Gardner F. Fox

Inspirational Author
Mr. Fox was a prolific author who wrote for comics, pulps, men's publications and the fantasy, swords & sorcery market. His heroes, at least the two I am familiar with are big, muscular barbarians who fight hard, love hard and encounter many demons along the way, both friendly and hostile. Mr. Fox is not as well known as R.E. Howard, Fritz Leiber or Michael Moorcock and maybe for good reason, but that may be an advantage when reading for game inspiration.
Comics and short stories often provide excellent details that can be added to one's own adventures. Mr. Fox brings a powerful presence to "demonolotry" as he refers to it in many of his stories. A naked sorceress, burning rare incense kneeling inside a pentagram chanting in a singsong voice while the temperature outside the pentagram drops to well below freezing, covering the rest of the room in frost and ice. A tinkling of crystals as a shape moved in the far corner... Mr. Fox writes much better than I, but with his ideas in my head, I can describe such a scene to my players with confidence. The inspiration comes from the above short novel.

Kyrik, once king of an ancient empire and consort of a demon-goddess of lust and Kothar, a wandering adventurer with a magic sword, are the central characters in a series of short novels. The stories are action packed, full of sorcery and sword play in the tradition of the sword & sorcery literature genre which itself was a leading inspiration for White Box. The big, brawny protagonists of Mr. Fox's novels follow a rough code of personal honor, vengeance and sexism that hearkens back to an earlier era in literature where stereotypes were the norm. Despite the socio-cultural differences between the fictional worlds depicted and our own more enlightened diversified culture, there are some good adventure stories to be found between these (perhaps offensive) covers.
Comics, short stories and novelas often have plots that are easily adaptable for tabletop adventure. A simple plot often works best in gaming and as long as enough details are changed to make the source unrecognizable a borrowed plot works as well as an original one. Mr. Fox's sword & sorcery tales can be mined for game ideas or simply read for enjoyment. Either way I find them wonderful inspiration for my imagination.
The works of Mr. Fox helped inspire the creators of White Box and therefore the entire hobby. Their ability to inspire doesn't end with Mr. Arneson and Mr. Gygax. Anyone who reads them today is likely to experience the same sense of wonder and excitement that first made someone want to bring adventures like these to the gaming tabletop. (The original publisher, Lancer Books is "defunct" and modern readership sensibilities probably preclude any widespread republishing of the Kyrik and Kothar books, so for now the second-hand market is the only place to find them.)