From the dark companion of Algol...
March 4, 2018 8:15 AM Subscribe
The Bard of Auburn: Getting Weird in the Long Valley - The Los Angeles Review of Books on horror writer and artist Clark Ashton Smith (previous)
That is one of the best laudatory reviews I have ever read.
As I browsed among the many letters to Smith collected in the first volume of an (Arkham House?) edition of Lovecraft's letters, I had no inkling Smith was Californian!
Lovecraft occasionally addressed him as "Klarkash Ton", and the that's how I always hear his name in my head now.
posted by jamjam at 10:55 AM on March 4, 2018 [1 favorite]
As I browsed among the many letters to Smith collected in the first volume of an (Arkham House?) edition of Lovecraft's letters, I had no inkling Smith was Californian!
Lovecraft occasionally addressed him as "Klarkash Ton", and the that's how I always hear his name in my head now.
posted by jamjam at 10:55 AM on March 4, 2018 [1 favorite]
his generally uncommercial stories concerned doomed intellectuals boiling alive in the soup of a meaningless, all-devouring universe ruled over by cruel, grotesque gods
daaaaaaaayum! I'm sad I'd never heard of him before but I definitely plan to make myself familiar now!!! boiling alive in a soup of cruel meaninglessness is pure catnip to me!
posted by supermedusa at 11:02 AM on March 4, 2018 [1 favorite]
daaaaaaaayum! I'm sad I'd never heard of him before but I definitely plan to make myself familiar now!!! boiling alive in a soup of cruel meaninglessness is pure catnip to me!
posted by supermedusa at 11:02 AM on March 4, 2018 [1 favorite]
fascinating review. thanks for sharing!
posted by supermedusa at 11:20 AM on March 4, 2018
posted by supermedusa at 11:20 AM on March 4, 2018
I read this article yesterday with delight. CAS is a seriously under-appreciated author/poet/artist, and one I've had a hard, hard time ever convincing friends to read. People are either "oh, yeah, Clark Ashton Smith, he's [wonderful/terrible]," and that's that, or they've literally never heard of him.
Fun fact: Clark Ashton Smith recorded some of his poems in the 1950s, and they've been released officially on cassette, but not CD, etc. That said, some of them are available online. E.G. -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lB5fNWn9dFo.
posted by cupcakeninja at 4:37 PM on March 4, 2018 [4 favorites]
Fun fact: Clark Ashton Smith recorded some of his poems in the 1950s, and they've been released officially on cassette, but not CD, etc. That said, some of them are available online. E.G. -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lB5fNWn9dFo.
posted by cupcakeninja at 4:37 PM on March 4, 2018 [4 favorites]
That's a very nice appreciation.
As a long-time CAS fan (since the 1980s), I'm always delighted to see others join us on the shores of doomed Poseidonis.
posted by doctornemo at 10:00 AM on March 5, 2018
As a long-time CAS fan (since the 1980s), I'm always delighted to see others join us on the shores of doomed Poseidonis.
posted by doctornemo at 10:00 AM on March 5, 2018
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