genre.

[Stephen Simpson]

This is a hard book to rate. On one hand, this is pretty much a "Monsters of Rock" collection of the best fantasy writers born before 1950; if you don't like C.A. Smith, Howard, or Dunsany, we can't be friends.

On the other other hand, a lot of the pieces chosen for this particular book were, frankly, crap. Or at least crap compared to the "career batting averages" of the writers in question. A few pieces were pretty good, and none were truly terrible, but it's hard to get excited about the idea of re-reading this.

[Lisa Richards]

A fantastic compendium of short stories and excerpts from some of the top fantasy writers of the time. I loved Lin Carter's introductions to each story, looking in to the context and relationships between different authors. The one let down, sadly, was Lin's own work at the very end - partly because he did not manage to finish it before he sadly died. I would recommend reading the last story first, and then very much enjoying the rest.

[Thomas]

everything lin carter writes is really bad and annoying but some of these stories are alright