Lin Carter (June 9, 1930 - February 7, 1988) was born and raised in St Petersburg, Florida.  He later returned there after serving in the US Army  in the Korean Conflict where he received a Purple Heart.  He moved to New  York City and attended Columbia University in 1953 and 1954.  He worked as  a copywriter for law firms, ad agencies, and book publishers.  In 1969 he  became a full-time writer, editor and anthologist of fantasy & science  fiction until his death in February 7, 1988.

Fantasy was Carter's great favorite genre and the most of his writings were about "Swords and Sorcery".  He began writing stories while in high school with L Frank Baum, Edgar Rice Burroughs and J.R.R. Tolkien being his major influences.

Lin became an editor at Ballantine Books where he reprinted many of his earlier works.  Dell and DAW also published a lot of Lin Carter's stories.