Hello! Another question on corrected texts:

"Xeethra", "The Monster of the Prophecy", "The Witchcraft of Ulua" and "The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis" appeared in the three Timescape collections; they were later featured as pamphlets in the Uncensored/Unabridged Clark Ashton Smith series from Necronomicon Press, which I do not have.

Are there major textual differences between the Timescape and NP versions of these tales? Please let me know if I'm missing entire passages of unbowdlerized Smith!


Mark Dillon
Quebec, Canada

Xeethra and The Witchcraft of Ulua in Tales of Zothique are the same as printed in Necronomicon Press's Unexpurgated Clark Ashton Smith series.

Xeethra on this site is from TOZ and The Witchcraft of Ulua is from an earlier source I think (not sure)

Hello, Mark:

Yes, there are differences between the Timsecape texts and those included in the Unexpurgated CAS chapbooks and the Necronomicon Press edition of TALES OF ZOTHIQUE. The versions of the texts chosen by Timsecape are virtually the same as those printed by Arkham House.

In its infinite wisdom. the editorial staff at WEIRD TALES requested that Smith revise these tales prior to publication; hence some of the descriptive passages in "Xeethra" have been pared, the sexuality in "Witchcraft in Ulua" has been toned down (as had also been the case with "The Mother of Toads"), and Smith was forced to rework the frame and shorten descriptive passages in "The Vaults of Yoh Vombis". "Xeethra" suffers only slightly as a result, which is likewise the case with "Witchcraft in Ulua", but I have a marked preference for the original version of "The Vaults of Yoh Vombis". I missed the Unexpurgated edition of "The Monster of the Prophecy". Unfortunately, no original to "The Dark Eidolon" has survived, though Smith has gone on record regretting the changes he was forced to make.

Jim

I should mention that Smith was even more distressed at having to "mutilate" "Necromancy in Naat" in order to satisfy WEIRD TALES, but no manuscript has come to light.

Alas!

Best,

Jim

"The Voyage of King Euvoran" is one of the few tales which is more familiar in its original version than in its revision, since Arkham House and everyone subsequently has preferred the text from THE DOUBLE SHADOW &c. Nonetheless, I would like to be able to compare this text to "The Quest of the Gazolba" to determine precisely how Smith revised it. Does anyone have access to it? I do not believe it has been reprinted since its publication in WEIRD TALES.

Thanks,

Jim

Hey Jim-
I've just listed a copy of Weird Tales, Sept.1947 on Ebay. This is the one containing "Quest of the Gazolba" Robert Elder gave me this copy (which was owned by CAS himself) and I'm going to donate the proceeds to the CAS plaque fund. If you'd like, I can photocopy the story for you.
Let me know-
Ron

Hello, Ron:

If you could photocopy it without in any way compromsing this valuable copy, I would greatly, greatly appreciate it.

Thanks,

Jim

Why not then add the revised version of the story to the Eldritch Dark too? If neither of you wants to scan it or type it up, you could, say, send me another set of photocopies and I would be more than happy to do that. Alternatively, if you could just scan the relevant pages and email the images, that might be easier. But in any case it would be great to have the "Quest of the Gazolba" version here so that everyone interested could read it.

Jim:
The bidding on eBay doesn't exactly back up your description of this as a "valuable copy." So far the bidding has reached exactly ten dollars American. Why not put in a bid? Remember, the proceeds go to the Rolling Stone! Best, Scott (PS--your copy is being readied for mailing).

Scott,

I will be contributing directly to the Stone Fund, but I will consider your suggestion as well. Thank you for the update on your book.

Jim

I've already sent Jim his copy, but I would be happy to send another to Juha-Matti or Boyd for the purpose of scanning it to the site. I'm really not sure of the textual differences between the two, Jim will hopefully report on this after he compares the two versions.
-Ron

send it to Juha-Matti for scanning to the site presuming its alreight eith him.

Hello,
I wonder, are Smith's stories in the Arkham House books (from Out of Space and Time to Other Dimensions) corrupted by editors as much as Lovecraft's stories were before S. T. Joshi corrected them? I have seen a few corrected stories published, but are there many more that have not been published in correct form??

The text of The City of The Singing Flame in the Arkham House book A Rendezvous In Averoigne differs very much from the text in Out of Space And Time. But for some reason the second part of the story (Beyond the Singing Flame) was not included in A Rendezvous... Was the second part also copyedited to such a large extent, and if so, does the correct version of it exist in print anywhere?

Dear Ron -
Please withdraw your copy from ebay - i know How precious they are to you.
I will send you $50 for the plaque fund at once.
Dr. Farmer