Just thought I'd remind everyone that CAS passed away peacefully in his sleep on this date (Aug.14) in 1961. I know this may seem morbid, but I like to think of it as the day CAS transcended this mundane sphere which held him down his entire life. I'm sure his spirit is much more at home treading amongst the stars!

-Ron

Thank you for letting us know Ron. It makes the day much more meaningful for me. Cheers to CAS wherever he may be.

~Alycia

Alas I missed the chance; it's the 15th here already.

It was a good thin I wore black yesterday, then.

me

Morbid? A propos of the author who wrote the Zothique cycle of tales, The Dead Will Cuckold You, and innumerable "thanateros"-tinged poems? Hardly! Instead, it is fitting, indeed.

Never seen photos of CAS' gravesite. Is it fitting of his greatness? Well maintained, etc.?

Dear Roger,

I believe there are pictures on this website of his memorial site. I think it is under Art of CAS. Correct me if I am wrong.

From what I feel, the truly wonderful people who have kept on living with CAS in their hearts are truly the ones who keep CAS'memory well maintained and living to a greater extent than his gravestone. In my opinion, there is no greater memorial than on this site.

~Alycia

Yes, Boyd does have a few pictures of what must now pass for Smith's gravestone as the original site is now a cul-de-sac with several homes recently built upon it. I haven't been out there since the memorial ceremony, but I assume it now appears as just another piece of suburbia.
Thanks for all of you who responded so kindly, I really wasn't sure how this post would be received, so it's very reassuring to find it received in exactly the manner intended!
-Ron

Ah, hadn't seen those before, thanks. Not sure where I'll have my ashes deposited, but ashes I shall be!

I see also (changing the subject) that CAS's cabin is gone but the land it sat upon is vacant. Maybe somebody should buy the land, build their own cabin, and see if the muse hits them.

Roger-
Unfortunately the land is no longer vacant, having been sold to a developer a few years ago and, well, developed. The picture you saw must have been an older one. We suggested to Smith's estate that perhaps the city would purchase the property and develop it into a park, but for financial reasons this did not work out. The sale of the property is what precipitated the moving of the boulder beside which CAS' ashes were interred (no easy feat at an estimated 5,000 lbs!) and placing it along with the plaque in a city park near Old Town Auburn.
A park on the original Smith property would have been preferrable, but at least we were able to give CAS a lasting memorial in his hometown. CAS fans who live in Calif. should try and visit it sometime; Auburn is only half an hour's drive from Sacramento and Bicentennial park is less than a mile from Interstate 80.
-Ron

Maybe it is just a coincidence, but it seems the 14th is a day great poets die.

BERKELEY - Czeslaw Milosz, Polish poet, Nobel laureate and UC Berkeley professor emeritus, died Saturday (Aug. 14) at his home in Krakow, Poland. He was 93.