Letter to Clark Ashton Smith

From H. P. Lovecraft

10 Barnes St

June 17, 1926

Dear C A S:—

I have not been writing fiction lately—not because the lack of recognition means anything to me one way or the other, but because other affairs have consumed every ounce of my time & energy. I have added paragraphs here & there to my history of the weird tale, but have mostly been busy with reading—amending many literary deficiencies of which I have been ashamed for years. . . . . . I've also been digesting something of vast interest as background or source material—which has belatedly introduced me to a cycle of myth with which I have reason to believe you are particularly familiar—i.e., the Atlantis-Lemuria tales, as developed by modern occultists & the sophical charlatans. Really, some of these hints about the lost "City of the Golden Gates" & the shapeless monsters of archaic Lemuria are ineffably pregnant with fantastic suggestion; & I only wish I could get hold of more of the stuff. What I have read is The Story of Atlantis & the Lost Lemuria, by W. Scott Elliott.

Most cordially & fantastically yrs—
H P L

Selected Letters (Arkham House) 223

Printed from: eldritchdark.com/writings/correspondence/95
Printed on: March 29, 2024