Xiccarph is a collection of fantasy

Fantasy

Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...

 short stories by Clark Ashton Smith

Clark Ashton Smith

Clark Ashton Smith was a self-educated American poet, sculptor, painter and author of fantasy, horror and science fiction short stories. He achieved early local recognition, largely through the enthusiasm of George Sterling, for traditional verse in the vein of Swinburne...

, edited by Lin Carter

Lin Carter

Linwood Vrooman Carter was an American author of science fiction and fantasy, as well as an editor and critic. He usually wrote as Lin Carter; known pseudonyms include H. P. Lowcraft and Grail Undwin.-Life:Carter was born in St. Petersburg, Florida...

. It was first published in paperback by Ballantine Books

Ballantine Books

Ballantine Books is a major book publisher located in the United States, founded in 1952 by Ian Ballantine with his wife, Betty Ballantine. It was acquired by Random House in 1973, which in turn was acquired by Bertelsmann AG in 1998 and remains part of that company today. Ballantine's logo is a...

 as the forty-first volume of its celebrated Ballantine Adult Fantasy series

Ballantine Adult Fantasy series

The Ballantine Adult Fantasy series was an imprint of Ballantine Books. Launched in 1969 , the series reissued a number of works of fantasy literature, which were out of print or dispersed in back issues of pulp magazines , in cheap paperback form—including works...

 in February 1972. It was the third themed collection of Smith's works assembled by Carter for the series. The stories were originally published in various fantasy magazines in the 1930s, notably Weird Tales

Weird Tales

Weird Tales is an American fantasy and horror fiction pulp magazine first published in March 1923. It ceased its original run in September 1954, after 279 issues, but has since been revived. The magazine was set up in Chicago by J. C. Henneberger, an ex-journalist with a taste for the macabre....

.

The book collects three prose poems and eight tales, including stories from the author's Xiccarph and Mars cycles.

Contents

• "Other Stars and Skies: An Introduction", by Lin Carter
  Lin Carter
  Linwood Vrooman Carter was an American author of science fiction and fantasy, as well as an editor and critic. He usually wrote as Lin Carter; known pseudonyms include H. P. Lowcraft and Grail Undwin.-Life:Carter was born in St. Petersburg, Florida...
  
  
• "To the Daemon: An Invocation" (prose poem)
• Xiccarph
• "The Maze of Maal Dweb"
• "The Flower-Women"
• Aihai
• "Vulthoom"
• "The Dweller in the Gulf"
• "The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis"
• Phandiom
• "The Doom of Antarion"
• Lophai
• "The Demon of the Flower"
• Satabbor
• "The Monster of the Prophecy"
• Beyond the Stars
• "Sadastor
  Sadastor
  "Sadastor" is a short story by the weird fiction author Clark Ashton Smith, first published in 1930 by Weird Tales.-Plot summary:An example of a narrative within a narrative, the frame story begins in Egypt when the "sphinx was young," with an lamia sitting upon a ridge near the Nile River, who,...
  
  " (prose poem)
• "From the Crypts of Memory" (prose poem)