Name: CARTER, Linwood Vrooman Aged: 57
Born: June 9, 1930 Where: St. Petersburg, Florida
Died: February 7, 1988 Where: East Orange, New Jersey
Interred: Cremated
Married 1: Judith Ellen Hershkowitz When: 1959 (div 60)
Married 2: Noël Vreeland When: August 17, 1963 (div 75)
Awarded: _ _ _

Carter grew up is St. Petersburg, Florida, and returned there as a US Army veteran of the Korean War with a Purple Heart from a slight injury. With some earlier schooling as a cartoonist, Carter soon set out for New York City, using the GI Bill to attend Columbia University in 1953-54. He worked as a copywriter for law firms, ad agencies, and book publishers until 1969 when he became a full-time free-lance writer and editor/anthologist of fantasy & science fiction stories until his death.

Like many other writers in this time period of low rates and occasional markets, Carter saw money come in fits and bunches, and many friends and fans had the impression that there was never enough. His second wife, Noël Vreeland Carter, remembers it otherwise, "Actually, as far as money is concerned, we lived very well in a nine-room house (in Hollis, NY) crammed with books, antiques, art, and animals. We gave several large parties a year as well as several smaller ones, travelled to various cons -- World Cons and Philcon, Balticon, etc. every year for a decade or more, and gave a party in our hotel room or suite at each con. We lived rather high on the hog, to use a cliche, and while money could be tight at times after he quit advertising to write full time, we lived very well indeed. How Lin lived after I left may be a different story. But from 1963 to 1974, with some financial ups and downs, we lived a rather extravagant life."

Fantasy, especially the branch known as Sword & Sorcery, was Carter's great passion and the large volume of his work rests in that field. He began writing stories for fandom while still in high school after being influenced by the works of Baum, Burroughs, Howard, and Tolkien. Carter's work can be found everywhere thru-out the Fantasy field and when Lin obtained editorial status at Ballantine Books, he reprinted many earlier works that fueled another generation of readers. There were at least five anthologies issued under the Flashing Swords title. Dell and DAW books were also publishing houses that used a lot of Carter's output.

Like Groff Conklin, Carter smoked too much and developed emphysema. Lin also drank too much given his condition. By 1984 his health went from frail to bad. His trademark walking stick and stooped posture may have accentuated his failing condition. Lin had left unattended a growth on his upper lip which spread, requiring radical surgery and leaving his face scarred and disfigured. In his four remaining years, Carter was in and out of both veteran's and private hospitals, often on oxygen, still drinking and pretty much without means. He lived in Montclair, New Jersey, but would die alone in a VA Hospital in nearby East Orange. Toward the end Lin had been working on the thing that had brought him into fantasy in the first place...the works of L. Frank Baum and the characters of Oz.

Noël Carter adds, "Lin was a flawed but brilliant man. The books he wrote cannot begin to indicate the knowledge in a mind packed with...history, biography, great and mediocre literature, archaeology. Lin smoked at least two packs of cigarettes and (drank) about 9 cups of abominably strong coffee a day. He never used drugs since he considered his mind his greatest strength, and wanted to keep it sane and unabused.

"As far as his interment is concerned, his ashes reside behind a 19th century book on Ancient Egypt in my home, awaiting that time when I either have them buried in his parents grave in Florida, or I decide that I will have him interred with me in my family plot. I suspect it will be the latter alternative."

SPECIAL COLLECTION: 293 items, almost all letters, are on file at Indiana University. A large body of these deal with Carter's Robert E. Howard collaboration with L. Sprague de Camp.For more information about this collection and any related materials contact the Manuscript s Department, Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405 -- Telephone: (812)855-2452

PEN NAMES: Grail Undwin

BIOGRAPHY: Contemporary Authors, New Rev., Vol 30, p62-4.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Mine here.

OBITUARY:

Send relevant email to George C. Willick