Editing Clark Ashton Smith

[[File:Clark Ashton Smith 1912.jpg|thumb|Hailing from the weird and terrible land of, Ne'ew Engluund]]
'''Clark Ashton Smith''' was an American writer of weird horror, pulp fantasy and science fiction novels, poems and serials. He is one of "The Big Three of ''Weird Tales''", those men who published most prolifically in that most well-known and long-lasting of Weird Fantasy dedicated magazines, alongside [[H.P. Lovecraft]] and Robert E. "[[Conan the Barbarian|Conan]]" [[Robert E. Howard|Howard]]. Although Smith isn't (today) as well-known as them, he had a significant impact; Clark was a co-creator for the world of [[Hyperborea]], the primeval "lost past" world in which Robert's own Conan and King Kull [[Sword & Sorcery]] works were set, and corresponded frequently with Lovecraft, resulting in many of his weird races and deities being promoted in the latter's works. It is also worth noting that Lovecraft praised Clark Ashton Smith as one of the modern (early 20th century) masters of the weird tale. 

'''Poseidonis''' and '''Hyperborea''' overlap in theme if not in setting. The former is a subcontinental remnant of sunken [[Atlantis]] that ''avoided'' the ocean. Klarkash-Ton's stories for both of those settings revolve around a magical culture characterized by bizarreness, cruelty, death and postmortem horrors.

'''[[Averoigne]]''' is Smith's version of pre-modern France; at least of John the Magnificent's Berry-to-Auvergne part of it. It compares with James Branch Cabell's Poictesme: an alternate Earth where magic is very real, just illegal, and cracked down upon by the [[Catholic]] church.

'''Zothique''' - debuting late in his career - exists millions of years in the future. It is "the last continent of earth, when the sun is dim and tarnished". This inspired [[Jack Vance]]'s Dying Earth series and then [[Gene Wolfe]]'s New Sun.

Smith is most of interest to /tg/ for his role in inspiring [[Gary Gygax]] to write [[Dungeons & Dragons]], as he has long been [[Appendix N|listed]] in the inspirations for D&D as a whole. The adventure module [[X2: Castle Amber]] invokes a cross-over between [[Mystara]] and [[Averoigne]].

CAS's D&D revitalisation was all super-annoying to 1980s kiddies who could never track down this man's much-hyped work at the bookstores or libraries. But then the Internet came along and [http://www.eldritchdark.com/ Eldritch Dark] posted whatever they legally could. Those mad lads at Nightshade Press recently Got Shit Done and edited every story the man ever wrote from the original manuscripts - definitely an improvement over ED's 1990s-flava webpages, much as they were appreciated then. Seriously, go out and buy all five Nightshade volumes, you will not regret it.

Perhaps ''because'' Eldritch Dark made Clark's Zothique writings (especially) more-or-less readily available, its [[necromancer]]s are cited as a direct inspiration in [[The Complete Book of|The Complete Necromancer's Handbook]]; [[Wolfgang Baur]] also quotes such content. And in [[Pathfinder]] Zothique's [[ghoul]]-worshipped Great Old One [[Mordiggian]] became a deity.

= Links = 
* http://www.eldritchdark.com/ : a repository of Clark Ashton Smith writings that skirts on the public domain limitations. 
* https://nightshade.start-publishing.com/author/722/clark-ashton-smith/ : the nicely printed books. 



[[Category: Writers]] [[Category: Cthulhu Mythos]]