Volume one of the Night Shade Books edition of Clark Ashton Smith's Collected Fantasies is almost finished. The first volume took a little bit longer than expected because of difficulties in obtaining copies of the relevant manuscripts and typescripts from various institutions; certain repositories, it seems, are sadly deficient in facilities for making microfilms of their holdings, and when the microfilm department themselves has its own project underway that takes priority, that just pushes everything else back.
Also, I recently experienced a recurrence of an on-going problem with depression that basically caused progress to grind to a halt. I am back on my meds now, and the mental block that prevented me from working on anything not related to my regular occupation (ironically, I'm a psychiatric nurse...) has been removed, so things are flowing again. I apologize for this delay, and extend my apologies to you all.
It looks as if we should be able to release two, and possibly three, volumes this year (the third book will be out in either December or January, knock on wood). This is meticulous work, involving comparison of surviving typescripts with published versions and with successive drafts, establishing a style-sheet regularizing Smith's often inconsistent usages, and attempting to restore material excised for editorial reasons while retaining those revisions from later revisions that look to be for aesthetic reasons and not to satisfy editorial caprices in order to ensure a sale. Both Ron Hilger and I are checking each story, and we have a constant dialogue underway concerning the changes we discover. We've also been fortunate to acquire access to some mss in private hands that provide significant insights into CAS's writing process.
It is our intent that this be as definitive an edition of Smith's fantasies as is possible, restoring his authorial intent insofar as this possible to determine. It is well worth waiting for. Thank you all for your patience.
Best wishes,
Scott Connors

Scott Connors Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Volume one of the Night Shade Books edition of
> Clark Ashton Smith's Collected Fantasies is almost
> finished.

YAY!

> I apologize for this delay, and extend my
> apologies to you all.

I'd rather see it done well than done quickly. Thanks for the update!

> It looks as if we should be able to release
> two, and possibly three, volumes this year (the
> third book will be out in either December or
> January, knock on wood). This is meticulous work,
> involving comparison of surviving typescripts with
> published versions and with successive drafts,
> establishing a style-sheet regularizing Smith's
> often inconsistent usages, and attempting to
> restore material excised for editorial reasons
> while retaining those revisions from later
> revisions that look to be for aesthetic reasons
> and not to satisfy editorial caprices in order to
> ensure a sale. Both Ron Hilger and I are checking
> each story, and we have a constant dialogue
> underway concerning the changes we discover.
> We've also been fortunate to acquire access to
> some mss in private hands that provide significant
> insights into CAS's writing process.
> It is our intent that this be as definitive
> an edition of Smith's fantasies as is possible,
> restoring his authorial intent insofar as this
> possible to determine. It is well worth waiting
> for. Thank you all for your patience.

All of it sounds excellent! Thanks once again!

Yrs
Martin

Excellent news, Scott. I knew you and Ron were going to do this "right", and if that means it is going to take longer, so be it. I have wanted to see Smith's preferred texts (or at least as close an approximation to his preferred texts as can be made posthumously) brought into print for decades.

Jim

Yes, that is excellent news to hear. It is a pity that I shall have to forego the pleasure of acquiring the books, as my limited means only stretches so far, and I have an emphasis this year on living Australian poets, and Ramsey Campbell in my collecting (there shall be a forthcoming book on RC, writ with a collaborator), so there is much that I shall have to leave to later, or leave aside altogether.

I wish you every success with your endeavours, Scott. You certainly deserve it, considering the effort and work.

*Author of Strange Gardens [www.lulu.com]


*Editor of Calenture: a Journal of Studies in Speculative Verse [calenture.fcpages.com]

*Visit my homepage: [voleboy.freewebpages.org]

50% of sale voleboy till Friday, I assume it includes the sub as it it includes pre-releases. Have to order 4+ books don't know if the sub would just count as one.

Anyway good deal, like with all sales I do feel a little ripped of having paid full price -oh well.

I still need to find a 4th title to make my order.

B.

I saw this as well. I also noticed that the official status of the subscrition to the upcoming C.A.S. books has been changed to "Out of Print" and you can no longer order a subscription.

I am impressed at the amount of time and effort being put into this new series of books. Plwase note that I am still quite new to Clark Ashotn Smith's stories, so please allow for this if I have made any errors on this site. Anyway, I would like to ask whether or not this series will include all of Clark Ashton Smith's short stories? Also, will each volume in the series come complete with illustrations? This would be nice because Clark Ashton Smith was also a self-taught artist.


Cheers (from Raven10 aka Julian)



Julian L Hawksworth