Since Clark Ashton Smith is often mentioned in the same breath as H.P. Lovecraft, a false impression of Smith's aesthetics is fairly commonplace, I suppose, with the casual reader. For example, Smith was not essentially a specialist in cosmic horror, and his cosmicism is misconstrued as more similar to Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos than it actually is. Smith's personal library was naturally rich in poetry, and also in realistic fiction, as compared to Lovecraft's library. Yet some have the idea that Smith eschewed realistic fiction because of the way he wrote and defended weird fantasy. In their earlier correspondence, Smith asked to borrow weird fiction books from Lovecraft to better familiarize himself with the genre. Given its many reprintings, Robert W. Chambers' "The King in Yellow" must have been known to Smith before they even met, but it's interesting that Smith, given the Romanticism of his poetry, thought most of Chambers' writing insufferably sweet, with the one grand exception of The King in Yellow. One of that book's tales, "The Demoiselle D'Ys", is a love story in which the narrator falls backward in time. Smith's sly sense of humor sexualized Chambers'idealization of the woman into some bawdy sensuality with a few romantic liaisons in the Averoigne tales. While Lovecraft was so enamored with The King in Yellow that he used some of Chambers' weird nomenclature in his Cthulhu Mythos, Smith seems to have reacted against the emotional chasteness of the lovers in "The Demoiselle D'Ys". Or else he was just thinking of Balzac's "Droll Stories", a book which he owned. It may be that Smith was more interested in the Parisian settings of these works than in any other aspect, given his own isolated environment. The first book by Chambers was IN THE QUARTER, based on his time as an aspiring painter in Paris. I've just reread The King in Yellow, and would appreciate hearing what Eldritch Dark readers think of it.

jkh



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 29 Oct 23 | 08:10AM by Kipling.

Kipling, my response is hardly to the point of your question about what ED folk think of TKiY. But perhaps my comment will be of slight interest. Long ago I owned a copy of the Ace paperback -- yes, Ace's multitude of sf and fantasy reprints included this volume. But of more interest is that a high school acquaintance of mine had access to a copy of what I believe was the Neely first edition -- I think it belonged to his brother, but he seems to have had permission to loan it to me. It was an octavo bound in green cloth with a design of a salamander (?) stamped in brown ink. I don't think I ever attempted to read more than two or three stories in it, knowing already, evidently, than only "The Yellow Sign" etc. were strange stories, the rest being about Parisian artists and their models or something like that; and at the age of 15 or so I hardly would have been likely to make much of those stories even if I had read them. Of much greater interest to me in my acquaintance's household were a handful of vintage comic books. Nevertheless, I wrote a poem, "In Carcosa" (I think that was the title) that was published in a fanzine called Nyctalops; but I have neither a copy of the 'zine nor (as far as I know) of the poem, which is no loss. I think one of the stanzas was

Here softly walked, in yellow robes,
The King of outer dark,
Through halls of grey, unpolished stone,
Their faces grim and stark

-- or something equally perishable. I wonder if the idea of the verse-play the perusal of which drives people insane has perhaps more appeal to the imaginations of many people than the stories Chambers actually wrote.

"You, sir, should unmask."
"I wear no mask."
"No mask -- no mask?"

That's approximately the epigraph to something, isn't it? A supposed excerpt from the play.

I wonder if Chambers got the idea for the weird play, though, from MacDonald's Lilith, a superior book. In it, the protagonist comes upon a manuscript book in which there is a sequence written by Lilith herself that's quite macabre. Incidentally perhaps the best example I know of, of the combination of grotesque humor and the macabre, is the chapter of the skeletons in MacDonald's book.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 29 Oct 23 | 06:35PM by Dale Nelson.

Dale Nelson Wrote:
----------------------------------------------
> Long ago I owned a copy of the Ace paperback --
> yes, Ace's multitude of sf and fantasy reprints
> included this volume. But of more interest is
> that a high school acquaintance of mine had access
> to a copy of what I believe was the Neely first
> edition -- I think it belonged to his brother, but
> he seems to have had permission to loan it to me.
> It was an octavo bound in green cloth with a
> design of a salamander (?) stamped in brown ink.
> I don't think I ever attempted to read more than
> two or three stories in it, knowing already,
> evidently, that only "The Yellow Sign" etc. were
> strange stories, the rest being about Parisian
> artists and their models or something like that;
> and at the age of 15 or so I hardly would have
> been likely to make much of those stories even if
> I had read them. Of much greater interest to me
> in my acquaintance's household were a handful of
> vintage comic books. Nevertheless, I wrote a
> poem, "In Carcosa" (I think that was the title)
> that was published in a fanzine called Nyctalops;
> but I have neither a copy of the 'zine nor (as far
> as I know) of the poem, which is no loss. I think
> one of the stanzas was
>
> Here softly walked, in yellow robes,
> The King of outer dark,
> Through halls of grey, unpolished stone,
> Their faces grim and stark
>
> -- or something equally perishable. I wonder if
> the idea of the verse-play the perusal of which
> drives people insane has perhaps more appeal to
> the imaginations of many people than the stories
> Chambers actually wrote.
>
> "You, sir, should unmask."
> "I wear no mask."
> "No mask -- no mask?"
>
> That's approximately the epigraph to something,
> isn't it? A supposed excerpt from the play.
>
> I wonder if Chambers got the idea for the weird
> play, though, from MacDonald's Lilith, a superior
> book. In it, the protagonist comes upon a
> manuscript book in which there is a sequence
> written by Lilith herself that's quite macabre.
> Incidentally perhaps the best example I know of,
> of the combination of grotesque humor and the
> macabre, is the chapter of the skeletons in
> MacDonald's book.


Thanks, Dale. I have the issue you mention, which has Donald Sidney-Fryer's long essay on Arthur Machen. Do you recall that? Is it very good? The full text of your poem there is as follows: "Beyond the stars, beyond the void There is a country dim, It is Carcosa, lost Carcosa, Swathed in legends grim. Here softly walked, in yellow robes, The King of Outer Dark. Through halls of rough, unpolished stones, Their faces grey and stark. I have been in Old Carcosa. I would not go back again." Well, it was 197 then and Harry Morriss was your publisher. I talked to an old bookseller in Albuquerque, whose address I still have, and knows Morriss and related some interesting details of his life back in those days. My cat spit something up as I began typing your poem-- well, the first 4 lines aren't the best part, so possibly a reaction there (just a hairball). Yes, The copy you describe of The King in Yellow, with the salamander design, is the first edition, and I think you're right about the mysterioso fictional play being more interesting than the latter portion of the book to most readers. But it's still a personal favorite of mine. I will take a close look at that chapter in LILITH, which I labored through about six years ago after reading PHANTASTES first, the two Macdonald novels being published in one volume. LILITH is the better of the two, but is this copy in the double edition the original version or the revised? What's the difference, I mean?

jkh

Dale Nelson Wrote:
----------------------------------------------------
> I wonder if Chambers got the idea for the weird
> play, though, from MacDonald's Lilith, a superior
> book. In it, the protagonist comes upon a
> manuscript book in which there is a sequence
> written by Lilith herself that's quite macabre.
> Incidentally perhaps the best example I know of,
> of the combination of grotesque humor and the
> macabre, is the chapter of the skeletons in
> MacDonald's book.


Chapter eleven, yes, it's magnificent. Also chapter ten. I love the description of the dry river bed and actually explored a path that followed a creek bed for some distance 2 weeks ago. A side trail in an area reserved for dirt biking. I saw the mosses and lichens and felt the silence MacDonald details so vividly, and plan to go there again before Winter sets in. Which chapter has the narrator finding a manuscript book with Lilith's writing in it? I was completely bowled over by this novel. Another good example of MacDonald's genius is "The Romance of Photogen and Nycteris", in the Lin Carter edited anthology NEW WORLDS FOR OLD (1971). Also FYI, the gentleman I spoke with last year on the phone is Jerry Lane, who is a friend of the artist whose Silver Scarab Press published Nyctalops. He sent me gratis another of their publications, "A Reader's Guide to the Cthulhu Mythos". It's similar to the now rare twin set "Index to the Weird Fiction Magazines", of which I have the one listing stories by title; the other one lists by author. And your old 1976 poem is fine btw. A poetry anthology drawn from the fanzines of the 1970-1980s would be a great thing if it were possible to assemble comprehensively.

jkh

See Chapter 29 "The Persian Cat" for Lilith's poem, in a vellum manuscript the librarian (Adam) shows Vane.

Yes, total agreement about "Photogen and Nycteris."

Good to think of your dry riverbed walk.

[www.youtube.com]

This little video (iPad) was made by me some years ago. Relevant?