Name: DE CAMP, Lyon Sprague Aged: 92
Born: Nov 27, 1907 Where: New York, New York
Died: Nov 6, 2000 Where: Plano, Texas
Inurned: Arlington National Cem.: Court 5-M,  Row 1,  Site 3
Married: Catherine Adelaide Crook When: August 12, 1939
Awarded: 1953 International Fantasy Award for Non-Fiction, Lands Beyond (w Willy Ley); 1976 Gandalf Award Grand Master of Fantasy; 1978 Nebula Award Grand Master; 1984 World Fantasy Special Award for Dark Valley Destiny: The Life of Robert E. Howard; and a 1997 Hugo Award for non-fiction, Time & Chance: An Autobiography.

VITAL STATISTICS

Name: DE CAMP, Catherine Adelaide Crook Aged: 92
Born: November 6, 1907 Where: New York, N.Y.
Died: April 9, 2000 Where: Texas
SS#: 125-12-6445 NY Inurned: Arlington National Cemetery
Married: L. Sprague DeCamp

L. Sprague de Camp

"No reason is as good as any."

Sprague started his education in the schools of New York City but earned his BS in Aeronautical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology in 1930. An MS in Engineering followed in 1933 from Stevens Institute of Technology. De Camp served as a Lt. Commander in the U.S.N.R. during the World War II, and never quite lost the military bearing. Those were all outstanding achievements in hard years that included marriage and children. The Great Depression forced a wide variety of jobs on most men and Sprague was no exception, working when he could as an educator or production writer, becoming a patents expert.

Since Sprague began publishing fantasy and science fiction in the 1930s in the various pulp magazines, he is properly placed as one of the Golden Age writers. He had an exceptional intellect and was drawn to exceptional men, and they to him, and his best writing always involved collaborations or exchanges with other talents that were not always like-minded.

Early and lasting fame came to de Camp through his collaborations with the military expert, Fletcher Pratt. Most of these works fell into two main areas: (1) The Gavagan's Bar fantasy stories and (2) the Harold Shea adventures generally published under variable Complete Enchanter titles. These works are noted for their sophisticated humor. Collaborative novels with Fletcher included The Castle of Iron, The Land Of Unreason, and The Carnelian Cube.

And then there was Robert E. Howard, whose characters, sword & sorcery heroes (especially Conan), and uncompleted manuscripts and story fragments drew Sprague like a magnet. He would work most of his career, off and on, in this genre. First by completing Howard's stories and then by adding his own, and for a time collaborating with fantasy writer, Lin Carter.

When de Camp wrote science fiction, he was most often working in time travel themes. 1941's Lest Darkness Fall may be his best as it was written before the dream breaking World War. Sprague combined time travel and dinosaurs to create the Reginald Rivers stories, collected in 1993 as Rivers of Time.

De Camp's intellect took him into the non-fiction areas where the older and more sophisticated Fletcher Pratt had excelled. Combining his fantasy interests with world travel allowed Sprague to visit many historical places first hand and study animals and their behavior in depth. Sprague used the information gathered in many ways, writing Great Cities of the Ancient World and The Ancient Engineers; biographies of Robert E. Howard, Dark Valley Destiny, and H. P. Lovecraft; and ranged from The Day of the Dinosaur to Literary Swordsmen and Sorcerers to The Great Monkey Trial. In the last few decades of a very long and productive literary life, de Camp's majority interest was in non-fiction...more in education than entertainment.

As life extended, for both Sprague and Catherine, she became more and more involved in what Sprague was doing...eventually becoming the collaborator he seemed to continually need. Sprague's "rewrite gal" had majored in English at Barnard and also wrote books on economics, her other major. Fortunately, they both remained in good health and were strong enough for the rigors of world travel. She seemed to encourage him back to fiction and shared credits on later works such as The Bones of Zora, The Incorporated Knight, The Stones Of Nomuru, The Pixilated Peeress, and The Swords Of Zinjaban.

Catherine's death 7 months before Sprague's was a harbinger to those of us who have studied death's patterns. In a couple this close, its amazing Sprague lived those seven months. I suspect that he had some loose ends to tie up...he always hated those. I met him only once, in 1960, and even then he looked 20 years younger than his age. My impressions were...withdrawn, introspective, but steely and not to be trifled with. He spoke several languages and was a member of many scholarly fraternities and professional organizations. Like Van Vogt's death earlier in the year, L. Sprague de Camp's passing signals the end of the Golden Era of Science Fiction and Fantasy writers. But unlike Van Vogt, Sprague was able to maintain his faculties, suffering only minor arthritis, and even traveled to Easter Island (not the most hospitable of places) in 1994. He authored over 100 science fiction and fantasy novels and collections. A long and productive career.

"Life went about as expected...Old Age was totally unexpected."

PEN NAMES: Lyman R. Lyon & J. Wellington Wells.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Mine here.

AUTO-BIOGRAPHY: Time and Chance, Donald M. Grant, 1996

SPRAGUE'S OBITUARY: Several.

CATHERINE'S OBITUARY: Dallas News

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