To Leave a Warrior Behind

By: Jon Tattrie
 
He was the “Father of Sword and Soul”—a sub-genre in fantasy writing, built on Black heroes, steeped in African myth and history. He spun vast worlds and created characters that directly challenged totemic figures such as Tarzan and Conan the Barbarian. He rewrote what fantasy could look like. Yet, when he passed away in Nova Scotia in 2020, few knew the name Charles R. Saunders, his past accomplishments largely forgotten.

Jon Tattrie worked alongside Charles for two years at the Halifax Daily News. He knew him as an imposing figure, a skilful editor, and as an eccentric character, but he wasn’t aware of Charles’ secret life as a literary trailblazer. After hearing about his old colleague’s death, Tattrie reaches out to various people in Charles’ life, and begins his own journey, piecing together two parallel worlds: one of Charles’ tumultuous beginnings as a Black man in America who fled to Canada during the Vietnam War; and the fantasy world of Imaro, the Black hero forced to fend for himself in search of his own life’s purpose.

Part biography of a man adamant to change the way we look at fantasy, part preservation of the influential epic works that have become largely unknown, To Leave a Warrior Behind is Tattrie’s memorial to a larger-than-life figure, an intimate goodbye to a friend, and a remembrance of a writer who should not be forgotten.