PS Publishing will release three volumes of the complete Weird Tales poetry of Robert E. Howard, H. P. Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith, according to [news.pspublishing.co.uk]

The latest Locus indicates that the books will be released in March.

Good news. At last a UK CAS, HPL small press release - so I don't have to attend with the colossal hassle that I had to contend with when buying A Means to Freedom again!

I just wonder exactly what will go into these books. If the contents are limited to just the poetry that these three published in WT, then the volumes will be slim indeed.

I think it's a decent enough idea but since all of these are
probably already available elsewhere you've got to ask: Why?

I'm sure the great percentage of CAS fans are fans mainly for
work that what was 1st published in Weird Tales, Wonder Stories,etc.
Those fans may not see themselves as "Fans of Weird Tales" but in
a way they are just that.

Unfortunately Martinus, it doesn't actually say three volumes - it says
a "triptych of volumes" which does sound suspiciously like chapbooks, eh?
And their only purpose is to encourage sales of a "baker's dozen" poems by
someone else. Still, I think it would be a worthy idea but they need to be
illustrated nicely and accompanied by some good critiques and maybe even
annotated - In other words, done right. Put it all on acid-free paper, then
oversize it, hardcover and dust jacket it and you got a nice collectable,
IMHO.

Cathexis

cathexis Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Unfortunately Martinus, it doesn't actually say
> three volumes - it says
> a "triptych of volumes" which does sound
> suspiciously like chapbooks, eh?

Locus lists three seaparate books and describes them as "hc".

Recently ive been trying to buy book that have complete collections of authors works with out having repetitions of stories or poems.

People complain sometimes when they buy 2 different short story collections and find out that most of the good stories gets repeated.

Sadly these books sound like they will be going the same. I dont have a need for a partial collection of CAS HPL and REH poetry. What i want on my shelf is a complete collection. I know HPL has "The Ancient Track: The Complete Poetical Works of H. P. Lovecraft" and im not sure if CAS and REH have something similar.

If the publishers wanted to collect something new they could collect ALL the weird tales poetry especially the stuff not from the big names so that the reader can have access to new material.



-Jeremy

jelio Wrote:
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> I know HPL
> has "The Ancient Track: The Complete Poetical
> Works of H. P. Lovecraft" and im not sure if CAS
> and REH have something similar.

They do. Published by Hippocampus Press and the Robert E. Howard Foundation respectively.

Well in that case it just reinforces my point that this new collection wont really be adding much new material.

Again i personally would prefer publishers to put out new material,
like a collection of all the non CAS HPL REH poetry from weird tales (perhaps covering only the pulp years or a cut off date like 1940)


-Jeremy

Martinus,

Thanks for the correction.

Cathexis

So what is the details on these? Are they illustrated and what type of binding will they have?

Unless they are really special, I can't see myself buying them as I have the poems for all three (REH Foundation, Hippocampus Press, Nightshade).

Hi Frog! :-)

As I (Ningauble) wrote on the Conan forum (are you Hyborian Frog there?), the people at PS Publishing didn't want to release any details now. All we know is that Locus lists them as "hc" and "art".

Martinus Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hi Frog! :-)
>
> As I (Ningauble) wrote on the Conan forum (are you
> Hyborian Frog there?), the people at PS Publishing
> didn't want to release any details now. All we
> know is that Locus lists them as "hc" and "art".
Yes, that is me. Interesting, Locus tends to know what they are talking about.

The latest update at PS Publishing says:

"There’ll also be two new Weird Tales poetry books by H.P. Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith, both of them edited by Stephen Jones, and Not Quite Atlantis: A Selection of Poems by Donald Sidney-Fryer with cover artwork by Les Edwards."

Still no details on the contents.

On this subject, does anyone know whether there are plans to re-publish the contents of the Arkham House Poems in Prose volume (along with any necessary corrections and additions)?

Given the, to me, inexplicable and indefensible decision not to include these works in the "complete" poetry volumes* it would be nice to have them separately, and for less than $200. :-P




*News flash, S.T.: I know that you are a conservative in matters literary, but poetry does not have to be written in verse in order to be poetry.

Absquatch Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> On this subject, does anyone know whether there
> are plans to re-publish the contents of the Arkham
> House Poems in Prose volume (along with any
> necessary corrections and additions)?

You would have to ask Necronomicon Press about that, since it was they who published the complete prose poems last time.

> Given the, to me, inexplicable and indefensible
> decision not to include these works in the
> "complete" poetry volumes* it would be nice to
> have them separately, and for less than $200. :-P

Judging from the biographical blurb on David Schultz in An Epicure in the Terrible, in which the project is called The Collected Poems and Prose Poems, the original plan was to include the prose poems. I reminded S. T. of this in 2006, and he said he would look into it. If it had been possible, I'm sure the prose poetry would have been included. Dunno why it didn't happen.

I suggest you drop Necronomicon Press an e-mail and ask them to reprint Nostalgia of the Unknown, now that they are getting back on their feet. I'd like to pick up a copy myself.


> *News flash, S.T.: I know that you are a
> conservative in matters literary, but poetry does
> not have to be written in verse in order to be
> poetry.

Joshi on Smith's prose poems: "This work is toweringly impressive, and it could be maintained quite plausibly that Smith is the best prose-poet in English" (S. T. Joshi, H. P. Lovecraft: A Life 281)