walrus Wrote:
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> John Hay Library has had xerox copies of the
> majority of the letters for some years (as well as
> few actual letters). . .
> the last I heard from David, he and
> S.T. were merely rounding up a few stray items
> from certain library collections to augment the
> texts. . . .
>
> Juha-Matti


Here is an example of a stray item, or already among the xerox copies at John Hay Library:

http://www.lwcurrey.com/pages/books/114496/howard-phillips-lovecraft/autograph-letter-signed-als-to-dear-klarkash-ton-clark-ashton-smith-written-on-both-sides-of-a

$4,250.00 if you want to read both sides.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10 Aug 12 | 03:30PM by Knygatin.

Knygatin Wrote:
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> Here is an example of a stray item, or already among the xerox copies at John Hay Library:
> $4,250.00 if you want to read both sides.

I have better scans of both sides of the letter, and JHL probably has a xerox of it. No worries, they have the text.

But for sure, if someone reading this owns a letter from HPL to CAS, or especially a postcard, please contact Joshi or David Schultz, as they might want to have a look at it. The postcards weren't photocopied, so probably something like half of them are unaccounted for. (I have scans or photos of about a dozen or so cards collected over the years, but I think HPL may have mailed Smith as many as 70.) Now's the time to make them available!

JM

I wonder if the HPL/CAS correspondence from Hippocampus will be a potential best-seller compared to their other correspondence volumes, so they may print a larger edition and perhaps press down the price somewhat. $100 is really quite painful. Over at Arkham House they sell CAS's letters in hardbound for $35.95.

($100 is too even, to sound like a calculated measured price, but seems more to be refractory and arbitrary price-setting. I think in recent years, there has developed an eagerness in publishers to present new items as "collector's items", whereas collector's values is something that normally changes or increases over time for out of print titles, depending on demand and popularity, and impossible to set definite beforehand. At the same time, if it's possible to sell fewer copies expensive and make a larger profit that way, then why not. It may also be true, that only those willing to pay the price, are motivated enough to deserve the access of reading these letters.)


Book cover design may matter less from a selling-point, for a title like this, but maybe still has a minor effect. I say, make it black and poison-green! he hehe....

Knygatin Wrote:
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> $100 is too even

It is really $99.99; they are just rounding it up for you.

It's $50 a volume, not bad at all. I'm saving for the new hardcover Oxford editions of Wilde, which sell for something like $225@. I think if Hippocampus had a best seller it wou'd have been the HPL/REH letters, Robert E. Howard is far more popular than CAS, or so I wou'd imagine.

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

wilum pugmire Wrote:
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> It's $50 a volume, not bad at all.

A single volume then. Lovecraft's and CAS's correspondence was clearly less voluminous, than say, Lovecraft's and Derleth's, wasn't it?


> I think if Hippocampus had a best seller it wou'd have been
> the HPL/REH letters, Robert E. Howard is far more
> popular than CAS, or so I wou'd imagine.

Yes, I agree and think that's probably right - provided enough of Howard's adventure-tumbling readers have patience to sit down and read letters.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 16 Aug 12 | 03:47AM by Knygatin.

Knygatin Wrote:
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> A single volume then. Lovecraft's and CAS's correspondence was clearly less voluminous, than
> say, Lovecraft's and Derleth's, wasn't it?

I'm not entirely sure, but I think there may be too much material to fit into a single volume. There are probably something like 180 - 200 letters and postcards from HPL to CAS for which the text is available. Also consider that the letters to Derleth are mostly short, and his replies don't survive as well Smith's side to Lovecraft -- I seem to have about 60 CAS items in my inventory of photocopies. So perhaps something like 250 letters and cards all considered. Add to that the annotation + front and back matter, and I think we get to more than 600 pages, at least. But we shall see.

> wilum pugmire Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I think if Hippocampus had a best seller it wou'd have been the HPL/REH letters,
> Robert E. Howard is far more popular than CAS, or so I wou'd imagine.

There might be enough demand, though, to make a paperback version viable as well. I don't know how many copies Hippocampus usually issues of the hardcovers, but it can't be that many.

Sorry, I wasn't clear. The HPL/CAS letters will be in two volumes, probably selling for $100 per set, which is what I meant about it being $50 per volume. I suppose y'all know that the trade pb editions of the Clark Ashton Smith COMPLETE POETRY is now available for pre-order and Derrick expects to have it out in a few weeks. Corrections to ye hardcover texts have been made, and additional poems have been included. It's going to be a very popular item, I feel, so one would be wise to order nigh.

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