The Last Oblivion: Best Fantastic Poetry of Clark Ashton Smith [Paperback]

S. T. Joshi (Editor), David E. Schultz (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2002

Clark Ashton Smith could well be considered one of the great poets of the twentieth century, and much of his verse explores the realms of fantasy, terror, wonder, and the supernatural. In this volume—the first major selection of Smith’s poetry in more than thirty years—editors S. T. Joshi and David E. Schultz have presented an extensive array of poetic work that fully reveals Smith’s exotic language, imaginative range, and metrical precision. Including work from as early as the precocious Star-Treader and Other Poems (1912) and as late as the posthumously published The Hill of Dionysus (1962), The Last Oblivion features such celebrated works as "Nero," "Ode to the Abyss," and Smith’s exquisite elegies to his mentor George Sterling and to his colleague in fantasy, H. P. Lovecraft. Poems on Zothique, Averoigne, and Atlantis, realms in which many of his prose tales are set, are also featured. More than two dozen unpublished or uncollected poems, never previously included in any of Smith’s books, make The Last Oblivion a must for Smith devotees. Two full-color illustrations by Clark Ashton Smith and an exhaustive glossary of unusual words and names used in Smith’s poetry enhance the volume.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The Last Oblivion: Best Fantastic Poems of Clark Ashton Smith, edited by S.T. Joshi and David E. Schultz, will please fans of the late bard of Auburndale. This popular edition includes all the scholarly apparatus one has come to expect from these editors, including a glossary, bibliography, index of titles and index of first lines, plus two color illustrations of Smith paintings.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Clark Ashton Smith (1893–1961) has attained celebrity as the author of more than 100 evocative tales of fantasy and horror, collected in such volumes as Out of Space and Time and The Abominations of Yondo. His Selected Poems (1971) includes a substantial proportion of his verse, but much remains uncollected. S. T. Joshi and David E. Schultz are leading authorities on Smith, H. P. Lovecraft, and their circle. Among their numerous publications are Hippocampus Press editions of Lovecraft’s The Annotated Supernatural Horror in Literature (2000) and The Shadow out of Time (2001).

Product Details

• Paperback: 200 pages
• Publisher: Hippocampus Pr (October 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0967321557
• ISBN-13: 978-0967321554
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #641,186 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Romantic & Otherworldly, April 13, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: The Last Oblivion: Best Fantastic Poetry of Clark Ashton Smith (Paperback)

Clark Ashton Smith isn't for everyone, but his romantic & otherworldly poems, full of sensual, exotic words and crammed with bizarre images, are, in my opinion, among the most underrated poems of the 20th century. Primarily remembered (if at all) for his stories and his association with Lovecraft, Smith was a highly original and idiosyncratic writer, visual artist and (above all) poet, a creative artist whose imagination puts him in a league with the likes of Goya, Baudelaire or Scriabin. Smith did not care about academic trends in poetry - not a modernist, he was more of an antimodernist. I guess you could classify him as a symbolist, but he mostly was concerned with expressing his inner visions, at making connections (like Lovecraft) between the human imagination and the cosmic.

This is an excellent selection of Smith's poetry - some favorites include "The Hashish Eater," ""The Witch in the Graveyard" and "A Vision of Lucifer." An added plus is the color reproductions of Smith's paintings, which are even harder to find than his poems. The editors and publisher are to be commended.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "One of the premier American poets of the twentieth century...", July 14, 2005

By 

N. Curtis "necropolitan-press.com" (New Paltz, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Last Oblivion: Best Fantastic Poetry of Clark Ashton Smith (Paperback)

5.5" x 8.5" softcover book. 194 pages.

Most people might know the name Clark Ashton Smith for his forays into short fiction. These endeavors placed him within the trinity of Weird Tales authors, a position shared with H. P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard. Though few might recognize him as the "poetic prodigy on the order of Keats and Shelley" he was announced as in 1912 (at the tender age of 19) by "readers and critics alike". Under the guidance of George Sterling, at the time "the reigning literary figure of San Francisco", Smith blossomed into what he should be recognized as: "one of the premier American poets of the twentieth century".

Included within the pages of The Last Oblivion one finds Smith's full array of poetic work: the esoteric and exotic languages, the imaginative and fantastical landscapes, and the precise metrical tone harkening back to the classical masters of the field. Included aside Smith's various odes and elegies are poems regarding the fantastical realms of Zothique, Averoigne, and Atlantis; locales that Smith readers will surely recognize from his short stories.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Strange and Profound Gnosis, November 25, 2002

By 

Kevin S. Schemerholtz (Sunny Oakland, California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Last Oblivion: Best Fantastic Poetry of Clark Ashton Smith (Paperback)

Excellent book! This is some of the best poetry you'll find anywhere, and its publication is a reason to rejoice! CAS excelled at a very dark and beautiful poetry and some of his best pieces are in here. It has some unreprinted material, as well as some poems that have seen very little light in the past. Great production values and three nice, full color paintings. I highly reommend it!