Clark Ashton Smith

(January 13, 1893 - August 14, 1961) was a poet, sculptor, painter and author of fantasy, horror and science fiction short stories. It is for these stories, and his literary friendship with H. P. Lovecraft from 1922 until Lovecraft's death in 1937, that he is mainly remembered today. With Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard, also a friend and correspondent, Smith remains one of the most famous contributors to the pulp magazine Weird Tales.
Smith spent most of his life in the small town of Auburn, California, living in a small cabin with his parents, Fanny and Timeus Smith. His formal education was limited: he attended only eight years of grammar school and never went to high school. However, he continued to teach himself after he left school, learning French and Spanish, and his near-photographic memory allowed him to retain prodigious amounts from his very wide reading, including several entire dictionaries and encyclopedias.
In addition to his stories, Smith also contributed to the Cthulhu Mythos as an artist, providing the original illustrations for Lovecraft's "The Lurking Fear", as well as some of his own fiction, such as "The Colossus of Ylourgne". He also made sculptures of several entities of the Mythos.
==Early writing and influences==
Smith began writing stories at the age of eleven and two of them, The Sword of Zagan and The Black Diamonds, have recently been published by Hippocampus Press. Both stories use a medieval, Arabian Nights-like setting, and the Arabian Nights, like the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm and the works of Edgar Allan Poe, are known to have strongly influenced Smith's early writing.
In his later youth Smith became the protégé of the San Francisco poet George Sterling, who helped him to publish his first volume of poems, The Star-Treader and Other Poems, at the age of nineteen. The Star-Treader was received very favorably by American critics, one of whom named Smith "the Keats of the Pacific." Smith made the acquaintance of Sterling through a member of the local Auburn Monday Night Club, where he read several of his poems with considerable success. The publication of Ebony and Crystal in 1922 was followed by a fan letter from H. P. Lovecraft, which was the beginning of fifteen years of friendship and correspondence.
==Work and marriage==
Smith was poor for most of his life and was often forced to take menial jobs such as fruitpicking and woodcutting in order to support himself and his parents. Following the death of his parents, he married Carol Jones Dorman on 10 November 1954 and moved to Pacific Grove, California, where he set up a household with their children.
==Health and death==
Smith suffered from eye problems throughout his life. He died in his sleep on August 14th 1961.
==Artistic periods==
While Smith was always an artist who worked in several very different media, it is possible to identify three distinct periods in which one form of art had precedence over the others.
===Poetry: Until 1961===
Smith published most of his volumes of poetry in this period, including the aforementioned The Star-Treader and Other Poems, as well as Odes and Sonnets (1918), Ebony and Crystal (1922) and Sandalwood (1925). His epic poem "The Hashish-Eater; Or, the Apocalypse of Evil" was written in 1920.
===Weird Fiction 1926–1935===
Smith wrote most of his weird fiction and Cthulhu Mythos stories, possibly inspired by H. P. Lovecraft during this period. Creatures of his invention include Aforgomon, Rlim Shaikorth, Mordiggian, Tsathoggua, the wizard Eibon, and various others.
The stories form several cycles, called after the lands in which they are set: Averoigne, Hyperborea, Mars, Poseidonis, Xiccarph, Zothique. Stories set in Zothique belong to the Dying Earth subgenre.
His short stories originally appeared in the magazines Weird Tales, Strange Tales, Astounding Stories, Stirring Science Stories and Wonder Stories. Many of the stories were published in six hardcover volumes by August Derleth under the Arkham House imprint. Some were also collected as Lost Worlds Vols 1 and 2 (LW1 and LW2).
===Sculpture: 1935–1961===
By this time his interest in writing fiction began to lessen and he turned to creating sculptures from soft rock such as soapstone.
==In the Mythos==
==Selected Bibliography==
===Short Fiction=== 
*"The Return of the Sorcerer" (1931)
*"The Hunters from Beyond" (1932)
*"The Nameless Offspring" (1932)
*"The Tomb-Spawn" (1934)
*"The Dark Eidolon" (1935)
*"The Treader of the Dust" (1935)
*"The Chain of Aforgomon" (1935)
*"The Family Tree of the Gods" (1944)
*"The Master of Crabs" (1948)
===Averoigne===
*"The End of the Story" (1930)
*"A Rendezvous in Averoigne" (1931)
*"The Satyr" (1931)
*"The Maker of Gargoyles" (1932)
*"The Holiness of Azédarac" (1933)
*"The Beast of Averoigne" (1933)
*"The Mandrakes" (1933)
*"The Colossus of Ylourgne" (1934)
*"The Disinterment of Venus" (1934)
*"Mother of Toads" (1938)
*"The Enchantress of Sylaire" (1941)
===Hyperborea===
*"The Tale of Satampra Zeiros" (1931)
*"The Door to Saturn" (1932)
*"The Weird of Avoosl Wuthoqquan" (1932)
*"The Testament of Athammaus" (1932)
*"The Ice-Demon" (1933)
*"Ubbo-Sathla" (1933)
*"The White Sybil" (1934)
*"The Muse of Hyperborea" (1934)
*"The Seven Geases" (1934)
*"The Coming of the White Worm" (1941)
*"The Theft of Thirty-Nine Girdles" (as "The Power of Hyperborea"; 1958)
===Mars Cycle===
*"The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis" (1932)
*"The Dweller in the Gulf" (as "Dweller in Martian Depths"; 1933)
*"Vulthoom" (1935)
===Poetry===
*"Atlantis" (1912)
*"To Howard Phillips Lovecraft" (1958)
*"Zothique" (1951)
*"In Lemuria" (1971)
===Unfinished stories=== 
*"The Sorceress of Averoigne/The Tower of Istarelle"
*"The Werewolf of Averoigne"
===Posthumous works===
Lin Carter completed some of Smith's unfinished stories, crediting Smith as a posthumous collaborator
*"The Unbegotten Source" (1984; based on "Ubbo-Sathla")
*"The Feaster from the Stars" (1984)
es:
Category:Deceased (Real World)
Category:Lovecraft's Correspondents
Category:Artists