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Exquisite ALS signed “HPL,” one page both sides, 8.5 x 14, January 21, 1927. Handwritten letter to Clark Ashton Smith ("CAS"), the American writer recognized for his science fiction and fantasy or 'weird' stories. In part: "Your letter arrived yesterday…you no doubt have my postal commenting on Wandrei's work. I was really immensely taken with it, & believe that he has a more truly cosmic & fantastic vision than anyone else I know with the solitary exception of yourself. There is a quality of genuine bizarrerie in his perspective…I noticed the tense & convincing atmosphere of nightmare in 'The Door of the Room'; but as you say, the 'Fragment of a Dream' is a finer performance—as it necessarily is, since it has a broader scene & gives opportunities for varied landscape & other effects which the compressed locale of the other forbids. That piece more than any other made me think of your landscapes. 'The Messengers' is indeed very much like your 'Envoys' & illustrates the essential parallelism of the fantastic imagination in different individuals—a circumstance strongly arguing the existence of a natural & definite (though rare) mental world of the weird with a common background & fixed laws, out of which there must necessarily spring a literature as authentic in its way as the realistic literature which springs from mundane experience…When my younger aunt gets home from Atlantic City—I'm going to see if she doesn't know someone who could get me in touch with the contemporary powers of the art club or school of design. Your new poems seem to me very powerful…My novelette or semi-novel is nearing its conclusion…don't think much of it. The short tale is the best form for fantasy." In fine condition, with small edge splits to folds.
Accompanied by the original mailing envelope, addressed in Lovecraft's hand to Clark Ashton Smith and signed on the flap as part of the return address: "From H. P. Lovecraft, 10 Barnes St., Providence, R.I." Lovecraft adds a handwritten postscript on the back of the envelope: "Have finished the novel in 110 pages. Am giving it (at least provisionally) the title of, 'The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath.'" The novella—the longest of the stories that make up his Dream Cycle and the longest Lovecraft work to feature protagonist Randolph Carter—went unrevised and unpublished during his lifetime. The story was published posthumously by Arkham House in 1943.
The recipient, Clark Ashton Smith (1893–1961), was an influential American writer of fantasy, horror, and science fiction, known for his many contributions to 'Weird Tales.' He introduced fellow writer Donald Wandrei to Lovecraft, who praises the weird fiction writer's work in this letter. Wandrei would later be the co-founder, with August Derleth, of the prestigious fantasy/horror publishing house Arkham House. A superlative piece, certainly among the finest Lovecraft letters ever offered.
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