S. T. Joshi is hoping to interest Penguin in CAS:

Quote:

I have proposed to my Penguin editor a volume of Clark Ashton Smith's writings, but frankly I do not expect that to fly.

[stjoshi.org] , March 5, 2011

"Writings" would seem to hint at a content of both poetry and fiction.

I am of two minds about this. While a Penguin Smith volume would in principle be nice, I am really tired of Joshi's notes, which, when not dealing with the one subject he has a relatively firm grasp of---the life of H P Lovecraft---are generally a mixture of a) absurd misinformation on matters of history, geography, and literature, and b) utterly trivial observations.

What JoJo said. Also, there's the matter of textual corruption, which would be a near certainty, unless Martinus were to join Penguin temporarily as Joshi's editor. I suppose that I'd still lean more toward having such a volume, than not, if for no other reason than that it would help further to raise CAS's profile beyond the level of fandom.

I think that you underestimate Joshi. His Penguin collections of M. R. James, Algernon Blackwood, and Lord Dunsany have been quite good, and S. T. is second to no one in his admiration of Smith's poetry. And while he does consider most of the fiction to be inferior to SMith's poetry, he retains enough admiration that he can write appreciatively when needed. His intro to the Smith/Sterling letters was very good, as was the essay on Smith's poetry in THE LAST OBLIVION.

Scott is right. I also happen to know that when Penguin approached him with the M. R. James project, S. T. approached another writer he felt was more sympathetic to James's work. then tried to interest Penguin in having that writer edit the two volumes. Unfortunately, Penguin insisted upon dealing with a known quantity. Nonetheless, though very few annotations went awry, the Penguin M. R. James volumes are quite good.

Quote:

I think that you underestimate Joshi.

I can't speak for JoJo or others here who join me in not being unequivocal Joshi fans, but I neither under-estimate nor over-estimate Joshi. I see both sides: The hard-working independent scholar who has admirable ideals, but who also often over-extends himself and does careless work.

Many thanks for the anecdotal confirmation of my wise decision to remain childless. ;-)

P.S. Apologies. I placed the "childlessness" post, above, in the wrong thread; it should be in the "CAS/Poe/Lenore" thread.

I would love to see a Penguin edition of CAS, with one of S. T.'s magnificent Introductions and his always fascinating notes. I used to own all of the Panther pb editions of CAS that were re-printings of the AH titles, but I have no clue how well CAS is represented in Great Britain to-day. I was hoping that the five volumes of CAS from Night Shade Books would trigger some kind of renewed international interest in his fiction, but have not seen an evidence of this.

"I'm a little girl."
--H. P. Lovecraft, Esq.

wilum pugmire Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I was hoping that the five volumes of CAS
> from Night Shade Books would trigger some kind of
> renewed international interest in his fiction, but
> have not seen an evidence of this.

However -- absence of evidence may not be evidence of absence. Hopefully.

Juha-Matti