The Shadow of the Unattained: The Letters of George Sterling and Clark Ashton Smith

by Clark Ashton Smith, George Sterling, David E. Schultz (Editor)

In 1911 the poet George Sterling was the focus of a thriving literary community in California that included Jack London, Mary Austin, and the aged Ambrose Bierce. When he received a letter and some manuscript poems from a young writer in Auburn named Clark Ashton Smith, he immediately recognized that a literary prodigy of tremendous potential had come his way, and for the remaining fifteen years of his life he nurtured Smith’s poetic talent with care and sensitivity. This volume presents, for the first time, the complete surviving correspondence between these two poetic titans. In the decade and a half of their involvement, they exchanged many poems and prose works, visited each other on several occasions, and discussed the burning literary and social issues of the day—Modernist poetry, the founding of Weird Tales, the publication of their collections of cosmic and fantastic verse, and much else besides. Such figures as H. L. Mencken, H. P. Lovecraft, and Donald Wandrei are the subjects of their frequent letters, and we come to see why Smith took over the mantle of poetic greatness from Sterling, whose suicide in 1926 left Smith shocked and bereft. As an appendix, all of Smith’s essays on Sterling, and Sterling’s writings on Smith, are gathered.   This volume has been scrupulously annotated by David E. Schultz and S. T. Joshi, leading authorities on Smith, Sterling, Lovecraft, Bierce, and other writers.

342 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2005

About the author

Clark Ashton Smith was a poet, sculptor, painter and author of fantasy, horror and science fiction short stories. It is for these stories, and his literary friendship with H. P. Lovecraft from 1922 until Lovecraft's death in 1937, that he is mainly remembered today. With Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard, also a friend and correspondent, Smith remains one of the most famous contributors to the pulp magazine Weird Tales.

His writings are posted at his official website.

Reviews

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

The collected letters of Clark Ashton Smith (CAS) and George Sterling proved to be ideal companion reading to CAS' early poetry, given that the start of his career in verse really gained momentum from his relationship with Sterling.

The letters are not always of deep interest (there's a lot of complaining about publishers, critics, etc) but they do serve to illuminate each poet's view of their craft, and their eventually divergent views of what sorts of topics poetry should deal with. Both correspondents made their mark with formal, metrical poetry inspired by the grand romantic tradition, but in his later years Sterling began to doubt that approach in light of changing poetic styles in the early twentieth century. CAS, on the other hand, never doubted the value of his work, and was confident that it would come back into fashion at some point.

I'd only recommend this volume to someone who is simultaneously reading the poetry of CAS and/or Sterling, since by themselves these letters are of somewhat limited interest. But as a companion to the poetry, this volume provides a mix of biography and commentary that can illuminate some aspects of the works in verse.