His poetry is divine. The Last Incantation is a fable of melancholy right up there with Dunsany's episode of Time and the Gods. And The Dark Eidolon is one of the most nightmarishly beautiful things I've ever read.
I just read The Last Incantation. As a Brit, it makes me wish I was American so that I knew how to Yee Haw in a long and loud fashion -it was tremendous!
Clark Ashton Smith as a writer reminds me of an athlete who always made the all-star game in his career but never won a title. His writing is so strange but feels a bit more hopeful than either Lovecraft or Howard, even with creatures like Tsathoggua. I discovered him in some of those Cthulhu Mythos anthologies that include stories from Lovecraft’s contemporaries and predecessors. I wonder how much Dunsany influenced Smith. The otherworldly nature of his creations feel equally weird. Hope you have a great week! Best, Jack
Great video. I've got the Clark Ashton Smtih books Return of the Sorcerer, Hyperbora, and maybe some more hidden behind other books sitting on my shelf.
All I know of his (but haven't read) is "The Empire of Necromancers." And I only know that because chapter five of Frankenstein was published in Weird Tales in a 1932 issue, which also had that story. I saw it while doing some research a bit ago and wrote the title of Smith's story down because of the title, but never got around to it. Those readings were fantastic, I will make sure he is someone I have read by the end of the summer. Thanks for sharing this!
One of my favorite writers, and a great talk, Michael. Well done. Let's hope more are inspired to check out his work and raise it so it can have tea with HPL and REH.
Penpals with H.P. Lovecraft? I`m putting him on my TBR list! :D I just love finding new and lesser known authors/books on your channel. Keep up the Sunday Penguin series, I`m enjoying these :)
Just FYI for you here, Michael. Right now, Amazon has the Kindle edition of "Lair of the Eldritch Dark: The Collected Works of Clark Ashton Smith (Illustrated)" for FREE. It's a thousand pager. Just downloaded it myself, so I can't speak of the formatting as of yet, but hey, it's FREE! Just thought you and your watchers might be interested. Love your videos. Take care.
The cover of the penguin book, The Spy, is amazing, and the covers of the Nightshade Press collected editions are amazing too; I’ve stared at those covers for hours probably. And CAS himself drew The Spy and was a great artist and a great sculptor of very surreal, medieval-looking art which reminds me of William Blake.
Whoah, I only vaguely recall him but was so impressed by your review I already ordered the book. Thank you! ps-maybe as a sort of "bookend" to the first story you read, consider a read(re-read?) of Joanna Russ' "We Who Are about To"...
One of the greatest authors of horror/fantasy/science fiction ever to set pen to paper and among the most erudite and articulate (and largely self-taught). I would not compare him to Lovecraft; they were parallel geniuses.
Isle of the Torturers, Empire of the Necromancers, The Weird of Avoosl Wuthoqquan. I have never read a one of his many stories that I did not enjoy. They say he educated himself by reading encyclopedias and dictionaries. No one comes close.
Hi Michael, Gavin McIntosh (by way of the B.Stoker quicksands of Aberdeen, Scotland). You probably already have them, but if not, I would recommend The Collected Fantasies vol 1-5 and the companion The Miscellaneous writings of Clark Ashton Smith by Scott Connors & Ron Hilger (eds). They also include some of the correspondence and criticism of H.P.Lovecraft.
Man, I am happy I found your channel. You are a man with literary tastes pretty close to mine. I love CAS, I consider him the greatest of the Weird Tales Holy Trinity. I dont know if you have have read Mark Samuels, I strongly recommend him to you as well as Reggie Oliver in case you didn't read them already. I also wonder what do you think of two favorites of mine: Jack Vance and Gene Wolfe. Congratulations for your channel, love your style.
O Muse, where loiterest thou? In any land Of Saturn, lit with moons and nenuphars? Or in what high metropolis of Mars- Hearing the gongs of dire, occult command, And bugles blown from strand to unknown strand Of continents embattled in old wars...
See you have a thing about Kindle...you want a real book in your hands.......I have a thing about Audio Books..... I believe they are 2 be read not listen 2. So each 2 their own.
I really enjoy your channel and I’m a huge fan of Arthur Conan Doyle, H P Lovecraft and Robert E Howard. I’ve had Clark Ashton Smith on my TBR list for sometime now, but you’ve just catapulted him to the top of that list What are your thoughts on Arthur Machen?
I have just started reading this, and I am loving his prose style. I was familiar with Lovecraft, Howard and Dunsany, but this author was missing for me. Would you also recommend Blackwood and Machen if I were to look for similar authors as the ones I just mentioned?
Lovecraft is great, Smith is better. The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis is a fantastic horror story, one of the best. Satampra Zeiros is a great adventure tale that Conan would be proud to feature in. Those are just two in a true collection of gems.
