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“None among the young American writers can make the note of cosmic terror vibrate with the same mastery as the Californian poet, artist, and bohemian Clark Ashton Smith, whose bizarre compositions, drawings, paintings, and novellas delight a select few receptive souls.”
In this manner, H.P. Lovecraft introduces Clark Ashton Smith in his essay Supernatural Horror in Literature. A judgment in retrospect perhaps too generous but, in any case, highlighting the cosmic fantasist qualities of this writer. Even in Italy, after years of oblivion, something has finally moved. First came Atlantis and the Lost Worlds curated by the late Giuseppe Lippi and now this Hyperborea and Beyond, a volume by Clark Ashton Smith just released in the Draghi Mondadori series that will surely delight those who were going crazy on the collector's market searching for Fanucci volumes (the "Cthulhu Myths" series) like Metamorphoses of the Earth and indeed Hyperborea which are now quoted excessively high (even 100-150 Euro per copy). That said, in the book curated and translated by Massimo Scorsone, we also find numerous unpublished works, including many of his splendid poems from the collection Ebony And Crystal. In particular, The Hashish Eater is a true masterpiece of decadent and bizarre poetry in which stand out all the characteristics of this author who, according to the aforementioned Giuseppe Lippi, was to be considered on par with H.P. Lovecraft for imaginative power. A more severe judgment from S.T. Joshi, who, in the biography on Lovecraft “I Am Providence,” somewhat downplays, in his opinion, the value of Clark Ashton Smith, fundamentally considering him a poet. The impression is indeed of Joshi not being able to understand the cult surrounding him. Undoubtedly, he does not appeal to everyone, and some consider him outdated. But it is also true that he enjoys the ardent admiration of many followers who consider him akin to a deity. In my opinion, he is a peculiar writer, objectively too baroque, but who nonetheless deserves to be read even if, unlike Lippi, I do not consider him on par with Lovecraft and find his sculptures disappointing. As a poet, he is, however, very remarkable. Among the stories present in this volume, I cannot fail to mention Sadastor, a true masterpiece of cosmic horror that makes the mind travel beyond time and space. But also The Abominations of Yondo is a notable story, a sort of prose poem full of a delirious atmosphere and imagination. In The Tale of Satampra Zeiros, the figure of the god Tsatthogua appears for the first time (later used by Lovecraft in The Whisperer In Darkness). In Ubbo Sathla, we witness a sort of primordial regression of the protagonist, the young Englishman Paul Tregardis who, through a crystal found by a junk dealer, transforms into the sorcerer Zon Mezzamalech. "The Coming of the White Worm" is instead a sort of black biblical parable, very decadent and apocalyptic. It is noteworthy that many of these stories were initially rejected by the Weird Tales editor Farnsworth Wright as they were considered too indigestible for the average reader of the magazine, something that did not fail to please Clark Ashton Smith. Hyperborea and Beyond should not be missing from the shelves of weird enthusiasts.
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