Nonfiction

By Clark Ashton Smith

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A

“The Plutonian Drug is, in my opinion, among my best in the genie of science-fiction. For one thing, it is the sort of tale that… ”

“I dreamt that the sun rose in the West, shortly after its usual setting. Its orb was strangely small, and red like a coal; and… ”

“By some exaltation and expansion of cosmic consciousness, rather than a mere drug, used here as a symbol, the dreamer is carried to a height… ”

“The term atmosphere, in application to fiction, is often used in a somewhat vague or restricted sense. I believe that it can be most profitably… ”

“I was born on January 13th, 1893, in Long Valley, California, of English and Yankee parentage. Most of my formal education was received at the… ”

B

“To introduce this story, the marvelous sequel to "The City of the Singing Flame," we can do no better than to quote in full Mr.… ”

“Awestruck we entered a high-vaulted, endless corridor of polished bone-white marble veined exquisitely with blood. From some distant alcove a sagacious voice chanted the chronicles… ”

“The Black Book is the notebook or commonplace book used by Clark Ashton Smith for a period of about thirty years from about 1929 to… ”

C

“Ignited in the rich and multi-hued Antarean dusk, the tip of the space pilot's cigarette began to glow and foulder like the small scarlet eye… ”

“I am inclined to think that my life is a pretty good exemplification of the theories propounded by Lester Anderson in his interesting and provocative… ”

“Truth, like a coin, has an obverse and a reverse side. One is a platitude, the other a paradox.One cannot tell a woman's age by… ”

“This first novel by Donald Wandrei is embued throughout with the same unique qualities of cosmic imagination that distinguished The Red Brain, Earth Minus, Finality… ”

D

“"The Dark Age" was written to illustrate how easily scientific knowledge and its resultant inventions could be lost to the human race following the complete… ”

“About 1918 I was in ill health and, during a short visit to San Francisco, was sitting one day in the Bohemian Club, to which… ”

E

“Paradoxes reveal the natural perversity of Truth.A weeping woman, and the devil in sack-cloth and ashes, are both irresistable.Hell is the only place where hypocrisy… ”

“The commonest and gravest error of modernity lies in believing that antiquity is dead.The forms and themes of poetry do not become outworn or exhausted.… ”

F

“I have filled out the "style-sheet" with such annotations and details concerning Tsathoggua as I am at present able to furnish. Some of these have… ”

“I should like to point out a few considerations which, apparently, have been overlooked by Mr. Julian Gray in his thoughtful and well-written criticism of… ”

“(Courtesy of H. Koenig)"The Yellow Sign" by Chambers
"The House of Sounds" by Shiel
"The Willows" by Blackwood
"A View from a Hill" by James
"The Death of Halpin… ”

“. . . by lack of finish. A commonplace idea when well told is more acceptable than a brilliant thought poorly expressed.Always go over your… ”

G

“Among the various literary fervors and enthusiasms of my early youth, there are two that have not faded as such things most often fade, but… ”

“My sixteen years' friendship and correspondence with George Sterling began, like so many human relationships, through another friendship. In 1911, when I had reached the… ”

H

“Only the hottest of controversies will be printed in this column—radical arguments that will bring your blood to "The Boiling Point." We start this department… ”

I

“Among those fiction writers who have elected to deal with the shadowlands and borderlands of human existence, William Hope Hodgson surely merits a place with… ”

“Howard Phillips Lovecraft passed away on March 15th, after a month of painful illness. His death will be a personal bereavement to all lovers of… ”

“A book of poems by Susan Myra GregorySusan Myra Gregory is of the true lineage of Sappho, which is not to say that her poems… ”

“A book of poems by Lilith LorraineThe summer lightning of fantasy, the storm-piercing levin of imagination, illume these superbly wrought poems. Lilith Lorraine, poet and… ”

O

“We have been told that literature dealing with the imaginative and fantastic is out of favour among the Intellectuals, whoever they are. Only the Real,… ”

“I should like to say a few words anent one or two points which P. Schuyler Miller raises in his interesting letter in the June… ”

“I have worked entirely on carving since December, and so far have turned out about twenty-six new pieces. Only a few of these are grotesques,… ”

“I am profoundly saddened by the news of H. P. Lovecraft's death after a month of painful illness. The loss seems an intolerable one, and… ”

“Perhaps by this time you will have heard the sad news of Lovecraft's passing. He died on Monday morning, March 15th, from gastro-intestinal and kidney… ”

“I have read the symposium on science-fiction the Winter 1949 issue with great interest. Since you have summed up so ably in your editorial the… ”

“As to the Cthulhu Mythos, I believe I added as much to it as I borrowed. Tsathoggua and the Book of Eibon were my own… ”

“Ephraim Doner's art is revealed through a magic mirror, a mirror deeply installed in his brain, behind the very roots of physical sight. It reflects… ”

“"Necronomicon," "Book of Eibon" etc I am sorry to say, are all fictitious. Lovecraft invented the first, I the second. Howard, I believe, fathered the… ”

P

“(An extract from The Black Book of Clark Ashton Smith)The weird tale is an adumbration or foreshadowing of man's relationship—past, present, and future—to the unknown… ”

“In writing fantastic science tales, two themes have attracted me more than others, and have seemed to offer the amplest possibilities and the deepest stimulus… ”

“Mr. Lovecraft has stated very lucidly and succinctly the essential value and validity of the horror story as literary art, and there is no need… ”

R

“Mr. Miller's very able and urbane letter in the December issue makes me feel that my own recent letter on the problem of realism versus… ”

“The six pieces in this tiny volume, written by a winner of numerous prize-awards, impress the present viewer as being fairly mild examples of modernist… ”

S

“The main objective of the short story is to stir the reader's emotions. How you stir them or what emotion you stir is not so… ”

T

“I have read with much interest the fine letter from A. Lewis in the "Cauldron."Mr. Lewis, in laying down rules for the development of the… ”

“The Maker of Gargoyles
Beyond the Singing Flame
The Vapor from the Void
The Vaults of ^Yoh-Vombis^ [Abomi]
The After-Men
The Tenth Planet
The Book of Xhon Mezzamalech
The White Sybil of… ”

U

“In late July or early August 1932, Wonder Stories editor David Lasser suggested to Clark Ashton Smith that he compose a story involving the notion… ”

V

“A letter from Clark Ashton Smith contains an interesting thumbnail essay on the validity of weird stories, which we are passing on to you. Mr.… ”

W

“The four books of short stories written by Montague Rhodes James, Provost of Eton College, have been collected in a single but not overly bulky… ”

“I have purchased many of the issues of your magazine, and have read everything in them, including the letter columns, with great interest. I have… ”

“Although better known for my writings in the fantasy field, I have at different times turned out what is called the straight science fiction story.… ”

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