As It Is Written
1982 novel by De Lysle Ferree Cass
As It Is Written is an Oriental fantasy novel by pulp writer De Lysle Ferrée Cass mistakenly republished under the name of Weird Tales writer Clark Ashton Smith. It was first published in 1982 by Donald M. Grant, Publisher, Inc. in an edition of 1,250 copies (1,200 of which were for sale), all of which were signed by the illustrator, R.J. Krupowicz. The book includes an introduction by Will Murray and an afterword by Donald Sidney-Fryer. The novel was discovered in the files of The Thrill Book magazine, where it had been accepted in 1919, by Murray and Daryl S. Herrick.
Based on various evidence including handwriting and typewriter comparisons, and similarities of subject matter and style, they believed the novel to be the work of Clark Ashton Smith using Cass as a pseudonym. Murray showed the manuscript to Donald M. Grant and Sidney-Fryer who both agreed it to be the work of Smith. It was only after Grant published the novel that the attribution to Smith was discovered to be spurious.
Murray has speculated that Smith and Cass may have come into correspondence but there are no letters between the two writers published in The Selected Letters of Clark Ashton Smith (Arkham House, 2003).
Premise
The novel concerns the adventures of Datu Buang who, as a fugitive, stumbles across the remains of an alien lost city in the jungles of Malaysia and battles furiously with a semi-intelligent ape-creature.
The public source identifies “As It Is Written” as 1982 novel by De Lysle Ferree Cass. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Written, novel and Lysle.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “As It Is Written”, the useful work is to connect “1982 novel by De Lysle Ferree Cass” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 30, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4802912. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1982, 1919 and 2003.
Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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Three-step research path
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Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “As It Is Written” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.