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3/02/2014 9:58 pm  #1


Clark Ashton Smith

CAS is probably the biggest current influence of mine. In the past I managed to read a few of his stories but it wasn't till the last few years that the bulk of writing became available to me. First it was the big kindle collection, but then I picked up his 5 (now 6) volume set of works from Nightshade Books and have really started delving into his amazing writing. I have a series of write-ups covering some of his stories I was working on that I have been meaning to restart. I will start posting them somewhere here if Jeff doesn't mind.

 

3/03/2014 6:13 am  #2


Re: Clark Ashton Smith

Yes, those Nightshade volumes are incredible. I've got them all, and I enjoy them greatly. CAS is my favorite of the Big Three when I am reading his work . . . but then I change my mind and say HPL when I am reading his work. But I cut my teeth on the works of REH, and when I am reading his work, it feels  like a punch to the gut and like home all at the same time. Recently I finally read all the El Borak tales, and my infatuation with Howard's fiction and poetry was rekindled.


HYPERBOREA- A Role-Playing Game of Swords, Sorcery, and Weird Science-Fantasy
 

3/03/2014 11:08 am  #3


Re: Clark Ashton Smith

I have those on my Amazon wish list. Need to pick them up sometime. I do have a couple of old CAS paperbacks like "Hyperborea."


"It was an age of dark beliefs and of practises that were no less dark; and witchcraft and sorcery were rampant throughout the land, among all classes."
--Clark Ashton Smith, "The Necromantic Tale"
 

3/03/2014 11:53 am  #4


Re: Clark Ashton Smith

Ghul wrote:

Yes, those Nightshade volumes are incredible. I've got them all, and I enjoy them greatly. CAS is my favorite of the Big Three when I am reading his work . . . but then I change my mind and say HPL when I am reading his work. But I cut my teeth on the works of REH, and when I am reading his work, it feels  like a punch to the gut and like home all at the same time. Recently I finally read all the El Borak tales, and my infatuation with Howard's fiction and poetry was rekindled.

I now have most of Howard in the big DelRey Trades (which are fantastic) but I'm missing the boxing/western stories, the Horror and the 2 best of (I'm not sure what they contain). I do have the big Howard omnibus from Kindle. Howard is an all-around fantastic writer. I have an old paperback with his Cthulhu horror stories and a bunch of paperbacks with some of his other writings, but those DelReys are like the Nightshade CAS series, just amazing to own.

     Thread Starter
 

3/03/2014 12:01 pm  #5


Re: Clark Ashton Smith

Lord Kjeran wrote:

I have those on my Amazon wish list. Need to pick them up sometime. I do have a couple of old CAS paperbacks like "Hyperborea."

I would grab them. They have the CAS stories in the order that he wrote them and an amazing appendix with notes and publishing information about each story. CAS kept a writing diary about each story and they give information from it. I can't believe how little he made and the ones he couldn't sell. 

     Thread Starter
 

3/03/2014 12:43 pm  #6


Re: Clark Ashton Smith

I have a collection f Howard's westerns: "The End of the Trail." I need the boxing stories as well.

http://www.amazon.com/End-Trail-Western-Stories-Robert/dp/0803273568.
 


"It was an age of dark beliefs and of practises that were no less dark; and witchcraft and sorcery were rampant throughout the land, among all classes."
--Clark Ashton Smith, "The Necromantic Tale"
 

3/12/2014 3:44 pm  #7


Re: Clark Ashton Smith

My but those Nightshade releases are expensive. Only in hardback (or Kindle) and around $100 for vol. 1 and $40-70 for vols 2-5 each.  I wonder why there is no current print edition omnibus of his works?  For pretty serious lovers of the genre, I'd think it would sell well.

 

3/20/2014 10:14 pm  #8


Re: Clark Ashton Smith

I have several CAS books, mostly the 'collected fantasy' series, but I recently got turned on to a British print book that was pretty reasonably priced. If you are looking for a good representative stories collection in hardback you may want to check this type out.

Here is a pic of the book I picked up



 


I filled my palace with deadly traps so trap admirers will come and visit me

AFS magazine - pulp literature meets old school gaming http://hallsoftizunthane.blogspot.com/
 

3/21/2014 7:31 am  #9


Re: Clark Ashton Smith

I have that collection, too. Univ. of Nebraska Press reissued that and Out of Space and Time a few years ago, but they don't seem to be in print now.

 

3/24/2014 10:29 pm  #10


Re: Clark Ashton Smith

Penguin books is now printing CAS . This releases tomorrow on Amazon. I pre-ordered one a few months back and they sent me a message that it will ship tomorrow

http://www.amazon.com/The-Dark-Eidolon-Other-Fantasies/dp/0143107380/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1395718010&sr=8-1&keywords=the+dark+eidolon


I filled my palace with deadly traps so trap admirers will come and visit me

AFS magazine - pulp literature meets old school gaming http://hallsoftizunthane.blogspot.com/
 

3/24/2014 11:09 pm  #11


Re: Clark Ashton Smith

Scalydemon wrote:

Penguin books is now printing CAS . This releases tomorrow on Amazon. I pre-ordered one a few months back and they sent me a message that it will ship tomorrow

http://www.amazon.com/The-Dark-Eidolon-Other-Fantasies/dp/0143107380/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1395718010&sr=8-1&keywords=the+dark+eidolon

That looks like a CAS painting on the cover. I will have to see if the kindle edition has the table of contents. They had three volumes of his poetry for free on kindle at one point but they started disappering (probably posted without permission).

     Thread Starter
 

3/25/2014 7:49 am  #12


Re: Clark Ashton Smith

Get it together, Penguin! I work for a scholarly press, and we manage to have the search-and-discovery files up for print and Kindle by the day before publication! And generally well before that, as soon as Amazon will put them up.

A good bit of cross-over in the fiction with the other collections I have, but quite a lot of poetry, it seems.

 

3/27/2014 9:59 pm  #13


Re: Clark Ashton Smith

The cover is a painting by CAS titled 'The Spy'. I recived this a couple days ago. I really like the feel and look of these Penguin classics series. I have started a ways into it and like the 'prose poems' they are mostly the size of a very large paragraph and some are like instant adventure seeds. Also a few short stories I have not read (some are very common printed in here)


I filled my palace with deadly traps so trap admirers will come and visit me

AFS magazine - pulp literature meets old school gaming http://hallsoftizunthane.blogspot.com/
 

3/28/2014 2:43 am  #14


Re: Clark Ashton Smith

Scalydemon wrote:

Penguin books is now printing CAS . This releases tomorrow on Amazon. I pre-ordered one a few months back and they sent me a message that it will ship tomorrow

http://www.amazon.com/The-Dark-Eidolon-Other-Fantasies/dp/0143107380/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1395718010&sr=8-1&keywords=the+dark+eidolon

I'm throwing my status as a library power-user around at my local library to get them to pick this up. CAS is not much read in Norway, never been translated. Hopefully i'll succeed, i think i'm 6 for 7 when it comes to recomending fantasy to them.


Níu man ek heima, níu íviðjur,
mjötvið mæran fyr mold neðan.
(Völuspá)
(Nine worlds I knew,the nine in the tree with mighty roots beneath the mold)
Realmsofmelpomene
 

4/02/2014 11:41 am  #15


Re: Clark Ashton Smith

Man, somehow I had missed out on Clark Aston Smith for all these years.  I hadn't even heard of him until a year or two ago.  I discovered his works while reading some OSR blogs.  This was during a time when I was paying a great deal of attention to the DCC RPG and Smith was listed as an influence on the type of fantasy presented in that game.  Still more time passed and I hadn't read Smith.  His books are hard to find in my neck of the woods.  Then I purchased a five volume set of collected works for my Kindle although I greatly prefer physical printed books.  I have finally gotten my hands on two books, The Return of the Sorcerer and a new one, The Dark Eidolon and Other Fantasies.  I've begun reading the stories in the newer book and I'm greatly enjoying them.  Smith is quite the wordsmith and I find myself having to read carefully to really take it all in.

 

4/02/2014 12:17 pm  #16


Re: Clark Ashton Smith

Santaj wrote:

Man, somehow I had missed out on Clark Aston Smith for all these years.  I hadn't even heard of him until a year or two ago.  I discovered his works while reading some OSR blogs.  This was during a time when I was paying a great deal of attention to the DCC RPG and Smith was listed as an influence on the type of fantasy presented in that game.  Still more time passed and I hadn't read Smith.  His books are hard to find in my neck of the woods.  Then I purchased a five volume set of collected works for my Kindle although I greatly prefer physical printed books.  I have finally gotten my hands on two books, The Return of the Sorcerer and a new one, The Dark Eidolon and Other Fantasies.  I've begun reading the stories in the newer book and I'm greatly enjoying them.  Smith is quite the wordsmith and I find myself having to read carefully to really take it all in.

The nice thing about the Nightshade books series (now with a 6th book collecting miscellaneous writing) are the end notes and their chronological order (and the attempt to find CAS' unedited work).

     Thread Starter
 

4/02/2014 1:18 pm  #17


Re: Clark Ashton Smith

What? Sixth book? (heads over to Nightshade . . .)


HYPERBOREA- A Role-Playing Game of Swords, Sorcery, and Weird Science-Fantasy
 

4/02/2014 3:14 pm  #18


Re: Clark Ashton Smith

Ghul wrote:

What? Sixth book? (heads over to Nightshade . . .)

It has the same style binding but only says "The Miscellaneous Writings of Clark Ashton Smith"  rather than the 5 volume collection titles.

     Thread Starter
 

4/07/2014 6:55 pm  #19


Re: Clark Ashton Smith


HYPERBOREA- A Role-Playing Game of Swords, Sorcery, and Weird Science-Fantasy
 

4/10/2014 4:14 am  #20


Re: Clark Ashton Smith

Santaj wrote:

Man, somehow I had missed out on Clark Aston Smith for all these years.  I hadn't even heard of him until a year or two ago.

My experience is a lot like this. I attribute in part to the fact that Gary never included CAS in his "Appendix N" style lists. (He put out several of these prior to the AD&D DMG, and none of them include Smith.)


Marv / Finarvyn
DCC playtester (2011), S&W WhiteBox Author (2009), C&C playtester (2003), Metamorphosis Alpha since 1976. OD&D Player since 1975
 

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