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10 mini-magazines featuring the fantastic tales of Clark Ashton Smith. Published by Somber Towers in 1997. Original cover price of $1.00 each. 19 complete stories in all. I don't know if the series made it beyond these 10 volumes or not as it incorporates about 1/5 of all of his short stories. All are in fine condition and are square, clean and tight and stated 1st printings. See list and scan below for details.


1) The Isle Of The Torturers - vol. 1

2) The Chain Of Aforgomon - vol. 2

3) The City Of The Singing Flame - vol. 3

4) The Double Shadow - vol. 4

5) The Master Of The Asteroid - vol. 5

6) The Colossus Of Ylourgne - vol. 6

7) The Planet of The Dead & others - vol. 7
1- The Planet Of The Dead
2- The Willow Landscape
3- The Uncharted Isle

8) Monsters In The Night and other tales of terror - vol. 8
1- Monsters In The Night
2- The Epiphany Of Death
3- A Rendezvous In Averoigne
4- The Phantoms Of The Fire

9) The Treader Of The Dust & others - vol. 9
1- The Treader Of The Dust
2- Morthylla
3- Sadaster

10) Genius Loci & others - vol. 10
1- Genious Loci
2- The Mother Of Toads
3- Thirteen Phantasms

First time I have ever seen these, dident know they exsisted. Any one got them?

Boyd,
I have NEVER heard of these., and neither has Bill Dorman or the good folks at Arkham House It looks as if it is a pirate operation, although the seller, Aforgomon, is someone with whom I have done business in the past without any problems. (Wonder if he sends out chain letters?)
This has me concerned because it could compromise my chief project. We will soon be making a very exciting announcement for all Smith fans, but crap editions such as these are the bibliophilic equivalent of Gresham's Law--that's "bad money drives out good," for those of you not up on the Dismal Science. : )
Best,
Scott

Oh I don't know, more the merrier I say. Yeah but I know you will disagree.

Actually, I _will_ agree that "the more's the merrier" _provided_ that it spurs competition and demand for better editions. Unfortunately, often all we get are the same old corrupt texts, shoddily produced in a manner that does no credit to CAS. When we start seeing editions of CAS from Viking Portable Library, Modern Library, Library of America, Norton Critical Editions, Penguin Classics, etc., I'll be definitely a much "merrier" person. But El Cheapo knock-offs? In the name of Tsathoggua and Thaisadon, I say, no! (This of course doesn't apply to the texts available on the website because of your most useful search feature, among other reasons, and should not be taken as a criticism of you or the site.)
Best,
Scott

In regard to the Library of America volumes of poetry, I noticed that H.P.L. was given two poems in the first volume. The poems are "The Well" and "Alienation". Also, George Sterling has one poem called "The Black Vulture."

I personally find it rather sad that CAS is not included while his fellows (although scarcely) were. I hope this changes someday.

Well, in regards to the lack of critical awareness of CAS' poetry, we can all play our part.

One thing I'd like to see, as a result of my studies, are more essays about CAS, pushed towards more mainstream markets, such as journals and the like, so that more of the mainstream go "Klarkash-Ton? Who is this fellow?"

With the importance of the formalists in contemporary poetics, a poet such as CAS should be made more readily visible to them, as a vital poetic influence, and as one answer to the stultifying sameness of much of contemporary vers libre.

On a happy note, I wanted to let all of you know that H.P. Lovecraft has finally been given some recognition by the Library of America.

See here:
[www.amazon.com]

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On a happy note, I wanted to let all of you know that H.P. Lovecraft has finally been given some recognition by the Library of America.

Yes, selected and introduced by the pretentious anti-Lovecraftian Peter Straub, which remains a source of puzzlement to me. It's great to see a collection such as this one, but I feel that more prestige accrues to Lovecraft through his association with Penguin, to tell the truth.

By the way, anyone who looks at the Amazon page for this book should be sure to read the book review by an idiot who "critiques" Lovecraft's notion of cosmic horror. It's good for several laughs....

I read that review. He probably doesn't want to know that tall people are statistically shown to be given more privilege than short people, either.

I think that's the kind of person HPL meant when he was talking of a "self-blinded little earth-gazer". At the time he was referring to Derleth, but this seems to be spot-on.

Kyberean Wrote:
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[snippage]>
> Yes, selected and introduced by the pretentious
> anti-Lovecraftian Peter Straub, which remains a
> source of puzzlement to me. It's great to see a
> collection such as this one, but I feel that more
> prestige accrues to Lovecraft through his
> association with Penguin, to tell the truth.

Peter has reversed his earlier position on HPL, something which should have been clear as early as his novel "Mr X," which was more or less a "mainstream" retelling of "The Dunwich Horror."

>
> By the way, anyone who looks at the Amazon page
> for this book should be sure to read the book
> review by an idiot who "critiques" Lovecraft's
> notion of cosmic horror. It's good for several
> laughs....

I agree, it is the funniest thing written about Lovecraft since some twerp wrote an attack on him in some Catholic paper, claiming he could damage the resoluteness of the Faithful. Well, like Monty Python used to say, "He's right, you know...."

Best,
Scott

Imagine horror writing set in a comfy world where everything was fair, and everyone significant. Imagine every episode of Scooby Doo...

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Peter has reversed his earlier position on HPL, something which should have been clear as early as his novel "Mr X," which was more or less a "mainstream" retelling of "The Dunwich Horror."

I haven't read a great deal of Straub's work, including the novel you cite, but that's interesting to know. Is it reminiscent of Lovecraft merely in terms of plot elements, or terms of style and atmosphere, as well? After all, those last aspects of Lovecraft's work are what stick in the craws of the Kings of this world, far less so than the cosmic abnormalities.

At any rate, I do think that even some of Straub's recent comments are a bit condescending to HPL, such as an interview, I believe, on the occasion of his Lovecraft tome that was posted to one of the Lovecraft Yahoo! eGroups. Whatever his current views on Lovecraft may be, I still can't say that I'm a fan of Straub's ego. I recall the late horror writer Richard Laymon's account of having introduced himself to Straub at the HWA meeting, and having Straub treat him like something he scraped off the bottom of his shoe.

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I agree, it is the funniest thing written about Lovecraft since some twerp wrote an attack on him in some Catholic paper, claiming he could damage the resoluteness of the Faithful.

What's especially amusing about the attack on Lovecraft's cosmic horror is that the writer confuses cosmicism--the general sense of the outer cosmos, and humanity's insignificance therein--with cosmic horror itself, which presupposes cosmicism, but also, in Lovecraft's words, where there is

"a certain atmosphere of breathless and unexplainable dread of outer, unknown forces must be present; and there must be a hint, expressed with a seriousness and portentousness becoming its subject, of that most terrible conception of the human brain -- a malign and particular suspension or defeat of those fixed laws of Nature which are our only safeguard against the assaults of chaos and the daemons of unplumbed space".

This last is the essence of cosmic horror, and the reviewer in question misses it entirely.

It has been a long while since I last read Danse Macabre by Stephen King, but if I remember correctly I thought he wrote much about being influenced by Weird Tales (he found a chest full in his grandparents attic when he was a kid, I think). He seemed to have a high opinion of the magazine and HPL specifically. I think King may have even mentioned CAS in Danse Macabre, but I'm not positive of that. It seems odd (not impossible, but odd) that an HPL fan, like King, would work well (twice collaborating) with such a non-fan (apparently), like Straub. Would not King have been a more fitting choice to write an introduction (big name/big fan)?

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Would not King have been a more fitting choice to write an introduction (big name/big fan)?

I may be mistaken, but my understanding is that, although he recognizes Lovecraft's importance, King's feelings about Lovecraft's work are mixed, at best. At any rate, my choice for the person selecting and introducing the Lovecraft anthology would have been Thomas Ligotti. His name isn't the biggest, but it's big enough, and his sympathy with, and understanding of, Lovecrafft's work is beyond question.