Anonymization by Anonymouse.org ~ Adverts
Anonymouse better ad-free, faster and with encryption?
Clark Ashton Smith (1893-1961), perhaps best known today for his association with H.P Lovecraft and the Cthulhu Mythos, is in his own right a unique master of fantasy, horror and science-fiction. Highly imaginative, his genre-spanning visions of worlds beyond, combined with his profound understanding of the English language, have inspired an ever -increasing legion of fans and admirers.
For most of his life, he lived in physical and intellectual isolation in Auburn, California (USA). Predominantly self-educated with no formal education after grammar school, Smith wore out his local library and delved so deeply into the dictionary that his richly embellished, yet precise, prose leaves one with the sense that they are in the company of a true master of language.
Though Smith primarily considered himself a poet, having turned to prose for the meager financial sum it rewarded, his prose might best be appreciated as a "fleshed" out poetry. In this light, plot and characters are subservient to the milieu of work: a setting of cold quiet reality, which, mixed with the erotic and the exotic, places his work within its own unique, phantasmagoric genre. While he also experimented in painting, sculpture, and translation, it is in his written work that his legacy persists.
During his lifetime, Smith's work appeared commonly in the pulps alongside other masters such H.P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, August Derleth, and E. Hoffmann Price and like many great artists, recognition and appreciation have come posthumously. In recent decades though, a resurgence of interest in his works has lead to numerous reprintings as well as scholarly critiques.
The Eldritch Dark is a site to facilitate both scholars and fans in their appreciation and study of Clark Ashton Smith and his works.
2 Jan, 2026 12:53PM by Martinus
“Knygatin Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It also makes me wonder, based on the serious
> scientific approach, if Lovecraft did not after
> all believe in the possibility of ghostly
> phenomena as, although yet unsolved, obscure
> components of his mechanistic universe.
No.… ”
28 Dec, 2025 5:04PM by Knygatin
“"Long-winded, statistical, and drearily genealogical", that's how the leading character in "The Shunned House" describes the records he goes through to learn about the house. It is rather amusing that Lovecraft could not then check himself from writing in such long-winded manner, when for several pages he minutely catalogues the whole genealogical history of the… ”
25 Dec, 2025 2:11AM by Knygatin
“JeanAlain Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> having reread my old
> translations, I find that they're not so bad in
> comparison, as I tried to render the rare and
> archaic words used by CAS into French, whereas the
> new translations make them rather “flat.”
Thank you.
That is rather interesting. A translator should be dedicated to capturing the writer's true meaning,… ”
25 Dec, 2025 1:58AM by Knygatin
“I don't know which edition of "Through the Gates of the Silver Key" you have been reading; but in the notes to Joshi's corrected edition it says that "many of Lovecraft's phrases that were changed by his collaborator E. Hoffman Price when the latter prepared the typescript have been restored".
I am re-reading "The Shunned… ”
20 Dec, 2025 7:03AM by JeanAlain
“Knygatin Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Well, I hope that elucidated matters some. If you
> are proud of your translations and find them good,
> it may be a better idea to take them to a
> publisher.
Actually, I had started translating CAS into French when I was 13 and came across a copy of “Lost Worlds” in the now defunct… ”