Re: CAS in Penguin Modern CLassics
Posted by:
Scott Connors (IP Logged)
Date: 20 April, 2013 10:59AM
S. T. and I worked closely together on the selection of fiction included in this book. I vetoed some of his choices, he accepted my reasoning, accepted some of my candidates for inclusion, but the final selection was his. I am disappointed that one of my favorite CAS stories did not make the cut ("The Weird of Avoosl Wuthoqquan"), and we had to leave out others that we would have liked to have included because of space in order to include a representative selection of his best work. "The Abominations of Yondo" was the subject of much debate, but I argued that "Sadastor" set the tone for the book much better than "Yondo," since it is most wistful and poignant and deals with loss, while "Yondo" is more horrific, and thus not necessarily the best introduction to CAS. They'll get to the horrific with "Yoh-Vombis" soon enough.
While S. T. is opinionated, he is open to discussion. The fact that he is now mostly positive about Smith's fiction contrasts with statements to the contrary in his original HPL bio, and is the result of a decade of interaction with Yr Obt Servt here. He once told me that CAS would never make it into the Penguin Classics, right up until the point where Wilum and I convinced him to work on his editor and advocate for such a collection. This book is his, make no mistake. It ain't perfect, but like the old man said at the end of THE WILD BUNCH, "it'll do."