Smith submitted “Thirteen Phantasms” to Boucher late in 1951. Boucher rejected the story on the grounds that it was too realistic, but took the time to offer Smith these observations, which unfortunately survive only in a burned fragment:

Personally I’ve been enjoying & admiring your fiction for twenty years & more—particularly that individually mordant humor that you display in such items as “The Monster of the Prophecy” and “The Weird of Avoosl Wutthuquan.” (I just checked & see that I misspelled that… but you’ll admit that’s doing well from memory!) But your type of highly elaborated & remote fantasy doesn’t [

burned

] to be what our readers want. They prefer a more simple treatment, a closer impingement of the fantastic [

burned

] people. [

remainder burned

]

²

He concluded the letter with an invitation to drop in for a drink if Smith were ever in Berkeley.

Smith must have experienced a sensation of déjà vu at reading this: it was as if Farnsworth Wright were speaking from the next world. When he next submitted a story to F&SF, it was with a newly written story that lacked many of his characteristic rhetorical flourishes.

“Monsters in the Night,” one of Smith’s most frequently anthologized stories, was the next story that Smith submitted to Boucher. He rejected it with these observations: “Sorry, but—nice idea, this werewolf-vs-robot, but I’m afraid it tips itself to the reader too early, & is too bluntly resolved.”³ Boucher responded in a more positive manner after Smith rewrote the story and fixed those defects: “With a very slight change at the end, we want to accept ‘Monsters in the Night.’ Please advise if you approve of the following, which would replace your last two paragraphs on page 4: [. . . ] We think this is quite an effective windup to a highly unique story.”⁴ Smith agreed to the change, leading to a story contract, a check for forty-five dollars, and the story’s appearance in the October 1954 issue of F&SF (under the title of “A Prophecy of Monsters,” which was obviously a nod by Boucher to one of his favorite Smith stories).⁵It was collected posthumously in OD.

Since Smith readily agreed to Boucher’s suggested changes, and since he had a history of being open to such suggestions, we have retained the published ending. For the curious, here is what Smith originally wrote:

“Who—what—are you?” quavered the werewolf.

“I am a robot,” said the stranger.

Several different drafts exist of this story. Our text is based upon the typescript dated April 11, 1953 on which CAS had crossed out “Monsters in the Night” and had written in its place “A Prophecy of Monsters,” along with “To Fantasy and Science Fiction” and “1100 words.”

1. See FFT pp. 61

2. Anthony Boucher, letter to CAS, December 6, 1951 (ms, JHL).

3. Anthony Boucher, note to CAS, April 18, 1953 (ms, private collection).

4. Anthony Boucher, letter to CAS, May 17, 1953 (ms, JHL).

5. Robert Mills, letter to CAS and attached legal contract, June 2, 1953 (ms, JHL).

Phoenix

August Derleth invited Clark Ashton Smith to contribute a story to an original science fiction anthology, Time To Come, that he was editing for Farrar, Straus and Young. Smith wrote a new story based upon a plot idea he had jotted down in the Black Book. Entitled “Phoenix,” it described “An expedition sent from the earth to the extinct sun, for the purpose of rekindling it by means of atomic fission. The expedition is trapped by the tremendous gravity of the dead, solid orb but accomplishes its purpose, after sending back to earth a rocket containing reports, messages, etc.”¹ He completed the story sometime in September 1953 according to the typescript presented by Smith to George Haas, which was consulted for this text. It was collected posthumously in OD.

1. BB item 81. The title itself may be found at item 78.

The Theft of the Thirty-Nine Girdles

Smith had entertained the idea of writing additional adventures of Satampra Zeiros when he plotted out a story in his Black Book that he called both “The Ancient Shadow” and “The Shadow from the Sarcophagus,” but the story never progressed beyond that stage.¹ “The Theft of the Thirty-Nine Girdles” was begun in October 1952, when he mentioned in a letter that he was working on the story,² but it was apparently not completed until just before April 25, 1957, when he announced its completion and submission to F&SF.³ Anthony Boucher delivered the news of its rejection in person, probably when they gathered together at George Haas’ home in Berkeley, but he typed out a letter putting forth his criticism: “It’s good to see the return of Satampra Zeiros after 26 years; but I’m afraid I can’t feel that THE THEFT OF THE THIRTY-NINE GIRDLES is really fantasy. The only fantasy element lies in its Hyperborean setting, & the events themselves, in your words (p 6), ‘though extraordinary, are not beyond nature.’ Result: an entertaining crime story in an extravagantly exotic setting rather than, strictly, a fantasy.”⁴ Smith submitted the story next to Fantastic Universe, but apparently editor Hans Stefan Santesson failed to appreciate its subtle humor. Donald A. Wollheim accepted the story for Saturn Science Fiction, a short-lived digest magazine, which published it under the less imaginative but also less suggestive title “The Powder of Hyperborea” in its March 1958 issue. It was collected posthumously in TSS.

Several different typescripts exist for this story, along with a holographic draft, but none of them appear to represent Smith’s final thoughts. We based our text upon the magazine appearance, although we did restore “Lament to Vixeela,” which we believe Smith removed on the theory that a 1950s-era sf magazine would not be a receptive venue for his poetry.

1. BB item 70. “The Theft of the Thirty-Nine Girdles” may be found in a listing of possible titles at item 210.

2. CAS, letter to L. Sprague de Camp, October 21, 1952 (SL 371). [letter was dated 1953].

3. CAS, letter to AWD, April 25, 1957 (ms, SHSW).

4. Anthony Boucher, letter to CAS, May 22, 1957 (ms, JHL).

Symposium of the Gorgon

This story was completed by Clark Ashton Smith on August 5, 1957. He submitted it to Anthony Boucher at the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction and received the following response: “I like ‘Symposium of the Gorgon,’ but I fear it’s too absolute a fantasy for most modern tastes. Our readers seem to prefer a less tenuous liaison with reality, & a little more in the way of plot & character. This has the charm of verse, but not enough bones for fiction.”¹ It was accepted by Hans Stefan Santesson for Fantastic Universe. “Symposium of the Gorgon” appeared in the October 1958 issue. Curiously enough, the cover features a Virgil Finlay cover depicting the Gorgon and her statuary victims, but it was not illustrating any scene from Smith’s story.

Smith expressed some of the same ideas, albeit less acerbically, in his poem “The Centaur.”

The Smith Papers at the John Hay Library has no less than two typescripts of “Symposium of the Gorgon,” as well as fragments of an autograph manuscript, but all of these are apparently earlier drafts that differ significantly from the published version. These versions are much less polished than the published version, and to perpetuate any of these changes would not be to Smith’s credit. Besides Fantastic Universe, the editors consulted the story’s appearance in TSS, but this version had a number of typographical errors.