Hello first of all and it's nice to see that there's a great site on one of the best and most underrated authors. The voluminous collection of Smith's works in the site are truly a delight to behold.

I'd just like to ask about something I came across Smith in the 'net. One site mentioned that Smith quit school because of "psychological disorders". Could anyone elaborate on this? Judging from the surviving photographs of Smith he looked like a personable but strange man.

No, he quit school because he wanted to be a poet and thought that school couldn't teach him the things he needed to reach that goal.

Thanks.

Martinus Wrote:
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> he wanted to be a poet

Sounds like he suffered from "psychological disorders" to me :)

Very interesting set of posts -- however -- there were several causes for Clark dropping out of school--

1. He was very sickly - this is top of the list -
2. He was in dutch a lot - peeking in the girls outhouse through a knot hole, correcting the teacher's grammar etc.
3. Being a poet may have been in his mind, but if you read his very first efforts, several of which are in "Sword of Zagan", you will see that, while worthy for a boy of 10, they were not exceptional - his parents had, at some point turned him on to the idea that you needed a vast vocabulary and a lot of knowledge, particularly of how diffeent writers used words, and that inspired him to head to the Carnegie in Auburn and start reading at Letter "A" - ultimately consuming everything in the place, including the Hernia Edition of Webster's. Boccacio, and tales like Sinbad, and Scheherezade, as well as the "Chanson de Roland" captivated his imagination - Charles Lamb (Elia) was also an early influece from his first burst of reading.
What got him into the dictionary was having discovered how many words he didn't know; so, as he told me, he stopped reading somewhere in the "A's", and resolved to get through the dictionary before going on, so he didn't have to keep running back and forth.

It's been awhile since I've posted, but I can add a bit to Dr. Farmer's observations. Clark attended one day of high school, but found the presence of so many people very uncomfortable. Part of this may have been due to self-consciousness regarding his own poverty--he had been taunted by other children as "Clark Ashcan Smith"--but part of it might have been some form of social anxiety disorder or phobia. (I dislike the practice of making posthumous psych diagnoses of writers I've never met, although I have at least have some professional background in this area). I've heard from several people who knew Clark that he became very uneasy among crowds, and the late Bob Elder even mentioned to me that he had a panic attack at a train station once (something of this sort was also mentioned by George Haas, as Don Herron records in his bio of Haas). While CAS could relax in small groups, and enjoyed the company of those fans who made the journey to Auburn or Pacific Grove, he consistently declined invitations to be a guest at SF conventions when he was so invited in the 1950s, despite offers to pay his expenses.

Scott

Quote:

I dislike the practice of making posthumous psych diagnoses of writers I've never met, although I have at least have some professional background in this area

Bravo, and what a coincidence: So do I! I wish that more would follow your lead. ;-)

Thanks, too, for the additional information about CAS in his youth. I dare say that he must often have felt very self-conscious, as well as highly conscious of being so unlike others. In adulthood, that feeling can be a pleasurable one, but rarely is it so in youth.

Scott will remember also my description of Clark's relationship with an escalator - crowds were indeed anathema to him - partly because of a fear of catching something that would compromise his respiratory system - a fear implanted while very young - though he was proud of having mastered his situation and built a powerful chest and strong lungs through his own determination.
He relished the familiar and the simple - he never overcame his fear of the Great God Awto!.

calonlan Wrote:
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> Scott will remember also my description of Clark's
> relationship with an escalator

I do indeed, but I wouldn't want to cite you when you're posting here!

- crowds were
> indeed anathema to him - partly because of a fear
> of catching something that would compromise his
> respiratory system - a fear implanted while very
> young - though he was proud of having mastered his
> situation and built a powerful chest and strong
> lungs through his own determination.
> He relished the familiar and the simple - he never
> overcame his fear of the Great God Awto!.

Interesting. Although CAS had TB in the late 1910s, it went into remission (Auburn was a mecca for TB sufferers at the time because of its climate), and when he had a chest xray both in 1940 and then after his marriage both results showed no active disease. Was his fear of catching some respiratory ailment related to this, or was it dating back to his childhood rheumatic fever?

CAS did indeed have a powerful chest. I have a photograph of him showing him bare chested, and I'd almost have to say he looks as if he had a barrel chest--which is not a good thing, since it's indicative of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Yet while we have evidence of his suffering from hypertension, I am not aware of him suffering from shortness of breath or other symptoms even with his smoking.

Ah yes, "The Great God Awto." We're just finishing that one for volume five. It would have been a great story, or at least a really fun one, if he had just finished it with the note that the professor had died in a flier accident. Instead, CAS just had to keep beating the point home, something that he did all too often in his scientifictional satires. **SIGH** Well, at least it's not "The Root of Ampoi...." (My least favorite CAS story, BTW.)

Scott

Thanks for the replies calonian and Scott Connors, actually I was waiting for your responses as I knew you two would provide the most comprehensive and satisfactory replies.

Judging from what you two related it seems that Smith did have psychological issues. Did he ever consider psychotherapy and do you think his condition helped with his writing? Thanks.

I believe that the fact that he was the sole support of his aging parents may also have been a factor in his leaving school.

This might have been true if Clark had actually gone to work after leaving high school. He did his chores around the ranch, of course, but most of the family income came from his mother selling magazine subscriptions door to door. Luckily the family was nearly self-sufficient insofar as food was concerned, but money was still needed for the mortgage, taxes, clothing, etc. I don't know if Timeus was completely an invalid at this point. Clark undoubtedly did the occasional odd job for a neighbor, but if he was making any sort of job search at this time it's so far escaped me.

Scott

>
> Did he ever
> consider psychotherapy and do you think his
> condition helped with his writing? Thanks.

If you want to know if CAS ever considered psychotherapy, just read "Schizoid Creator." Also, keep in mind that a) there weren't that many psychiatrists or psychologists in practice generally at the time, let alone in rural northern California; b) the social stigma associated with seeing such a professional, which is still present today, was really significant, and CAS already had a rep for being weird (Alma Duffy asked a boy she knew who lived in Auburn if he knew Clark and was given that reply, according to an unpublished memoir by her sister Ethel at the Bancroft Library); and c) Clark generally distrusted doctors of any sort.

Scott

Thanks for the replies, much appreciated.

Clark had only contempt for psychology, psychiatry et al - the term "psychotherapy" had not yet been invented or in common use - For an accurate picture of each I recommend Dr. Tana Dineen's excellent "Manufacturing victims" -
clark might have described himself as the sane man in a Mad world - seeing beyond the immediate. Or, had he lived to read "Hitchhiker's Guide" he might have moved into the Inside Out house facing the ocean =
As I have mentioned before, he was quite proud of his chest because he worked hard at overcoming his breathing problems by strenuos work, hiking, and clean air - not the least of the reasons he returned from SF to the mountains. Besides, anyone of the intense and vigorous mindset is likely to seem maladjusted to the Epsilons of the world.

You will will recall that Psychiatry was a very new industry during Clark's lifetime - his opinion of the whole business is well identified in "Schizoid Creator" -
He was indeed shy of crowds - re the "barrel chest" - no, Clark had expanded his rib cage through work and exercise, but had he not done so, he might have appeared narrow chested - I believe he had been warned of possible relapse, and indeed the Auburn area was a famous refuge for the Tubercular and the asthmatic - his use of the cigarette holder with the dunhill filters was credited with diminishing the problems tobacco might cause - and, secondarily strictly from my own knowledge of the matter - the quality of the tobacco at the time was infinitely beyond the crap going into cigarettes today -- I grew up in a tobacco field, my family raised it, my grandfather introduced the growing of bright leaf to North Carolina, and has reached high RPM's in his grave for the way it is being raised today - although to do so would make a pack about $50.

Apropos of nothing, I once saw a Gary Cooper movie called "Bright Leaf," based on a novel of the same name. It was about Cooper's dastardly plan to mass-produce cigarettes. The fiend!

I read somewhere that the best tobacco goes into cigars, the next best goes into pipe tobacco, and the rest go into cigarettes. Is that true?

The very best is blended for Pipe tobacco -- only the very finest and most expensive tobacco goes into cigars and no bright leaf - bright leaf is mainly cigarette tobacco commonly mixed with Burley as in Camels - The good cigar tobacco is not grown in the US, although there are plenty of American Cigars, usually with a wrapper made of the crumbled trash which is processed like paper for use as a wrapper -yucch! - Bright leaf of course is used in the finest pipe tobaccos because of its mildness - Snoose or chew originated when somebody sweeping the floor of the auction house threw the detritus into a mostly empty barrel of molasses (commonly added to cattle and hog feed) and then had the audacity to stick some in his mouth - the sweetness of the molasses and the mild high of the stems and crud (spider webs, dead flies, lizard skins etc.) was found to be tasty enough for those with no taste at all, nor concern for their breath or daily hygiene, so it became marketable. Chewing tobacco originated in the process of convenient ways to package tobacco for shipment to europe, again mixing with molasses - Of course, understanding the high refinement of the Europeans and remembering that Catherine of Russia made her coffee one cup to the pound one can see how it caught on - although snuff predominated, and is still used in the south - very sweet and used with a moistened hickory "tooth brush" inserted in the cheek - my earliest memories of my Grandmother and most older ladies in North Carolina was the delightful aura of snuff that surrounded them - (recommended brands, Tube Rose and Nantucket) - for those who must smoke the modern cigarette, at least buy them without the filter or remove the filter - tobacco is its own best filter - you then toss away the back half of the cigarette, eliminating 80% of the tar and nicotine which are trapped in the back. With a filter, you get the full whammy - in the 40's and 50's it took 5 to six packs a day to get cancer - today, only one is required -

calonlan Wrote:
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> With a
> filter, you get the full whammy - in the 40's and
> 50's it took 5 to six packs a day to get cancer -
> today, only one is required -

I believe this to be nonsense. Since around 1990 or so, there has been a sharp drop in the incidence of lung cancer. Smokers typically develop lung cancer in their 60s. Suppose the average smoker started at age 15. Those 60-year-old smokers who did not develop lung cancer from 1990 and on then started in 1945 or later. What happened in 1945 that had such an impact on lung cancer 45 years later? The filter cigarette was introduced.

calonlan Wrote:
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> Of course, understanding the high refinement of
> the Europeans and remembering that Catherine of
> Russia made her coffee one cup to the pound one
> can see how it caught on

I'm afraid I fail to get the point here.

If you are under the impression that the science is wrong let me see if I can help you - the decrease in cancer, such as it is, is related to the reduced number of people smoking - during the 40's and 50's, since we often use the famous as examples, Spencer Tracy, Humphrey Bogart, Robert Taylor, Alan Ladd each smoked 5 to 6 packs per day -
My wife is an Hospice nurse, and three-fourths of her patients are smoking related cancers - this is close to the national statistics for Hospice - Liver disease and renal failure are second and third (the most ghastly of these deaths is liver failure), I do volunteer work and am often with her on her visits. I have seen patients who have had their larynx removed smoking through the hole in their throats - the addictive qualities of the modern cigarette are far greater than the carefully tended, cured, and graded (none of which are the case today) tobacco of the past -- the tobacco today is sprayed in the field to turn it yellow, since the modern curing system used compression and steam heat to more rapidly "cure" the tobacco than the old free hanging method - the crop is sprayed to kill suckers, sprayed to kill weeds, sprayed to kill tobacco bugs (the boys used to bite the heads off these squishy morsels to gross out the girls); I learned to grade and tie tobacco for the auction in my grandmother's grading shed - this process no longer exists. Might I add that in my town there are now 4 hospices, and none lack for census - Why not get a cigarette holder that uses the Dunhill filter, smoke three or four and then examine the filter? see for yourself - Clark was very wise to do this - only very rarely after they came out did he smoke a regular filtered cigarette - at best the filter looks light brown, not black tarry and wet - the companies increased the ratio of burley, and reduced the quality of the bright leaf because the cigarettes of the neo-filter age were just too mild for the "Marlboro man"(who also died in his 50's from lung cancer).--now, enough of this, back to CAS literature -

I assume nobody minds if I have a cigarette at this point?

Just as long as you keep in the spirit of this place and smoke one that's twisted at both ends.

Smoke 'em if you got 'em - I guess.
I quit the legal kind 8 years ago and the others long ago upon reaching
adulthood. Say what you like but there is no substitute for great cooking
and alcohol in their many and delicious varieties. Well, that and great sex.

Cathexis

cathexis Wrote:
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> Smoke 'em if you got 'em - I guess.
> I quit the legal kind 8 years ago and the others
> long ago upon reaching
> adulthood. Say what you like but there is no
> substitute for great cooking
> and alcohol in their many and delicious varieties.
> Well, that and great sex.
>
> Cathexis

With little or no money, the purified aesthetics of art and litterature cleanly substitute them all. :)

George Bernard Shaw was a vegetarian, and a non-smoker I believe. I like what he said---"If ever I ate meat, no woman in London would be safe." I'll bet he and CAS would've been friends.

I agree in principle with Knygatin, though there is something to be said for curling up by a mid-winter fireplace with a quaint volume of ghost stories - and a freshly packed pipe! I believe it was Carlyle (or maybe it was Tennyson) who said that pipe-smoking was the only creature comfort that ever gave him any real pleasure.

In any case, the beasts of the field and the birds of the air can engage in the hugely overrated act of coitus, but only a truly evolved and civilized being knows how to properly enjoy a good tobacco pipe!

However, it is annoying that they poison modern pipe tobacco with all the chemical additives. Since Calonian is so well-versed in tobacco lore, might I ask if there is a brand on the market that isn't contaminated in this fashion? I love Captain Black, though I assume it's full of deadly toxins. What about those vats of flavored pipe tobacco one finds at the cigar shops? Any difference there?

Of course, if all else fails, there is still the option of simply saving the pipe for special occasions - like Christmas Eve. What was that Mr. Fezziwig? Indeed, a capital idea, Sir, a ghost tale, brandy - and another pipe, will be just the thing to round out this splendid evening!

The carnal refuses to be altogether denied.

A glass of wine, or brandy, certainly enhances the experience of a good book, or music. For me it does. But I doubt it does, for someone with an already wideopen access to and crystal clear view of dreamland, like Lovecraft. Then it would only clog.

Perhaps I should qualify,

Calolan in his post on Cancer above is right on. In fact, I am an RN and have 26 years nursing and 19 years
in I.C.U. I smoked even up till 8 years ago and loved it. But it is as bad as he said and no amount of humor
or "waxing poetic" on its sensual pleasures can eradicate tobacco's deadly reality.

That said, I do not lecture anyone including my patients without an invitation to do so. To do otherwise is a
waste of time since addiction is not amenable to reason no matter how "clever" that person thinks he may be.
(And they're always soooo clever indeed).

I also have to say that I think Knygatin is right in saying that some kinds of sensual pleasure can cloud your
best judgement or "view of Dreamland". I only meant that IF you're going to indulge in carnal pleasures than the
ones I listed are the only ones that I think justifiable in the contex we are speaking of. I would've loved to
have had the opportunity to have sat with CAS and sipped his cheap burgundy with him. But if I'm reading him it
is almost always the Read alone that is the stimulant.

Cathexis

Omar Redevisti:

A ghostly tale beneath the bow,
A jug of wine, a good pipe, and thou
Waiting upon me hand and foot,
O Wilderness were paradise enow.

As to fine pipe tobacco - the ideal is to have one's own private blend on file at Dunhill's in London.
However, at most tobacconists you will find jars of various non-brand blends of various flavors - I found one I particularly likeed which the tobacconist (an enterprising chap) had made up on his own - mild, flavorful, and slightly aromatic - which he called "Longbottom Leaf" - hmmmm -
If you like Captain Black, smoke it - the most important thing in pipe smoking is seasoning the pipe -
First do not stint on buying a quality briar (although I hate to admit it, a corncob is just as good ala Gen. MacArthur) -- first pour in some cognac - let it sit until it is largely absorbed (some insist on doing this more than once before smoking) - then tamp lightly about a guarter inch of tobacco in, smoke, and allow to cool over night; next, tamp in about a half inch and repeat, allow to cool, repeating with the cognac here is a good choice should you choose to do so - lastly fill the pipe, and enjoy for many years - always have more than one pipe - never refill a hot pipe - clean the stem with a pipe cleaner after each smoke - if you must scrape the bowl, wait until there is at least an eighth of an inch of build-up - never scrape to bare wood. Certain pipes smoke best Irish style, bowl upside down - and, if you have not tried the German pipe with the ornate metal cap, even as beer is best this way, you might enjoy it greatly - I once bought some colonial style clay pipes at the Cooperstown museum (James Fenimore's farm - also has the Cardiff Giant in residence) and found them to be delightfully cool and pleasant - very short lived. I always smoked a pipe when visiting Clark, but also, in emulation, found the Dunhill filtered cigarette holder an excellent smoke - My class with Prof. Tolkien fixed me on the pipe - though 3 or 4 times a year I will indulge myself in a contraband Cuban. Cigar's are excellent for reading CAS' satires on psychiatry - after all, as Freud said, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

Thanks Calonlan - I'm sure "Professor JR" would have been proud of your hobbit-like erudition in regards to the minutiae of pipe lore!

Side note I may have mentioned before: Clark loved Fitzgeralds's translation of Omar Khayyam -
One evening for fun we recited the whole thing - I had memorized most of it already (it was the college drinking man's thing to do in my day), Clark never missed, and helped out where my memory lagged - what a hoot - and at 71 I still sing:

Come, fill the cup,
And in the fire of Spring,
Your Winter garment of Repentance fling.
The Bird of Time has but a little way to flutter,
And the Bird is on the Wing.