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Fantasy Aspects, issue 2, November 1947
Page 13
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FROM TUMERILS ERLIS IN BAKELITE by JAMES BLISH Clark Ashton Smith has been called "the greatest American poet" by Edwin Markham, and while it is obvious from internal evidence that "The Man With the Hoe" was a fluke, it is possible for a man to be right twice in his life. Benjamin Cassseres, once a considerable figure in American letters before he took a job with one of Hearst's papers, spoke of Smith in glowing terms; David Warren Ryder and George Sterling, as well as Samuel Loveman, may be added to the list of discerning people who have found things in Smith's work to admire. If one adds to the list the nearly endless columns written about Smith by fantasy fans from Lovecraft on down, it becomes evident that this one man has been one of the most extravagantly eulogized figures in American literary history--the sheer wordage concerning him nearly equals that written about Branch Cabell, a truly fantastic numeral if one attempts, as I have, to run most of it down. In the attempt another fact soon becomes evident: except for one or two short articles, totalling perhaps 2000 words, no true criticism of Smith has ever appeared in professional or amateur print. I have sought nearly fruitlessly for paragraphs about the man which set forth a clear perception of the kind of work he does, its relationship to the rest of literature past and present, its antecedents and progeny; for any paragraph about him not crammed with sweeping dogmatic statements, false associations, basis of judgment that shift at the whim of the writer sometime in the very course of a line, report of estimates without documentation or demonstration, and-emotional assesments which clearly indicate nothing save that their author likes fantasy no matter who writes it, or how badly. More: until last year, despite the fact that Smith has been active for more years than most fans can remember, there was no anthology of Smith's work, nor did any general anthology include a line of his much lauded poetry --- nor are any of the latter ever likely to do so now, since Arkham bookbinders in their expected way have crammed every turkey egg Smith ever laid into print without the slightest discrimination, so that Smith in book form acyually means less than Smith hidden from sight in pulp, amateur, and private publications. It would be interesting to compile a list of representative paragraphs from some of the best articles about this man with comments appended in the style of the Institute of Propaganda Analysis, but the space limitations of TUMBRILS being what they are, a bibliography must ---- Page 13 ----
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FROM TUMERILS ERLIS IN BAKELITE by JAMES BLISH Clark Ashton Smith has been called "the greatest American poet" by Edwin Markham, and while it is obvious from internal evidence that "The Man With the Hoe" was a fluke, it is possible for a man to be right twice in his life. Benjamin Cassseres, once a considerable figure in American letters before he took a job with one of Hearst's papers, spoke of Smith in glowing terms; David Warren Ryder and George Sterling, as well as Samuel Loveman, may be added to the list of discerning people who have found things in Smith's work to admire. If one adds to the list the nearly endless columns written about Smith by fantasy fans from Lovecraft on down, it becomes evident that this one man has been one of the most extravagantly eulogized figures in American literary history--the sheer wordage concerning him nearly equals that written about Branch Cabell, a truly fantastic numeral if one attempts, as I have, to run most of it down. In the attempt another fact soon becomes evident: except for one or two short articles, totalling perhaps 2000 words, no true criticism of Smith has ever appeared in professional or amateur print. I have sought nearly fruitlessly for paragraphs about the man which set forth a clear perception of the kind of work he does, its relationship to the rest of literature past and present, its antecedents and progeny; for any paragraph about him not crammed with sweeping dogmatic statements, false associations, basis of judgment that shift at the whim of the writer sometime in the very course of a line, report of estimates without documentation or demonstration, and-emotional assesments which clearly indicate nothing save that their author likes fantasy no matter who writes it, or how badly. More: until last year, despite the fact that Smith has been active for more years than most fans can remember, there was no anthology of Smith's work, nor did any general anthology include a line of his much lauded poetry --- nor are any of the latter ever likely to do so now, since Arkham bookbinders in their expected way have crammed every turkey egg Smith ever laid into print without the slightest discrimination, so that Smith in book form acyually means less than Smith hidden from sight in pulp, amateur, and private publications. It would be interesting to compile a list of representative paragraphs from some of the best articles about this man with comments appended in the style of the Institute of Propaganda Analysis, but the space limitations of TUMBRILS being what they are, a bibliography must ---- Page 13 ----
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