Re: Details of Clark Ashton Smith's life.
Posted by:
calonlan (IP Logged)
Date: 8 January, 2009 02:05PM
OConnor,CD Wrote:
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> It is so relaxing sitting hear and reading all of
> these memories of CAS. Geniuses like his come only
> so often and I know many people are jealous (in a
> good way) of Dr. Farmer. I know I am. Guess I will
> take this time to ask Dr. Farmer a few questions
> about CAS.
>
> 1. How did CAS's voice sound? High or low???
>
> 2. I am at the age (25) where my parents are
> getting older and death, sadly, has crossed my
> mind a few times during the night time hours. Did
> Smith ever talk about his parents and that he
> missed them. Any emotional attachments that he
> just couldn't part with? I know he must have felt
> tremendous amounts of sadness and despair at the
> deaths of H.P.L and Robert E. Howard.
>
> 3. How did he deal with solitude. It must have
> gotten lonely up in CA. Did his imagination help
> him. I am finding that as time progresses my
> imagination has become my best friend and writing,
> like learning, is great and that you pick up
> something new everyday.
>
> 4. Did Clark ever have writers block or moments
> when he didn't know how to express something in a
> story? I know I am and since I'm young I don't
> know how to deal with it in a mentally calm
> fashion. Procrastination ever a problem with him.
>
> 5. How did he feel about the death of R.H. Barlow
> and did he find out the truth that Barlow was only
> trying to help H.P.L; not ransacking his estate
> like a group of common thieves.
>
> 6. Lastly, how did he deal with life's everyday
> hassles and fears and, Did he ever have moments
> when he didn't want to write for only himself and
> miss the true defintion of what it is to be an
> artist.
>
> Thanks. Hope these were not to many questions. I
> look up to the old masters as heroes. Guess I'm
> like a young Sterling or Barlow, lol. Too bad I
> cannot find someone in todays world to look up to.
> Its odd, like all the others I feel as though I
> should of been born in another time.
>
> Any way hope you get this Dr. Farmer and my
> writing is coming and improving everyday. The
> evening song poem is redone for mistakes and
> finished. Would love to show it to you if you have
> the time or interest.
>
> Take Care,
>
> Charles
Of course, I would be happy to see your work - even better to hear it.
I can help you with some of your queries:
Clark's speaking voice was a rich, resonant, baritone (think "Thomas Hampson) -
2. At 25 I too felt the first gnawing of the "worm beneath the nail, wearing the quick away" - my god, a quarter century -- Clark rarely spoke of his past sorrows, but had about him a kind of eternal melancholy that was the stage upon which he lived his drama of life - (another poet friend of mine wrote of the "everlasting broken-heart of Louis Armstrong - there is some of that to it) - but he delighted in company where there was good conversation et al;
the groupie, or the merely talkative bored him quickly - he hated being socially trapped where he could not end or get rid of the imposition of persons he did not wish to be with. That is one reason he had a single bar that was his favorite - with lifelong friends, and a place where he was "part of the furniture" - the only conversation with Clark regarding his Father was in describing building a cabin, or digging a well - though he occasionally referenced both parents as well read and great story tellers - his father's wide travels made him very interesting to young Clark - probably most telling is his use of family names in the nom de plume he used briefly - "Timeus Gaylod"--
The Gaylord was his mother's maiden name, and old Southern Aristocracy ( a name so commonly asscociated with that era that it was used as the "hero's" first name in the musical "Showboat") -- His father's first name is from the most enigmatic and philosophically strange (by comparison with his other works) of Plato's dialogues - the "Timeus" is where the discussion of "Atlantis" occurs. = Clark pronounced it with a short "i", accented on the first syllable, which he told me is how his dad said it - classical Greek scholars tend to pronounce it with a long "i" with the accent on the second syllable (penultimate).
The only time he mentioned HPL was in insisting that he did not believe he had committed suicide. We never discussed REH.
3. By the time I knew Clark, he had been long inured to solitude, and throughout his life he had to ability to conjure up scenarios in which he mentally engaged sorcerors, villains, defended the fabled beauty etc. The majority of the time I spent with him was after his marriage - both he and Carol treasured their time alone - she sought solitude in sun bathing on the back patio - Clark would read, or rummage through old files (which is how I ended up with the great stack of holographs which are now at Berkeley and published as "Sword of Zagan". I never spoke with him about Barlow, though I suspect that had there been some matter or pique in his attitude, I would have heard it.
4 - Everyday life oddly enough while in the cabin did not hassle Clark - he had his routine: carve, write, read, pick berrys, prune, pick fruit in season, cut firewood, walk to old town, go to the Happy Hour, pick up some meager groceries and a bottle of Loomis Burgundy, stride home, sometimes stop at the top of High St and Folsom blvd. to visit with Ethel Heiple (who had assumed his mother's subscriber list years before), == he was not out after dark in the town ever that I can remember - he kept up with the weekly Auburn Journal paper, and occasionally bought the Sacramento Bee (or took the one at the Happy Hour home) - where they served (after reading) as insulation in the cool room above the well, or found their true value in the outhouse.
Do not despair of finding fine writers in today's world - or be one yourself for the next generation - master the craft - Even as i told Don Fryer almost fifty years ago about Edmund Spenser, I suggest him to you - master craftsmen in any genre deserve to be studied - You might be benefited by a romp through George Bernard Shaws's "Don Juan in Hell" - or Goethe's "Faust" - worth learning German just to read this masterpiece.
One more thing of note about day to day living - Clark had a very small "carbon footprint" as the yahoos call it these days - his life style generated almost no garbage - and his family PO box in old town was where all his mail came - and because of the outhouse, he appreciated the sale catalogs - he never had delivery to his home while in Auburn - and was overwhelmed in those days with the amount of crap that came unsolicited through the mail. - How he dealt with urban life I mentioned in my memoir in "sword" - so go buy it (I get $1.50) - I have to get up from this computer now, but I will be happy to try again for you in the future.