Adventure was published two and sometimes three times a month, and as a result of this frequency and the interchange of ideas it fostered, "The Camp-Fire" was really more like an Internet bulletin board than a letter column found in today's quarterly or even monthly magazines. It featured letters from readers, editorial notes, and essays from writers. If a reader had a question or even a quibble with a story, he could write in and the odds were that the letter would not only be printed but that the story's author would draft a response.Harold Lamb and other contributors frequently wrote lengthy letters that further explained some of the historical details that appeared in their stories. The relevant letters for this volume follow. Also enclosed are a number of essays concerning the Crusades. Adventure editor Arthur Sullivan Hoffman published excerpts from Lamb's books about the Crusades as Lamb was drafting them and sometimes printed explanatory letters about these excerpts in "The Camp-Fire." While the text of these book excerpts was similar, if not completely identical, to the text in Lamb's Crusades volumes, the text of Lamb's related "Camp-Fire" letters is not, and they are reprinted here for the first time.
