I changed the “What I’m reading” widget in the sidebar; I was distracted from Howard’s “Conan” by the arrival of a collection of the best stories of Clark Ashton Smith, “The Return of the Sorcerer.”
I’m enjoying it, but not as much as I had expected. While the stories are entertaining and the imagery vivid, Smith’s florid, purple prose doesn’t wear well with me. I regularly find myself thinking “Oh, get on with it, will you?”
And that’s odd, because I love the stories of H.P. Lovecraft, who also employed pretentious, magniloquent prose and greatly admired Smith. But, thinking about it, Lovecraft was my introduction to this genre of Pulp weird fiction in my teen years, so he’s always held a special place for me in my “literary heart.” Smith, on the other, hand, I’ve only just started seriously reading, so I have less patience with his endless exploration of his thesaurus.
Still, as my friend James Maliszewski has often remarked, Smith was also a source of wonderful ideas for roleplaying games. This much is undoubtedly true, based on what I’ve read so far. Should I ever run a game again, Smith may be a large influence.
A Seat By The Fire 
You know James? I read Grognardia. Fun stuff.
My father, who grew up in Massachusetts, read Lovecraft as a young man. He tried to track Miskatonic down in order to apply. So I started reading them early myself, and loved every minute. I think I started with The Mountains of Madness, which was quite an accomplishment! I’ve read some CAS, about the same time, but it didn’t hold the same magic for me.
OTOH, I’ve been re-reading Fafhrd and the Mouser, and those are still magical. It’s amazing how much influence on rpg’ing I see there in those pages.
But if you want to see some florid language, try reading The Night Land by Hodgson, available on Project Gutenberg. I plowed through about half of it, and it has some really amazing imagery, but I just finally couldn’t force myself to continue the fight.
I’ve known him for several years, but only through the internet; I used to write quite a bit for the RPG industry, and we met through mutual acquaintances. Also, his partner in Rogue Games is a good friend. I read Grognardia, too, where I comment under my real name, “Anthony.” (One of the joys of the Internet: the accumulation of too many different IDs in different places…)
My first Lovecraft story was “Rats in the Walls.” I think I’ve read Hodgson, but I can’t guarantee it. I have read Machen, however, and the problem with ponderous language is there, too, while the stories themselves were engrossing.
Oh, and I so would like to found a private university named “Miskatonic.” 😉