Dying Earth is a fantasy series by the American author Jack Vance, comprising four books originally published from 1950 to 1984.
Some have been called picaresque. They vary from short story collections to a fix-up, perhaps all the way to novel.
Dust jacket of the 1999 omnibus edition
John Holbrook Vance was an American mystery, fantasy, and science fiction writer. Though most of his work has been published under the name Jack Vance, he also wrote several mystery novels under pen names, including Ellery Queen.
Jack Vance at the helm of his boat on San Francisco Bay in the early 1980s
Vance's The Languages of Pao was originally published in the December 1957 issue of Satellite Science Fiction, under what is likely the last SF magazine cover by Frank R. Paul
Jack Vance playing the jazz banjo and kazoo in 1979 in San Francisco
French edition of The Many Worlds of Magnus Ridolph, illustrating "The Kokod Warriors".