Clifford Ball

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This article is about a writer. For a pilot and aviation pioneer, see Clifford Ball (pilot).

Clifford Ball
Born	1896
Died	1947
Occupation	writer
Nationality	United States
Writing period	1937 - 1941

Influences Robert E. Howard

Clifford Ball (1896?-1947?) was an American fantasy writer whose primary distinction was having been one of the earliest post-Howard writers in the sword and sorcery subgenre of fantasy.

Before dropping from sight, Ball contributed six short stories to the pulp magazine Weird Tales during its heyday in the 1930s and 1940s under the editorships of Farnsworth Wright and Dorothy McIlwraith. The setting of the first three is vaguely like Howard's Hyborian Age of warring kingdoms, and features the barbarian adventurers Duar, an amnesiac king protected by a guardian sprite, and Rald, a thief and mercenary. The remaining stories are more conventional fantasies.^[1]

Some of Ball's stories have been reprinted from the 1970s onward, most notably in the celebrated Ballantine Adult Fantasy series edited by Lin Carter.

[edit] Bibliography

All of Ball's known works were published in Weird Tales, in the issues for the dates indicated.

"Duar the Accursed" (May 1937; reprinted in New Worlds for Old, edited by Lin Carter (1971)
"The Thief of Forthe" (July 1937; reprinted in Savage Heroes, edited by Eric Pendragon (1977) and The Barbarian Swordsmen, edited by Sean Richards (1981)
"The Goddess Awakes" (February 1938; reprinted in Realms of Wizardry, edited by Lin Carter (1976)
"The Swine of Ææa" (March 1939)
"The Little Man" (August 1939)
"The Werewolf Howls" (November 1941; reprinted in 100 Creepy Little Creature Stories, edited by Stefan R. Dziemianowicz, Robert Weinberg and Martin H. Greenberg (1994)