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.

A tale by Robert W. Chambers (1865-1933) about the Black Priest, branded on the forehead and executed for treason during the Third Crusade and again 1760, whose skull is disinterred in a gravel pit, and who returns again to haunt the Breton countryside. The story was first published in THE MYSTERY OF CHOICE (1897), Chambers' third collection of short fiction. The published version largely follows the final text of the manuscript which has many deletions and revisions by Chambers. THE MYSTERY OF CHOICE "opens with a trilogy of tales sharing the same characters and set in the Breton countryside. They are reminiscent of 'The Demoiselle D'Ys' in mood and setting ... ['The Messenger'] is an effective treatment of a conventional theme" (Lee Weinstein, Bleiler, ed., SUPERNATURAL FICTION WRITERS II, 743). "By far and away the most powerful ... was 'The Messenger.' This is a long, sometimes rambling story that nevertheless guides the reader along to a most eerie conclusion. The setting -- coastal Brittany -- has seldom been used to such effect, and the historical tale behind the story's events has a grotesque ring of truth. This is one of Chambers' best stories, and its use of the traditional cowled figure has never been bettered" (Hugh Lamb, ed., Chambers, OUT OF THE DARK I, pp. xi-xii). "The Messenger" is "a material-horror story, possibly a little unsubtle, but it does have the characteristics of a nightmare with its disruptions of the time-dimension, interlocked identities, and repetitive fate, which are all novel touches for the period" (Bleiler, ed., Chambers, THE KING IN YELLOW AND OTHER HORROR STORIES, p. xi).

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.

Berlin: August Scherl G.m.b.H., [1926]. Octavo, pp. [1-8] 9-273 [274] [275: blank] [276-280: ads], three-quarter brick red leather and patterned boards, gilt decorated spine with gilt lettered and ruled tan leather spine label. First edition. Rare publishers deluxe binding. Anti-utopia set in a gigantic city in the year 2000 "where capitalists oppress a mass of proletarian helots." - Fisher, p. 128. A restitution fantasy in which a patriarchal order is ultimately reestablished. The Fritz Lang movie adaptation had a mythic scale that would not be challenged -- "The Shape of Things to Come" aside -- for decades to come. [Reference: Anatomy of Wonder (1976) 3-23; (1981) 2-112; (1987) 2-123; (1995) 2-132; and (2004) II-1197. Bleiler, Science-Fiction: The Early Years 1040. Fisher, Fantasy and Politics: Visions of the Future in the Weimar Republic, pp. 126-37; 139-42. Lewis, Utopian Literature, p. 198. Survey of Science Fiction Literature III, pp. 1383-86. Lexikon 2, pp. 134-6. Bloch (2002) 1370. Nagl, p. 256].

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.

Philadelphia: Published by the Author, and for Sale by All Booksellers, 1845. Small quarto, pp. [1] 2-494 [note: pages 5-314 are printed in double columns; pages 315-494 printed in a single column], inserted engraved frontispiece and engraved title leaf, mid-nineteenth century three-quarter pebbled calf and marbled boards, spine panel titled and ruled in gold, all edges marbled. First complete edition. A bibliographically complex book. Supposedly first published in ten paper-covered parts, but no complete set of parts published by G. B. Zieber exists. Examples of seven parts do exist. They are printed in double columns and paginated consecutively up to page 314. The following 180 pages of the published complete book are set in a single column and apparently had no previous parts publication. The edition in parts is dated 1844 on the title page, but a contract dated 31 March 1845 between Lippard and publisher G. B. Zieber indicates that Lippard was still writing the book. Before 5 May 1845 (the date of Lippard's introduction to this edition, which is also is copyright 1845), Lippard bought the existing plates and copyrights and commenced to reprint the book under his own name. According to Lippard, this edition was published in ten paper-covered parts and this copy appears to be bound from parts (evidence includes a bit of a blue wrapper adhered to the blind side of the frontispiece). Several one and two volume reprint editions were published by Lippard before Peterson of Philadelphia began publishing and reprinting his works in the 1840s. "... a handbook for Gothicism in all its most exaggerated forms." - Tymn (ed), Horror Literature 2-66. "Sensational expose novel in the manner of the French feuillleton novels (Sue and Hugo) and British counterparts. Crime and supernaturalism in early 19th century Philadelphia." - Bleiler, Guide to Supernatural Fiction 1027. "Lippard's sensational Philadelphia Gothic was first serialized in 1844-1845 and stands as a lurid example of the American Gothic spirit of the 1840s. Lippard allures and holds his readers by every repulsive means available. The result is a Gothic farrago of the Philadelphia underworld comparable to Victorian pulp Gothics. Monk Hall itself is an updated version of the infernal subterranean of the castle or abbey. Teeming with malicious creatures of every type and presided over by a crippled monster called Devilbug. Monk Hall also has a Gothic maiden-in-residence, Mabel Pyne. The plottings of Devilbug provide the occasion for live burials, necrophiliac love affairs, necromancy, satanic ritual, and other depravities embellished with nauseating scenes of Lippard's own. E. F. Bleiler's comment on the American Gothic extravaganza is severe but accurate: the novel is 'amusing in small doses, disgusting in large.' This judgment applies equally to Lippard's other Gothic endeavors, THE LADYE ANABEL; OR, THE DOOM OF THE POISONER (1844) and THE ENTRANCED; OR, THE WANDERER OF EIGHTEEN CENTURIES (1849)." - Frederick S. Frank, Barron (ed), Fantasy and Horror (1999) 1-95. [Reference: Wright (I) 1689. BAL 11773. Roger Butterfield, "Lippard and His Secret Brotherhood," The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, July 1955, pp. 285-309].

London: Hutchinson & Co., 1897. Octavo, pp. [1-4] 1-345 [346-348: ads], publisher's pictorial reddish brown cloth, front panel stamped in gold and blind, spine panel stamped in gold. First edition. The alleged vampire is 21-year-old Harriet Brandt. The 'blood' of the title is metonomous for 'heredity,' and refers to the rumor that Harriet’s grandmother, a Jamaican slave, was bitten by a vampire bat while pregnant with Harriet’s mother. Thus, the novel takes on as its central theme the power of heredity versus that of later nurturing and free will. It poses the question: is Harriet, despite her many charms and good intentions, tainted irredeemably with the blood of the vampire? She inherits bad blood also from her father, an Englishman who had been kicked out of medical school in Switzerland for unauthorized and deadly experiments in vivisection. He moved to Jamaica, a wealthy and unscrupulous man, and continued his experiments on animals - and on the slaves, as well. He impregnated, but did not marry, a sadistic and gluttonous half-caste who practiced obeah, according to the slaves. Harriet does indeed seem to be a psychic vampire, though against her own will. People who get close to her die, including children and her husband, and she eventually commits suicide in despair. A sophisticated variation on traditional vampire motifs, which found expression that same year, more famously, in DRACULA." [Reference: Bleiler (1978), p. 133. Reginald 09684. Not in Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy I-III. Not in the Eaton catalogue].

New-York: Harper & Brothers, 1838. Octavo, pp. [1]-2 [leaf of ads dated "May, 1838"] [iii-v] vi-vii [viii] [9] 10-201 [202: blank] [1]-14 [ads], fly leaf at front, original pebble grain blue muslin, printed paper label affixed to spine panel, untrimmed. First edition. Poe's first prose book and his only book-length work of fiction, one of the nineteenth century's most fantastic short novels. "A novel of horrendous sea adventure, followed by extraordinary experiences in the Antarctic ... Critically, Pym has generally been held in low esteem, but this is probably because of the full-blown sensation approach of the first part of the novel, which retails more horrors in one short voyage than would have taken place in a sailor's lifetime or more. But considered within the aesthetics of BLACKWOOD'S, it is a fine achievement. As for the second, puzzle section, it remains successfully puzzling after a century and a half." - Bleiler, Science-Fiction: The Early Years 1784. "Clearly, THE NARRATIVE OF ARTHUR GORDON PYM has exerted a powerful influence on its readers, and its entrancing ending in particular has aroused considerable interest. The novel has become a frequent subject for scholarly debate and a rich source for numerous literary and artistic endeavors, and in the last twenty-five years, it has come to be recognized as a masterpiece." - Survey of Modern Fantasy Literature III, pp. 1092-95. [Reference: Anatomy of Wonder (1976) 1-41; (1981) 1-138; (1987) 1-74; (1995) 1-74: and (2004) II-857. Bailey, Pilgrims Through Space and Time, pp. 43-4. Barron (ed), Horror Literature 2-76. Bleiler, The Guide to Supernatural Fiction 1313. Bleiler (ed), Science Fiction Writers, pp. 15-7. Survey of Science Fiction Literature III, pp. 1480-87. Tymn (ed), Horror Literature 2-78. Bleiler (1978), p. 159. Reginald 11610. BAL 16128. Wright (I) 2052. Heartman and Canny, pp. 38-40].

10 leaves, plus cover sheet. Corrected throughout in Stapledon's hand with amendments, additions, and strikeouts. At the top edge of the cover sheet Gawsworth has written: "Published by me / when editing ENQUIRY / (1949) / John Gawsworth." Accompanied by a handwritten note (ANS) from Stapledon to Gawsworth dated 17 July 1949 returning a corrected proof of the essay. The essay, published in ENQUIRY, August 1949, addresses the "need both for fidelity to the spirit and agnosticism about the ultimate ends of the universe." - Satty and Smith C190. William Olaf Stapledon (1886-1950) "is best remembered for the extraordinary works of speculative fiction published between 1930 and 1950. As a novelist, he was known as the spokesman for the Age of Einstein and has influenced writers as diverse as Virginia Woolf, Arthur C. Clarke, and Doris Lessing ... Stapledon's novels -- LAST AND FIRST MEN (1930), ODD JOHN (1935), STAR MAKER (1937), and SIRIUS (1944) -- have gathered a passionate following, and they have seldom been out of print in the last twenty-five years ... In his social activism as in his fiction, Stapledon embodied many of the of modern era's anxieties and hopes that allow his works to continue to speak to and for the future." - Robert Crossley.

New York: Farrar & Rinehart Incorporated, Publishers, [1931]. Octavo, pp. [1-6] [1-2] 3-314, original orange cloth stamped in dark blue. First edition. Mystery and science fiction novel of a man who can turn himself invisible and seeks to rule the world. Wylie freely admits indebtedness to Wells' novel The Invisible Man (which Wylie, unaccredited, helped write the screenplay for the 1933 film). [Reference: Clareson, Science Fiction in America, 1870s-1930s 835. In 333. Bleiler (1978), p. 213. Reginald 15693. Hubin (1994) p. 882].