[8] [23 April 1930]

Dear E'ch-Pi-El:

"The Outsider" is a masterpiece of shadowy cobweb horror, with illimitable suggestive values and overtones. Honestly, I think it more successful than two-thirds of Poe! [. . .]

Your southern pasear sounds marvellously inviting, and I know you will enjoy it. Wandrei writes me that he may visit California this summer. [1]

[. . .] Yes, I might write a whole series, with Averoigne for the milieu; but I have so many ideas, with geographical locations in widely scattered realms of myth and fancy, that I may not get around to Averoigne again for awhile! But certainly it's a temptation to repeat some scene or character; and among other things, I shall certainly write another tale about Vizaphmal, the Antarean scientist in "The monster of the Prophecy" I think the title will be "Vizaphmal in Ophiuchus"; it will be full of fantastic contingencies and perils. [2]

[. . .]

As ever, Ci-Ay-Ess,
the evangelist of Tsathoggua,
and the archivist of Mu and Antares.

Footnotes

1. 1. Donald Wandrei's first visit to Smith took place in November 1934. He saw Smith twice more, in March 1943 and November 1950.
2. 2. Smith never wrote this sequel, See Strange Shadows: The Uncollected Fiction of Clark Ashton Smith (1989) for a synopsis to "Vizaphmal in Ophiuchus".

From: Clark Ashton Smith: LETTERS TO H. P. LOVECRAFT, edited by and footnotes by Steve Behrends (July 1987) Necronomicon Press.