Extrapolation

A Triumvirate of Fantastic Poets

Ambrose Bierce, George Sterling, and Clark Ashton Smith

Extrapolation (2013), 54, (2), 147–161.

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3828/extr.2013.9
Language
English
Pages
15

Abstract

The American tradition of fantastic poetry came to fruition in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries with the emergence of three linked poets: Ambrose Bierce, George Sterling, and Clark Ashton Smith. Bierce's own contributions to weird poetry were few in number, but he served as mentor to the young Sterling, helping to find a publisher for his poem "A Wine of Wizardry" (1907) and assisting Sterling in other ways. Sterling, in turn, became a mentor to Clark Ashton Smith and ushered his first volume, The StarTreader and Other Poems (1912), into print. Cumulatively, these poets established a tradition of cosmic and fantastic poetry whose influence continues to be felt.

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ReferencesPDF

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Details

Author details

Joshi, S.