Born Under Saturn: The Letters of Samuel Loveman and Clark Ashton Smith
Hippocampus Press:
New York: 2021
Trade paperback, New,
392 pp.
Cover artwork by: Jason Van Hollander
“The correspondence begins in 1913, when Smith was still under the poetic tutelage of George Sterling. Sterling was also attempting to help Loveman secure a wider audience for his poetry. The two authors’ discussions of the aesthetics of poetry—both their own and the work of such poets as John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelley, John Clare, and many others—are compelling. Loveman, having become involved in the book trade, would often pass along rare and tempting volumes to Smith, whose ability to secure books was limited. As such, fascinating discussions arise on the unusual and esoteric books they each absorbed. Smith also recounts the poor health that dogged him in the 1910s, while Loveman was drafted into the U.S. army toward the end of World War I and underwent hardship at a military camp in Georgia.
The correspondence of these two pioneering poets—extending sporadically all the way down to 1941—is a testament to each writer’s devotion to pure literature as a solace and balm against the vicissitudes of life. It is a lesson we can all appreciate today.” This is a print-on-demand edition. #68297
Price: $25.00