Zothique is a collection of fantasy

Fantasy

Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...

 short stories by Clark Ashton Smith

Clark Ashton Smith

Clark Ashton Smith was a self-educated American poet, sculptor, painter and author of fantasy, horror and science fiction short stories. He achieved early local recognition, largely through the enthusiasm of George Sterling, for traditional verse in the vein of Swinburne...

, edited by 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...

. It was first published in paperback by Ballantine Books

Ballantine Books

Ballantine Books is a major book publisher located in the United States, founded in 1952 by Ian Ballantine with his wife, Betty Ballantine. It was acquired by Random House in 1973, which in turn was acquired by Bertelsmann AG in 1998 and remains part of that company today. Ballantine's logo is a...

 as the sixteenth volume of its celebrated 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...

 in June 1970. It was the first themed collection of Smith's works assembled by Carter for the series. The stories were originally published in various fantasy magazines in the 1930s, notably 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....

.

The book collects one poem and all sixteen tales of the author's 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...

 cycle, set on the Earth's last continent in a far distant future, with an introduction and map and epilogue by Carter.

Contents

• "Introduction: When the World Grows Old", by 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...
  
  
• "Zothique" (poem)
• "Xeethra"
• "Necromancy in Naat"
• "The Empire of the Necromancers"
• "The Master of the Crabs"
• "The Death of Ilalotha"
• "The Weaver in the Vault"
• "The Witchcraft of Ulua"
• "The Charnel God"
• "The Dark Eidolon
  The Dark Eidolon
  The Dark Eidolon is a sword and sorcery short story by Clark Ashton Smith, forming part of his Zothique cycle of stories. It was first published in Weird Tales in 1935 and has been variously republished, notably in the anthology The Spell of Seven, edited by L...
  
  "
• "Morthylla"
• "The Black Abbot of Puthuum"
• "The Tomb-Spawn"
• "The Last Hieroglyph"
• "The Isle of the Torturers"
• "The Garden of Adompha"
• "The Voyage of King Euvoran"
• "Epilogue: The Sequence of the Zothique Tales", by 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...