Greetings Eldritch Dark participants and C.A.S. acolytes. This is my first post in this forum that I have been paying attention to for quite a few months now. I am glad to join in here as my heart has become richer ever since I discovered Clark Ashton Smith only two years ago(!). But more on that and the floodgates that opened because of that experience at another time possibly. Onto my question that someone here may be able to help me with:

I own all of the Panther editions of Smith's work except for Other Dimensions I and II which I acquired by purchasing the Arkham House edition of Other Dimensions. I also have Joshi's Penguin collection. Now I see that Night Shade books is publishing their series of Smith's work in paperback form. Is their any reason to purchase these also other than the fact that there might be interesting introductions, and maybe some interesting notes on the stories? I realize that there is very little I can find on the discussion of maybe versions of certain stories possibly with different endings, etc, because of Smith altering things for publication, etc. And I didn't know if I bought these new editions if it would be merely exact repeats of what I already have.

Thank you for your time and maybe someone here will be able to clear this up for me.

-Joe

The Night Shade editions contain the most accurate texts along with notes about publication history, etc. The Penguin collection also makes use of corrected texts. These variants from most earlier published texts range from the correction of various spelling and punctuational errors to the restoration of lines accidentally omitted by Arkham House during transcription, the restoration of passages bowdlerized or simplified for pulp magazine publication, major stylistic changes and one story (The Beast of Averoigne) has regained the ironic byplay of multiple narrator - expunged in favor of a more straightforward and less dramatic format for WT.

Thank you for the information!