Dear Boyd
I recently acquired, all the way from California to South Devon, a copy of Donald Sidney-Fryer's 'Clark Ashton Smith: The Sorcerer Departs', and I am really glad I did, because not only is it one of the best things I have read about CAS, but one of the best short biographies of any artist I have come across. It is therefore surprising to see your site's rather ungenerous dismissal of the book, which you admit to not having read anyway! Your comments suggest a pedantic, over-detailed work which is of little value, yet the fact that the author is one of the few people left who actually knew CAS, and who is clearly highly regarded by such Smith experts as Dr Farmer, Ron Hilger and Scott Connors, should itself indicate the opposite. I found the book beautifully balanced between life and work, elegantly written and crying out for quotation: 'he [CAS] belongs...only to that mystical mainstream of literature and art which is one with all cultures and all ages.' It was worth buying the book for that line alone! I reccommend it to all Smith lovers, and suggest you get hold of one, read it and perhaps modify your opinion!
Best wishes
Bob

I was being descriptive not evaluative. Some people don't care about an authors life. The in print page only contains a brief note to help people in their decision whether to by or not.

Fair enough, but to suggest that only those interested in the 'minutiae' of CAS' life need bother to read it implies that it is a huge, unmanageable tome full of unnecessary detail, which is emphatically not the case. In fact, there is more analysis of the work than there is detail about the life, which is why I suggest you read it before commenting!
Best wishes
Bob

Where did I say minutiae?

THE SORCERER DEPARTS is one of the first and finest biographical/critical essays on CAS and some forty years later it still serves as perhaps the best introductory article on the life and work of Clark Ashton Smith. I hope that Boyd will consider reading the essay and give it a fair chance before discouraging others from reading it. After all, there is no over-abundance of such material regarding Smith, and the Tsathoggua Press edition is a great value (in spite of its many typos)usually around $5.00 to $10.00.
-Ron

OK, 'all the details' is what you actually say. My point is that it is a misleading description.
bob

OK, 'all the details' is what you actually say. My point is that it is a misleading description.
bob

OK, 'all the details' is what you actually say. My point is that it is a misleading description.
bob

No idea why that came up three times - I didn't intend to be THAT emphatic!

Geee you people are tough, I just said it was only of interest to people interested in CAS's life. I make no evaluative comment whatsoever.

Boyd Wrote:
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> Geee you people are tough, I just said it was only
> of interest to people interested in CAS's life.

Like the people who frequent this site perhaps? :-)

I can assure you at least half the site visitors will have never herd of CAS before visiting the site.

I was surprized to see these booklets listed as "in print" as I was under the impression Tsathoggua Press closed up shop many years ago.
Perhaps Perry Grayson is still selling the remainder of his stock? Anyone know where or how "The Sorcerer Departs" can be ordered?

Boyd- as coincidence would have it, your personally inscribed copy of Donald Sidney-Fryer's "Songs and Sonnets Atlantean:The Second Series" is on its way down under even as I write this. (BTW, it sure costs a bundle to send a book from Calif. to New Zealand!) If you liked George Sterling's poetry, you should also enjoy this. Hope so anyways.
-Ron

It's still in print - link is on the In Print page. I check to make sure everything on the page is available.

Ron -thanks for the book and yeah postage is crazy, costs more than the books often, tis why my library is woefuly small.

B.

And all I wanted to do was to say how much I had enjoyed a book, and to stop people from being put off buying it! Personally, I cannot seperate a writer's life from his or her work, but I acknowledge that some readers like to keep them apart. The more I know about the life, the more I can relate it to the books, but that's just me. I certainly didn't want my enthusiasm for The Sorceror Departs to be seen as an attack on the site, or Boyd's running of it.

Dont worry Bob we are a tough lot I'm sure no one took it personally. There are other threads on this board regarding the value of know about an author or not - you may like to check em out.

I updated the in print page so that interested parties can read your comments on the book.

B.

I'm sure this is old news for many of you but having recently emailed Tsathoggua Press to enquire about this item I got this reply:

'Tsathoggua site is down for now due to my recent move to Sydney,
Australia. No, THE SORCERER DEPARTS is not available. Not sure if it'll
ever become available again. There will be a new Tsathoggua Press site
online in '07. Stay tuned.'

Anyway, I just thought I'd let you all know.

Quote:

The English Assassin
I'm sure this is old news for many of you but having recently emailed Tsathoggua Press to enquire about this item I got this reply:
'Tsathoggua site is down for now due to my recent move to Sydney,
Australia. No, THE SORCERER DEPARTS is not available. Not sure if it'll
ever become available again. There will be a new Tsathoggua Press site
online in '07. Stay tuned.'

Yeah, that's the official story. I'm in Sydney, and I aim to get back to publishing once I'm more settled in. Philippe Gindre is supposed to be publishing a new corrected edition of The Sorcerer Departs soon, according to Don Sidney-Fryer.

The Sorcerer Departs, Donald Sidney-Fryer's famous bio-critical essay on Clark Ashton Smith had been out of print for some time. It is now available again in a new, revised edition at Silver Key Press :

[www.silverkeypress.org]

The Sorcerer Departs is widely considered not only the first but still the best bio-critical essay on the life and works of Smith. This newly expanded and revised edition not only serves as an excellent introduction to the writings of the Bard of Auburn, but is also an indispensable cornerstone in the library of every CAS scholar. Cover art: Patrick Mallet.


Philippe Gindre

-
Silver Key Press
Weird Fiction
[www.silverkeypress.org]
-

Chipougne Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The Sorcerer Departs, Donald Sidney-Fryer's famous
> bio-critical essay on Clark Ashton Smith had been
> out of print for some time. It is now available
> again in a new, revised edition at Silver Key
> Press :
>
> [www.silverkeypress.org]

Glad to see you here, Philippe! Thanks for reissuing this one corrected and revised for Don. The Tsathoggua edition was done on a non-existent budget in the stone age of desktop publishing--and riddled with plenty of typos despite a thorough proofing by me, Rob Preston and Don himself. :O He sent me an errata sheet after going through it a second time. Looking forward to seeing the thing "in the flesh."

TsathogguaPress Wrote :
-------------------------------------------------------
>Glad to see you here, Philippe!
Thanks! Well, I've been here for quite some time, but it is true that I seldom post, shame on me.

>The Tsathoggua edition was done on a non-existent
>budget in the stone age of desktop publishing
Despite all this it was a very attractive chapbook. I own 2 copies, the one I feverishly bought from Perry as soon as I heard that such a book existed, and the one DSF dedicated to me when he came over to visit me here in France a few years ago, and I cherish them both. The true stone age of desktop publishing for me was more in the late 80's when we were trying to imitate pros with very limited postscript fonts available (and no money to buy the few available ones because buying the first laser/inkjet printers had completely ruined us!). Remember those Necronomicon Press cover titles from 1987 or 1988, with big letters that look like oversized screen copies?
Robert H. Knox's cover is fantastic. It is really an illustration of Smith's poem itself. For the Silver Key Press edition, Patrick Mallet chose to focus on the "daily" Smith instead, showing him during one of his famous picnics. But with quite unusual guests!

>and riddled with plenty
>of typos despite a thorough proofing by me, Rob Preston and Don
>himself. :O He sent me an errata sheet after going through it a second
>time.
That's precisely the one I used. I guess that I must have added some typos of my own instead. Well typos are something one has to deal with, anyway.

Philippe Gindre

This sacred text is also a part of my collection. It is definitely worth importing from France!

[silverkeypress.free.fr]