The Eldritch Dark: The Sanctum of Clark Ashton Smith

April 2, 2007 9:05 PM

The Eldritch Dark. No, not about Mr. Lovecraft, but a sprawling site dedicated to Clark Ashton Smith, a friend and frequent correspondent. Along with Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard, Smith is an early contributor to Weird Tales whose stories stand the test of time (his work directly inspired Ray Bradbury and Harlan Ellison). He thought of himself primarily as a poet.
posted by mediareport (10 comments total)

Great stuff.
posted by bardic at 9:26 PM on April 2, 2007

Good podcast summary of Clark Ashton Smith here. It's a bit rambling and you'll have to get past the song at the start, but good natured and informative. Oh, and part way in they start refering to George Sterling as Bruce Sterling.
posted by Artw at 9:41 PM on April 2, 2007

Others inspired by CAS: Jack Vance, Gene Wolfe, and most probably Michael Moorcock.
posted by Artw at 10:11 PM on April 2, 2007

Basically anyone after him that was influential in Fantasy and wasn't a Tolkien copyist...
posted by Artw at 10:13 PM on April 2, 2007

I was just reading about Clark Ashton Smith and HP Lovecraft in the Believer.
posted by BrotherCaine at 3:40 AM on April 3, 2007

Shortly after they meet, Lovecraft starts addressing him as KlarkAsh Ton in his letters, as I recall.
posted by jamjam at 8:30 AM on April 3, 2007

Woot! Klark Ash-ton!

Or whatever. jamjam noted it first.

Those stories were the ccompaniment of many of my teenage afternoons, they were.
posted by jokeefe at 10:08 AM on April 3, 2007

Heh. Their letters are totally an expression of love between two straight nerd-dudes.
posted by Artw at 10:52 AM on April 3, 2007

Sweet. I've seen him around. You guys might also like Algernon Blackwood.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 12:12 PM on April 3, 2007

It's "Klarkash-Ton", evidently.
posted by jamjam at 2:22 PM on April 3, 2007