Arkham House: A History: August Derleth's Connection with H. P. Lovecraft

Arkham House is the publishing firm that won academic acceptance for the science fiction and horror story genre proving that weird fiction and poetry could be a connoisseur's delicacy instead of literary junk food. Arkham House was practically speaking a one-man show of August Derleth who founded it for the express purpose of promoting and preserving the literary works of H. P Lovecraft whom he looked up to as a mentor for his own writing career. To subsidize publishing Lovecraft he sought to publish other science fiction and horror writers . This was at a time when this genre was disparaged. But the quality of the writings of these authors actually helped to sustain Derleth's efforts. Names like Ray Bradbury, Lin Carter, Robert E. Howard, Robert Bloch surfaced in this adventure. Steve Eng provides a veritable "Who's Who"of the early years of this literary movement as he chronicles August Derleth's herculean efforts to keep Arkham House productive.