w h pugmire esq
Well-Known Member
The publication date is ye 25th -- and although I have the book on pre-order at Amazon, I could not wait. I drove like a madman to S. T. Joshi's pad last night and stopped long enough to fetch a copy of ye book & have him sign it. I then rush'd home like a lunatic thing and devour'd ye book's fine Introduction, & then I got on YouTube and recorded ye first of two videos concerning the book.
I have been in a fever about this book even before its publication was a sure thing. The Penguin Classics editions of H. P. Lovecraft are so good (despite some misprints, most of which have nigh been corrected) and have brought E'ch-Pi-El's weird fiction to so many new readers, that I felt certain that a Penguin edition of CAS wou'd help this fantastic author find a new world-wide audience.
One of the things that the point really illustrates, and that is emphasized by its editor, is how different a writer Smith was compared to HPL. Even so, the Lovecraft link is beyond dispute. Lovecraft's encouragement helped to determine Smith to begin writing for WEIRD TALES and other pulp journals. Another factor was Smith's need to earn money so as to support his ailing parents. It is a curious fact that Smith stopped writing fiction shortly after Lovecraft's death, which occurred in the same year as the death of Smith's father.
The Lovecraft connection is emphasized again with the book's opening story, "The Tale of Satampra Zeiros," a Mythos story in which the forgotten god Tsathoggua is mentioned -- and the story even includes that tedious Mythos motif, the menacing tentacle! But whereas Lovecraft, following his brief Dunsanian phase, set most of his fictions in his modern world, the stories of Smith take place in fantastic realms and on distant planets, with some few set in ye modern era and among modern humanity. Lovecraft's use of black magic was, in most cases, mild and not a real center of importance to his plots (although such alchemy plays a central part in such stories as "The Dunwich Horror" and The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. In Smith's tales, the use of magick is audacious and spectacular.
Smith seems to have regarded his fiction as something he did merely for money; whereas the writing of poetry was a part of his soulful identity as an artist. He seems to have been so indifferent about his fiction in his latter years that when several volumes of his tales were published by August Derleth's Arkham House, Smith couldn't be bothered to go over and correct the texts of the changes foisted upon him by pulp editors.
I love Smith's fiction so much, as I do his poetry and magnificent prose-poems. Hopefully we will one day see an authoritative biography written. Eventually (perhaps this year), Hippocampus Press will publish the combined correspondence of Clark Ashton Smith and H. P. Lovecraft in one gigantic volume. I am hopeful that this new edition of his work from Penguin Classics will give him a new and wide world audience, and that the book will sell so well that Penguin will consider a second volume. The book's cover is a beautiful painting by Smith himself, whose artwork is in the folk art tradition and has, at times, an audacious use of vibrant colours. All in all, I am excited to see this edition of Smith from Penguin Classics, and hope that it will be widely reviewed and begin some real discussions in the Literary communities concerning this important American poet and fantasist.
I have been in a fever about this book even before its publication was a sure thing. The Penguin Classics editions of H. P. Lovecraft are so good (despite some misprints, most of which have nigh been corrected) and have brought E'ch-Pi-El's weird fiction to so many new readers, that I felt certain that a Penguin edition of CAS wou'd help this fantastic author find a new world-wide audience.
One of the things that the point really illustrates, and that is emphasized by its editor, is how different a writer Smith was compared to HPL. Even so, the Lovecraft link is beyond dispute. Lovecraft's encouragement helped to determine Smith to begin writing for WEIRD TALES and other pulp journals. Another factor was Smith's need to earn money so as to support his ailing parents. It is a curious fact that Smith stopped writing fiction shortly after Lovecraft's death, which occurred in the same year as the death of Smith's father.
The Lovecraft connection is emphasized again with the book's opening story, "The Tale of Satampra Zeiros," a Mythos story in which the forgotten god Tsathoggua is mentioned -- and the story even includes that tedious Mythos motif, the menacing tentacle! But whereas Lovecraft, following his brief Dunsanian phase, set most of his fictions in his modern world, the stories of Smith take place in fantastic realms and on distant planets, with some few set in ye modern era and among modern humanity. Lovecraft's use of black magic was, in most cases, mild and not a real center of importance to his plots (although such alchemy plays a central part in such stories as "The Dunwich Horror" and The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. In Smith's tales, the use of magick is audacious and spectacular.
Smith seems to have regarded his fiction as something he did merely for money; whereas the writing of poetry was a part of his soulful identity as an artist. He seems to have been so indifferent about his fiction in his latter years that when several volumes of his tales were published by August Derleth's Arkham House, Smith couldn't be bothered to go over and correct the texts of the changes foisted upon him by pulp editors.
I love Smith's fiction so much, as I do his poetry and magnificent prose-poems. Hopefully we will one day see an authoritative biography written. Eventually (perhaps this year), Hippocampus Press will publish the combined correspondence of Clark Ashton Smith and H. P. Lovecraft in one gigantic volume. I am hopeful that this new edition of his work from Penguin Classics will give him a new and wide world audience, and that the book will sell so well that Penguin will consider a second volume. The book's cover is a beautiful painting by Smith himself, whose artwork is in the folk art tradition and has, at times, an audacious use of vibrant colours. All in all, I am excited to see this edition of Smith from Penguin Classics, and hope that it will be widely reviewed and begin some real discussions in the Literary communities concerning this important American poet and fantasist.
