I happened to be surfing the Internet and came across a poem by a 'Theophilus Alvor' entitled "The Alchemist to his Future Love." Now, as we all know, Theophilus Alvor was the Clark Ashton Smith's protagonist in The Monster From the Prophecy and when I performed a search on Google to see if more information on this 'Mr. Alvor' appeared, I found only two links and, after a bit more searching, I found this page. Once you click this link scroll down looking for the last name 'Alvor,' or just do a text search for the name. At any rate, the page says that this poem by Alvor was published in a magazine called Loki in 1948. Is it possibly a lost Smith poem?

We have seen the darkness
Where charnel things decay,
Where atom moves with atom
In shining swift array,
Like ordered constellations
On some sidereal way.
--from Nyctalops

Good question. It's difficult to say without seeing the actual poem. It is possible that somebody just used the Alvor name as a pseudonym, not necessarily CAS. I'll have to find my copy of the Brown University guide to Smith's mss and check to see if there's anything listed by that title. The only thing that sounds close is "Alchemy of Sorrow," which is a translation from Baudelaire. Interestingly enough, CAS was known to use pseudonyms to publish translations from Baudelaire during this period, ie "The Owls" in WT, as by "Timeus Gaylord."

Best,
Scott

Please let me know if you find anything out. It would be interesting if Smith chose to use Alvor's persona as his nom du plume.

We have seen the darkness
Where charnel things decay,
Where atom moves with atom
In shining swift array,
Like ordered constellations
On some sidereal way.
--from Nyctalops

"It would be interesting if Smith chose to use Alvor's persona as his nom du plume."

Yes, it would be. I've tried to research this question, but so far the information I've come across on the web has been pretty sparse. I'll let you know if I find anything more substantial.

Well, Loki was edited by Gerry de la Ree and Genevieve K. Stephens [née Sully?], so...

Juha-Matti

A copy of the issue of Loki might be found here: [www.lib.uiowa.edu]

No, Genevieve K. Stephens was not Genevieve Sully. Interesting idea, though.

Best,
Scott

Quote:

walrus
A copy of the issue of Loki might be found here: [www.lib.uiowa.edu]

Perhaps I can find a copy of the magazine on their catalogue and interlibrary loan it using the university system.

We have seen the darkness
Where charnel things decay,
Where atom moves with atom
In shining swift array,
Like ordered constellations
On some sidereal way.
--from Nyctalops



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 13 Jan 20 | 09:20PM by ArkhamMaid.

quick note in case there are still some who don't know - Timeus (pronounced with a short "i") was Clark's dad's name (I always in later years wished I had asked how someone would end up named for the most abstruse of Plato's works); and Clark's mother was one of the Gaylord's of the south Carolina Gaylords, y'all.