Any particular reason why the swear words were censored in SLoCAS? I'lld quite like to know CAS's preferred terms of abuse.

B.

They weren't. We put 'em down just the way he did. Clark regarded excessive use of vulgarities as, well--_vulgar_.
Anyway, his favorite pejoratives were probably in French--or Hyperborean.
Other than that, how are you enjoying the books? :)
Scott

SL is interesting, it makes me want to re-read some of his works in the light of the light of what he writes about them; however I probably wont get to that any time soon. I don't feel it adds or subtracts to my enjoyment of his fiction and nor do I find him a particularly interesting human being.

I seem to be reading some of that awful reality stuff that he pans at every opportunity and even worse I enjoy stream-of-consciousness school material.

Dispite his claims to the contrary he is, at least some what, a product of his environment. He lived in a different time and place with ideologies I can never share; I accept that my understanding of him will always be paddling-pool shallow.

On the physical manifestation of the book:
I would have liked more of a subject index rather than just a name and titles one.
The cover could have been better, honestly it does the contents no favours.

I cannot agree with Boyd about these letters or the personality of the man revealed in them. Except for the casual antisemiticism in some of the letters, I do not find Smith to be much of a product of his time. To me, they portray him as a maverick, living his life, creating his art, and forming his opinions based on a code very much at odds with the tenor of his times and his locale. I do not always agree with his opinion of contemporary literature, but his opinions are not indefensible, and I find his aesthetic stance very sympathetic.

For me, the cover simply points out one more facet of the man's creatitivity, and does so tastefully. I doubt many people not already avid fans of one aspect or another of his work were even aware of these carvings.

JIm

I'm with Jim here, and would add that I find CAS to be a fascinating person, indeed (I wouldn't tar him with the phrase "human being" ;-) ).

As for the cover art, I think that CAS's carvings and sculptures are vastly better than his paintings, and I rather like this dust jacket. For an example of a catastrophic cover, look no farther than that of The Last Oblivion. Let's hope that the Hippocampus Press editors come to their senses and, for a future edition of this work, substitute a painting by, say, John Martin or Zdzislaw Beksinski, that does justice to CAS's vision, instead.

No one asked, of course ;-), but my only complaint about the Selected Letters is that there are too many errors and omissions in the index. That quibble aside, I treasure the volume. One of my favorite previously unread letters is the one to Donald Wandrei advising him about how to deal with women, in general, and how to handle one, in particular (Helen Sully, I'm guessing, but, of course, I may be mistaken).

Kevin, I'd be curious as to what errors and omissions you have found in the index. I've found a few typos since the book came out, but I really had to search for them, and there are far fewer than in other Arkham House books of recent memory (about as many as in any book, I'd say).
I'd say that you are probably correct in your identification of Helen Sully as Don Wandrei's intended. Don and Frank Long were both quite taken by Helen (as was I, even though she was much older!). I am good friends with her son, and tease him sometimes that Don almost ended up being his daddy! As a result, he's taken a bit of an interest in Don.
The problem with doing a subject list in the index is that it is so, uh, _subjective_, for lack of a better word.
Best, Scott

Scott,

I didn't mean to imply that there was a plethora of errors and omissions in the index, just more than I expected ( and more omissions than errors, really). I wish that I had made a note of them as I read the book. I may re-read it reasonably soon, and when/if I do, I'll e-mail whatever errors and omissions I find to you privately. The only one I can recall at present is that there is at least one reference to Beddoes is not indexed.

As I recall, weren't Wandrei and Long on the point of fighting a duel over Helen's affections, or was that an exaggeration? (I can't recall offhand where I read that). In any case, neither of them prevailed!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 6 Feb 04 | 10:42AM by .

Something I found a little surprising about the letters (finished the book last night) was the lack of comments on the out side world. One references to the Atomic bomb, scant references to most global events.

B.

Smith's lack of commentary about the outside world probably has something to do with his lack of interest in human affairs as a whole, especially contemporary human affairs. Like Swift, he appears to have liked individuals, but otherwise had little use for the "the animal called Mankind".

Jim