Thank you, I will take your word on the CAS Selected Letters. Before I purchace the book however, I just want to make sure that a CAS "Collected Letters" is not forthcoming. I can't tell you how many times I've purchased an author's Selected Letters, taken a great liking to them, only to find later that I could have got the Collected Letters for a slightly higher price.

There are no plans for a "Collected Letters of CAS"--or, if there are, nobody has bothered to inform me (why am I always the last one to know?!) However, Smith's letters to Lovecraft will of course form part of their collected correspondence, and there are plans to publish the CAS-Samuel Loveman letters, most of which were not available for SLCAS.

Scott

Sitting here looking at my copies of Essential Solitude. Took about a week to arrive. Nice cover art ;-)

steve

sverba Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Sitting here looking at my copies of Essential
> Solitude. Took about a week to arrive. Nice cover
> art ;-)

Heheh... ;-)

My own copy is in transit. Another, much smaller package that was sent at the same time by the same dealer arrived last Monday, so I've been hurrying home from work every day these past few days, but so far -- nothing. I set my hopes on tomorrow, because in this backward country, you can get no mail on Saturday or Sunday. :-(

Yrs
Martin

Quote:

in this backward country, you can get no mail on Saturday or Sunday. :-(

Irrelevant and off-topic aside:

Funny, I think the most backward countries are the ones that expect and force people to work all the time. It's a matter of values and perspectives, I suppose. Care to switch countries with me? ;-)

The two volume set Essential Solitude is huge at 880 pages!

Has anyone any idea how many pages the two Lovecraft/Howard volumes will have?

And at what comparable size should the Lovecraft/Smith volume(s) arrive?

Knygatin Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The two volume set Essential Solitude is huge at
> 880 pages!
>
> Has anyone any idea how many pages the two
> Lovecraft/Howard volumes will have?

I can guess. I've seen the figure "380 000 - 400 000 words" mentioned in connection with the total HPL/REH correspondence, so my guess is that those two volumes will be quite hefty, maybe the same size as Essential Solitude.

>
> And at what comparable size should the
> Lovecraft/Smith volume(s) arrive?

Probably smaller -- AFAIK, there are about 160 letters from HPL to CAS (and a number of postcards that I don't recall at the moment), and probably a significantly smaller number of letters from CAS to HPL (because HPL didn't preserve all of them). But last I heard it would still be a 2-volume set.

Martinus Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I can guess. I've seen the figure "380 000 - 400
> 000 words" mentioned in connection with the total
> HPL/REH correspondence, so my guess is that those
> two volumes will be quite hefty, maybe the same
> size as Essential Solitude.
>

>
> Probably smaller -- AFAIK, there are about 160
> letters from HPL to CAS (and a number of postcards
> that I don't recall at the moment), and probably a
> significantly smaller number of letters from CAS
> to HPL (because HPL didn't preserve all of them).
> But last I heard it would still be a 2-volume set.


Thank you. I needed some extra spur, before deciding if I should go ahead and preorder or not. I haven't made up my mind if I want to invest in the Lovecraft/Howrd volumes or not. I am not a completist. (The Lovecraft/Smith volume is given, even if short.) I suspect that the Lovecraft/Howard correspondence will have a lot of formal history references, and that doesn't interest me overly if it goes on for hundreds and hundreds of pages. However, I leafed through the Selected Letters a bit, and Lovecraft also appears inspired colorful and spontaneous in his letters to Howard. I am also curious about Howard's correspondence, which I have never read before.

Knygatin Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Thank you. I needed some extra spur, before
> deciding if I should go ahead and preorder or not.
> I haven't made up my mind if I want to invest in
> the Lovecraft/Howrd volumes or not. I am not a
> completist. (The Lovecraft/Smith volume is given,
> even if short.) I suspect that the
> Lovecraft/Howard correspondence will have a lot of
> formal history references, and that doesn't
> interest me overly if it goes on for hundreds and
> hundreds of pages. However, I leafed through the
> Selected Letters a bit, and Lovecraft also appears
> inspired colorful and spontaneous in his letters
> to Howard. I am also curious about Howard's
> correspondence, which I have never read before.

Lovecraft was very impressed with Howard as a correspondent, and wrote so in a letter to Barlow. I have only leafed through the Collected Letters of Robert E. Howard (the three volumes of which obviously contain all of Howard's letters to Lovecraft), but there seem to be lots of local colour and vivid and engaging anecdotes in Howard's side of the correspondence.

Martinus Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > And at what comparable size should the
> > Lovecraft/Smith volume(s) arrive?
>
> Probably smaller -- AFAIK, there are about 160
> letters from HPL to CAS (and a number of postcards
> that I don't recall at the moment), and probably a
> significantly smaller number of letters from CAS
> to HPL (because HPL didn't preserve all of them).
> But last I heard it would still be a 2-volume set.

According to David Schultz the postcards would number around 60 -- but I suppose not all of them may be recoverable for this edition (perhaps not even the majority), if a photocopy of them does not exist from before they were sold piecemeal (and also CAS himself gave away or sold some of the postcards at least while still alive, to for instance Jack Grill if memory serves; more out of the generosity of sharing them with enthusiasts rather than of financial necessity, perhaps). I have the impression that the HPL-to-Smith letters are generally not very lengthy (though frequent enough), so that probably they could be printed in one volume; but the co-presence of the surviving letters from CAS (not insignificant) complicates matters. The editorial annexures may be substantial as well.

- JMR

walrus Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Martinus Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > >
> > > And at what comparable size should the
> > > Lovecraft/Smith volume(s) arrive?
> >
> > Probably smaller -- AFAIK, there are about 160
> > letters from HPL to CAS (and a number of
> postcards
> > that I don't recall at the moment), and probably
> a
> > significantly smaller number of letters from
> CAS
> > to HPL (because HPL didn't preserve all of
> them).
> > But last I heard it would still be a 2-volume
> set.
>
> According to David Schultz the postcards would
> number around 60 -- but I suppose not all of them
> may be recoverable for this edition (perhaps not
> even the majority), if a photocopy of them does
> not exist from before they were sold piecemeal
> (and also CAS himself gave away or sold some of
> the postcards at least while still alive, to for
> instance Jack Grill if memory serves; more out of
> the generosity of sharing them with enthusiasts
> rather than of financial necessity, perhaps).

Yes, that number does ring a bell. I think David is referring to the number of postcards that are included in the photocopy of the correspondence that was made before the estate started selling it item by item (which obviously won't include the stuff that CAS himself gave away).

> I
> have the impression that the HPL-to-Smith letters
> are generally not very lengthy (though frequent
> enough),

Yes, the impression I got from David's latest 'zine in the EOD is that they are fairly brief but contain a lot of humour and playfulness.

> so that probably they could be printed in
> one volume; but the co-presence of the surviving
> letters from CAS (not insignificant) complicates
> matters. The editorial annexures may be
> substantial as well.

Probably, yes. We'll know in 2010 or 2011! :-)

Knygatin Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I haven't made up my mind if I want to invest in the Lovecraft/Howrd volumes or not. I am not a
> completist. I suspect that the Lovecraft/Howard correspondence will have a lot of
> formal history references, and that doesn't interest me overly if it goes on for hundreds and
> hundreds of pages. However, I leafed through the Selected Letters a bit, and Lovecraft also appears
> inspired colorful and spontaneous in his letters to Howard. I am also curious about Howard's
> correspondence, which I have never read before.

Joshi has an article about the correspondence in Studies in the Fantastic #1 which gives some indication of the contents -- although somewhat narrow, I suppose, because the essay examines mainly the correspondents' debate on barbarism vs. civilisation, and I suppose they must have discussed many other topics as well. One could make the point that the rare case of both sides of letters surviving in such quantity (almost complete for Howard, and extensively for HPL) makes it quite a treat. Compared to the REH/HPL one, I would say that the Derleth correspondence is somewhat insubstantial (even if still desirable).

- JMR

Martinus Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Yes, that number does ring a bell. I think David is referring to the number of postcards that are
> included in the photocopy of the correspondence that was made before the estate started selling it
> item by item (which obviously won't include the stuff that CAS himself gave away).

Well, I had to go back and re-check, but in the EOD zine he says that the Squires photocopies don't appear to contain the postcards, unfortunately. However, I seem to remember Roy Squires issuing a pamphlet which may have included the texts or facsimiles of some postcards (but could be wrong on this -- in any case aside from his catalogs advertising them), and I have the texts of some errant cards transcribed, and several instutions in USA have stray letters and postcards too. (Naturally I will supply this data to Joshi & Schultz just in case it may help in making the collection a bit more complete).

> Yes, the impression I got from David's latest 'zine in the EOD is that they are fairly brief but
> contain a lot of humour and playfulness.

Judging from the letters that pop up in the market from time to time, several appear to be two-pagers.

- JMR

I recall having read earlier on this site a letter from Lovecraft to Smith (if I am not mistaken), that has surfaced recently and is in the hands of a private collector. It was written from Barlow's home, and includes an account of Lovecraft out in a small row-boat, looking into watery mossy depths and imagining horrors down there.
Is this an example of a letter that will be included in the Lovecraft/Smith volume?

I also hope that the editors of these letter volumes are not so overly literate, as to exclude such delightful, charming, and important details as illustrations and hieroglyphic scriblings. As was unfortunately sadly the case with Selected Letters of Clark Ashton Smith.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 9 May 09 | 04:59PM by Knygatin.

Knygatin Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I recall having read earlier on this site a letter
> from Lovecraft to Smith (if I am not mistaken),
> that has surfaced recently and is in the hands of
> a private collector. It was written from Barlow's
> home, and includes an account of Lovecraft out in
> a small row-boat, looking down into watery mossy
> depths and imagining horrors down there.
> Is this an example of a letter that will be
> included in the Lovecraft/Smith volume?

Most likely, yes. If the letter is in the aforementioned photocopy or the Arkham House transcripts, then it will be included.

>
> I also hope that the editors of these letter
> volumes are not so overly literate, as to exclude
> such delightful, charming, and important details
> as illustrations and hieroglyphic scriblings.

Since Essential Solitude has Lovecraft's own illustrations, I think it is likely that the illustrations will appear in the CAS/HPL correspondence as well.

> As
> was unfortunately sadly the case with Selected
> Letters of Clark Ashton Smith.

This may have been done to keep production costs down, perhaps?