Editing Clark Ashton Smith (section)

===Early writing ===

[[File:Clark Ashton Smith WS 3010.jpg|thumb|right|Smith as depicted in ''[[Wonder Stories]]'' in 1930]]

His first literary efforts, at the age of 11, took the form of fairy tales and imitations of the Arabian Nights. Later, he wrote long adventure novels dealing with Oriental life. By 14 he had already written a short adventure novel called ''The Black Diamonds'' which was lost for years until published in 2002. Another juvenile novel was written in his teenaged years: ''The Sword of Zagan'' (unpublished until 2004). Like ''The Black Diamonds'', it uses a [[Middle Ages|medieval]], ''Arabian Nights''-like setting, and the ''Arabian Nights'', like the fairy tales of the [[Brothers Grimm]] and the works of [[Edgar Allan Poe]], are known to have strongly influenced Smith's early writing, as did [[William Beckford (novelist)|William Beckford]]'s ''[[Vathek]]''.

When he was 15, Smith read [[George Sterling]]'s fantasy-horror poem "[[A Wine of Wizardry]]" in a national magazine (which he later described as "In the ruck of magazine verse it was like finding a fire-opal of the Titans in a potato bin") and decided he wanted to become a poet.<ref>Smith, "George Sterling: An Appreciation," ''Overland Monthly'', v. 85, n. 3 (March 1927): pp. 79-80.</ref> At age 17, he sold several tales to ''[[The Black Cat (US magazine)|The Black Cat]]'', a magazine which specialized in unusual tales. He also published some tales in the ''[[Overland Monthly]]'' in this brief foray into fiction which preceded his poetic career.

However, it was primarily poetry that motivated the young Smith and he confined his efforts to poetry for more than a decade. In his later youth, Smith met Sterling through a member of the local Auburn Monday Night Club, where Smith read several of his poems with considerable success. On a month-long visit to Sterling in [[Carmel, California]], Smith was introduced by Sterling to the poetry of [[Charles Baudelaire]].<ref>de Camp 1976, p. 200</ref>

He became Sterling's [[protégé]] and Sterling helped him to publish his first volume of poems, ''The Star-Treader and Other Poems'', at the age of 19. Smith received international acclaim for the collection. ''The Star-Treader'' was received very favorably by American critics, one of whom named Smith "the [[John Keats|Keats]] of the Pacific". Smith briefly moved among the circle that included [[Ambrose Bierce]] and [[Jack London]], but his early fame soon faded away.{{citation needed|date=January 2021}}