Clark Ashton Smith: master of the eldritch

I found out about Clark Ashton Smith mainly through his association with H P Lovecraft and the Cthulhu mythos. I've always liked Smith's stories as much as Lovecraft's, and in many ways they are superior. There's something more lyrical, evocative, poetic about his writing.

It's no surprise, then, that Smith rose to popularity at a fairly young age through his poetry, circa 1920. Unfortunately this fame only lasted a few years - Romantic poetry plummeted in popularity a little later - and Smith may have fallen into complete anonymity if not for Lovecraft convincing him to write fiction.

Smith often used the Cthulhu mythos in his stories, but it wasn't entirely a one-way street, with Lovecraft borrowing Tsathoggua for his elder gods pantheon. According to the Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror "Lovecraft actually held Smith in something like awe, considering him the greatest writer of their weird circle".

The man himself, older and younger

If you want to find out more about Clark Ashton Smith then there is no better place to go than a website called The Eldritch Dark - The Sanctum of Clark Ashton Smith.

There you will find the majority of his fiction (I noticed only a handful missing) and poetry, as well as non-fiction. There's even a heap of his correspondence with the likes of H P Lovecraft and August Derleth, amongst others. It's an eldritch feast.

The Cimmerian has an article about collecting physical copies of Smith's work, but only makes passing comment about the versions that I have a soft spot for: the cheap, affordable, Panther versions. There are around nine of these volumes, all printed in the 70s. Here are some groovy cover scans:

Alas, I misplaced The Abominations of Yondo many years ago. This makes me sad. I'll endeavour to replace it sometime, but in the meantime the above is a cover scan courtesy of The Vault of Evil.