For somewhat understandable reasons, John D. Haefele's erudite, well researched, yet easy to read book A LOOK BEHIND THE DERLETH MYTHOS, subtitled "Origins of the 'Cthulhu Mythos'," is strongly thought of as just another H.P. Lovecraft/August Derleth go around. Leaving the H.P.L./A.D. thing for other more appropriate sites, I would like to point out that Haefele's book does an excellent job of revealing how Derleth & Arkham House put considerable dedication to promoting/keeping the "public's" awareness of Clark Ashton Smith and his work! :-)

For example, on page 161 of the paperback version of A LOOK BEHIND THE DERLETH MYTHOS (The Cimmerian Press revised edition), Haefele informs us, "...Something in Wood, written in 1946 or early 1947...I speculate elsewhere how Something in Wood was meant to fan interest in the mineral carvings of Clark Ashton Smith; but more importantly, given the story's timely appearance in Weird Tales, it was written to promote interest in the forthcoming Arkham House collection of Smith's work, Genius Loci and Other Tales (see my own 'Far from Time: Clark Ashton Smith, August Derleth and Arkham House,' in Weird Fiction Review 1 [2010]." For those who may not know, but that particular collection of CAS tales from Arkham House also sported a fine photo of one of Clark's mineral carvings on its cover as well! :-)

And, on the same page, John D. Haefele writes, "Something in Wood is a superior story about a fictional critic named Jason Wector, who also collects primative sculptures and has in his collection (along with Smith's works) strange 'religious carvings of the Penitentes' and macabre 'bas-reliefs of the Maya,' and eventually - unfortunately - the ultra-trans dimensional carving of an Ancient One."

If you haven't already, I strongly recommend checking out A LOOK BEHIND THE DERLETH MYTHOS (especially now that it is in a more affordable paperback version), but with Clark Ashton Smith in mind! Of course, CAS devotees here will find some enjoyable reading with Derleth's short story "Something in Wood." Plus, for those with a more serious bent, do try and read the essay by Haefele which appears in the publication WEIRD FICTION REVIEW 1! :-)



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10 Sep 16 | 03:45PM by Frederick.

I hope someday someone produces a small volume of the correspondence of AWD and CAS, or what survives of i.

Ancient History Wrote:
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> I hope someday someone produces a small volume of
> the correspondence of AWD and CAS, or what
> survives of i.

Such a volume is in the making, along with one of the CAS/Loveman correspondence and one of the CAS/DAW+RHB correspondence. Or at least CAS's side of each correspondence.

Is it true that Ravi Shankar knew Clark Ashton Smith?! In person? I find that hard to believe. Smith mentioned using Shankar's ragas as background music for an envisaged recording of his own "The Dead Will Cuckold You". But that Shankar was aware of Smith's writings, or that the two actually met?!!!

Did August Derleth assert such in his letters to Ramsey Campbell? Perhaps Derleth's enthusiasm sometimes overshadowed his sense of reality?

Smith essentially never left his little cabin in an obscure corner of California. The possibility that Ravi Shankar may have happened to pass by seems remote.