Arkham House

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Dust jacket for the 1948 Arkham House novella "Roads," by Seabury Quinn. Illustration by Virgil Finlay.
Dust jacket for the 1948 Arkham House novella "Roads," by Seabury Quinn. Illustration by Virgil Finlay.

Arkham House is a weird fiction specialty publishing house founded in Sauk City, Wisconsin in 1939 by August Derleth and Donald Wandrei. Arkham House published the first hardback collections of H. P. Lovecraft's works. Arkham House editions are noted for the quality of their printing and binding. The company's name is derived from Lovecraft's fictional New England city Arkham.

In addition to volumes of H.P. Lovecraft's fiction, Arkham House published collections of his letters to peers, friends and family. Among his correspondents were Arkham House founders, Derleth and Wandrei.

Arkham House also published fiction from several of Lovecraft's contemporaries, including Robert E. Howard, Frank Belknap Long, Clark Ashton Smith, Robert Bloch, and Derleth himself; classic genre fiction by authors such as William Hope Hodgson, Algernon Blackwood, H. Russell Wakefield, Seabury Quinn, and J. Sheridan Le Fanu; and later writers in the Lovecraft school, such as Ray Bradbury, Ramsey Campbell and Brian Lumley.

Despite the wealth of talented writers who appeared under the Arkham House imprint, it was not a financial success. Derleth wrote in 1970, "[T]he fact is that in no single year since its founding have the earnings of Arkham House met the expenses, so that it has been necessary for my personal earnings to shore up Arkham House finances." After Derleth's death, his successors expanded the company's range of authors to include such prominent science fiction and fantasy writers as Michael Bishop, Lucius Shepard, Bruce Sterling, James Tiptree Jr., Michael Shea and J. G. Ballard, often publishing hardcover collections of shorter works.

Contents

Arkham House published under two additional imprints throughout its history. In 1945, the Mycroft & Moran imprint was launched for the publication of weird detective and mystery stories. Arkham also introduced Stanton & Lee in 1945 with the intention of publishing cartoons by Clare Victor Dwiggins. Stanton & Lee went on to publish poetry and the regional writings of August Derleth.

  • Jaffery, Sheldon (1989). The Arkham House Companion. Mercer Island, WA: Starmont House, Inc.. ISBN 1-55742-005-X. 
  • Chalker, Jack L.; Mark Owings (1998). The Science-Fantasy Publishers: A Bibliographic History, 1923-1998. Westminster, MD and Baltimore: Mirage Press, Ltd.. 
  • Joshi, S.T. (1999). Sixty Years of Arkham House: A History and Bibliography. Sauk City, WI: Arkham House. ISBN 0-87054-176-5. 
  • Nielsen, Leon (2004). Arkham House Books: A Collector's Guide. Jefferson, NC and London: McFarland & Company, Inc.. ISBN 0-7864-1785-4. 
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