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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Raven Crowking" data-source="post: 4781327" data-attributes="member: 18280">Untrue.This myth has been busted in previous threads, and it is easy enough to bust by picking up any examination of the genre which has actual critical merit.  I personally recommend The Encyclopedia of Fantasy (<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Encyclopedia-Fantasy-John-Clute/dp/0312198698" target="_blank">Amazon.com: The Encyclopedia of Fantasy: John Clute, John Grant: Books</a>).  I also recommend the Dictionary of Imaginary Places (<a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_b_0_18?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=dictionary+of+imaginary+places&sprefix=dictionary+of+imag" target="_blank">Amazon.com: dictionary of imaginary places: Books</a>), which contains entries related to hundreds of pre-D&D fantasy works, and has a ton of entries that can be used almost wholesale when creating a D&D campaign.It is true that, when D&D came out, the hard line between science fiction and fantasy that now exists did not exist.  For example, many planetary romance stories are clearly fantasies (and include supernatural/fantasy elements) despite taking place on other worlds.Please do not fall for the idea that fantasy as a genre sprang up just before D&D, or was some weak and anemic thing.  Certainly accept that the popularity of LotR and D&D combined caused a mushrooming of post-D&D fantasy.And, while Hussar is correct in saying that people with an interest in fantasy cannot be assumed to have read R.E.H., Tolkein, Morris, Burroughs, etc., that is not the same thing as saying that they should not, or that those influences do not still reverberate through more recent fantasy novels.  One does not have to read Shakespeare to feel an echo of recognition when a modern author plays off Shakespeare, because Shakespeare has saturated the culture.  Of course, when the Shakespearean reference is skillfully done, the echo is much stronger for those familiar with the original.  The same is true for Howard, Burroughs, etc.This link might be of some help for those without access to the aforementioned Encyclopedia (or better reference works):  <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballantine_Adult_Fantasy_series" target="_blank">Ballantine Adult Fantasy series - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia</a>.  The Ballantine Adult Fantasy series was an imprint of Ballantine Books. Launched in 1969 (presumably in response to the growing popularity of Tolkien's works), the series reissued a number of works of fantasy literature, which were out of print or dispersed in back issues of pulp magazines (or otherwise not easily available in the United States), in cheap paperback form—including works by authors such as William Morris, Lord Dunsany, Ernest Bramah, Hope Mirrlees, and James Branch Cabell. The series lasted until 1974.D&D was first published in 1974.That is one publisher, with one fantasy line.My friends, there is far more than that, and it is worth looking into.RC</blockquote>

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