The Black Diamonds

Blurb from the Hippocampus Publishing website:

At the age of fourteen, Clark Ashton Smith wrote an Arabian Nights adventure novel called The Black Diamonds. At nearly 90,000 words, it is the longest work of fiction he would ever write in his long career. The thrilling and fast-paced story of seventeenth-century Bagdad deals with two mysterious black diamonds and the conflict they engender between an Arab family and the powerful thief who seeks to regain them. Kidnapping, piracy, and even a possibly supernatural "Lake of Fire" are all involved in this vibrant and well-crafted narrative.

Although a work of Smith's youth, The Black Diamonds can withstand comparison with any of his later tales of Zothique, Hyperborea, and Atlantis for compelling readability. This never-before published novel has been meticulously edited by leading fantasy scholar S. T. Joshi.

The only odd, and perhaps quirky issue concerning the book's back cover: some editor decided to inform the reader that "Smith died in his sleep August 14, 1961." Few books I know tell the reader about the mortal fate of the author.