Clark Ashton Smith Review: The Supernumerary Corpse

Smith, like Lovecraft, Shakespeare, and virtually every prolific and successful writer, was known to recycle his plot points. Only a self-righteous snob would blame a writer with as many works as Smith for repeating a success once or twice.

However, Smith didn’t repeat a success here but arguably the worst story he ever wrote: “A Murder in the Fourth Dimension.”

Once again, a scientific genius grows bitter enough to kill his successful counterpart who has married the love of the forlorn genius’ life. Once again, the murder is committed with one of the genius’ inventions, meant to produce the perfect murder but eventually trapping him with the nondecaying corpse of his victim.

In this case, the killer is a chemist who invents an untraceable poison. That’s at least more plausible than a lawyer with no scientific training, investing a “vibrator” that opened a portal to another dimension.

The chemist tells his boss that the poison is an elixir of immortality so the dope gulps it down.

The poison kills him but:

♤ he returns as a zombie!
♡ his body spontaneously combusts and explodes, killing everyone within miles!
◇ the poison opens a portal to Cthulhu!
♧ his body dissolves to acidic slime, permanently maiming the chemist.

All those possibilities would make more sense than what did happen. When the chemist called his victim’s wife, she told him that he (the victim) just dropped dead at home.

This meant the poison caused a second body to appear and act independently before the victim expired but later both bodies died simultaneously. Also the body in the chemist’s lab somehow became invulnerable and would not decay.

Smith was a creative and intelligent artist–surely, he had a good explanation for this:

“I have no explanation for what has happened, nor do I believe that any such can be afforded by the laws of a sane universe. But–is there any proof that the universe itself is sane, or subject to rational laws?”

In other words, “A wizard did it.”

I will say that “The Supernumerary Corpse” is a better story than “A Murder in the Fourth Dimension” in that a chemist creating a poison is more plausible than a lawyer building an extra-dimensional wormhole.

It turns out this plot was an early idea of Smith’s but he never put it to paper for years. Afterwards, he wondered about it if “the carbon is worth circulating.” He eventually sold the story but it was never celebrated like so many of his other ones.

If you’re an obsessed completionist like me, the story can be found in the collection, A Vintage from Atlantis. For others, Smith wrote many masterpieces of fantasy and horror that would be better suited for you.