Quote:I wasn't comparing style, but rather quality within their respective styles.
Thanks for the clarification. I suppose that I should've been clearer, myself. What I really meant to write is that even to speak of them in the same sentence in that way strikes me as being a little misleading, since, again, it implies--at least to me--a closer relationship betweeen the two mens' writing than actually exists. It's certainly not a major point, though.
As for matters of taste, I'm afraid I differ as to the equivalence in evocation of weirdness, and the quality thereof, between Dunsany and CAS. Again, a minor point, and strictly a matter of taste and opinion, but--and may Lovecraft forgive me--I have always found Dunsany's writing for the most part to be quite dull and uninvolving.
Now, to make a comment that's actually directly pertinent to the the thread. Lol. Ashton Smith really hasn't led me to read many writers whose works were previously unknown to me. The two that come most readily to mind are George Sterling (an experience that many share, I'm sure) and Lafcadio Hearn. Not the Hearn of
Kwaidan, but rather the Hearn of the
Fantastics, and the translator of Gautier.