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Lamb, Harold
(1892-1962) US author, active from 1917 in Pulp magazines, often in early years writing as H A Lamb; he began publishing action stories in Adventure, beginning with "Khlit", the first of his long Cossack sequence, starring the aged but redoubtable warrior Khlit who featured in many of them; the sequence – comprised of fantastic tales technically nonfantastic solely because Lamb did not set them in an imaginary world, or evoke the supernatural directly – was a strong and acknowledged influence upon Robert E Howard in his creation of fully-fledged Sword and Sorcery, and has been assembled in various volumes beginning with Wolf of the Steppes: The Complete Cossack Adventures, Volume One (coll 2006). Lamb is of specific sf interest for his Lost Race novels: Marching Sands (1920), in which descendants of Crusaders are found inhabiting a city named Sungun in the Gobi Desert in Central Asia; The House of the Falcon (1921), which, though not a sequel, features a race of sun worshippers in a similar venue; and A Garden to the Eastward (1947), set atop a volcanic cone in Kurdistan whose preternaturally wise inhabitants turn out to be direct exemplars of the Origin of Man. Durandal: A Crusader in the Horde (23 September 1926 Adventure; cut 1931) is fantasy [for details, see Checklist]. [JC]
Harold Albert Lamb
born Alpine, New Jersey: 1 September 1892
died Englewood, New Jersey: 9 April 1962
works
series
Complete Cossack Adventures
- Wolf of the Steppes: The Complete Cossack Adventures, Volume One (Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 2006) [coll: Complete Cossack Adventures: pb/]
- Warriors of the Steppes: The Complete Cossack Adventures, Volume Two (Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 2006) [coll: Complete Cossack Adventures: pb/]
- Riders of the Steppes: The Complete Cossack Adventures, Volume Three (Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 2007) [coll: Complete Cossack Adventures: pb/]
- Swords of the Steppes: The Complete Cossack Adventures, Volume Four (Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 2007) [coll: Complete Cossack Adventures: pb/]
individual titles
- Marching Sands (New York: D Appleton and Co, 1920) [hb/]
- The House of the Falcon (New York: D Appleton and Co, 1921) [hb/]
- Durandal: A Crusader in the Horde (Garden City, New York: Doubleday, Doran and Company, 1931) [rev of Part One of the original text: first appeared 23 September 1926 Adventure: hb/Allan McNab]
- Durandal (West Kingston, Rhode Island: Donald M Grant, 1981) [rev of the above: original version of Part One of the original text: hb/George Barr and Alicia Austin]
- The Sea of the Ravens (West Kingston, Rhode Island: Donald M Grant, 1983) [exp of the above: comprising Part Two of the original text, first appeared 23 September 1926 Adventure: hb/George Barr and Alicia Austin]
- A Garden to the Eastward (Garden City, New York: Doubleday and Company, 1947) [hb/uncredited]
- The Three Palladins (West Kingston, Rhode Island: Donald M Grant, 1977) [first appeared 20 July-20 August 1923 Adventure: "Palladins" is spelt thus: hb/Kathy Hill]
collections
- The Curved Sabre: The Adventures of Khlit the Cossack (Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1964) [coll: stories all first appeared in Adventure Magazine: hb/James Viles]
- The Mighty Manslayer (Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1969) [coll: stories all first appeared in Adventure Magazine: hb/Saul Lambert]
- Swords from the Desert (Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 2009) [coll: pb/]
- Swords from the West (Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 2009) [coll: pb/]
- Swords from the East (Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 2010) [coll: pb/Darrel Stevens]
- Swords from the Sea (Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 2010) [coll: pb/Darrel Stevens]
links
Entry from The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (2011-current) edited by John Clute and David Langford.
Accessed 02:51 am on 12 April 2026.
<https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/lamb_harold>