The Spell of Conan

The Spell of Conan is a 1980 collection of essays, poems and fiction edited by L. Sprague de Camp, published in paperback by Ace Books. The material was originally published as articles in George H. Scithers' fanzine "Amra". The book is a companion to Ace's earlier volume of material from "Amra", "The Blade of Conan" (1979). Most of the material in the two volumes, together with some additional material, was reprinted from three previous books issued in hardcover by Mirage Press; de Camp's collection "The Conan Reader" (1968), and the de Camp and Scithers-edited anthologies "The Conan Swordbook" (1969). and "The Conan Grimoire" (1972).
Summary.
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, Eric Rücker 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.