Greetings all,

I am extremely tempted to go for this set.

However, I already own the Hippocampus book The Last Oblivion, which claims to collect the best fantastic poems of CAS (and a great book it is too). I've long been famailir with Smith's short stories, but this was my first introduction to the poetry and I was quite bowled over by much of it.

My question is a subjective one maybe, but would it be worth the upgrade to the Complete Poetry & Translations? Or am I not missing out on that much, if the bulk of cosmic CAS goodness rests within the pages of The Last Oblivion?

Draugen Wrote:
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>
> My question is a subjective one maybe, but would
> it be worth the upgrade to the Complete Poetry &
> Translations?

Yes.

Seconded.

Thanks guys. Why am I not suprised! Got Nostalgia for the Unknown on order, and will have to look in to getting the Complete Poetry after that. Actually, the idea of reading the translation of Baudelaire is a very appealing one.

Joshi is coming over to my pad for din-din to-morrow (Friday, 7 December 1712) and we'll be doing a YouTube vlog, so I'll try to get him to tell as much as possible about ye Penguin CAS edition.

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

wilum pugmire Wrote:
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> Joshi is coming over to my pad for din-din
> to-morrow (Friday, 7 December 1712) and we'll be
> doing a YouTube vlog, so I'll try to get him to
> tell as much as possible about ye Penguin CAS
> edition.

Please tell him also, if you have not already done so, to include scribblings and drawings by Lovecraft and CAS, however crude they be, in the upcoming Lovecraft/Smith Letters.

S. T. said last night that if there are doodles or drawings in the letters of either CAS or HPL. they will be reproduced in the books along with the text. The Penguin Classics edition of CAS is yet a long way off, according to what he said in our YouTube video of last night.

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

That was good to hear, Wilum. The first sentence that is! Your second sentence means that CAS will be continue to be unknown to the masses, the cultural artistic bereavement will prolong. Well, at least the initiative step has been taken.

"The big three" of Weird Tales: Lovecraft, Howard, and Smith. Lovecraft and Howard are household names. Everyone knows who they are, even the man in the street who doesn't read. Smith is only known to us visiting this forum, and to a few more. He ought to be very famous. By now there should have been a large industry around him; films based on his works, documentaries, his name mentionen in reverie and awe by Presidental speeches at national celebrations.

To watch the new video with S. T., you can go to my "wilum pugmire" YouTube channel, or the name of the video is "S. T. Joshi Sings for Your Holiday" (I coerced him into singing "Silent Night" with me). The Lovecraft/Smith letters will be delayed until late next year--it turned out to be a bigger project than they anticipated.

The Penguin Classics Clark Ashton Smith is scheduled for March 2014. Penguin has demanded that the majority of the collection be Smith's fiction, as they feel that poetry is unpopular and doesn't sell (they want a volume that will sell, obviously). The book's scheduled title is THE DARK EIDOLON AND OTHER FANTASIES. It will be 80% fiction (and that will include a section of the prose-poems) and then 20% poetry. They want S. T. to write an extensive Introduction as they feel that Smith is so unknown, and so that will be excellent. Fiction will be presented in chronological order rather than divided into mystical realms, &c. So, an unfortunate wait, but it will be FABULOUS when it's publish'd!

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



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 9 Dec 12 | 12:57PM by wilum pugmire.

That sounds excellent. Actually I think 20% poetry is pretty good going to be honest for a commercial edition.

Oh, I wish I still had the photos of a CAS painting I copied from an Ebay auction. I've lost them. I think it must have been "A Jungle of the Indies". Well, it sounds on the video as if it is Joshi who is opposed to using CAS's artwork, not the Penguin staff (I doubt if they have even seen any of it). If Joshi had seen those photos he might have been inspired into some ideas for a colorful and lush CAS-art cover.

However, I am honestly not convinced a CAS cover, even at its best, would be the most commercially successfull to use. For this first Penguin book of Clark Ashton Smith, I think the most important thing is that it sells as much as possible. I would be willing to sacrifice for that. Not a cheap sensationalist cover that attracts only the rabble, but still something that will draw a large audience. It is very important.

(Oh my, what has it all come down too?! Has my soul finally turned into a speculative materialistic dealer? :/ *shuddering*)

"The City of the Singing Flame", I regret they will only use the first half in Penguin. I have always seen the first and second parts together as one whole story, and I found both parts equally good. I think Arkham House made a mistake when they cut it in half, and removed the second part for the A Rendevous In Averoigne book. I really can't understand it. They form an integrated story together.

Glad to hear about the Lovecraft/Smith letters; that was what I suspected. Rather do it well worked through, than rushed.

Sorry, I hadn't done my homework, to remember that "Beyond the Singing Flame" initially was written as a sequel. But when published together, CAS had melded them and changed the above title into another chapter called "The Third Venturer". I think the second half perfectly complements the first.

Knygatin Wrote:
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> Sorry, I hadn't done my homework, to remember that
> "Beyond the Singing Flame" initially was written
> as a sequel. But when published together, CAS had
> melded them and changed the above title into
> another chapter called "The Third Venturer". I
> think the second half perfectly complements the
> first.

AFAIK, it wasn't Smith who did the melding, so it is completely irrelevant: From elsewhere on this site:

<<The latter story is now almost inextricably linked to its inferior sequel, "Beyond the Singing Flame" (a linkage introduced by editor Walter Gillings in 1940, and perpetuated ever since), while the text of "The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis" was more heavily edited for publication than any other story by Smith.>>

Martinus Wrote:
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> AFAIK, it wasn't Smith who did the melding, so it
> is completely irrelevant: From elsewhere on this
> site:
>
>

I fail again. Good chapter-title though by that Walter Gillings fellow.

Solved.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11 Dec 12 | 09:34AM by Knygatin.