Hello! Perhaps someone here could help me.

Like a fool, I never bought the ZOTHIQUE collection from Necronomicon Press -- after all, I already had the Panther reprints of the original Arkham collections, the Ballantine collection and the three Timescape volumes.

But now that Necronomicon Press has allowed its book to go out of print, certain nagging doubts have come to mind....

Questions:

1) Are there any significant differences between texts in the NP collection and the Zothique stories in the three Timescape paperbacks edited by Donald Sidney-Fryer?

2) The final Timescape collection, THE MONSTER OF THE PROPHECY, does not feature a "textual corrections" notice ("Thanks to Rah Hoffman for advice on corrections in general",
etc). Does this mean that the stories in PROPHECY are uncorrected, i.e. old Arkham House texts?

3) Is the play "The Dead Will Cuckold You" in the NP collection
exactly the same, textually, as in STRANGE SHADOWS?

Any guidance through the maze of my misgivings will be very much appreciated!


Mark Dillon
Quebec, Canada

Mark Dillon wrote:
> 3) Is the play "The Dead Will Cuckold You" in the NP collection
> exactly the same, textually, as in STRANGE SHADOWS?

I don't have the timescape editions so am unable to answer Q1 and 2.

As for Q3.

They are the same

I cannot offer advice as to the various published editions since
I believe they were done after Ashton's death. I have in my
possession, however, an exact copy which I typed at Pacific Grove,
simultaneously making a carbon so Clark, Carol, and I would each
have a script for an evening reading in which we each took part;
myself the young hero, Carol the young Queen, and Clark the king;
other parts we divied up as they became relevant. Between the
fun of the reading, the Burgundy, the Black Bread, and the
strong Cheese, we had a great time - even eliciting one or
two outright guffaws from Clark in contrast to his usually
bemused chortle. I believe this copy, since it is verbatim
from Clark's original, may be considered definitive in the
event the original has been corrupted by time and the fading
of ink, and crumbling of the document. Refer any debatable
passage to me, I will compare it, and let you know what is
here.
Dr. Farmer

1) Are there any significant differences between texts in the NP collection and the Zothique stories in the three Timescape paperbacks edited by Donald Sidney-Fryer?

Yes. I have not checked these word for word, but the Timescape texts are basically the same as those printed by Arkham House. Though I suspect that Mr. Hoffman may have offered corrections to several individual words, major passages restructured or deleted for magazine publication were not restored. I do not believe Mr. Sidney-Fryer had any control over the texts chosen, since Timescape would probably have dealt with Arkham House, who would have wanted their texts reprinted rather than those over which they had no control. There are many examples in these books where the text chosen deviates markedly from that originally written, but the most notable are the continued use of the yoked text of "The City of the Singing Flame" and its sequel, choice of the much less lush "The Maze of Maal Dweb" over "The Maze of the Enchanter", and the grossly simplified structure in the later version of "The Beast of Averoigne". The Necronomicon Press editions go back to Smith's originals whenever these are available for comparison.

2) The final Timescape collection, THE MONSTER OF THE PROPHECY, does not feature a "textual corrections" notice ("Thanks to Rah Hoffman for advice on corrections in general", etc). Does this mean that the stories in PROPHECY are uncorrected, i.e. old Arkham House texts?

See above. I believe Timescape was satisfied with the Arkham House texts as canonical and made only slight corrections.

3) Is the play "The Dead Will Cuckold You" in the NP collection
exactly the same, textually, as in STRANGE SHADOWS?

As Boyd notes, and without going over each word for work, these appear to be the same text.