Lyon Sprague de Camp (November 27, 1907 – November 6, 2000) — known as L. Sprague de Camp — was an American writer of science fiction, fantasy, non-fiction and biography. In a career spanning 60 years, he wrote over 100 books, including novels and works of non-fiction, including biographies of other fantasy authors. He was a major figure in science fiction during the genre's heyday in the 1930s and '40s. (Wikipedia) He died in Plano, Texas in 2000, having moved there in 1989.
De Camp's wife Catherine Cook de Camp, who edited and collaborated on much of his work, died in April, 2000.
He is survived by his two sons, Lyman Sprague de Camp and Gerard Beekman de Camp; and brother Lyman Lyon de Camp, three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
In 1996 Donald M. Grant published Sprague’s autobiography “Time and Chance.” In 1997 “Time and Chance” received the HUGO Award for Best Non-fiction Work.
De Camp's personal library of about 1,200 books was acquired for auction by Half Price Books in 2005. The collection included books inscribed by fellow writers, such as Isaac Asimov and Carl Sagan, as well as de Camp himself. (Ref: Weeks, Jerome. "De Camp library for sale ". The Dallas Morning News, October 24, 2005, p. 3G)
On October 19, 2015, a call was made to Half Price Books headquarters in Dallas, TX, to determine if only the books were acquired, or if other parts of DeCamp's collection had been acquired by Half Price Books. A corporate spokesperson said that they purchased only De Camp's books. (JHR)
A check was then made at Archivegrid to see what if any archives had any of De Camp's papers, using the search phrase "Sprague De Camp" in quotes. There were only two tiny collection of Sprague de Camp's items, one a single audio cassette, and another set of mss. about .2cft, so his collections of papers is still out there somewhere.
References:
L. Sprague De Cammp Fan website: http://www.lspraguedecamp.com/index.php
Wikipedia portrait: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L._Sprague_de_Camp