August 14, 1961

Clark Ashton Smith (January 13, 1893 to August 14, 1961) was a writer of science fiction and horror fantasy. He was a friend of H. P. Lovecraft. Smith wrote, "there is absolutely no justification for literature unless it serves to release the imagination from the bounds of everyday life." Steve Behrends, included this sentiment in his study, Clark Ashton Smith, A Critical Guide to The Man and His Work (1990).

Smith also wrote poetry and this excerpt is from a poem "The Ghoul and the Seraph" in the book:  Ebony and Crystal: Poems in Verse and Prose (1922)

...
O condor, keep thy mountain-ways,
Above the long Andean lands!
Gier-eagle, guard the eastern sands
Where the forsaken camel strays!
Beetle and worm and I will ward
The feastful graves of lout and lord.

O. warm and bright the blood that lies
Upon the wounded lion’s trail!
Hyena, laugh, and jackal. wail
And ring him round, who turns and dies!

Although this sounds like a decadence which flourished years earlier in Europe, the author, Clark Ashton Smith in fact is an instance of intelligence  unbounded by any desire to find out what is going on in life, everyday or anyway.