Hello,

Does anyone know how far away Clark Ashton's own cabin was from his parent's house? I am curious because I wonder if he was very much together with them after he had built his own home, or if he was mostly by himself.

Ludde

Clark lived in the same cabin as his parents until their deaths in 1935 and 1937, after which he lived there by himself until he married and moved to Pacific Grove. However, Clark often slept on an army cot in a grove of trees about seventy yards from the cabin.
Scott

hmmm.. I had misunderstood it, although I have read much about his life (but it was a couple of years ago now). Amazing that he lived together with his parents in that small (as I understand it was) cabin until he was over 40; that he, aside from his genius, could find concentration for all his imaginary fiction. His parents must have been extremely tolerant with him and quiet. Of course, I know that he composed much work in the outside, but still, and not in the winter months I gather.

It's not all that strange that Clark lived with his parents until their deaths. It was only after World War II that unmarried adults started their own homes. During Smith's lifetime, it was very common for unmarried children to remain at home, and not uncommon for married couples to move in with one set of parents or the other. Best, Scott

Yes, the effects of the industrial revolution; people leaving their old homesteads for the cities; scattering families.
Hmm.. Nowadays most young adults feel that they can't become emotionally independent adults unless they separate (isolate) themselves from their parents in geometrical distance. I wonder if this (hysterical?) behavior is a sign of confusion. (Well, many other animals work in the same way.) In the old days when family members of different generations stayed together, people may have been more grounded... so maybe this situation was ideal for Smith's concentration. I am just musing a little.

Off topic, I would like to say that, although I have a few other favorite authors, Lovecraft, Dunsany, Machen, and Vance, all who have a great command over english language, it is really only Clark Ashton I truly enjoy reading aloud. After a reading I am left breathless and dizzy, not from the effort, but from emotional turmoil around fear or ecstatic beauty, or a combination of both! I don't mind having a glass of wine at the same time (something I would recommend to anyone who hasn't tried it... but it shouldn't be too often of course!)
Ludde

p.s. If my language sounds a bit awkward in places it is because I am born Swedish.