Imaginary Worlds: The Art of Fantasy

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Imaginary Worlds: the Art of Fantasy is a study of the modern literary fantasy genre written by Lin Carter. It was first published in paperback by Ballantine Books in June, 1973 as the fifty-eighth volume of its celebrated Ballantine Adult Fantasy series; it was the only nonfiction entry in the series. The book was among the earliest full-length critical works devoted to fantasy writers and the history of fantasy. It was the third of three such studies by Carter, being preceded by Tolkien: A Look Behind "The Lord of the Rings" and Lovecraft: A Look Behind the "Cthulhu Mythos". These works, together with his editorial guidance of the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series, established Carter as an authority on the genre.
Carter's study was intended to serve as an introduction to fantasy. The first eight chapters detail the history of the modern genre from the late nineteenth century through the early 1970s, when Carter was writing, a subject he had previously covered more briefly in Tolkien: A Look Behind "The Lord of the Rings". Its origins are discovered in the novels of William Morris, and followed through the writings of Lord Dunsany, E. R. Eddison and James Branch Cabell.