{"id":19087,"date":"2025-02-03T10:00:44","date_gmt":"2025-02-03T15:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/?p=19087"},"modified":"2025-01-10T09:52:09","modified_gmt":"2025-01-10T14:52:09","slug":"two-works-on-clark-ashton-smith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/2025\/02\/03\/two-works-on-clark-ashton-smith\/","title":{"rendered":"Two works on Clark Ashton Smith"},"content":{"rendered":"

I recently picked up two books from Hippocampus Press on Clark Ashton Smith<\/a><\/strong> (1893-1961). This was part of a special deal when one of the editors, Scott Connors<\/strong> passed away.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>An authority on CAS, Connors had edited the five-volume set of CAS fiction from Nightshade Book and was working on a CAS biography. I have no idea of the status of that work. Hippocampus Press<\/a> has a complete collection of CAS’s poetry and has been doing themed volumes of his fiction of late (six so far), as well as several collections of his letters.<\/p>\n

For those not aware, Clark Ashton Smith, along with H.P. Lovecraft<\/a><\/strong> and Robert E. Howard<\/a><\/strong>, was one of the major authors in Weird Tales<\/a><\/em>. A poet, author, and artist, he corresponded with both men and others, but his fiction career was very short compared to his other artistic activities. I believe he wrote more poetry than prose.<\/p>\n

The two books are The Freedom of Fantastic Things: Selected Criticism on Clark Ashton Smith<\/em> (2006) and Clark Ashton Smith: A Comprehensive Bibliography<\/em> (2020).<\/p>\n

The Freedom of Fantastic Things: Selected Criticism on Clark Ashton Smith<\/em>, edited by Connors, is a collection of over 20 works about CAS, most reprinted from prior publications. There is also an annotated chronology of his fiction by Steve Behrends<\/strong>, along with a basic bibliography of his works.<\/p>\n

It was also nice that we got maps by Tim Kirk<\/strong> of several of CAS’s fantastical lands, such as Poseidonis, Hyperborea, Zothique, and Averoigne. I don’t know if they are original to this volume or reprinted from prior works.<\/p>\n

The authors included are pretty impressive, including Donald Sidney-Fryer<\/strong>, Brian Stableford<\/a><\/strong>, Fred Chappell<\/a><\/strong>, S.T. Joshi<\/a><\/strong>, Behrends, Stefan Dziemianowicz<\/a><\/strong>, and other leading authorities.<\/p>\n

With so many works, I’ve picked out a few that looked interesting to me to read. Not being that familiar with his poetry, I skipped over most of those works.<\/p>\n

We start off with an essay by Donald Sidney-Fryer written in honor of CAS’s 110th birthday, which focuses mostly on his poetry career and publications, especially with his mentor George Sterling<\/a><\/strong>. Next is a collection of contemporary reviews of several of his works.<\/p>\n

\"Clark<\/a>Next are a pair of works that are somewhat known in the world of CAS. First is a somewhat negative review by James Blish<\/a><\/strong> of CAS’s. Yes, the well-known sf author who did other works, including writing criticisms of several authors. In response is a piece by Donald Sidney-Fryer.<\/p>\n

Brian Stableford’s article is a good overview of CAS’s life and career, looking at many of his works in various story cycles, with a look at the cosmic elements of his writings. John Hitz<\/strong>‘s work is similar but short and looks more at CAS’s macabre works. He has another that looks at the use of satire in CAS’s stories.<\/p>\n

We get a quartet of works looking at CAS’s story cycles set in various realms. Atlantis\/Poseidonis (and other Atlantis-like continents) is covered by Donald Sidney-Fryer; Stephen Tompkins<\/strong> handles Hyperborea; Zothique is done by Jim Rockhill<\/strong>; and Stefan Dziemianowicz takes care of Averoigne. The maps by Tim Kirk are included before each of these works. All of these give a better understanding of these story cycles.<\/p>\n

Again, there are several others I haven’t yet read. As I delve more into CAS’s works, including his poetry, I will return to this work.<\/p>\n

Clark Ashton Smith: A Comprehensive Bibliography<\/em> is a massive book and not for the casual CAS fan. It was edited by S.T. Joshi, David E. Shultz<\/strong>, and Scott Connors<\/strong>. It comes in at over 580 pages and replaced the work from Donald Sidney-Fryer from 1978. It’s divided into four sections. The main section has all of Smith’s writings in English: prose, poetry, letters, and non-fiction. The second has translated works. The third gets in all the criticism and reviews of Smith. The fourth and final section is a massive index.<\/p>\n

A very nice work, but more aimed at the enthusiast or scholar.<\/p>\n

If you are just getting into the writings of CAS, I certainly recommend the collection of criticism. And do check out the other CAS-related works from Hippocampus Press<\/a> as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I recently picked up two books from Hippocampus Press on Clark Ashton Smith (1893-1961). This was part of a special deal when one of the editors, Scott Connors passed away. An authority on CAS, Connors had edited the five-volume set of CAS fiction from Nightshade Book and was working on a CAS biography. I have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":19322,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_has_post_settings":[],"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"The Pulp Super-Fan looks at two works on Clark Ashton Smith.","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[39,1,14],"tags":[2088,410,1209,2123,2124,2125,201,1090,2126,81,1184,2083,1201,1198],"hashtags":[],"class_list":["post-19087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-non-fiction","category-pulps","category-review","tag-brian-stableford","tag-clark-ashton-smith","tag-david-e-schultz","tag-donald-sidney-fryer","tag-fred-chappell","tag-george-sterling","tag-h-p-lovecraft","tag-hippocampus-press","tag-james-blish","tag-robert-e-howard","tag-s-t-joshi","tag-scott-connors","tag-stefan-dziemianowicz","tag-steve-behrends"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/files\/2025\/11\/freedom-of-fantastic-things-featured.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3eLo8-4XR","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19087"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19087\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19326,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19087\/revisions\/19326"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19087"},{"taxonomy":"hashtags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtags?post=19087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}