In 1939, a promising Midwestern mainstream novelist and a popular Midwestern writer of pulp fiction co-founded a small press to publish a hardbound book to preserve the writing and perpetuate the memory of their dearly departed friend and mentor, Howard Phillips Lovecraft. Arkham House was officially in business when August Derleth and Donald Wandrei signed the George Banta Publishing Company's "Proposal for Printing" THE OUTSIDER AND OTHERS by H. P. Lovecraft, dated 25 August 1939. Thus began of one of America's most important and best known twentieth-century small publishers, Arkham House Publishers (named for the fictional Massachusetts city loosely modeled on Salem, Massachusetts, the setting for many of H. P. Lovecraft's stories) which had an enormous impact on the course and development of the horror fiction genre, particularly in the United States. "Arkham House, founded in 1939, played a crucial role in establishing the importance of the WEIRD TALES school of writers -- including Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, Robert E. Howard, Henry S. Whitehead, and others -- by preserving their pulp fiction in book form for future readers, scholars and writers. Derleth also issued the first books of their immediate successors in the tradition, Robert Bloch, Fritz Leiber, Ray Bradbury and Joseph Payne Brennan. As well, he vigorously championed the British weird fiction tradition, presenting works by Sheridan Le Fanu, William Hope Hodgson, Lord Dunsany, and H. Russell Wakefield to the North American audience, in some cases for the first time" (Penguin Encyclopedia). "August Derleth had almost single-handedly kept weird fiction alive with Arkham House, the grandfather of all specialist science fiction and fantasy small presses ... Arkham House was essentially a book publisher, and Derleth was one of the first to develop original anthologies of weird tales, long before they became popular in the science fiction field. Starting with DARK MIND, DARK HEART (1962), Derleth encouraged a new generation of writers while sustaining the old school of WEIRD TALES contributors" (Mike Ashley). The Arkham House Archive contains over 4000 letters and documents related to publications issued by Arkham House, Mycroft & Moran and Stanton & Lee between 1939 and 1971, as well as correspondence and business papers related to Derleth's activities as writer and editor for other publishers, including his editorial work as an anthologist in the 1940s and 1950s, and as a TV scriptwriter in the 1950s. This archive is a highly important collection of letters and documents. The core of the archive is correspondence, often extensive, from several hundred authors whose work Derleth published under his own imprints or in his highly important non-Arkham House anthologies published in the 1940s and 1950s, as well as manuscripts, mostly typewritten (including fair copies and carbons), submitted by Arkham House authors. The business papers include printers' correspondence, quotes and invoices, beginning with the George Banta Company proposal for printing THE OUTSIDER, 25 August 1939 and the invoice for THE OUTSIDER, 21 November 1939. There is significant business correspondence from Derleth's literary agents: G. Ken Chapman, Robert Goldfarb, Otis Kline Associates, Scott Meredith Literary Agency, Renault and Le Bayon and others, as well as hundreds of letters pertaining to the sale of reprint rights (including audio and film rights) for literary property by Derleth and others. These business papers largely predate the August William Derleth Papers held by the Wisconsin Historical Society, as "most of the pre-1963 materials were destroyed when this collection was originally processed, so substantially complete records survive only for the years between 1963 and 1970." Additionally, the archive includes book production files for some publications, printer's blocks, fair copy typescripts of literary material by various writers made by Arkham House for book production or reference (like typewritten transcriptions of Lovecraft letters), complete and partial book proofs, and photographs of Arkham House authors.

An endearing and amusing file of letters from the author of THE DEMOLISHED MAN (1953) and TIGER! TIGER! (1956), two of the "few genuine classics of genre sf" (Clute and Nicholls, The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, p. 113). The letters were written towards the end of his career and reveal a man of warmth, generosity, high spirits, quick temper, and, in his persistent refusal to date any of his letters, a rebellion against convention, trivial in itself but perhaps suggestive of a deeper alienation. Bester, a Jewish kid from New York City, went to the University of Pennsylvania and settled in Bucks County. He began writing sf short stories in his twenties, then worked for DC comics, wrote scripts for radio and TV and edited Holiday magazine for many years. Science fiction occupied only part of his literary career and his best work was done in the 1950s and early 1960s, though some of his stories from both before and after this period are among his best, which is to say, among the best that has been done in the genre. He wrote three other sf novels, two of them (THE COMPUTER CONNECTION and GOLEM-100) with glints of the old genius. (1) TNS, postcard, no salutation, undated. Complaining about the lack of progress from Byron Preiss on a project to turn THE STARS MY DESTINATION (the U.S. title of TIGER! TIGER!) into a comic book. "… this Byron Preiss character has sent me nothing on THE STARS, as he promised. Instead he sent me a copy of his version of the Zelazny stories…I don't at all like what he's done with Zelazny; it's cheap and fifth-rate and we would have rejected it at D-C Comics." Closes with, "They're cleaning my hot water coil with HCl. Little else remains to be told." Fine. (2) TNS, postcard, no salutation, undated but postmarked 10 March 1978. Begins, "Kirby, my beauty, do exactly as you think best with TENDER, LOVING RAPE. You must know by now that I have ample reason for trusting your judgment." This mainstream novel, set in the milieu of New York advertising and television in 1959, was written around 1970 and not published until 1991 (posthumously), under the title TENDER LOVING RAGE. Fine. (3) TLS, half-page, no salutation, dated "Monday…" Complaining about delays in the publication of GOLEM-100, the science fiction novel that Bester considered his best. "Kirby, love, I'm beginning to run out of patience; not with you, never with you, but with S&S, Pocket Books, and Mac Talley…. Quite frankly, I'm ready to tell our locals to go to hell, take off for London, and work with Pan and Nick Webb on the first publication which, God knows, needs a hell of a lot of work." The novel was published by Simon & Schuster in 1980. Faint mailing creases, fine. (4) TLS, half-page, no salutation, undated, to Kirby's sister and fellow-agent Kay Kirby. "Enclosed, the lunatic story about the psychiatric hockshop. You'll see that it's the first of a possible series … but it's so wild that I'm scared and beg you both for a frank, honest and, as my dentist used to say, bruteless appraisal." Closes with brief enumeration of some upcoming tasks, "… have my hair cut for Good Friday, and then back to that goddamn Praying Mantis novel. I kiss your libido…" Several creases at edges, short closed tear at top edge, very good. (5) TLS, half-page, no salutation, dated "28th…" Mentions some business details about the manuscript of TENDER, LOVING RAPE (see item #2 above), then kvetches about the creative turmoil attendant on his writing of GOLEM-100. "It's hell when your demon requires you to top yourself constantly. I keep hoping that another eighty pages of knock-outs and the book will award me the decision." Then it's the cold weather. "We're having another Glacial Epoch down here in Bucks and I have a vision of future scientists discovering my Opel GT frozen like a Mastodon in a bog, probably with me inside it, shopping list in hand. '1100110011! 1100001!' they'll exclaim in the language of the future. 'It still runs!' But they'll never be able to decipher my shopping list. Kisses and pinches …" Faint mailing creases, minor creases at edges, a thin irregular strip of faint darkening along upper left margin, very good or better, overall. (6) TLS, 1 page, no salutation, undated, with return address on sticker attached to lower left corner. Another complaint about the lack of progress made by "this Preiss character" on a project to adapt THE STARS MY DESTINATION to comic book (see item #1 above). "He talks real slick and is full of explanations and excuses…He doesn't have a completed script or even a page and panel outline. He doesn't have anything except a vague thirty pages which, apparently, he sold to some publication….I think he's been trying to sell the book before he starts real work on it…. Thirty pages in fourteen months? Jeez! I do thirty pages, including art, in fourteen days." Asks Kirby for advice on how to handle the situation. "Forgive the long letter but I'm so busy with the completion of GOLEM-100 that I didn't have time to write a short one." Faint mailing creases, fine. (7) TLS, half-page, no salutation, dated "Tuesday, Dec. 5th…" Accepting invitation to speak at an upcoming convention. "You must know by now that my attitude toward conventions is to make myself available at all times for all purposes and for all people. I'm no Robert Heinlein, hiding in austere and megalomaniac seclusion. I'm in the entertainment business. Don't worry about money. I'll pay my own way with pleasure. All you'll have to do is reserve real nitzy [ritzy?] accommodations for me and my redhead, and I'll pick up the tab." Announces that GOLEM-100 should be published by the time of the convention, and that Pocket Books wants to title it, "PSYLOCK." Faint mailing creases and several light creases elsewhere, near fine. (8) TLS, top carbon, half-page, no salutation, but with "my dear Mal" in first sentence [probably to UK editor Malcolm Edwards, with this copy to Kirby McCauley], dated "9th…" Concerning plans for an upcoming convention, SEACON '79 (and complaining about a new electric typewriter). "I do not come to a convention for an ego trip; I come to do the damn best P. R. job that I can…. You may count on me for anything; speeches, panels, moderating, last minute off-the-cuff appearances, stand-ins for scheduled people who've dropped out…. I enjoy chatting privately with my colleagues which is why I've asked you to reserve the damn best suite [available] (see item #7 above)…" Doesn't mind giving "a small bash for selected fans … but you guys will have to provide the booze for them." Faint mailing creases, fine. Kirby McCauley was probably the most important literary agent of horror, fantasy and sf writers in the boom years of the 1970s and 1980s.

The letters deal with business details concerning both of Campbell's activities, as an author and an anthologist. Each letter raises a handful of matters, asking for information or action from McCauley, or supplying information. Campbell plows through the matters in pell-mell fashion. The tone is chatty -- neither formal nor intimately emotional. Kirby McCauley was probably the most important literary agent of horror, fantasy and sf writers in the boom years of the 1970s and 1980s.

Cover letter accompanying a short story by Susan Lette which Ellison was recommending for publication in WEIRD TALES. Lette was an amateur writer, but "one of those natural writers whom one spots instantly among the hordes of creative typists and formula hacks who infest out little world." Her first story, Merari," was to be published that summer in COSMOPOLITAN; her second was to be published in Ellison's anthology, LAST DANGEROUS VISIONS. The present story, "Timmy," represented her third. Ellison says reading it raised the nape hairs on the back of his neck and reminded him of Bradbury's "Small Assassin." He notes that she was living in somewhat straitened circumstances and had an autistic child. Leo Margulies was an editor and publisher who had been working in the field since 1932, when he joined the Frank Munsey chain of pulps. Ellison was "... the most controversial and among the finest of those writers associated with sf whose careers began in the 1950s. He was born and raised in Ohio, attending Ohio State University for 18 months before being asked to leave, one of the reasons for his dismissal being rudeness to a creative-writing professor who told him he had no talent." - Clute and Nicholls (eds), The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (1993), p. 376.

Original typed manuscript for the story which was not published during Howard's lifetime. In a letter of provenance from Glenn Lord he states "Originally written as a straight historical entitled "Spears of Clontarf" the story was submitted to Clayton Magazines on June 1, 1930..." Rejected by Clayton, Howard re-wrote the story into its present form and submitted it to Farnsworth Wright at Weird Tales who rejected it in December of 1931. (The rejection letter accompanies the manuscript). It stayed in Howard's files until after his death when August Derleth purchased the rights from literary agent Oscar J. Friend. He published the story in the anthology DARK MIND, DARK HEART (1962). The story occurs during the historical Battle of Clontarf which took place in the early 11th Century involving Brian Boru, High King of Ireland against the Vikings. Howard's main characters are Turlogh Dubh O'Brien and an ex-slave named Conn. "The core of the story, as indicated by the title, is the end of the influence of supernatural beings from our world with the victory of Christian King Brian over the heathen Vikings. Among the Irish dead is a fey prince whose own death will cause the death of his fairy lover, a metaphor for the waning away of all the Sidhe. Odin himself makes an impressive and doomful appearance, making the battle a Götterdämmerung. This is more Wagnerian in tone than the utter end of the world predicted for Ragnarök, though it is indeed the end of a world." - Wikipedia entry.

A businesslike letter to Derleth, as editor of Arkham House, concerning the edition of Leiber's tales that he was preparing. NIGHT'S BLACK AGENTS appeared in 1947, Leiber's first book, and Arkham's 29th. (It was also the first of their titles which went subsequently into a paperback edition, brought out by Ballantine Books in 1961.) In this letter, responding apparently to Derleth's request for blurb material, Leiber refers to a letter he had received from H. P. Lovecraft late in 1936 after sending him the novella, "Adept's Gambit." He points out several sections of the letter, which he had enclosed, that might be suitable for quoting. "... I was delighted to receive a letter from Lovecraft containing not only some general comments, but an unexpected list of detailed criticisms and corrections, which I hastened to make use of in preparing a second writing of the story ... ." The front dust jacket flap did, in fact, wind up using some of this copy. "'Some day I hope the Fafhred Cycle will get into print,' wrote H. P. Lovecraft after reading the manuscript of the novel herewith, 'leading off with Adept's Gambit.'" Bleiler calls NIGHT'S BLACK AGENTS "one of the landmark volumes in modern fantastic fiction" (Bleiler, The Guide to Supernatural Fiction 1002) -- though he didn't care much for the Fafhred/Mouser story, which, in fact, was the only part of NIGHT'S BLACK AGENTS omitted in the Ballantine paperback. The letter links three of the most important figures in mid-twentieth-century American fantastic fiction.

9 leaves, plus cover sheet headed "Author's Note." An early unpublished short story by Silverberg that was the basis for "Road to Nightfall." According to Silverberg, this "story was written in late 1953, some months before I was to make my first professional sale. I showed it to one or two science fiction magazines at that time, and though it drew a couple of encouraging comments the editors were unanimous in agreeing that the story was not developed in proper form, being more of a mood-piece than a narrative of conflict, and that in any case the 'shock' nature of the theme made it unpublishable. In 1954, after intense effort to master the craft of commercial storytelling, I made a few sales to the SF magazines and to a hardcover house. The theme of this story remained with me, though, almost obsessively. I tried again, examining the same background and similar characters from a different and more detailed viewpoint. The result was the 10,000-word "Road to Nightfall," which wandered around from editor to horrified editor until Hans Santesson found himself willing to take a chance on a cannibalism story. He accepted it early in 1957 and it saw print in FANTASTIC UNIVERSE in 1958 ..." "Road to Nightfall," written as early as 1954 but not published until 1958, depicts a ruined America where survivors are reduced to cannibalism. It is "an important early example of the dark vision the permeated Silverberg's later fiction" (Clareson, Robert Silverberg, pp. 15-6).

[New York]: A George Foley / Dick Gordon Production, 1951. Mimeographed TV script, heavily corrected throughout in pencil. The cover page is marked "Corrected Script" and "FINAL REVISED" in pencil at the top of the sheet. The script is complete and includes cast and crew lists, rehearsal schedule, and inserts on blue paper stock for the commercials that ran during the program. The series, produced by George Foley and Dick Gordon, was performed and broadcast live on ABC-TV from 1951 to 1953. It ran for 85 episodes. The series, originally called Tomorrow is Yours, was developed by Theodore Sturgeon, the series story editor, and Mort Abrahams, the program's executive producer. Tales of Tomorrow was one of the earliest and most successful SF anthology television series. It was ambitious but, like most television of the period, limited by the restrictions imposed by live studio shooting. At a time when most SF on TV was targeted to children, Tales of Tomorrow was intended for adults. It drew its material from a variety of sources, including the SF pulp magazines, as well as using original scripts. "Verdict from Space" is Sturgeon's adaptation of his short story "The Sky Was Full of Ships" which was first published in THRILLING WONDER STORIES, June 1947.