Burroughs, Edgar Rice 8 Dunsany, Lord 2 Lieber, Fritz 12 Zelazny, Roger 7
If not Tolkien, then... LEIBER!
Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser capture the essence of D&D better than any of the remaining authors. Plus, Leiber is a funner read, even if he suffers from purple prose. I invite all my fellow Tolkien fans to do the right thing and bring it on home for Papa Fritz.