The End of the Story is the first of five volumes collecting all of Clark Ashton Smith’s short fiction, arranged chronologically by composition. It was originally published in hardcover by Night Shade Books on January 1, 2007, and quickly went out of print. The cheapest copies I can find online start at over $200.

I would love to have a copy, but that’s well outside my price range. So I was delighted to discover that Night Shade is printing the entire series in trade paperback, starting with the first volume, which goes on sale tomorrow.

The Collected Fantasies of Clark Ashton Smith consists of:

1. The End of the Story (January 2007)
2. The Door to Saturn (June 2007)
3. A Vintage from Atlantis (November 2007)
4. The Maze of the Enchanter (April 2008)
5. The Last Hieroglyph (September 2010)

The trade paperback edition of the second volume, The Door to Saturn — also long out of print in hardcover, and selling in some places for well over $300 — is scheduled to appear January 5, 2016.

The End of the Story contains 24 short stories and three poems, beginning with “The Abominations of Yondo,” first published in Overland Monthly in April 1926. It includes some of his most famous tales, such as the Captain Volmar novelette “Marooned in Andromeda” (1930), the Malygris tale “The Last Incantation” (1930), and the novelette “The Monster of the Prophecy” (1932).

It also includes an introduction by Ramsey Campbell, and story notes and a bibliography by Scott Connors and Ron Hilger.

Here’s the book description.

Clark Ashton Smith, considered one of the greatest contributors to seminal pulp magazines such as Weird Tales, helped define and shape “weird fiction” in the early twentieth century, alongside contemporaries H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard, drawing upon his background in poetry to convey an unparalleled richness of imagination and expression in his stories of the bizarre and fantastical.

The Collected Fantasies series presents all of Smith’s fiction chronologically. Authorized by the author’s estate and endorsed by Arkham House, the stories in this series are accompanied by detailed background notes from editors Scott Connors and Ron Hilger, who in preparation for this collection meticulously compared original manuscripts, various typescripts, published editions, and Smith’s own notes and letters. Their efforts have resulted in the most definitive and complete collection of the author’s work to date.

The End of the Story is the first of five volumes collecting all of Clark Ashton Smith’s tales of fantasy, horror, and science fiction. It includes all of his stories from “The Abominations of Yondo” (1925) to “A Voyage to Sfanomoë” (1930) and an introduction by Ramsey Campbell.

And here’s the complete table of contents.

Introduction by Ramsey Campbell
“The Satyr”: Alternate Conclusion” (1931)
“A Murder in the Fourth Dimension”  (1930)
“A Night in Malnéant” (1933)
“A Voyage to Sfanomoë” (Weird Tales, August 1931)
From the Crypts of Memory, poem (Bohemia, April 1917)
“Marooned in Andromeda” (Wonder Stories, October 1930)
Sadastor, poem (Weird Tales, July 1930)
“The Abominations of Yondo” (Overland Monthly, April 1926)
“The Devotee of Evil” (The Double Shadow and Other Fantasies, June 1933)
“The End of the Story” (Weird Tales, May 1930)
“The Epiphany of Death” (The Fantasy Fan, July 1934)
“The Immeasurable Horror” (Weird Tales, September 1931)
“The Last Incantation” (Weird Tales, June 1930)
“The Metamorphosis of the World” (1951)
“The Monster of the Prophecy” (Weird Tales, January 1932)
“The Necromantic Tale” (Weird Tales, January 1931)
“The Ninth Skeleton” (Weird Tales, September 1928)
“The Phantoms of the Fire” (Weird Tales, September 1930)
“The Planet of the Dead” (Weird Tales, March 1932)
“The Resurrection of the Rattlesnake” (Weird Tales, October 1931)
“The Root of Ampoi” (The Arkham Sampler, Spring 1949)
“The Satyr” (La Paree Stories, July 1931)
“The Tale of Satampra Zeiros” (Weird Tales, November 1931)
“The Uncharted Isle” (Weird Tales, November 1930)
“The Venus of Azombeii” (Weird Tales, June-July 1931)
“Thirteen Phantasms” (Fantasy Magazine, March 1936)
To the Daemon, poem (The Acolyte, Fall 1943)
A Note on the Texts by Scott Connors and Ron Hilger
Story Notes by Scott Connors and Ron Hilger
Bibliography

Our previous coverage of Clark Ashton Smith includes:

Vintage Treasures: The Timescape Clark Ashton Smith
The Shade of Klarkash-Ton by James Maliszewski
One Shot, One Story: Clark Ashton Smith by Thomas Parker
New Treasures: The Dark Eidolon and Other Fantasies by Clark Ashton Smith
The Crawling Horrors of Mars: Clark Ashton Smith’s “The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis”
Deepest, Darkest Eden edited by Cody Goodfellow by Fletcher Vredenburgh
Adventures in Stealth Publishing: The Return of the Sorcerer
A Few Words on Clark Ashton Smith by Matthew David Surridge
The Unqualified Unique: The Daily Mail Interviews Me for Clark Ashton Smith’s 50th Morbid Anniversary by Ryan Harvey
Of Secret Worlds Incredible: A Psychedelic Journey into Clark Ashton Smith’s Poetic Masterpiece by John R. Fultz
The Fantasy Cycles of Clark Ashton Smith Part I: The Averoigne Chronicles by Ryan Harvey
The Fantasy Cycles of Clark Ashton Smith Part II: The Book of Hyperborea by Ryan Harvey
The Fantasy Cycles of Clark Ashton Smith Part III: Tales of Zothique by Ryan Harvey
The Fantasy Cycles of Clark Ashton Smith Part IV: Poseidonis, Mars, and Xiccarph by Ryan Harvey

The End of the Story: The Collected Fantasies, Vol. 1 was published in hardcover by Night Shade Books on January 1, 2007, and will be reprinted in paperback on September 8, 2015. It is 300 pages, priced at $17.99 in trade paperback, and $7.99 for the digital version. The cover is by Jason Van Hollander.

See all of our recent New Treasures here.