Tolkien liked Conan??

[Mike]

Just retitled a thread I posted recently to get more attention, ad par a fellow TTFers suggestion.

I found this interesting blurb by L. Sprague de Camp:
"We sat in the garage for a couple of hours, smoking pipes, drinking beer, and talking about a variety of things. Practically anything in English literature, from Beowulf down, Tolkien had read and could talk intelligently about. He indicated that he 'rather liked' Howard's Conan stories"

???

Does anyone know if Mr. de Camp's statement has any merit?

[Alcuin]

I don’t see any mention of it in Letters or Carter’s biography of Tolkien. I’ve never heard this before; but that does not mean that someone could not have sent him a copy of a Conan novel, particularly in the 1960s or early 1970s, when they were ubiquitous “dime” novels in bookracks even outside bookstores. I bought my first paperback copy of the 3 volumes of Lord of the Rings in the summer of 1973, right before Tolkien died. There were Conan books in the racks nearby. (I believe I do recall that I purchased them for $1.25 apiece or some such in a K-Mart; a similarly priced copy in 2006 would run for $5.62)

So even though it isn’t mentioned, I don’t think there is anything that would have prevented his having seen and read one of the novels. They were certainly available. But I have never heard this before, and I cannot find any mention of it in the obvious places.

Maybe someone else has some information one way or another?

[Mike]

Wow. So much time...and only one post.

It is entirely possible Tolkien may have read Conan, I agree. The stories did recieve circulation in the UK. I just don't know if he would have actually done it. An English professor would not, after all, make pulp fiction their first choice of literature.