For the CAS fans out there

[j. d. worthington]

Well, it looks like the first of the 5-volume authoritative edition of The Complete Fantasies of Clark Ashton Smith may yet make it out by the end of the year:

I just got off the telephone with Jason Williams over at Night Shade
Books. He has finished entering the last corrections and revisions to
the file for the book and it goes to the printer on Friday. There is an
excellent chance that the snows of Hyperborea will blanket this Yule
Season. The cover artwork by Jason van Hollander is excellent, and is
totally different from what he did for RED WORLD OF POLARIS: it's much
more realistic, yet still surreal, and is based upon several of Smith's
drawings and carvings. Ramsey Campbell did a fine introduction as well.
I am tremendously excited about this. Ron and I have already started
on volume 2, and we finally received the manuscripts we needed from
Brown University last weekend. We're going to try to hand in volume 2 at
the end of February 2007, for a summer publication date, and volume 3 by
the end of May, for this time next year (although I'd love it if we
could have it out in time for the World Fantasy Convention in Saratoga,
NY).

This is from Scott Connors, CAS scholar and co-editor of the series. These books go back to Smith's original manuscripts, and compare with published sources ... so they'll be the authoritative editions of his work (as Joshi's editions are of Lovecraft's). If they're anything like the edition of William Hope Hodgson's work that Night Shade are putting out (4 of the volumes out already), they should be quite something....

At any rate, thought the CAS fans on here should know, so.....

[Randolph]

This is great news! Hopefully this will help give Klarkash-Ton some of the recognition that he deserves. I'm also excited that we'll finally get the definitive versions of his texts, because to my understanding (though I may be way off here) the majority of his stuff that has been re-printed was taken from the published versions of his stories as opposed to the unedited manuscripts.

[j. d. worthington]

Originally Posted by Randolph

This is great news! Hopefully this will help give Klarkash-Ton some of the recognition that he deserves. I'm also excited that we'll finally get the definitive versions of his texts, because to my understanding (though I may be way off here) the majority of his stuff that has been re-printed was taken from the published versions of his stories as opposed to the unedited manuscripts.

No, you're correct. With the majority of collections (or anthology appearances) do rely on magazine printings that were sometimes quite radically changed from Smith's original mss. If I remember correctly, Lin Carter was one of the few who would sometimes go to printings CAS saw and sometimes manuscripts for some of the things he included in the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series. It will, indeed, be a very nice thing to see his work the way he himself intended....

[Dr. Atomic]

For hardcore CAS fans, there were a number of prose/verse poems published in the Sixties, Seventies, and Eighties(?) by Squires Press. This was a fine press publishing company owned and operated by long-time fan, Roy A. Squires out of his home in California. He did all the printing by hand, using letterpress, with custom paper and inks and stuff. The books look more like pamphlets, but are considered actual "book" editions, if that makes sense. They were printed in extremely limited runs and sold by subscription. Some of the CAS ones are signed, if I remember correctly.

He also did editions of Bradbury and Lovecraft stories/poems, all of which are numbered and, in the case of the Bradbury stuff, signed.

If anyone's interested, I've got a bibliography of all the Squires books, and can post a list of the CAS ones, as well a as a photo or two of my Bradbury and Love craft books, so you can see exactly when I'm talking about.

Many of them are for sale on ABEbooks -- and I know a dealer who has a pretty deep collection of them available... If anyone wants, I can email the details directly -- PM me or something. These are definitely cool, rare, quirky, hand-crafted editions to any book collection...

[j. d. worthington]

I recall the Squires editions, but they were quite limited, as I recall. Hadn't known about being able to find them on ABEbooks... I'll have to check into that (I've got a listing of the things in that Smith biblio that was done several years back by Sidney-Fryer). But the Night Shade edition is, while somewhat limited, much larger than I recall the Squires being, and these books are going to be quite large, as well.

However, Roy Squires has certainly done a lot of good for both Smith and HPL, and anyone who has any of these has got something special.

Here are the links giving the contents of the first three volumes of the Night Shade Smith volumes:

Night Shade Books - Books

Night Shade Books - Books

Night Shade Books - Books

I've got the four volumes of the Hodgson that have seen print so far ... quite nice, they are, and the Smith looks comparable. For anyone interested in CAS, this is definitely going to be worth the investment....

[j. d. worthington]

Okay, here's the latest on The End of the Story from Night Shade Books:

1. New titles now shipping

We've just taken delivery of the following titles:

The Complete Hammer's Slammers vol. 2 - David Drake
Hart & Boot & Other Stories - Tim Pratt
Bronze tpb - Kit Reed
Imaro 2: The Quest for Cush - Charles Saunders
The End of the Story : The Collected Fantasies of Clark Ashton Smith
vol. 1

Please give us a couple of weeks before emailing us about your order.
Due to the sheer volume of preorders on these books, it's going to take
us at least a week to get them all packed up and mailed out.

A quick reminder on shipping. Orders to Canada and the UK can take up
to a month, and orders to Australia frequently take up to a couple of
months.

"Hurrah! Hurrah! For Temperance, Hurrah!"... No, wait, that's one of HPL's.....

And there's also a 3-volume set of CAS's Complete Poetry coming out this year from Hippocampus Press, as well. (Now, if someone would only put together a really nice, color-plate book on his art (sculptures, paintings, etc.)....

[j. d. worthington]

This is the first of the reviews I've seen so far on The End of the Story:

This Just In...News From the Agony Column

Yep. Pretty much sums it up....

[j. d. worthington]

Well, for those who would be glad to see CAS get the recognition, it looks like it's coming from some surprising sources. Here's a post from a CAS forum:

Washington Post Book World will run a review of EOTS in its February 18 issue, written by the Pulitzer-Prize winning critic Michael Dirda (a big fan of HPL, REH, M. R. James, and now CAS).

Things have come one heck of a long way since Edmund Wilson's day, haven't they.....

[j. d. worthington]

Seems there's also a review (by Gahan Wilson, no less) of another CAS volume released not too long ago, Star Changes, containing Smith's science fiction work:

Realms of Fantasy :: Articles Show

[j. d. worthington]

Here's a look at that review in the Washington Post Book World mentioned above... a rather intelligent and perceptive review from someone who knows the subject, I'd say:

washingtonpost.com

[j. d. worthington]

The third volume of CAS's Complete Poetry is now available, with his translations of Baudelaire, etc. Take a look:

The Complete Poetry and Translations of Clark Ashton Smith Volume 3- Hippocampus Press

[HardScienceFan]

Originally Posted by j. d. worthington

Here's a look at that review in the Washington Post Book World mentioned above... a rather intelligent and perceptive review from someone who knows the subject, I'd say:

washingtonpost.com - nation, world, technology and Washington area news and headlines

Excellent!
does the man justice
Top of the morning to U JD
possible typos due to staying up late
Ben

[ghyle]

I am one of those awaiting the collected poems with avidity. I will be using them for the concordance, and will likely follow their lead in the listing of the poems.

Hippocampus Press also have a couple of other Smith-related volumes; may I recommend The Freedom of Fantastic Things (if only because I have a piece on "Satan Speaks" in there).

[j. d. worthington]

I've not yet had a chance to read that one, though I received it some time ago; however, browsing in it, it looks to be a notable anthology of essays on Smith. For those interested, here's a link giving more information on it:

The Freedom of Fantastic Things: Selected Criticism on Clark Ashton Smith, Edited by Scott Connors - Hippocampus Press

[j. d. worthington]

And the next volume of the Smith series is due out in June:

Night Shade Books - Books

Also, ghyle (Phillip A. Ellis) has a very neat e-magazine called Calenture, which had an issue devoted to CAS in Jan. 2006, as well as one devoted to Lovecraft Jan. of this year (and the one for Sept. of 2006 also had an article on HPL's Fungi from Yuggoth). There are also some very good pieces of fantastic and speculative poetry in the magazine -- quite evocative:

Calenture: A Journal of Studies in Speculative Verse

Good to see Smith becoming once more available for both older and new readers.....