I grew up reading books and Science Fiction Magazines, back then they had no separation between Fantasy and Science Fiction, they were all one genre on both the book racks and in the magazines. I also read paperbacks galore and a lot of the stories had run as serials in the pulp magazines. But that is not what I started out with, I started out with mythology of the Greeks, Romans and Norse, read the Illiad and the Oddyssey, Aesops Fables and all the fairy tales I could get my hands on. My father made up and told stories every night of my childhood, his deep resonant voice was that strong protective presence in my life and I still hear his voice in my mind when I tell or read stories.
I soon started reading Edgar Rice Burroughs, Poul Anderson, Jack London, Robert E Howard, Fritz Leiber, Richard Adams, Frank R. Stockton. J. M. Barrie, L. Frank Baum, Lewis Carroll, Rudyard Kipling, Hilaire Belloc, Walter Farley, Arthur Conan Doyle, Daniel Defoe, Charles Dickens, Eugene Field, Joel Chandler Harris, Jim Kjelgaard, Howard Pyle, C. S. Lewis, George MacDonald, J. R. R. Tolkien, Edgar Allan Poe, Robert Louis Stevenson, Jonathan Swift, Jules Verne, Mark Twain and H. G. Wells. All of these along with many others.
All of these and more inspired the worlds that I build and the people that I populate them with. So pure escapist adventure with a little high fantasy mixed in to it is the stew from which I create game worlds and inspires the way that I game in OD&D. I will probably return to this subject from time to time as I talk about some of these authors and the worlds I have built.
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