Lair of the Eldritch Dark gathers many of Clark Ashton Smith's classic tales of fantasy and horror—along with his ethereal poetry and prose poems—together in one wide-ranging volume of speculative fantastical fiction and verse.
A great friend of H. P. Lovecraft and a contemporary of Robert E. Howard, Smith’s vivid imagination and unique antiheroes created worlds that pushed the accepted boundaries of both realism and fantasy, ushering in new ways of writing while challenging readers to think differently.
Smith's wide-ranging influence is still felt strongly today. His enthusiastic readers went on to build and mold the genres of fantasy, horror, and SF as we know them. Gene Wolfe, Fritz Leiber, Ray Bradbury, Jack Vance, Leigh Brackett, Harlan Ellison, and George R. R. Martin among many others were influenced by Smith's otherworldly, visionary fiction.
The following books, stories, poems, and prose poems are included in Lair of the Eldritch Dark:
Books of Poetry and Prose Poems:
The Star-Treader and Other Poems
Ebony and Crystal: Poems in Verse and Prose
Short Stories:
Averoigne:
The Colossus of Ylourgne
The Disinterment of Venus
Mother of Toads
The Enchantress of Sylaire
A Rendezvous In Averoigne
Hyperborea:
The Door to Saturn
The Seven Geases
The Tale of Satampra Zeiros
Poseidonis:
Atlantis
From a Letter/Muse of Atlantis
The Death of Malygris
The Double Shadow
Maal Dweb of Xiccarph:
The Maze of Maal Dweb
The Flower-Women
Aihai/Mars:
Vulthoom
Zothique:
The Weaver in the Vault
The Witchcraft of Ulua
The Charnel God
The Tomb-Spawn
Xeethra
The Dark Eidolon
Necromancy in Naat
The Black Abbot of Puthuum
The Death of Ilalotha
The Garden of Adompha
The Master of the Crabs
Morthylla
The Last Hieroglyph
Other Short Stories:
The Ghost of Mohammed Din
The Mahout
Prince Alcouz and the Magician
The Raja and the Tiger
Something New
The Planet of the Dead
The Demon of the Flower
The Chain of Aforgomon
The Devotee of Evil
Other Poetry:
Adventure
Afterwards
Alienage
Apologia
August
Autumn Orchards
Autumn's Pall
The Barrier
Brumal
The City of the Titans
Contradiction
Departure
Don Juan Sings
Dream Mystery
Duality
The End of Autumn
Forgotten Sorrow
The Horizon
Interrogation
The Love-Potion
Moon-Dawn
Moonlight
Nyctalops
Ougabalys
Psalm to the Desert
Remembrance
The Secret
Selenique
Semblance
The Song of Aviol
The Song of Cartha
Song of the Necromancer
To the Chimera
The Unremembered
A Valediction
We Shall Meet
The Wind and the Moon
The Wingless Archangels
Witch-Dance
The Witch with Eyes of Amber
You are not Beautiful
Luna Aeternalis
Other Prose Poetry:
The Lake of Enchanted Silence
To the Daemon
Epigrams:
Abandoned Plum-Orchard.
Cats in Winter Sunlight
Translations:
Parisian Dream by Charles Baudelaire
Alchemy of Sorrow by Charles Baudelaire
The Owls
This book also includes numerous illustrations by Smith for reader enjoyment.
