Clifford Ball

Born in New York City on January 24, 1908, Clifford Nankivell Ball was an American fantasy and horror writer who published as Clifford Ball. He is remembered as one of the early post-Howard writers in sword and sorcery, writing at a time when fantasy was still being shaped in the pulp magazines.

Ball was closely associated with Weird Tales, where his fiction appeared in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Stories such as Duar the Accursed, The Swine of Aeaea, and The Werewolf Howls helped build his reputation for vivid adventure and dark, uncanny moods.

He died in January 1947, still relatively young, and much of his work remained scattered in magazines for decades. Later collections, including The Thief of Forthe and Other Stories, helped bring his fiction back to readers interested in the roots of heroic fantasy.