Clark Ashton Smith

[Nemonymous]

Quote Originally Posted by hopfrog

I asked Jerad about the Centipede Press editions of CAS that he is working on. Here they be: CLARK ASHTON SMITH The Averoinge Stories edited by Ron Hilger, Introduction by Gahan Wilson art by David Ho probably late 2015 CLARK ASHTON SMITH ART BOOK edited by Scott Connors artwork, prose poems, and various memoirs hopefully publish'd June 2015 CLARK ASHTON SMITH MASTERS OF THE WEIRD TALE illustrated by a ton of people [old and new artwork, I imagine] with mayhaps an Introduction by S. T. Joshi CLARK ASHTON SMITH Library of Weird Fiction edited and with Introduction by S. T. Joshi after the Master of the Weird Tale book is published. start saving up yr silver coins, me ducks.....

Thanks, hopfrog.

Just as a completist aside on this thread, here is the TLO thread linking to my ongoing review of the Penguin Classics CAS: The Dark Eidolon by Clark Ashton Smith (Penguin Classics) - THE NIGHTMARE NETWORK

	TLO THOMAS LIGOTTI ONLINE

[Robert Adam Gilmour]

I have the following collections...

Collected Fantasies Of Clark Ashton Smith 1-5
Miscellaneous Writings (kind of a 6th volume to the above series)
Complete Poetry And Translations 1-3
Nostalgia Of The Unknown (prose poetry)
Sword Of Zagan
Red World Of Polaris
Black Diamonds

I thought that was all the prose and poetry but looking at Internet Speculative Fiction Database
Clark Ashton Smith - Summary Bibliography
there's a lot more, I think. The contents of the poetry collections haven't been updated yet but it seems like some of his later short stories are only in books like

Strange Shadows: The Uncollected Fiction and Essays of Clark Ashton Smith
Publication Listing
The Klarkash-Ton Cycle: Clark Ashton Smith's Cthulhu Mythos Fiction
Publication Listing

Can anyone tell me if these are collected in anything else, if they are any good or if they are variants of earlier pieces?

As usual I'm getting ahead of myself, as I've only read a tiny amount of his work.

[Michael]

Robert

I think you got all the big ones. Night Shade has, thus far, the canonical short story collection. Hippocampus has the canonical prose poetry and poetry collection. So all your major bases are covered. The big gap is in the art, which Jerad at Centipede is working on correcting and I would second what Willum said. I think Jerad may overtake the past canonical published works in many respects. Aesthetically, they just can't match him. So, good things are on the horizon for CAS fans.

[Odalisque]

Quote Originally Posted by Michael

The big gap is in the art, which Jerad at Centipede is working on correcting

I think the best (only?) book on CAS's art so far published is The Fantastic Art of Clark Ashton Smith issued by Mirage Press in the 1970s. With its often murky black and white photographs, it's very far from satisfactory. I haven't retained my copy.

[Doctor Dugald Eldritch]

This is an excellent reading of Smith's fabulous and ghoulish poem in prose:

by Clark Ashton Smith - YouTube

[Nemonymous]

Quote Originally Posted by Hell-Ghost

This is an excellent reading of Smith's fabulous and ghoulish poem in prose: by Clark Ashton Smith - YouTube

Thanks. Not in the same class of reading aloud, obviously, but here is my own version of the long poem: THE HASHISH EATER: http://www.filefactory.com/file/3syt...d/VN650626.WMA

[MTC]

For those of us who didn't manage to get the volumes when they first appeared, apparently Night Shade Books are reissuing The Collected Fantasies of CAS. First volume due out september 2015 in paperback.

[Michael]

Quote Originally Posted by MTC

For those of us who didn't manage to get the volumes when they first appeared, apparently Night Shade Books are reissuing The Collected Fantasies of CAS. First volume due out september 2015 in paperback.

AWESOME!!!!

I believe that NSB put out the volumes in Kindle form (think they're 8 bucks each) but it doesn't have a table of contents so that's frustrating. This is great new though! Thanks!

I had read many of the more acclaimed tales of Smith's on the Eldritch Dark site, but I received the Penguin Classics collection as a gift recently and have only now really started to examine him on the same level I have with Lovecraft and Howard.

I've been looking through the discussion about CAS on this site, and have seen a few times that people think he was at his best telling straight Gothic horror stories, which I wouldn't necessarily agree with. For me his greatest achievement was in being able to imbue his fantasy worlds with such vivid lyrical eerie flavours of the outré. I felt like I could taste the plaintive songs of strange lilting birds, or touch the sad colours of jeweled skies undreamed of, but outside of this was some greater force at work. The City of the Singing Flame and The Hashish-Eater must surely rank upon the lofty promontory of weird fiction's most luminous entries. I've also really enjoyed The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis, as whilst it was clearly a Lovecraft pastiche of sorts, Smith was able to give the story a weird texture of his own.

I haven't got to the section including his prose poetry yet, but I am excited, as his stories were wont to erupt in to welcome poetic paragraphs quite often. Smith is one of those writers whose style is his substance.

[J.T. Edwards]

I love this man's work. It seems incomprehensible for a human mind to have such vivid imaginations let alone put them into words the way he did. I originally found a lot of his stories off-putting due to their rather abrupt often ironic endings rather than Lovecraft's more tragic endings. I grew to appreciate them though. I've always been fascinated with ancient history, lost civilizations and continents etc since I was a kid so I love a lot of that stuff more than anything. Still my favorite tale of his is "The Nameless Offspring". Incredible atmosphere, sort of reminds me of a Blackwood tale except more visceral. Ghouls were one of his finest creations among many.

I recently bought the audio editions of the Nightshade books from audible.com and was pleasantly surprised. All the readings are great.


Here's a fantastic reading of "The Isle of The Torturers".

by Clark Ashton Smith - YouTube