SMITH, Clark Ashton (1893-1961). The Star-Treader and Other Poems. San Francisco: A.M. Robertson, 1912. 8vo. 100 pp. Publisher's beige boards stamped gilt in original illustrated dust jacket. FIRST EDITION OF SMITH'S  ACCLAIMED DEBUT POETRY COLLECTION, PUBLISHED AT 19 YEARS OLD.

Gathering 50 verse poems, including the titular "Star-Treader," the collection brought the young Smith tremendous acclaim, hailed by critics as the "Keats of the Pacific" and the American heir to Swinburne. Soon after, however, his health began to deteriorate, and he fell into a long depression, abandoning poetry and reappearing alongside H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard as "one of the big three of Weird Tales" by which he is now best remembered. In 1936 his interest in fiction once again waned, and he returned to poetry and visual art, publishing two more verse collections with Arkham House in the 1950s, before passing away in 1961. 

Moderate soiling and rubbing, water damage to top right corner, minor chipping and edge wear; cloth peeling from board at upper right corner, lower spine block bumped. Water damage to endpapers and foxing throughout. Very good.