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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Aug 29, 2023 13:21:13 GMT
Somehow I've only just stumbled on this! How it takes me back! The previous year Fritz and I did a reading at Jack Sullivan's apartment on the Upper West Side in New York. I suspect "Malnéant" was not meant to be pronounced like that, but, oh well, never mind.
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Post by andydecker on Aug 29, 2023 17:11:52 GMT
A recording of Fritz Leiber Jr reading Clark Ashton Smith's "A Night in Malneant" at the 1977 World Fantasy Con: Fritz Leiber was famous for his flair at reading tales aloud--a friend of mine used to attend gatherings way back when where he would do this. So, I enjoyed hearing this very much. cheers, Helrunar Somehow I've only just stumbled on this! How it takes me back! The previous year Fritz and I did a reading at Jack Sullivan's apartment on the Upper West Side in New York. Sounds like a lot of fun. Was this a spontaneous meeting or was it planed in advance?
I have seen giallos which started this way :-)
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Post by ramseycampbell on Aug 30, 2023 11:14:33 GMT
Fritz and I were guests at the World Fantasy Convention in New York that year. Jenny and I were staying with Jack, and Jenny suggested inviting Fritz for dinner (her beef stroganoff), to Jack's delight. He always invited folk round to hear me read, and this time he got a double-header. I can't recall exactly who attended, but frequent listeners included T. E. K. Klein, Kirby McCauley, Gahan Wilson, Jay Gregory, Peter Straub and others. Sometimes Tom Disch showed up.
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Post by helrunar on Aug 30, 2023 16:19:13 GMT
That's a wonderful memory, Ramsey.
A friend of mine who was peripherally in the "Greyhavens" circle in Berkeley in the late 60s and 70s has reminisced many times about what a moving, extraordinary voice Fritz had when reading aloud various stories. It's one of her favorite memories from that period.
Steve
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Post by Knygathin on Aug 30, 2023 21:56:38 GMT
Fritz and I were guests at the World Fantasy Convention in New York that year. Jenny and I were staying with Jack, and Jenny suggested inviting Fritz for dinner (her beef stroganoff), to Jack's delight. He always invited folk round to hear me read, and this time he got a double-header. I can't recall exactly who attended, but frequent listeners included T. E. K. Klein, Kirby McCauley, Gahan Wilson, Jay Gregory, Peter Straub and others. Sometimes Tom Disch showed up. The Kalem Club! I understand they also read, and that Lovecraft acted out his performances with complete abandon and empathy. That is quite an assembly! Only missing Clive Barker, Thomas Ligotti, and Stephen King, and it would have been complete. Gahan Wilson must have been a great guy with his Innsmouth eyes and wild humour.
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Post by ramseycampbell on Aug 31, 2023 12:55:17 GMT
I remember on another occasion Gahan chortled with delight at a line in a tale I was reading ("You'll do").
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Post by andydecker on Aug 31, 2023 14:33:47 GMT
Fritz and I were guests at the World Fantasy Convention in New York that year. Jenny and I were staying with Jack, and Jenny suggested inviting Fritz for dinner (her beef stroganoff), to Jack's delight. He always invited folk round to hear me read, and this time he got a double-header. I can't recall exactly who attended, but frequent listeners included T. E. K. Klein, Kirby McCauley, Gahan Wilson, Jay Gregory, Peter Straub and others. Sometimes Tom Disch showed up. Thank you, Ramsey. It sounds like lovely evenings.
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Post by Knygathin on Sept 1, 2023 10:27:43 GMT
Speaking of Fritz Leiber, I think Robert E. Howard and he must be the very best writers of barbarian tales ever. Howard being the absolute best, but Leiber contributing to it a welcome humour and sophistication (and perhaps more of a medieval nuance). Clark Ashton Smith also wrote a few, possibly barbarian tales, located in Hyperborea and Thule, but not many, and I don't remember them having any real fights or clashing swords.
I have read the first five books of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, and while all of them have great stories, I must say, by god the overall best is the fifth one, The Swords of Lankhmar!! A full novel but written with short story tempo (which is very unusual), it has non-stop action and excitement.
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enoch
Devils Coach Horse
Posts: 117
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Post by enoch on Sept 1, 2023 18:15:37 GMT
And speaking of Clark Ashton Smith, I thought I'd try to resurrect this thread about Brian McNaughton's The Throne of Bones. It didn't garner many comments at the time, but I think this book is the closest anyone else has gotten to the feel of CAS. It's far raunchier and more violent than Smith, but since Smith was frequently edited to tone down the sex and violence, I think he would have approved.
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Post by Michael Connolly on Sept 3, 2023 16:29:51 GMT
Speaking of Fritz Leiber, I think Robert E. Howard and he must be the very best writers of barbarian tales ever. Howard being the absolute best, but Leiber contributing to it a welcome humour and sophistication (and perhaps more of a medieval nuance). Clark Ashton Smith also wrote a few, possibly barbarian tales, located in Hyperborea and Thule, but not many, and I don't remember them having any real fights or clashing swords. I have read the first five books of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, and while all of them have great stories, I must say, by god the overall best is the fifth one, The Swords of Lankhmar!! A full novel but written with short story tempo (which is very unusual), it has non-stop action and excitement. For some reason, much as I like the short stories, I did not take to The Swords of Lankhmar. In the light of what you thought of it, I will give it another go.
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Post by Knygathin on Sept 3, 2023 19:04:29 GMT
For some reason, much as I like the short stories, I did not take to The Swords of Lankhmar. In the light of what you thought of it, I will give it another go. There may be individual short-stories in the earlier books that I prefer, but as a whole I think The Swords of Lankhmar flows really well, with lots of imaginative stuff.
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Post by andydecker on Sept 4, 2023 8:00:39 GMT
For some reason, much as I like the short stories, I did not take to The Swords of Lankhmar. In the light of what you thought of it, I will give it another go. I know what you are talking about. After reading bits and pieces of the series in my younger days I tried to read it in one of those definite editions and couldn't get into the later stories. Highlight for me will ever be 'The Lords of Quarmall', but everything from the 70s onward I tried I just found dense or dull.
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Post by Michael Connolly on Sept 5, 2023 14:16:06 GMT
For some reason, much as I like the short stories, I did not take to The Swords of Lankhmar. In the light of what you thought of it, I will give it another go. I know what you are talking about. After reading bits and pieces of the series in my younger days I tried to read it in one of those definite editions and couldn't get into the later stories. Highlight for me will ever be 'The Lords of Quarmall', but everything from the 70s onward I tried I just found dense or dull. The best material is largely in the first four of the seven books in the series.
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Sept 5, 2023 17:41:32 GMT
The Averoigne Archives - The Complete Averoigne Tales by Clark Ashton Smith (Pickman's Press, 2019, this edition Ebook) Contents: Averoigne (map) (2006)
Pronounciation Guide
Introduction by Ron Hilger
Mother of Toads (1938)
The Maker of Gargoyles (1932) The Holiness of Azédarac (1933) A Night in Malnéant (1933) The Colossus of Ylourgne (1934) The Enchantress of Sylaire (1941) The Beast of Averoigne (1933) The Mandrakes (1933) A Rendezvous in Averoigne (1931) The Disinterment of Venus (1934) The Satyr (1931) The End of the Story (1930) Averoigne (1951) poem This is a collection of all the Averoigne tales by CAS in one volume. It was edited with the participation of Ron Hilger who also was one of the editors of the CAS edition from Nightshade. (Maybe he was the creator of this for Pickman's Press, he is not listed as such in the small print.) Stories are reprinted by the permission of the Smith estate. This is not to be confused with The Averoigne Chronicles done by Centipede Press in 2016 as a limited edition and later as a tpb by Hippocampus Press. While the stories are the same, Pickman's Press left out the poems except of one. There was also a paperback of this with a (slightly) better cover than this. It seems to be OOP.
I acquired the ebook. The introduction informs me that "The Beast of Averoigne" is neither the magazine version nor Smith's original version, but rather the combination version Connors and Hilger saw fit to concoct themselves for the Night Shade edition. Ack! Where are my old paperbacks?
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Post by helrunar on Sept 5, 2023 18:09:42 GMT
It's too bad Lin Carter didn't do an Averoigne volume for the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series back in the early 1970s. It's somewhat of a mystery to me why Lin didn't compile such a collection, since there was much more material set in Averoigne in a consistently realized setting than was the case of a couple of his other CAS volumes, such as Xiccarph which was a nice little assemblage of "stories that don't fit anywhere else."
I presume that as usual there's backstory as to why Lin ignored the Averoigne stories; it may have been as simple as he really didn't care for them. No idea.
Hel.
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