Abstract

On Smith's education and autobiographical details (citing Robinson Crusoe, Gulliver's Travels, Hans Christian Andersen and the Countess D'aulnoy, the Arabian Nights, Edgar Allan Poe, Baudelaire, William Beckford's Vathek, the Black Cat and Overland Monthly, H. P. Lovecraft, "The Abominations of Yondo"), leading in to Smith's occupations (writing, poetry, and otherwise), including the recent "Schizoid Creator," "Morthylla," and "Theft of the Thirty-Nine Girdles" (starring Satampra Zeiros from Lost Worlds); answering de Camp's other autobiographical questions, including those Smith has met (E. Hoffmann Price, Donald Wandrei, Al Williamson, Fritz Leiber Jr, Edmond Hamilton, Francis T. Laney of The Acolyte); Smith not keeping a motel or pack of dogs (and his last cat disappeared); on the unfinished novel "The Infernal Star" and the projects novel "The Scarlet Succubus" (suggested by "The Succubus" in Balzac's Droll Stories); on Smith's reading habits (most recently The Spear in the Sand by Raoul Faure and The Adventures of King Pausole by Pierre Louys, as well as Aldous Huxley, Walter de la Mare, John Collier, Maupassant, and Flaubert); on translating French and Spanish poetry, and "The Dead Will Cuckold You"; on Smith's writing-habits; praise for de Camp's fantastic humor tales, wishing to get The Rogue Queen and The Tritonian Ring. Postscript: Enclosing T. G. L. Cockroft's The Tales of Clark Ashton Smith.

Cited By

TBD

Included In

• Selected Letters of Clark Ashton Smith (unabridged)