Clark Ashton Smith
Encyclopedia
Clark Ashton Smith was a self-educated American poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

, sculptor
Sculpture
Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...

, painter
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...

 and author of fantasy, horror
Horror fiction
Horror fiction also Horror fantasy is a philosophy of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie atmosphere. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural...

 and science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

 short stories
Short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...

. He achieved early local recognition, largely through the enthusiasm of George Sterling
George Sterling
George Sterling was an American poet based in California who, during his time, was celebrated in Northern California as one of the greatest American poets, although he never gained much fame in the rest of the United States.-Biography:Sterling was born in Sag Harbor, Long Island, New York, the...

, for traditional verse in the vein of Swinburne
Swinburne
Swinburne may refer to:* A place:**Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia**Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus in Kuching, Malaysia**Swinburne Senior Secondary College in Melbourne, Australia...

. As a poet, Smith is grouped with the West Coast Romantics (alongside Ambrose Bierce
Ambrose Bierce
Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce was an American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist and satirist...

, Joaquin Miller
Joaquin Miller
Joaquin Miller was the pen name of the colorful American poet Cincinnatus Heine Miller , nicknamed the "Poet of the Sierras".-Early years and family:...

, Sterling, Nora May French
Nora May French
Nora May French was a California poet and member of the bohemian literary circles of the Carmel Arts and Crafts Club which flourished after the Great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906....

, and others) and remembered as 'The Last of the Great Romantics' and 'The Bard of Auburn'.
As a member of the Lovecraft circle, (Smith's literary friendship with H. P. Lovecraft
H. P. Lovecraft
Howard Phillips Lovecraft --often credited as H.P. Lovecraft — was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction, especially the subgenre known as weird fiction....

 lasted from 1922 until Lovecraft's death in 1937), Smith remains second only to Lovecraft in general esteem and importance amongst contributors to the pulp magazine
Pulp magazine
Pulp magazines , also collectively known as pulp fiction, refers to inexpensive fiction magazines published from 1896 through the 1950s. The typical pulp magazine was seven inches wide by ten inches high, half an inch thick, and 128 pages long...

 Weird Tales
Weird Tales
Weird Tales is an American fantasy and horror fiction pulp magazine first published in March 1923. It ceased its original run in September 1954, after 279 issues, but has since been revived. The magazine was set up in Chicago by J. C. Henneberger, an ex-journalist with a taste for the macabre....

, where some readers objected to his morbidness and violation of pulp traditions. (It has been said of him that "Nobody since Poe has so loved a well-rotted corpse.")
His work is marked chiefly by an extraordinarily wide and ornate vocabulary, a cosmic perspective and a vein of sardonic and sometimes ribald humor.

Early life and education

Smith was born January 13, 1893 in Long Valley, California, of English and Yankee parentage. He spent most of his life in the small town of Auburn, California
Auburn, California
Auburn is the county seat of Placer County, California. Its population at the 2010 census was 13,330. Auburn is known for its California Gold Rush history.Auburn is part of the Greater Sacramento area.- History :...

, living in a small cabin built by his parents, Fanny and Timeus Smith. His formal education was limited: he suffered from psychological disorders including a fear of crowds, and although admitted to high school after attending eight years of grammar school (Long Valley School, whence dates the earliest known photo of him), he never went to high school. His parents decided it was better for him to be educated at home.

However, he was an insatiable reader, and continued to teach himself after he left school. His education began with the reading of Robinson Crusoe
Robinson Crusoe
Robinson Crusoe is a novel by Daniel Defoe that was first published in 1719. Epistolary, confessional, and didactic in form, the book is a fictional autobiography of the title character—a castaway who spends 28 years on a remote tropical island near Trinidad, encountering cannibals, captives, and...

(unabridged), Gulliver's Travels
Gulliver's Travels
Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, in Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships, better known simply as Gulliver's Travels , is a novel by Anglo-Irish writer and clergyman Jonathan Swift that is both a satire on human nature and a parody of...

, the fairy tales of Hans Christian Anderson and Madame d'Aulnoy
Madame d'Aulnoy
Marie-Catherine Le Jumel de Barneville, Baroness d'Aulnoy , also known as Countess d'Aulnoy, was a French writer known for her fairy tales...

, the Arabian Nights and (at the age of 13) the poems of Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...

. He read an unabridged dictionary (the 13th edition of Webster’s) through, word for word, studying not only the definitions of the words but also their derivations from ancient languages. Having an extraordinary eidetic memory, he seems to have retained most or all of it.

The other main course in Smith's self-education was to read the 11th edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica through at least twice. Smith later taught himself French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

 and Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

 in order to translate verse out of those languages. Smith professed to hate the provinciality of the small town of Auburn but rarely left it until he married late in life.

Early stories and poetry

His first literary efforts, at the age of 11, took the form of fairy tales and imitations of the Arabian Nights. Later, he wrote long adventure novels dealing with Oriental life. By 14 he had already written a short adventure novel called The Black Diamonds which was lost for years until published in 2002. Another juvenile novel was written in his teenaged years—The Sword of Zagan (unpublished until 2004). Like The Black Diamonds, it uses a medieval
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

, Arabian Nights–like setting, and the Arabian Nights, like the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm
Brothers Grimm
The Brothers Grimm , Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm , were German academics, linguists, cultural researchers, and authors who collected folklore and published several collections of it as Grimm's Fairy Tales, which became very popular...

 and the works of Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...

, are known to have strongly influenced Smith's early writing, as did William Beckford
William Beckford
William Beckford may refer to:* William Beckford , English businessman, often called "Alderman Beckford", father of William Thomas* William Beckford of Somerley , Jamaican slave-owner and writer...

's Vathek
Vathek
Vathek is a Gothic novel written by William Beckford...

.

At age 17, he sold several tales to The Black Cat, a magazine which specialized in unusual tales. He also published some tales in The Overland Monthly in this brief foray into fiction which preceded his poetic career.

However, it was primarily poetry that motivated the young Smith and he confined his efforts for poetry for more than a decade. In his later youth, Smith made the acquaintance of the San Francisco poet George Sterling
George Sterling
George Sterling was an American poet based in California who, during his time, was celebrated in Northern California as one of the greatest American poets, although he never gained much fame in the rest of the United States.-Biography:Sterling was born in Sag Harbor, Long Island, New York, the...

 through a member of the local Auburn Monday Night Club, where he read several of his poems with considerable success. On a month-long visit to Sterling in Carmel, California, Smith was introduced by Sterling to the poetry of Baudelaire.

He became Sterling's protégé and Sterling helped him to publish his first volume of poems, The Star-Treader and Other Poems, at the age of 19. Smith received international acclaim for the collection The Star-Treader was received very favorably by American critics, one of whom named Smith "the Keats
John Keats
John Keats was an English Romantic poet. Along with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley, he was one of the key figures in the second generation of the Romantic movement, despite the fact that his work had been in publication for only four years before his death.Although his poems were not...

 of the Pacific." Smith briefly moved among the circle that included Ambrose Bierce
Ambrose Bierce
Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce was an American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist and satirist...

 and Jack London
Jack London
John Griffith "Jack" London was an American author, journalist, and social activist. He was a pioneer in the then-burgeoning world of commercial magazine fiction and was one of the first fiction writers to obtain worldwide celebrity and a large fortune from his fiction alone...

 but his early fame soon faded away.

Health breakdown period

A little later, Smith's health broke down and for eight years his literary production was intermittent, though he produced his best poetry during this period. A small volume, Odes and Sonnets, was brought out in 1918. Smith came into contact with literary figures who would later form part of H.P. Lovecraft's circle of correspondents; Smith knew them far earlier than Lovecraft. These figures include poet Samuel Loveman
Samuel Loveman
Samuel Loveman was a American poet, critic, and dramatist. His exotic and imaginative verse included 1926's the Hermaphrodite and Other Poems and 1944's the Sphinx Samuel Loveman (1887-1976) was a American poet, critic, and dramatist. His exotic and imaginative verse included 1926's the...

 and bookman George Kirk. It was Smith who in fact later introduced Donald Wandrei
Donald Wandrei
Donald Albert Wandrei was an American science fiction, fantasy and weird fiction writer, poet and editor. He wrote as Donald Wandrei. He was the older brother of science fiction writer and artist Howard Wandrei...

 to Lovecraft. For this reason, it has been suggested that Lovecraft might as well be referred to as a member of a "Smith" circle as Smith as a member of a Lovecraft one.

In 1920 Smith composed a celebrated long poem in blank verse, The Hashish Eater, or The Apocalypse of Evil which was published in Ebony and Crystal (1922). This was followed by a fan letter from H. P. Lovecraft
H. P. Lovecraft
Howard Phillips Lovecraft --often credited as H.P. Lovecraft — was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction, especially the subgenre known as weird fiction....

, which was the beginning of 15 years of friendship and correspondence. With studied playfulness, Smith and Lovecraft borrowed each other's coinages of place names and the names of strange gods for their stories, though so different is Smith's treatment of the Lovecraft theme that it has been dubbed the 'Clark Ashton Smythos'.

In 1925 Smith published Sandalwood. He wrote little fiction in this period with the exception of some imaginative vignettes or prose poems. Smith was poor for most of his life and often did hard manual jobs such as such as fruitpicking and woodcutting in order to support himself and his parents. He was an able cook and made many kinds of wine. He also did well digging, typing and journalism, as well as contributing a column to The Auburn Journal and sometimes worked as its night editor.

One of Smith's artistic patrons was businessman Albert N. Bender.

Prolific fiction-writing period

At the beginning of the Depression in 1929, with his aged parents' health weakening, Smith resumed fiction-writing and turned out more than a hundred short stories, nearly all of which can be classed as weird horror or science fiction. Like Lovecraft, he drew upon the nightmares that had plagued him during youthful spells of sickness.

He published at his own expense a volume containing six of his best stories, The Double Shadow and Other Fantasies, in an edition of 1000 copies printed by the Auburn Journal. The theme of much of his work is egotism and its supernatural punishment; his weird fiction is generally macabre in subject matter, gloatingly preoccupied with images of death, decay and abnormality.

Most of Smith's weird fiction falls into four series set variously in Hyperborea, Poseidonis
Poseidonis
Poseidonis is an imagined last remnant of the lost continent of Atlantis, detailed in a series of short stories by Clark Ashton Smith. Smith based Poseidonis on Theosophical scriptures about Atlantis, and his concept of "the last isle of foundering Atlantis" is echoed by the Isle of Meneltarma in...

, Averoigne
Averoigne
Averoigne is a fictional counterpart of a historical province in France, detailed in a series of short stories by the American writer Clark Ashton Smith. Smith based Averoigne on the actual province of Auvergne.- History :...

 and Zothique
Zothique
Zothique is an imagined future continent featured in a series of short stories by Clark Ashton Smith. Zothique is also the title of the cycle of tales which take place there. In terms of number and extent, the Zothique cycle is the largest collection of stories written by Smith...

. Hyperborea, which is a lost continent of the Miocene period, and Poseidonis, which is a remnant of Atlantis, are much the same, with a magical culture characterized by bizarreness, cruelty, death and postmortem horrors. Averoigne is Smith's version of pre-modern France, comparable to James Branch Cabell
James Branch Cabell
James Branch Cabell, ; April 14, 1879 – May 5, 1958) was an American author of fantasy fiction and belles lettres. Cabell was well regarded by his contemporaries, including H. L. Mencken and Sinclair Lewis. His works were considered escapist and fit well in the culture of the 1920s, when his...

's Poictesme. Zothique exists millions of years in the future. It is "the last continent of earth, when the sun is dim and tarnished." These tales have been compared to the Dying Earth sequence of Jack Vance
Jack Vance
John Holbrook Vance is an American mystery, fantasy and science fiction author. Most of his work has been published under the name Jack Vance. Vance has published 11 mysteries as John Holbrook Vance and 3 as Ellery Queen...

.

In 1933 Smith began corresponding with Robert E. Howard
Robert E. Howard
Robert Ervin Howard was an American author who wrote pulp fiction in a diverse range of genres. Best known for his character Conan the Barbarian, he is regarded as the father of the sword and sorcery subgenre....

, the Texan creator of Conan the Barbarian
Conan the Barbarian
Conan the Barbarian is a fictional sword and sorcery hero that originated in pulp fiction magazines and has since been adapted to books, comics, several films , television programs, video games, roleplaying games and other media...

. From 1933-1937, Smith, Howard and Lovecraft were the leaders of the Weird Tales
Weird Tales
Weird Tales is an American fantasy and horror fiction pulp magazine first published in March 1923. It ceased its original run in September 1954, after 279 issues, but has since been revived. The magazine was set up in Chicago by J. C. Henneberger, an ex-journalist with a taste for the macabre....

 school of fiction, and corresponded frequently although they never met. The writer of oriental fantasies, E. Hoffman Price
E. Hoffman Price
Edgar Hoffmann Trooper Price was an American writer of popular fiction for the pulp magazine marketplace. He collaborated with H. P...

, is the only man known to have met all three in the flesh.

Mid-late career: return to poetry and sculpture

In Sept 1937, Smith's mother Fanny died. Smith spent the next two months nursing his father through his last illness. Timeus died in December 1937. Aged 44, Smith now virtually ceased writing fiction. He had been severely affected by several tragedies occurring in a short period of time: Robert E. Howard
Robert E. Howard
Robert Ervin Howard was an American author who wrote pulp fiction in a diverse range of genres. Best known for his character Conan the Barbarian, he is regarded as the father of the sword and sorcery subgenre....

's death by suicide (1936), Lovecraft's death from cancer (1937) and the deaths of his parents, which left him exhausted. As a result, he withdrew from the scene, marking the end of Weird Tales Golden Age
Golden Age
The term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology and legend and refers to the first in a sequence of four or five Ages of Man, in which the Golden Age is first, followed in sequence, by the Silver, Bronze, and Iron Ages, and then the present, a period of decline...

. He began sculpting and resumed the writing of poetry. However, Smith was visited by many writers at his cabin, including Fritz Leiber
Fritz Leiber
Fritz Reuter Leiber, Jr. was an American writer of fantasy, horror and science fiction. He was also a poet, actor in theatre and films, playwright, expert chess player and a champion fencer. Possibly his greatest chess accomplishment was winning clear first in the 1958 Santa Monica Open.. With...

, Rah Hoffman, Francis T. Laney and others.

In 1942, three years after August Derleth
August Derleth
August William Derleth was an American writer and anthologist. Though best remembered as the first publisher of the writings of H. P...

 founded Arkham House
Arkham House
Arkham House is a publishing house specializing in weird fiction founded in Sauk City, Wisconsin in 1939 by August Derleth and Donald Wandrei to preserve in hardcover the best fiction of H.P. Lovecraft. The company's name is derived from Lovecraft's fictional New England city, Arkham. Arkham House...

 for the purpose of preserving the work of H.P. Lovecraft, Derleth published the first of several major collections of Smith's fiction, Out of Space and Time (1942). This was followed by Lost Worlds (1944). The books sold slowly, went out of print and became costly rarities. Derleth published five more volumes of Smith's prose and two of his verse, and at his death in 1971 had a large volume of Smith's poems in press.

Later life, marriage and death

In 1953 Smith suffered a coronary attack. Aged 61, he married Carol(yn) Jones Dorman on 10 November 1954. Dorman had much experience in Hollywood and radio public relations. After honeymooning at the Smith cabin, they moved to Pacific Grove, California
Pacific Grove, California
Pacific Grove is a coastal city in Monterey County, California, USA, with a population of 15,041 as of the 2010 census, down from 15,522 as of the 2000 census...

, where he set up a household with their children. (Carol had been married before and had three children). For several years he alternated between the house on Indian Ridge and his wife's house in Pacific Grove. Having sold most of his father's tract, in 1957 the old house burned - the Smiths believed by arson, others said by accident.

Smith now reluctantly did gardening for other residents at Pacific Grove, and grew a goatee. He spent much time shopping and walking near the seafront but despite Derleth's badgering, resisted the writing of more fiction. In 1961 he suffered strokes. In August 1961 he quietly died in his sleep, aged 68. After Smith's death Carol remarried (becoming Carolyn Wakefield) and subsequently died of cancer.

The poet's ashes were buried beside, or beneath, a boulder to the immediate west of where his childhood home (destroyed by fire in 1957) stood; some were also scattered in a stand of blue oaks near the boulder. There was no marker.http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=18549 However in more recent times a plaque to his memory has been erected at the Auburn, California
Auburn, California
Auburn is the county seat of Placer County, California. Its population at the 2010 census was 13,330. Auburn is known for its California Gold Rush history.Auburn is part of the Greater Sacramento area.- History :...

 Placer County Library.http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=pv&GRid=18549&PIpi=26712944

Bookseller Roy A. Squires was appointed Smith's "west coast executor", with Jack L. Chalker
Jack L. Chalker
Jack Laurence Chalker was an American science fiction author. Chalker was also a Baltimore City Schools history teacher in Maryland for 12 years, retiring in 1978 to write full-time...

 as his "east coast executor". Squires published many letterpress editions of individual Smith poems.

Smith's literary estate is represented by his stepson, Prof William Dorman, director of CASiana Literary Enterprises. Arkham House
Arkham House
Arkham House is a publishing house specializing in weird fiction founded in Sauk City, Wisconsin in 1939 by August Derleth and Donald Wandrei to preserve in hardcover the best fiction of H.P. Lovecraft. The company's name is derived from Lovecraft's fictional New England city, Arkham. Arkham House...

 owns the copyright in many Smith stories, though some are now in the public domain.

For 'posthumous collaborations' of Smith (stories completed by Lin Carter), see the entry on Lin Carter
Lin Carter
Linwood Vrooman Carter was an American author of science fiction and fantasy, as well as an editor and critic. He usually wrote as Lin Carter; known pseudonyms include H. P. Lowcraft and Grail Undwin.-Life:Carter was born in St. Petersburg, Florida...

.

Artistic periods

While Smith was always an artist who worked in several very different media, it is possible to identify three distinct periods in which one form of art had precedence over the others.

Poetry: Until 1925

Smith published most of his volumes of poetry in this period, including the aforementioned The Star-Treader and Other Poems, as well as Odes and Sonnets (1918), Ebony and Crystal (1922) and Sandalwood
Sandalwood
Sandalwood is the name of a class of fragrant woods from trees in the genus Santalum. The woods are heavy, yellow, and fine-grained, and unlike many other aromatic woods they retain their fragrance for decades. As well as using the harvested and cut wood in-situ, essential oils are also extracted...

(1925). His long poem
Long poem
The long poem is a literary genre including all poetry of considerable length. Though the definition of a long poem is vague and broad, the genre includes some of the most important poetry ever written....

 
The Hashish-Eater; Or, the Apocalypse of Evil was written in 1920.

Weird Fiction: 1926–1935

Smith wrote most of his weird fiction
Weird fiction
Weird fiction is a subgenre of speculative fiction written in the late 19th and early 20th century. It can be said to encompass the ghost story and other tales of the macabre. Weird fiction is distinguished from horror and fantasy in that it predates the niche marketing of genre fiction...

 and Cthulhu Mythos
Cthulhu Mythos
The Cthulhu Mythos is a shared fictional universe, based on the work of American horror writer H. P. Lovecraft.The term was first coined by August Derleth, a contemporary correspondent of Lovecraft, who used the name of the creature Cthulhu - a central figure in Lovecraft literature and the focus...

 stories, partially inspired by H. P. Lovecraft
H. P. Lovecraft
Howard Phillips Lovecraft --often credited as H.P. Lovecraft — was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction, especially the subgenre known as weird fiction....

. Creatures of his invention include Aforgomon, Rlim-Shaikorth, Mordiggian
Mordiggian
Mordiggian is a fictional character in the Cthulhu Mythos. "He" is the creation of Clark Ashton Smith and appears in his short story "The Charnel God" .-Mordiggian in the mythos:...

, Tsathoggua
Tsathoggua
Tsathoggua is a fictional supernatural entity in the Cthulhu Mythos shared fictional universe. He is the creation of Clark Ashton Smith and is part of his Hyperborean cycle....

, the wizard Eibon, and various others. In an homage to his friend, Lovecraft referred in some of his stories to a great dark wizard, "Klarkash-Ton."

Smith's weird stories form several cycles, called after the lands in which they are set: Averoigne
Averoigne
Averoigne is a fictional counterpart of a historical province in France, detailed in a series of short stories by the American writer Clark Ashton Smith. Smith based Averoigne on the actual province of Auvergne.- History :...

, Hyperborea
Hyperborean cycle
The Hyperborean cycle is a series of short stories by Clark Ashton Smith that take place in the fictional prehistoric setting of Hyperborea . Various elements in Smith's cycle have been borrowed by H. P. Lovecraft, most notably the "toad-god" Tsathoggua...

, Mars
Mars in fiction
Fictional representations of Mars have been popular for over a century. Interest in Mars has been stimulated by the planet's dramatic red color, by early scientific speculations that its surface conditions might be capable of supporting life, and by the possibility that Mars could be colonized by...

, Poseidonis
Atlantis
Atlantis is a legendary island first mentioned in Plato's dialogues Timaeus and Critias, written about 360 BC....

, Zothique
Zothique
Zothique is an imagined future continent featured in a series of short stories by Clark Ashton Smith. Zothique is also the title of the cycle of tales which take place there. In terms of number and extent, the Zothique cycle is the largest collection of stories written by Smith...

. To some extent Smith was influenced in his vision of such lost worlds by the teachings of Theosophy
Theosophy
Theosophy, in its modern presentation, is a spiritual philosophy developed since the late 19th century. Its major themes were originally described mainly by Helena Blavatsky , co-founder of the Theosophical Society...

 and the writings of Helena Blavatsky. Stories set in Zothique belong to the Dying Earth subgenre. Amongst Smith's science fiction tales are stories set on Mars
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...

 and the invented planet of Xiccarph
Xiccarph
Xiccarph is a collection of fantasy short stories by Clark Ashton Smith, edited by Lin Carter. It was first published in paperback by Ballantine Books as the forty-first volume of its celebrated Ballantine Adult Fantasy series in February 1972. It was the third themed collection of Smith's works...

.

His short stories originally appeared in the magazines Weird Tales
Weird Tales
Weird Tales is an American fantasy and horror fiction pulp magazine first published in March 1923. It ceased its original run in September 1954, after 279 issues, but has since been revived. The magazine was set up in Chicago by J. C. Henneberger, an ex-journalist with a taste for the macabre....

, Strange Tales
Strange Tales
Strange Tales is the name of several comic book anthology series published by Marvel Comics. It introduced the features "Doctor Strange" and "Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.", and was a showcase for the science fiction/suspense stories of artists Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, and for the...

, Astounding Stories, Stirring Science Stories
Science fiction magazine
A science fiction magazine is a publication that offers primarily science fiction, either in a hard copy periodical format or on the Internet....

and Wonder Stories
Wonder Stories
Wonder Stories was an early American science fiction magazine which was published under several titles from 1929 to 1955. It was founded by Hugo Gernsback in 1929 after he had lost control of his first science fiction magazine, Amazing Stories, when his media company Experimenter Publishing went...

.

Clark Ashton Smith was the third member of the great triumvirate of
Weird Tales, with Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard
Robert E. Howard
Robert Ervin Howard was an American author who wrote pulp fiction in a diverse range of genres. Best known for his character Conan the Barbarian, he is regarded as the father of the sword and sorcery subgenre....

.

Many of Smith's stories were published in six hardcover volumes by August Derleth
August Derleth
August William Derleth was an American writer and anthologist. Though best remembered as the first publisher of the writings of H. P...

 under his Arkham House
Arkham House
Arkham House is a publishing house specializing in weird fiction founded in Sauk City, Wisconsin in 1939 by August Derleth and Donald Wandrei to preserve in hardcover the best fiction of H.P. Lovecraft. The company's name is derived from Lovecraft's fictional New England city, Arkham. Arkham House...

 imprint. For a full bibliography to 1978, see Sidney-Fryer,
Emperor of Dreams (cited below). S.T. Joshi is working with other scholars to produce an updated bibliography of Smith's work.

A selection of Smith's best-known tales includes:
  • "The Last Incantation" — Weird Tales, June 1930 LW2
  • "A Voyage to Sfanomoe" — Weird Tales, August 1931 LW2
  • "The Tale of Satampra Zeiros
    The Tale of Satampra Zeiros
    "The Tale of Satampra Zeiros" is a short story written in 1929 by Clark Ashton Smith as part of his Hyperborean cycle, and first published in the November 1931 issue of Weird Tales...

    " —
    Weird Tales November 1931 LW2
  • "The Door to Saturn" — Strange Tales, January 1932 LW2
  • "The Planet of the Dead" — Weird Tales, March 1932 LW2
  • "The Gorgon" — Weird Tales, April 1932 LW2
  • "The Letter from Mohaun Los" (under the title of "Flight into Super-Time") — Wonder Stories, August 1932 LW1
  • "The Empire of the Necromancers" — Weird Tales, September 1932 LW1
  • "The Hunters from Beyond" — Strange Tales, October 1932 LW1
  • "The Isle of the Torturers" — Weird Tales, March 1933 LW1
  • "The Light from Beyond" — Wonder Stories, April 1933 LW1
  • "The Beast of Averoigne" — Weird Tales, May 1933 LW1
  • "The Holiness of Azedarac" — Weird Tales, November 1933 LW1
  • "The Demon of the Flower" — Astounding Stories, December 1933 LW2
  • "The Death of Malygris" — Weird Tales, April 1934 LW2
  • "The Plutonium Drug" — Amazing Stories, September 1934 LW2
  • "The Seven Geases" — Weird Tales, October 1934 LW2
  • "Xeethra" — Weird Tales, December 1934 LW1
  • "The Flower-Women" — Weird Tales, May 1935 LW2
  • "The Treader of the Dust" — Weird Tales, August 1935 LW1
  • "Necromancy in Naat" — Weird Tales, July 1936 LW1
  • "The Maze of Maal Dweb" — Weird Tales, October 1938 LW2
  • "The Coming of the White Worm" — Stirring Science Stories, April 1941 LW2

Sculpture and Art 1935–1961

By this time his interest in writing fiction began to lessen and he turned to creating sculptures from soft rock such as soapstone
Soapstone
Soapstone is a metamorphic rock, a talc-schist. It is largely composed of the mineral talc and is thus rich in magnesium. It is produced by dynamothermal metamorphism and metasomatism, which occurs in the areas where tectonic plates are subducted, changing rocks by heat and pressure, with influx...

. Many examples are reproduced in Dennis Rickard's The Fantastic Art of Clark Ashton Smith (Baltimore, MD: The Mirage Press, 1973). Smith also made hundreds of fantastic paintings and drawings.

Night Shade Books
Night Shade Books
Night Shade Books is an independent publishing company based in San Francisco, specializing in science fiction, fantasy, and horror. It was started in 1997 by Jason Williams, with Jeremy Lassen coming on board as a partner shortly after the company's founding...

  • The Collected Fantasies of Clark Ashton Smith 5-volume work
  • Tales of India and Irony (collection of non fantasy/science fiction/horror tales, available only to subscribers of above collection)
  • Red World of Polaris (complete tales of Captain Volmar)

Hippocampus Press
Hippocampus Press
Hippocampus Press is an American publisher of fantasy, horror and science fiction, and specializes in reprints or first editions of work by authors such as H. P. Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith. One of its major projects is the 5-volume set of Lovecraft's Collected Essays...

  • The Complete Poetry and Translations of Clark Ashton Smith
  • The Black Diamonds
  • The Last Oblivion: Best Fantastic Poems of Clark Ashton Smith
  • The Sword of Zagan and Other Writings
  • The Shadow of the Unattained: Letters of George Sterling and Clark Ashton Smith
  • The Freedom of Fantastic Things: Selected Criticism on Clark Ashton Smith

Arkham House
Arkham House
Arkham House is a publishing house specializing in weird fiction founded in Sauk City, Wisconsin in 1939 by August Derleth and Donald Wandrei to preserve in hardcover the best fiction of H.P. Lovecraft. The company's name is derived from Lovecraft's fictional New England city, Arkham. Arkham House...

  • Out of Space and Time
    Out of Space and Time
    Out of Space and Time is a collection of fantasy, horror and science fiction short stories by author Clark Ashton Smith. It was released in 1942 and was the third book published by Arkham House. 1,054 copies were printed....

    (out of print)
  • Lost Worlds
    Lost Worlds (book)
    Lost Worlds is a collection of Fantasy, Horror and Science fiction short stories by author Clark Ashton Smith. It was released in 1944 and was the author's second book published by Arkham House. 2,043 copies were printed....

    (o.o.p.)
  • Genius Loci and Other Tales
    Genius Loci and Other Tales
    Genius Loci and Other Tales is a collection of fantasy, horror and science fiction short stories by author Clark Ashton Smith. It was released in 1948 and was the author's third book published by Arkham House. It was released in an edition of 3,047 copies...

    (o.o.p.)
  • The Dark Chateau
    The Dark Chateau
    The Dark Chateau is a collection of poems by Clark Ashton Smith. It was released in 1951 and was the author's fourth book to be published by Arkham House. It was released in an edition of 563 copies...

    (o.o.p.)
  • Spells and Philtres
    Spells and Philtres
    Spells and Philtres is a collection of poems by Clark Ashton Smith. It was released in 1958 and was the author's fifth book and second collection or poetry to be published by Arkham House. It was released in an edition of 519 copies. The book was a second stop-gap volume following The Dark Chateau...

    (o.o.p.)
  • The Abominations of Yondo
    The Abominations of Yondo
    The Abominations of Yondo is a collection of fantasy, horror and science fiction short stories by author Clark Ashton Smith. It was released in 1960 and was the author's fourth collection of stories published by Arkham House. It was released in an edition of 2,005 copies...

    (o.o.p.)
  • Tales of Science and Sorcery
    Tales of Science and Sorcery
    Tales of Science and Sorcery is a collection of stories by author Clark Ashton Smith. It was released in 1964 and was the author's fifth collection of stories published by Arkham House. It was released in an edition of 2,482 copies...

    (o.o.p.)
  • Poems in Prose
    Poems in Prose
    Poems in Prose is an illustrated collection of prose poems by Clark Ashton Smith. It was released in 1965 and was published by Arkham House in an edition of 1,016 copies. The book is a nearly complete collection of Smith's prose poetry.-Contents:...

    (o.o.p.)
  • Other Dimensions
    Other Dimensions
    Other Dimensions is a collection of stories by author Clark Ashton Smith. It was released in 1970 and was the author's sixth collection of stories published by Arkham House. It was released in an edition of 3,144 copies...

    (o.o.p.)
  • Selected Poems
    Selected Poems (C. A. Smith)
    Selected Poems is a collection of poems by Clark Ashton Smith. It was released in 1971 by Arkham House in an edition of 2,118 copies. The collection also includes several translations of French and Spanish poems...

    (o.o.p.)
  • The Black Book of Clark Ashton Smith
    The Black Book of Clark Ashton Smith
    The Black Book of Clark Ashton Smith is a transcription of a notebook that was kept by author Clark Ashton Smith. It was released in 1979 by Arkham House in an edition of 2,588 copies. The book was transcribed from Smith's notebook by Donald Sidney-Fryer and Robert A. Hoffman. Appended to the...

    (o.o.p.)
  • A Rendezvous in Averoigne
    A Rendezvous in Averoigne
    A Rendezvous in Averoigne is a collection of science fiction, fantasy and horror stories by author Clark Ashton Smith. It was released in 1988 by Arkham House in an edition of 5,025 copies...

  • Selected Letters of Clark Ashton Smith
    Selected Letters of Clark Ashton Smith
    Selected Letters of Clark Ashton Smith is a book of letters by Clark Ashton Smith. It was released in 2003 by Arkham House in an edition of approximately 3,000 copies. The collection was edited by David E. Schultz and Scott Conners.-Contents:...


Ballantine Adult Fantasy series
Ballantine Adult Fantasy series
The Ballantine Adult Fantasy series was an imprint of Ballantine Books. Launched in 1969 , the series reissued a number of works of fantasy literature, which were out of print or dispersed in back issues of pulp magazines , in cheap paperback form—including works...

  • Zothique
    Zothique (collection)
    Zothique is a collection of fantasy short stories by Clark Ashton Smith, edited by Lin Carter. It was first published in paperback by Ballantine Books as the sixteenth volume of its celebrated Ballantine Adult Fantasy series in June 1970. It was the first themed collection of Smith's works...

    (o.o.p.)
  • Hyperborea
    Hyperborea (collection)
    Hyperborea is a collection of fantasy short stories by Clark Ashton Smith, edited by Lin Carter. It was first published in paperback by Ballantine Books as the twenty-ninth volume of its celebrated Ballantine Adult Fantasy series in April 1971. It was the second themed collection of Smith's works...

    (o.o.p.)
  • Xiccarph
    Xiccarph
    Xiccarph is a collection of fantasy short stories by Clark Ashton Smith, edited by Lin Carter. It was first published in paperback by Ballantine Books as the forty-first volume of its celebrated Ballantine Adult Fantasy series in February 1972. It was the third themed collection of Smith's works...

    (o.o.p.)
  • Poseidonis
    Poseidonis (collection)
    Poseidonis is a collection of fantasy short stories by Clark Ashton Smith, edited by Lin Carter. It was first published in paperback by Ballantine Books as the fifty-ninth volume of its celebrated Ballantine Adult Fantasy series in July 1973. It was the fourth themed collection of Smith's works...

    (o.o.p.)

  • Averoigne (reportedly compiled by series editor Lin Carter
    Lin Carter
    Linwood Vrooman Carter was an American author of science fiction and fantasy, as well as an editor and critic. He usually wrote as Lin Carter; known pseudonyms include H. P. Lowcraft and Grail Undwin.-Life:Carter was born in St. Petersburg, Florida...

    , but never released)

  • The Emperor of Dreams
    The Emperor of Dreams
    The Emperor of Dreams is a collection of fantasy author and poet Clark Ashton Smith's short tales arranged in chronological order. It was published by Gollancz as the 26th volume of their Fantasy Masterworks series. The collection contains stories from Smith's major story cycles of Averoigne,...

    (not part of the Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series)

Wildside Press
Wildside Press
Wildside Press is an independent publishing company located in Maryland, USA. It was founded in 1989 by John Gregory and Kim Betancourt. While the press was originally conceived as a publisher of speculative fiction in both trade and limited editions, it has broadened out somewhat since then, both...

  • The Double Shadow
  • The Maker of Gargoyles and Other Stories
  • The White Sybil and Other Stories

Spearman (reprinted from Arkham House)

  • Lost Worlds hardcover 1971 ISBN 0-85435-111-6
  • Out of Space and Time 1971 ISBN 0-85435-101-9
  • Genius Loci hardcover 1971 ISBN 0-85435-381-X
  • Abominations of Yondo 1972 ISBN 0-85435-371-2

Panther (reprinted from Arkham House)

  • Lost Worlds (published in 2 volumes, o.o.p.)
  • Genius Loci (o.o.p.)
  • The Abominations of Yondo (o.o.p.)
  • Other Dimensions (published in 2 volumes, o.o.p.)
  • Out of Space and Time (published in 2 volumes, o.o.p.)
  • Tales of Science and Sorcery (o.o.p.)

Timescape Books
Timescape Books
Timescape Books was a science fiction line from Pocket Books operating from 1981 to 1985. Pocket Books is an imprint of Simon and SchusterIt was named after the Gregory Benford novel Timescape, which was not published by the Timescape imprint. The imprint was founded by David G. Hartwell. It...

  • The City of the Singing Flame 1981 ISBN 0-671-83415-0 (o.o.p.)
  • The Last Incantation 1982 ISBN 0-671-83543-2 (o.o.p.)
  • The Monster of the Prophecy 1983 ISBN 0-671-83544-0 (o.o.p.)

Further reading

  • Behrends, Steve. Clark Ashton Smith. Starmont Reader's Guide 49. Mercer Island, WA: Starmont House, 1990.
  • Cockcroft, Thomas G.L. "The Tales of Clark Ashton Smith: A Bibliography. Lower Hutt, New Zealand: Cockcroft, Nov 1961 (500 copies).
  • Connors, Scott. The Freedom of Fantastic Things: Selected Criticism on Clark Ashton Smith. NY: Hippocampus Press, 2006.
  • Haefele, John D. "Far from Time: Clark Ashton Smith, August Derleth, and Arkham House." Weird Fiction Review No 1 (Fall 2010), 154-189.
  • Hilger, Ronald. One Hundred Years of Klarkash-Ton. Averon Press, 1996.
  • Klarkash-Ton: The Journal of Smith Studies No 1, Cryptic Publications. Edited by Steve Behrends. This journal was continued under a new title but with the numbering continued from No 1, thus the first issue of The Dark Eidolon: The Journal of Smith Studies, (Necronomicon Press) is numbered "2". There were only 3 issues in total.
  • Lost Worlds: The Journal of Clark Ashton Smith Studies, Seele Brennt Publications. Edited by Smith's biographer Scott Connors and Ronald S. Hilger. (Five numbers were issued, beginning in 2003).
  • Morris, Harry O. (ed). Nyctalops magazine. Special Clark Ashton Smith issue, 96 pp. (1973)
  • Schultz, David E. and Scott Connors (ed). Selected Letters of Clark Ashton Smith. Sauk City, WI: Arkham House, 2003.
  • Schultz, David E and S.T. Joshi. The Shadow of the Unattained: The Letters of George Sterling and Clark Ashton Smith. NY: Hippocampus Press, 2005.
  • Sidney-Fryer, Donald. Emperor of Dreams: A Clark Ashton Smith Bibliography. West Kingston, RI: Donald M. Grant Publishers, 1978.
  • Sidney-Fryer, Donald. The Last of the Great Romantic Poets. Albuqueque NM: Silver Scarab Press, 1973.
  • Sidney-Fryer, Donald. Clark Ashton Smith: The Sorcerer Departs. West Hills, CA: Tsathoggua Press, Jan 1997. Dole: Silver Key Press
    Silver Key Press
    Silver Key Press is the anglophone imprint of the French non-profit small press La Clef d'Argent specializing in weird fiction, fantastique, fantasy and science fiction.It was named as an explicit homage to H. P...

    , 2007.
  • Smith, Clark Ashton. Planets and Dimensions: Collected Essays. Edited by Charles K. Wolfe. Baltimore MD: Mirage Press, 1973.

External links

  • The Eldritch Dark — This website contains almost all of Clark Ashton Smith's written work, as well as a comprehensive selection of his art, biographies, a bibliography, a discussion board, readings, fiction tributes and more.

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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