Out of Space and Time

Out of Space and Time is a collection of fantasy, horror and science fiction short stories by American writer Clark Ashton Smith. It was released in 1942 and was the third book published by Arkham House. 1,054 copies were printed. A British hardcover appeared from Neville Spearman in 1971, with a two-volume paperback reprint following from Panther Books in 1974. Bison Books issued a trade paperback edition in 2006.[1]

Out of Space and Time
Dust-jacket illustration by Hannes Bok.
AuthorClark Ashton Smith
Cover artistHannes Bok
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
GenreFantasy, horror, science fiction
PublisherArkham House
Publication date
1942
Media typePrint (hardback)
Pagesxii, 370

The stories for this volume were selected by the author and were considered by him to be his best fantasy and horror stories to date. The collection contains stories from Smith's major story cycles of Averoigne, Hyperborea, Poseidonis, and Zothique. Smith had wanted to call the collection "The End of the Story and Other Stories", but acceded to Derleth's suggestion, an allusion to Edgar Allan Poe's "Dream-Land".[2]

Contents

Out of Space and Time contains the following tales:

Reprints
  • Jersey, UK: Neville Spearman, 1971.
  • St. Albans, UK: Panther, 1974 (2 vols.).
  • Lincoln, NE: Bison, 2006.

Reception

Writing in Unknown Worlds, Anthony Boucher described the collection as "four hundred pages of magnificent reading", praising Smith as "a poet and a craftsman [who] has produced by far the best work in the Lovecraft tradition".[3] New York Times reviewer Louise Maunsell Field noted that while most of Smith's stories were "overelaborated and far too wordy", the author had "an active, fertile imagination", concluding that the collection would please "[r]eaders who delight in fantasy and witchcraft".[4]

gollark: Plants apparently have moderately complex responses to stimuli. Computers can classify images and beat humans at games and do logical reasoning and such.
gollark: Well, thinking is hard to define too.
gollark: If it's sufficiently random, and you sample it long enough, you'll eventually get Shakespeare plays and such!
gollark: So what *does* have souls? Plants? Fungi? Sufficiently complex computer programs?
gollark: Actually, do bacteria have souls? Can they be paid in those?

See also

References
  1. ISFDB publication history
  2. Joshi, S.T. (1999). Sixty Years of Arkham House: A History and Bibliography. Sauk City, WI: Arkham House. p. 23. ISBN 0-87054-176-5.
  3. Anthony Boucher, "Book Review", Unknown Worlds, April 1943, p.103
  4. "Tales of Horror", New York Times Book Review, August 9, 1942, p.14.

Sources
  • Jaffery, Sheldon (1989). The Arkham House Companion. Mercer Island, WA: Starmont House, Inc. pp. 4–5. ISBN 1-55742-005-X.
  • Chalker, Jack L.; Mark Owings (1998). The Science-Fantasy Publishers: A Bibliographic History, 1923-1998. Westminster, MD and Baltimore: Mirage Press, Ltd. p. 26.
  • Nielsen, Leon (2004). Arkham House Books: A Collector's Guide. Jefferson, NC and London: McFarland & Company, Inc. pp. 48–49. ISBN 0-7864-1785-4.
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