Clark Ashton Smith

Clark Ashton Smith (January 13, 1893 – August 14, 1961) was a self-educated American poet, sculptor, painter and author of fantasy, horror and science fiction short stories. Smith was one of the big three of Weird Tales, along with Robert E. Howard and H. P. Lovecraft. His work is marked chiefly by an extraordinarily wide and ornate vocabulary, a cosmic perspective and a vein of sardonic and sometimes ribald humor.

Smith's Hyperborean cycle and references to Mu and Lemuria in stories such as “An Offering to the Moon” and “The Epiphany of Death” were inspired by the writings of H. P. Blavatsky as he acknowledges in a letter to H. P. Lovecraft written on March 1, 1933:

The Book of Dzyan is new to me — I haven't read any great amount of theosophical literature. I'll be vastly interested in any dope you or Price can pass on to me. Theosophy, as far as I can gather, is a version of esoteric Yoga prepared for western consumption, so I dare say its legendry must have some sort of basis in ancient Oriental records. One can disregard the theosophy, and make good use of the stuff about elder continents, etc. I got my own ideas about Hyperborea, Poseidonis, etc., from such sources, and then turned my imagination loose.