Charles Saunders, a Norristown native and foundational figure in the sword and soul literary genre is being honored by his friends months after his solitary death at 73, writes Neil Genzlinger for The New York Times.

About four decades ago, Saunders, who graduated from Lincoln University, reimagined the white worlds populated by Tarzan and Conan with Black heroes and African themes. These spoke especially to Black fans who were eager for more fictional representation.

Sadly, Saunders died alone and unrecognized in May and has since been lying in an unmarked grave in Nova Scotia.

This weekend, around a dozen people held a memorial on Zoom, trying to give their friend the sendoff he deserved. They have also managed to raise funds to erect a headstone and a stone monument representing Imaro, the hero from a series of Saunders’ books.

“Charles gave us that fictional hero that looked like us and existed in a world based on our origins,” said Milton J. Davis, a Black writer of speculative fiction and a host of the memorial.

Read more about Charles Saunders at The New York Times by clicking here.