Any Clark Ashton Smith experts out there?

[Pozatronic]

I'm interested in reading some of his work, but I don't quite know where to start. His Zothique tales appeal to me the most, so that's where I want to begin. Night Shade books has started a 5 volume collection of his tales, but cross checking them with this Zothique wiki, it appears that the first Zothique story doesn't appear until volume 3. Also, they're $35 a piece, and I don't want to drop that much money on an author I've never read before.

So I went amazoning and found these couple of books: an orginal Zothique paperback published in 1970 and the much more recent Lost Worlds, published just last year. However, I don't know how many Zothique storys appear in this volume.

Anybody here have any of these publications? Can anybody point me in another direction?

 

[trancejeremy]

There are two CAS collections from that Bison Books company. My library has them and i read them a few months ago. There were a few Zothique stories in them, but not many (I think 1-2 each). Empire of the Necromancers I remember (that's a sick story) and I think The Isle of the Torturers.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Much of his stuff is public domain, and available free online. You could read some of it there, get a sense about whether you want to buy any of it in print or not.

http://www.eldritchdark.com/

 

[mmadsen]

I'm interested in reading some of his work, but I don't quite know where to start. His Zothique tales appeal to me the most, so that's where I want to begin.

I wouldn't get hung up on whether a story is a Zothique tale or not. His Hyperborea, Atlantis, and Averoigne tales are all excellent D&D fodder. You won't go wrong with that Lost Worlds collection.

 

[Cthulhudrew]

For a good overview, you might look for the recently back to print A Rendezvous in Averoigne. The one there is kind of pricy, actually (I got an original copy of the 1988 printing at a Borders a couple of years back for around $25 cover, IIRC- I used a gift certificate, so it was actually less for me).

Rendezvous contains almost all of his Averoigne and Hyperborea cycles, all of his Zothique cycle, as well as many of his other short stories that don't fit into a single category. Best CAS bang for your buck that I've found, bar none.

Another really good one that I was able to get due to the machinations of one of my coworkers (when I worked at Barnes & Noble) was the softcover Book of Hyperborea. Again, out of print now- mine must have been one of the last in stock at the time- but I recall my friend saying that they had been planning to reprint it at the time (though from a quick Google it doesn't look like it).

In any event, depending on your location, you might very well be able to find much of CAS' work at your local library. When I was in Phoenix, the public library and the ASU library both had a lot of his material available. As Mouseferatu notes, there is quite a bit of it viewable on the Eldritch Dark website as well.