Interesting infobit. I hadn't heard that and I was playing D&D as a kid when it was a new thing. It makes sense, though. I recognized Michael Moorcock's alignment system right away, and of course the Tolkien influences are inescapable. The creators of D&D seem to have had the same interests in fiction I did, though as far as I know I never read anything by Vance.
Well the first edition DMG actually had a
bibliography in the back listing all their inspirations, if you're curious as to how much your interests align beyond that:
Anderson, Poul. Three Hearts and Three Lions; The High Crusade; The Broken Sword
Bellairs, John. The Face in the Frost
Brackett, Leigh. Entire body of work
Brown, Fredric. Entire body of work
Burroughs, Edgar Rice. Pellucidar series; Mars series; Venus series
Carter, Lin. World's End series
de Camp, L. Sprague. Lest Darkness Fall; Fallible Fiend, et al.
de Camp, L. Sprague, and Fletcher Pratt. Harold Shea series; Carnelian Cube
Derleth, August. Entire body of work
Dunsany, Lord. Entire body of work
Farmer, Philip Jose. The World of the Tiers series, et al.
Fox, Gardner. Kothar series; Kyrik series, et al.
Howard, Robert E. Conan series
Lanier, Sterling. Hiero's Journey
Lieber, Fritz. Fafhrd & Gray Mouser series (a.k.a. Lankhmar series), et al.
Lovecraft, H.P. Entire body of work, especially his Cthulhu series
Merritt, A. Creep, Shadow, Creep; Moon Pool; Dwellers in the Mirage, et al.
Moorcock, Michael. Stormbringer, Stealer of Souls; Hawkmoon series (especially the first three books)
Norton, Andre. Entire body of work
Offutt, Andrew J., editor. Swords Against Darkness III
Pratt, Fletcher. Blue Star, et al.
Saberhagen, Fred. Changeling Earth, et al.
St. Clair, Margaret. The Shadow People; Sign of the Labrys
Tolkien, J.R.R. The Hobbit; Lord of the Rings trilogy
Vance, Jack. The Eyes of the Overworld; The Dying Earth, et al.
Zelazny, Roger. Jack of Shadows; Amber series, et al.
"Countless hundreds of comic books…the long-gone EC ones certainly had their effect. Science fiction, fantasy, and horror movies were a big influence."
Besides Tolkien, Gygax singled out "de Camp & Pratt, Robert E. Howard, Fritz Leiber, Jack Vance, H.P. Lovecraft, and A. Merritt" as having the most significant influences.
Easiest way to see the Vance influence would be to read the short story "Mazarian the Magician."