Great question! I suppose it very well might, although I wouldn’t rule out some of the loose series written by Lord Dunsany, whose writing career spanned decades as well.

Someone more learned in S&S than I will have to give a definitive answer. But it’s an interesting question!

Think about it; the first Elric story appeared in magazine in 1961. This book with an Elric novella appeared in 2010. 49 years.

Would Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser serve as the closest competition?

Some people over here apply ’sword and sorcery’ as a bad or derogatory term too. Some are simply snobbish toward all ‘unwashed heathen illiterates’ but some just think S&S is ‘escapism’ - a term they like to apply to belittle those who read it or elevate themselves.

Heroic fiction casts a wide net, and sometimes we readers like to be a bit more specific in what we’re looking for. REH may not have ‘known’ what he was writing was creating a genre to be called S&S, but what he did know is that he was writing life as powerfully as he could imagine living it as a man unrestrained by ‘civilizations’ fallacies and facades.

Let’s carry the fight to them! Swords crossed!

You’re welcome! Don’t forget to tell Lou you owe it to me