Abstract
The period from about 1900 to 1960 saw the publication of the bulk of the material that either made up the BAFS or was cited regularly by Lin Carter as part of the “tradition” that William Morris “invented.” In the present context, this material may be said to constitute an almost exclusive migration to prose of narrative drawing on, and in certain respects emulating, the various premodern modes of romance, saga, epic, and fairy tale, after more than a century dominated by poetry. This material will form the primary focus of the next two chapters: the present chapter will center on the “literary” branch of the BAFS “canon” (Dunsany, Eddison, Tolkien), as it is here that the currents discussed over the previous chapters are directly evident; Chapter 6 will center on the “popular” branch (Smith, Howard, Leiber), the relationship of which to premodern narrative modes is rather different, and which on the whole stands in a closer relationship to modern forms of popular romance.
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Works Cited
Anderson, Douglas A. Introduction, in Morris, Kenneth. The Dragon Path: Collected Stories of Kenneth Morris. Edited by Douglas A. Anderson. New York: Tor Books, 1995.
Baum, L. Frank. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. New York: Dover, 1960.
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1Carter, Lin, ed. The Young Magicians. New York: Ballantine Books, 1969.
2Carter, Lin. Imaginary Worlds. New York: Ballantine Books, 1973.
3Carter, Lin. “About At the Edge of the World and Lord Dunsany: The Dreams of Mana-Yood-Shushai,” in Dunsany, Lord. At the Edge of the World. Edited by Lin Carter. New York: Ballantine Books, 1970.
Clute, John, and John Grant, eds. The Encyclopedia of Fantasy. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1997.
de Camp, L. Sprague. Literary Swordsmen and Sorcerers: The Makers of Heroic Fantasy. Sauk City, WI: Arkham House, 1976.
Eddison, E. R. The Worm Ouroboros. New York: Ballantine Books, 1967.
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Morris, Kenneth. The Dragon Path: Collected Stories of Kenneth Morris. Edited by Douglas A. Anderson. New York: Tor Books, 1995.
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Tolkien, Christopher. Introduction, in Tolkien, J. R. R. Unfinished Tales. Edited by Christopher Tolkien. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1980.
1Tolkien, J. R. R. The Shaping of Middle-earth. Edited by Christopher Tolkien. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1986.
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Other Secondary Work Consulted
Attebury, Brian. The Fantasy Tradition in American Literature. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1980.
Carpenter, Humphrey. The Inklings. New York: Ballantine Books, 1981.
Carpenter, Humphrey. Tolkien: A Biography. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1977.
Mendlesohn, Farah, and Edward Jones. A Short History of Fantasy. London: Middlesex UP, 2009.
Some Primary Source Editions
Anderson, Douglas A., ed. Tales before Narnia. New York: Ballantine Books, 2008.
Anderson, Douglas A., ed. Tales before Tolkien. New York: Ballantine Books, 2003.
Dunsany, Lord. In the Land of Time and Other Fantasy Tales. Edited by S. T. Joshi. New York: Penguin Books, 2004.
Eddison, E. R. The Worm Ouroboros. New York: Dell Publishing, 1991.
Eddison, E. R. Zimiamvia: A Trilogy. New York: Dell Publishing, 1992.
Morris, Kenneth. Book of the Three Dragons. Cold Spring Harbor, NY: Cold Spring Press, 2004.
Morris, Kenneth. The Chalchiuhite Dragon. New York: Tor Books, 1992.
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© 2015 Jamie Williamson
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Williamson, J. (2015). Twentieth Century. In: The Evolution of Modern Fantasy. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137515797_5
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