I can’t agree with the high-brows that the “weird” is dead—either in poetry or anywhere else. They’re all suffering from mechanized imaginations. But, I, for one, refuse to submit to the arid, earth-bound spirit of the time; and I think there is sure to be a romantic revival sooner or later—a revolt against mechanization and over-socialization, etc. If there isn’t—then I hope to hell my next incarnation will be in some happier and freer planet. Neither the ethics or the aesthetics of the ant-hill have any attraction for me.
6
The story did appear in the April 1926 issue of the Overland Monthly, and was selected as the title story for Smith’s fourth story collection from Arkham House. Sterling told CAS that it “awoke many protests from the mentally infirm, I’m told,”7 presumably by editor B. Virginia Lee. This delighted Smith, who felt that “‘Yondo’ must have had a kick in it, after all, if it aroused so many protests.”8 He would enjoy telling this story to his friends for many years.
1. CAS, letter to S. J. Sackett, June 30, 1949 (SL 360).
2. HPL, letter to CAS, October 9, 1925 (Arkham House transcripts).
3. FW, letter to CAS, October 21, 1925 (ms., JHL).
4. George Sterling, letter to CAS, June 18, 1925 (SU 252).
5. George Sterling, letter to CAS, November 28, 1925 (SU 263).
6. CAS, letter to George Sterling, December 1, 1925 (SL 84, SU 264).
7. George Sterling, letter to CAS, April 18, 1926 (SU 271).
8. CAS, letter to George Sterling, May 8, 1926 (SL 85, SU 272).
Sadastor
The only known surviving manuscript of “Sadastor” is a holographic draft at JHL, which is undated. CAS mentions not having completed it as of March 20, 1925,1 then we hear no more of it until Lovecraft congratulates CAS for the tale’s completion and acceptance by WT, which published it in the July 1930 issue.2 It is possible that Smith put the story aside as a result of the disagreement with George Sterling over “The Abominations of Yondo,” only to complete it at a later date. This hypothesis is supported by Smith’s own log of “Completed Stories,” which lists “Sadastor” as its first entry, but omits “The Ninth Skeleton,” discussed below, and by remarks made to Donald Wandrei.3 It was included in OST and PP. A copy of OST corrected by CAS was compared with the manuscript to clarify any errors.
1. CAS, letter to HPL, March 20, 1925 (SL 76).
2. HPL, letter to CAS, December 8, 1928 (ms, JHL).
3. Weird Tales has just accepted a prose-fantasy entitled ‘Sadastor,’ which was one of the odds-and-ends begun years ago and finished recently.” CAS to DAW, November 26, 1928 (ms, MHS).
The Ninth Skeleton
In July 1927 CAS went on a camping trip into the Sierra Nevada mountains around Donner Lake with his friends, Genevieve K. Sully and her daughters Helen and Marion. It was on this trip that Smith’s imagination was inflamed by the “foreboding and grotesque landscape”1 and the strange rock formations around Crater Lake. Mrs. Sully had already decided to use this trip as an opportunity to take CAS “to task for idleness,” encouraging him to begin writing short stories for magazines such as WT, to which task he made his pledge. He wrote Lovecraft that “I have some ideas for weird stories, and will try to work them out at the first opportunity. I think of utilizing the local milieu—one of my conceptions concerns a man who takes a stroll on Boulder Ridge, the long, rambling volcanic moraine on which I live, and suddenly finds that he has lost his way, and is wandering in a strange nightmare country, that affords all manner of discomforting and disagreeable scenes and incidents.”3 The only existing manuscript is an undated holograph draft. Steve Behrends4 dates the tale to after April 1928 but before August of that same year, since FW accepted it and published it in the September 1928 issue of WT. HPL wrote CAS that “Your ‘Ninth Skeleton” pleased me tremendously, & was undoubtedly the finest piece by far in the recent Weird Tales. It has a pervasive, haunting atmosphere, & all the magic & colouring of authentic dream.”5 “The Ninth Skeleton” was included in GL, CAS’s third Arkham House collection. This text is based upon GL, with the WT and holograph draft versions being closely consulted to correct any errors.
1. Genevieve K. Sully, Letter in EOD p. 190.
2. CAS, letter to HPL, c. January 27, 1931 (SL 145, LL 25).
3. CAS, letter to HPL, [March 20, 1928] (LL 1).
4. Steve Behrends, “An Annotated Chronology of Smith’s Fiction.” Crypt of Cthulhu No. 26 (Hallowmas 1984): 17. Rpt. in The Freedom of Fantastic Things, ed. Scott Connors (Hippocampus Press, 2006, 338-345).
5. HPL, letter to CAS, August 31 [1928] (Arkham House transcripts).
The Last Incantation
This story was completed on September 23, 1929, and was accepted by FW on October 5, 1929; Smith was to receive fifteen dollars upon publication.1 It was published in WT for June 1930, and was included in LW. He described the story to Donald Wandrei thus: “My main intention and endeavour, just now, is the writing of a few short stories, in a weird, fantastic vein. One, ‘The Last Incantation of Malygris,’ which I am just beginning, deals with an old sorcerer who tries to evoke the dead sweetheart of his youth, with disastrous results.”2 A typescript presented to Genevieve K. Sully was used to establish the text.
1. FW, letter to CAS, October 15, 1929 (ms, JHL).
2. CAS, letter to DAW, August 26, 1928 (ms, MHS).
The End of the Story
The surviving holograph manuscript deposited at JHL is dated October 1, 1929. FW snapped the story up, offering Smith fifty dollars upon publication.1 It appeared in the May 1930 of WT, and was voted the best story in the issue by the readers. It was included in OST, which was originally to have been entitled The End of the Story and Other Tales. A copy of OST corrected by CAS was consulted along with the holograph manuscript in determining the text.
1. FW, letter to CAS, October 18, 1929 (private collection).
The Phantoms of the Fire
The typescript at JHL is dated October 7, 1929. Smith received twenty dollars for it when it appeared in the September 1930 issue of WT.1It was later included in GL. Smith told Lovecraft that the story was “no favorite with me—I prefer nearly all my other tales.”2 HPL said of the tale “I rather like local colour myself, & think it often adds substance & verisimilitude to plots which would seem very thin & unconvincing without it.”3 As a resident of rural northern California, Smith was intimately familiar with the dangers posed by brush fires; he describes in vivid detail one such blaze in a letter to Mrs. Sully dated July 19, 1931(SL 155-157).
1. WT, letter to CAS, July 29, 1930 (ms, JHL).
2. CAS, letter to HPL, August 22, 1930 (SL 117, LL 10).
3. HPL, letter to CAS, October 29, 1929 (Arkham House transcripts).
A Night in Malnéant