PS Publishing will release three volumes of the complete Weird Tales poetry of Robert E. Howard, H. P. Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith, according to [news.pspublishing.co.uk]
The latest Locus indicates that the books will be released in March.
Good news. At last a UK CAS, HPL small press release - so I don't have to attend with the colossal hassle that I had to contend with when buying A Means to Freedom again!
I just wonder exactly what will go into these books. If the contents are limited to just the poetry that these three published in WT, then the volumes will be slim indeed.
I think it's a decent enough idea but since all of these are
probably already available elsewhere you've got to ask: Why?
I'm sure the great percentage of CAS fans are fans mainly for
work that what was 1st published in Weird Tales, Wonder Stories,etc.
Those fans may not see themselves as "Fans of Weird Tales" but in
a way they are just that.
Unfortunately Martinus, it doesn't actually say three volumes - it says
a "triptych of volumes" which does sound suspiciously like chapbooks, eh?
And their only purpose is to encourage sales of a "baker's dozen" poems by
someone else. Still, I think it would be a worthy idea but they need to be
illustrated nicely and accompanied by some good critiques and maybe even
annotated - In other words, done right. Put it all on acid-free paper, then
oversize it, hardcover and dust jacket it and you got a nice collectable,
IMHO.
cathexis Wrote:
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> Unfortunately Martinus, it doesn't actually say
> three volumes - it says
> a "triptych of volumes" which does sound
> suspiciously like chapbooks, eh?
Locus lists three seaparate books and describes them as "hc".
Recently ive been trying to buy book that have complete collections of authors works with out having repetitions of stories or poems.
People complain sometimes when they buy 2 different short story collections and find out that most of the good stories gets repeated.
Sadly these books sound like they will be going the same. I dont have a need for a partial collection of CAS HPL and REH poetry. What i want on my shelf is a complete collection. I know HPL has "The Ancient Track: The Complete Poetical Works of H. P. Lovecraft" and im not sure if CAS and REH have something similar.
If the publishers wanted to collect something new they could collect ALL the weird tales poetry especially the stuff not from the big names so that the reader can have access to new material.
jelio Wrote:
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> I know HPL
> has "The Ancient Track: The Complete Poetical
> Works of H. P. Lovecraft" and im not sure if CAS
> and REH have something similar.
They do. Published by Hippocampus Press and the Robert E. Howard Foundation respectively.
Well in that case it just reinforces my point that this new collection wont really be adding much new material.
Again i personally would prefer publishers to put out new material,
like a collection of all the non CAS HPL REH poetry from weird tales (perhaps covering only the pulp years or a cut off date like 1940)
As I (Ningauble) wrote on the Conan forum (are you Hyborian Frog there?), the people at PS Publishing didn't want to release any details now. All we know is that Locus lists them as "hc" and "art".
Martinus Wrote:
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> Hi Frog! :-)
>
> As I (Ningauble) wrote on the Conan forum (are you
> Hyborian Frog there?), the people at PS Publishing
> didn't want to release any details now. All we
> know is that Locus lists them as "hc" and "art".
Yes, that is me. Interesting, Locus tends to know what they are talking about.
"There’ll also be two new Weird Tales poetry books by H.P. Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith, both of them edited by Stephen Jones, and Not Quite Atlantis: A Selection of Poems by Donald Sidney-Fryer with cover artwork by Les Edwards."
On this subject, does anyone know whether there are plans to re-publish the contents of the Arkham House Poems in Prose volume (along with any necessary corrections and additions)?
Given the, to me, inexplicable and indefensible decision not to include these works in the "complete" poetry volumes* it would be nice to have them separately, and for less than $200. :-P
*News flash, S.T.: I know that you are a conservative in matters literary, but poetry does not have to be written in verse in order to be poetry.
Absquatch Wrote:
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> On this subject, does anyone know whether there
> are plans to re-publish the contents of the Arkham
> House Poems in Prose volume (along with any
> necessary corrections and additions)?
You would have to ask Necronomicon Press about that, since it was they who published the complete prose poems last time.
> Given the, to me, inexplicable and indefensible
> decision not to include these works in the
> "complete" poetry volumes* it would be nice to
> have them separately, and for less than $200. :-P
Judging from the biographical blurb on David Schultz in An Epicure in the Terrible, in which the project is called The Collected Poems and Prose Poems, the original plan was to include the prose poems. I reminded S. T. of this in 2006, and he said he would look into it. If it had been possible, I'm sure the prose poetry would have been included. Dunno why it didn't happen.
I suggest you drop Necronomicon Press an e-mail and ask them to reprint Nostalgia of the Unknown, now that they are getting back on their feet. I'd like to pick up a copy myself.
> *News flash, S.T.: I know that you are a
> conservative in matters literary, but poetry does
> not have to be written in verse in order to be
> poetry.
Joshi on Smith's prose poems: "This work is toweringly impressive, and it could be maintained quite plausibly that Smith is the best prose-poet in English" (S. T. Joshi, H. P. Lovecraft: A Life 281)
Thanks for the additional information, Martinus. I thought that the Arkham House volume was the last republication of the poems in prose. Of course, Necronomicon Press is sometimes one of those "if you blinked, then you missed it" small presses.
I was just kidding with my remark about Joshi, by the way. I know that he thinks highly of CAS's poems in prose (and I agree with his dim view of most modern "poetry"). I still just don't understand why those works did not make their way into the complete poetry volumes. The issue should not have been one of permissions, since most of the prose-poems should be in the public domain, I believe.
Anyway, let's hope that someone gets round to doing a thorough and competent job of re-printing the poems in prose. I am sure that the news will quickly find its way here, when or if that happens.
Excellent. Let us know what Necronomicon Press says, in reply.
By the way, isn't there a piece or two that has been unearthed since the late '80's, as well? I don't have Strange Shadows handy, but I thought that it contained an uncollected "prose pastel" or two.
Ah, OK. Thanks for that additional information, as well. It sounds, therefore, as if Nostalgia of the Unknown is complete. Let's hope for a reprint, then.
I would add for those who can't wait that used copies of the first edition of Nostalgia of the Unknown are actually not absurdly expensive, based on my Bookfinder search--at least, not too expensive relative to the Arkham volume. The main virtue of the latter is Donald Sidney Fryer's excellent introduction, which contains a fine overview of the prose poem as an art form.