Arkham House: The Greatest Small Publisher in Genre Fiction History (1939-2010)
Vložit
- čas přidán 6. 10. 2022
- Many of the roots of modern horror, weird fiction and dark fantasy can be found in pulp magazines of the early 20th century such as Weird Tales. Renowned authors such as Clark Ashton Smith, Robert E. Howard, Ray Bradbury, Fritz Leiber, Robert Bloch, and H.P. Lovecraft wrote dark and strange tales for the pulps that likely would have faded into obscurity without the tireless efforts of authors Donald Wandrei and August Derleth to publish them in hardcover and bring them to a wider audience through Arkham House Publishers, the tiny company they formed. This is an historical overview of Arkham House and its influence on the horror, science fiction and dark fantasy genres over a period of 70 years.
0:44 Arkham House & H.P. Lovecraft
6:03 1940s: Launching the company (and the legacies of great authors)
13:23 1950s: Lean times
14:01 1960s: A new generation of horror
16:48 1970s: Crossroads
18:36 1980s: New and old territories
19:49 1990s & 2000s: Too much of the new?
20:53 Other Arkham House imprints
22:45: Missed opportunities
23:53 Arkham House's impact and legacy
My related video about Gnome Press, the greatest small publisher of science fiction and fantasy, can be found here: • Modern Science Fiction...
#horrorstories #lovecraft #weird #cthulhu #booktube #booktubesff #sciencefiction #scifi #fantasy #sf #bookhistory #bookcollection #classicbooks
Artwork and Film Credits:
Alien (1979)
Psycho (1960)
The Thing (1982)
Jorge Jacinto
Raymond Bayless
Walter Brocca
In the spirit of the Halloween season, I'm kicking off a month of horror-themed videos with this retrospective of arguably the most influential publisher of horror and weird fiction in history. I hope it inspires you to read some of the older classics by Algernon Blackwood, Arthur Machen, Clark Ashton Smith, William Hope Hodgson, Robert Bloch and, of course, H.P. Lovecraft, among others. You might also want to explore the horror renaissance that occurred in the 1960s that led to the widespread popularity of the horror genre today.
I think reality these days is horror enough for me, but thanks for the thought.
@@albertcscs Sometimes it seems more than a little surreal to think of horror fiction as 'escapist' entertainment. :)
Maybe a good seirs to go over in summary because of how many books there are.
Is GOOSEBUMPS.
Even though it is children's horror it still is the second most successful book series ever written next to HARRY POTTER. It could be a good Segway to talk about a suspenseful storys not all about tension.
But can also involve adventure.
@@alexhillyer8390 Good suggestion. Those books were extremely popular 25 years ago, but I wonder how widely read they are today. Slappy the ventriloquist dummy traumatized my kids when they were younger. :)
@@thelibraryladder oh I thought maybe another good subject to bring up. Is classic horror stories that have recently had sequels for example THE SHINNING (Stephen King) book wich had a good sequel DR.SLEEP published in 2013.
Thank you for this tribute to Arkham House. When I was a college student, I wanted to write a paper on the Semiotics of Weird literature. I wrote to August Dereleth and asked if I could come to Sauk City and talk with him. This was about a year before he passed. He wrote back and invited me to see him. As I drove into Sauk City, I stopped by the side of the road and asked a farmer for directions. He said, "Augie? He lives across from the graveyard just ahead." At that time, there was his residence and a modern barn-type structure for storing and shipping books. He invited me into his vast study for our talk. On three walls, there were picture rails mounted at eye level. These shelves held numerous sculptures by Clark Ashton Smith. The room also had a super king-sized bed. Surrounding the bed on two walls was a single-height bookshelf containing all his authored books. We spent an hour or so discussing my project. Although we had never met before, upon leaving, he said, "It was good to see you again, John." I stopped in Sauk City for a Frost Top Root Beer. Sitting in my car, I became aware of something moving behind a pillar. Slowly, ever so slowly, an ear appeared, then an eye, then a whole face peering at me. Then he was gone. I was reminded of the residents of Innsmouth. I have a Robert Bloch story for you. One year, in Chicago, at the Detective Writers Banquet, the organizers invited Al Capone's mother to be the guest of honor. Robert went up to her and said, "Bred any good crooks lately?"
What a terrific comment! Thanks for sharing those stories. Those sculptures by Smith likely were some of the ones Derleth used as cover art for the Arkham hardcover of Lost Worlds.
How can horror genre be so unsettling yet so addictive? That's what I always wondered.
Good question! I imagine it must have something to do with the endorphin rush our brains get after emerging safely from scary situations.
This was fascinating. Thank you! Some years ago I visited Derleth's house in Sauk, which was at that time being run as a coffee shop but maintained his old study, 'Augie's Room.' I was able to purchase a little 1965 book of poetry and beautiful wood engravings, 'Country Places,' by Derleth, signed by him and by the illustrator Frank Utpatel. It was not published by Arkham House, but by The Prairie Press in Iowa City, but it is a book I treasure. I really appreciate your videos and I look forward to whatever you bring out next.
Thanks! I had no idea Derleth's house was converted into a coffee shop. Sauk City must have expanded some, because his house originally was located off the beaten path in a wooded area on the rural outskirts of the village. Did 'Augie's Room' include his semi-circular desk? I'm fascinated by that desk, which is shown in one of the photos I used in the video. I'd love to have one like that.
Of all of Derleth's writing that I've read, I'm most partial to his Mill Creek Irregulars series of mystery stories for kids. His Solar Pons stories would be the runner-up.
@@thelibraryladder Sauk City is pretty big (for a village) now - 3,600 people - certainly not rural and not much in the way of wooded areas. (Derleth's house is opposite a Quik Mart petrol station.) I cannot recall the desk you mention, but I shall make a point of revisiting the next time I am there (my wife is from the area) and send a photograph - although I do not think the house is a coffee shop any more.
@@thelibraryladder CORRECTION: It seems that my memory was playing my false when I wrote so confidently about 'Derleth's House,' which is indeed a very different building outside the town itself. I was remembering a building in town with the sign 'Augie's Room' hanging outside, but was in fact a restaurant/coffee shop named 'in honour of'' Derleth and selling his books. This is from a piece I found on the Sauk City website: "Leystra’s restaurant closed in 2017 after 30 years, marking the end of Augie’s Room. Two years later, Sauk City completed construction of a splash pad and playground in what used to be August Derleth Park. The park was creatively renamed Riverfront Park and the formerly rustic sign at the entrance replaced with a significantly larger sign featuring cartoon turtles and racoons with, I am convinced, murderous impulses in their fiberglass hearts. During construction, the state historical marker was taken down." Sorry for the confusion - and sorry for the village's poor treatment of Derleth's legacy. Cheers anyway, Richard in Japan
@@richardgifu Thanks for the update. That's truly disappointing. It seems almost as if the village wants to erase him from its history.
Thanks for bringing this subject to the table as Arkham House is always mentioned but never fully explored.
Thanks for watching and commenting. In my short time on CZcams, I've been surprised by how little coverage there is of the early pioneers who helped lay the groundwork for modern genre fiction. One of my goals for this channel is to help build awareness of and interest in those older books and authors.
You’re one of those rare people on booktube who capture me (and it appears others as well!) immediately. From video one. I don’t always comment because I don’t always have something to contribute, but I appreciate the thought you put into e everything. Happy reading, and good luck with the channel.
Thank you for your very kind comment! I enjoy storytelling, and I try to make each video tell a story of its own that I hope others will enjoy.
The more I watch this channel, the more I'm convinced you're a talking ladder using "Bridger" as a puppet to make you appear human. That's my spooky head-canon until proven otherwise. Always appreciate the great content Mr. Ladder!
I've got you fooled. I'm really an AI construct softening up the masses for a future robopocalypse. :D
Yikes! This has more hidden layers than A Song of Ice and Fire.
I’m trying to get my own writing with a good horror publisher. Thank you for this video! Lovecraft and King changed my life
You're very welcome, and best of luck getting published! Thanks for watching and commenting.
That was a great crash course and history lesson! As a seller I find horror to be the most popular genre, with a lot of readers who seem to be willing to take chances on obscure titles and authors. I think I'll join you guys in reading some appropriately themed October titles, and I did happen across some Robert Bloch books very recently so maybe I'll start with either American Gothic or Pleasant Dreams (short stories). Also got The Best of Henry Kuttner, though it looks like mostly sci fi stories, and a bunch of weird/creepy non fiction titles of Colin Wilson (currently reading The Outsider). Thanx again for your videos and inspiring people to pick up a book instead of a cell phone ;)
Thanks! Those books by Bloch sound like good seasonal options. Also, if you're interested in listening to some classic horror, I'm going to try my hand at recording some short stories in the next few days and making them available here on my channel.
@@thelibraryladder That's an excellent idea, and you have a great voice that would be great for narration, and I'd bet you could do that professionally if you wanted, especially since audio books are so popular with Audible, and the fact that people nowadays are simply too lazy/distracted to read books, but lots of them do love to listen to podcasts or audio books while at work.
It it so hard - if not impossible - to imagine how the horror genre would look today without the influence of Lovecraft and dedication of Arkham House. Thank you, this topic was a wonderful choice for the Halloween season.
I agree. I have more Halloween-themed videos (and audio!) coming soon. Thanks!
I've had my time being enamored of Lovecraft's work. But your voice really contributed to my enjoyment of this youtube. You have a very unique voice that is calming, soothing, authoritative, and hypnotic as well as informative. Are you making your best use of that wonderful voice of yours? I hope so. It deserves it.
Thank you for your very kind words! I'm so happy you found the video and my delivery enjoyable.
(And on another note, now that I have you under my spell, what nefarious deed can I compel you to do in the name of world conquest?)
(just kidding)
:D
I used to have many Arkham House volumes of Lovecraft, C.A.Smith and many others! Bought them in the '70's when they were affordable... sadly in the mid '80's in a fit of a spiritual crisis I destroyed them all !! 😭😭😭 Try and get back those books today? Too expensive...
Lin Carter needs to be featured for keeping Lovecraft and others in print as the editor of Ballantine Books "Adult Fantasy" series...
15:27 ... Basil Copper!! Loved his books especially "Necropolis," a Sherlock Holmsian gothic tale..
Oh, that's heartbreaking to hear about your Arkham House collection!
I have a video series planned in the coming months focusing on the roots of the modern fantasy genre, including many of the authors featured in those Ballantine reprints from the 1970s (e.g., Eddison, Cabell, Walton, Mirrlees, Dunsany, Morris, de Camp/Pratt, etc.)
Basil Copper also wrote several good stories about Solar Pons, Derleth's Sherlock Holmes homage. Many are collected in a two-volume set published by Fedogan & Bremer in the mid-1990s.
Thanks for watching and commenting!
I too owned several Arkham House books that I bought, quite economically, in the mid-70s at a sf/fantasy bookstore, sadly no longer in existence, in Washington, DC. (If I recall correctly, the store was called Moonstone Book Cellar, and, yes, it was below sidewalk level.) I don’t recall exactly what happened to them - I probably sold them before moving (books can be quite heavy). Whatever the reason, I now regret having let them go.
wow I kid you not the same thing happened to my own weird/AH collection as a confused college kid struggling with faith etc I'm slowly getting back into it
This was a really interesting video! And that was a good touch adding the "not my collection" notice at 22:31, because otherwise we all would easily have assumed that you owned all those books!
Thanks! I borrowed that picture from an auction house that was selling an almost complete collection in pristine condition recently. It's an amazing collection, but far beyond my price range. I have only about a third of Arkham House's titles, most from the early-to-mid period, and relatively few from the 1980s onward.
If I had found your channel some three months ago, I would have quoted you in my bibliography ("Descrição, Análise e Tradução da obra: The Worm Ouroboros, de Eric Rücker Eddison", "Describing, Analysing and Translating the novel: The Worm Ouroboros, by Eric Rücker Eddison" in a rough translation into English). This is some serious popularizing work, a major chunk of information put together in a unified product. The speculative fiction community deserves to have this ten times over, you cloned, if needs be. This would be a balm to many young scholars both starting out and old scholars pointing out to young scholars how to start out their research
I'm very flattered by your praise. Thank you! I'm quite impressed that you translated Eddison's work. That was a monumental task.
@@thelibraryladder not integrally... Yet! I focus more on Eddison himself, since absolutely nothing has been written on him in Portuguese, I thought it good to present him overall. Also, I focus on the technical issues, he is a great case study for those. In the dissertation itself you will find bits and pieces translated and commented, plus the Induction and chapter 1 (as an example of his prose), and 3 poems translated and commented: the first 4 stanzas of Thomas the Rhymer, which he quotes as an epigraph; a chant from Njál's Saga in the Induction; and 4 stanzas from the Lament for the Makaris, which has some stanzas quoted in the third chapter. He is my favorite writer ever, I am glad channels such as yours have him in their radar
Well, then I'm impressed at the task you've set for yourself. I'm glad people like you are helping to ensure that Eddison's works aren't lost to history, given the influence they had on the development of the fantasy genre.
What a brilliant essay! We all need more videos like this one. Thank you very much!
Thank you! I have many more videos of this kind to come. (My challenge is finding more time to make them.)
I love how your videos not only expand my literary knowledge but my vocabulary.
I'm so glad you find them helpful. Thanks for continuing to watch.
This content really capted me the whole 28minutes. Congrats, really cool search you've made.
Thank you! I'm so glad you enjoyed it!
I'm so pleased I ran into this little channel - have spent a lifetime being obsessed with obscure vintage authors nobody I know has ever heard of! Thanks you!
Thanks! Rescuing older and overlooked authors and books from obscurity is the primary reason I started this channel.
Another great video! The videos on this channel never fail to give my entire week a boost.
Thanks! I'm always happy to provide a public service! :)
Thank you for this, this was again a great video and a fascinating look into the genre history.
Thanks! I'm so glad you enjoyed it.
Great video! I think Lovecraft's influence is very recognized today. Lovely collection of AH and M&M...I can imagine the time and effort it took to hunt down those rare (and increasingly expensive) volumes. Can't wait for the next Halloween episode.
Thanks! I agree that Lovecraft's legacy is pretty secure today, but many of his contemporaries and other members of his Lovecraft Circle (some of whom, arguably, were more talented than him) aren't as widely recognized or read. My goal is to encourage readers to explore some of those authors that aren't household names anymore.
Top shelf stuff. I knew a brief outline of this history, but did not know that Arkham was the first to publish Bradbury et al. I have friends and acquaintances who are nuts for Lovecraft (including Sandy Petersen, the author of the Call of Cthulhu RPG), but I have never been able to get into his writing. I did quite enjoy "At the Mountains of Madness", but the rest just doesn't connect with me. It's really not possible to overstate his importance to role-playing culture, though. I even had the opportunity to go through a Call of Cthulhu-themed escape room one time. The group was so well-versed in Lovecraft that we solved all the puzzles without needing the clues offered by the room itself. Good times.
Sounds like fun! I've never played Call of Cthulhu. Lovecraft is pretty hit-or-miss for me. Some of his stories I enjoy a lot, but most aren't to my taste, although I do appreciate the profound influence they had on other writers.
This video is fascinating. Brilliant work. Thank you!
Thanks! That means a lot coming from a pulpy horror aficionado such as yourself. :)
Great video, it was randomly added among my home page, glad I clicked. Something of a shame to see Arkham House finally give up the ghost with their site going dark, but they had a heck of a run. I've only acquired three of their books so far but will definitely add more in time.
Welcome aboard! I feel the same way about AH's apparent demise. I had hoped Derleth's heirs would find a way to keep the company going. Have fun building your collection!
Thank you for this excellent overview of the influential Arkham House publishing operations. I had no idea their influence was so wide ranging.
Thank you! I'm so glad you found it informative. I didn't even mention in the video that Batman's Arkham Asylum owes its name to Arkham House (and Lovecraft by extension).
Arkham House was/is the most influential small press in the history of weird fiction.
Love content like this. Keep up the great work.
Thanks, will do!
Fascinating! I love that you've done this.
Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Thank you for this, great research as always on a subject I'm really interested in, loads I didn't know.
And your voice as others have pointed out, perfect after a stressful day.
Thanks for your kind words! I'm glad you found it informative.
Amazing!
It was great to see the connections between writers and works I grew up with. I hadn't known that Arkham House was so important.
Thanks! I'm so glad you found it useful and (I hope) entertaining.
Yt recommendations doing wonders again. Also your voice is amazing
Thanks and welcome aboard! I'm glad you enjoyed the video.
I think it's safe to say, watching this video is making me want to read some classic horror this month. I'm going to go blow the dust off my HP Lovecraft collection.
This was fantastic to watch!
Thanks! In case you're interested, I'm going to try to record audio versions of a few classic horror stories in the next few days and make them available here on my channel.
@@thelibraryladder I'm definitely interested! That's awesome
Your voice is perfect for reading. One of the best I've heard.
Thank you for your very kind words!
Great video, mister! You got yourself a subscriber. Keep going!
Thank you and welcome aboard! I have many more videos planned.
Thank you for sharing the fascinating and illustrious history of the Arkham House publishing company!
Thank you! I'm so glad you enjoyed the video.
If Lovecraft never existed or never became a writer of weird fiction, where do you think horror fiction would be today? I'm curious considering the prevalence of alternate timelines and parallel universes in science fiction published by Arkham House
Great question! I think most (if not all) of the innovations Lovecraft introduced and popularized would have emerged within a few years, even without him. His atmospheric writing style predated him, as other authors had been experimenting with similar styles for decades. Likewise, his cosmological subject matter was influenced by earlier writers such as Poe, Blackwood and Dunsany. Thus, it seems to me that someone else likely would have emerged to fill Lovecraft's creative shoes in his absence. Clark Ashton Smith would have been a likely candidate. To some extent, I think Lovecraft's reputation is a result of very effective branding by fans and colleagues such as August Derleth. It certainly didn't hurt to have such a distinctive name that could be repurposed for descriptors such as "Lovecraftian" (it's hard to imagine a similarly captivating label arising from CAS -- Smithian?).
@thelibraryladder Yes, you make some excellent points there. The recipe for Lovecraftian horror was made famous by Lovecraft, but the necessary ingredients already existed long before his time through writers like Poe and Machen.
Yet another awesome video with awesome books
Thanks again!
What a great idea! By telling the Arkham House's story. I knew that it published the Lovecraft's tales at first, but i didn't know whatsoever more.
Thanks! I'm so glad you found it informative and possibly introduced you to some new classic authors.
This was really fascinating Bridger! I love learning the history of publishing houses, especially smaller ones. Many of these authors I’ve never heard of either. My how the TBR grows lol.
Thanks, Chas! Arkham House and August Derleth saved many of those authors from obscurity. Lovecraft is still well-known, but many of the others aren't household names today like they used to be. My hope is to encourage readers to try some of those older works by Blackwood, Smith, Hodgson, Bloch, Dunsany and others. I apologize for any uncontrollable ballooning of TBR lists. :)
@@thelibraryladder No apology necessary. It’s a good problem to have I think. :)
In the 80s I was manager of one of the first comic book stores, it was opened long before I was managr and it was filled with boxes long forgotten. While trying to organize it all I found a box of Arkham house first editions, 2 each. I was not that familiar with lovecraft and sold them at a good price but I regret I never kept a few for myself!
That's heartbreaking! In my experience, you never know when you'll stumble across some real gems. I have more than a few book treasures that came from random garage and attic sales. Thanks for sharing.
This was a great education for me as a scifi admirer, thank you for this great history! 😊👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏😊 We owe August Derleth so much! 👍👍 I’ve got now a ton of great reading from the great authors you mentioned 😄 Thank you again! 😊😊
Thank you! I'm very glad you enjoyed it and found it informative. Enjoy your walk on the weird side! :)
I just found out your channel and it's so wonderful! Thank you!
I don't know if you're into d&d and role-playing games but of you are, I'd love to see video reviews of these books.
Thanks and welcome aboard! I played D&D for a time many years ago, and I've read several installments of the Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance series (which I found to be uneven in quality, but deserving of more respect than they often receive). I haven't read enough of them, though, to do a thorough job of reviewing them at this point. However, I'm planning a series of videos in the coming months that will take a retrospective look at the history of the fantasy genre, and I'm sure those D&D-inspired series will get a chapter devoted to them.
I love your detailed researching into Arkham House - Great video as always! Thank you for the nuance and historical facts
Happy Spooky Season 🙌🎃👻
Thanks! I'm glad you found it interesting. Arkham House was a great chapter in genre fiction history.
I know this video is more about Arkham House than it is about Lovecraft, though in a certain sense the two can hardly be separated, but to comment specifically on Lovecraft, I find myself having a love-hate relationship with him. He might have raised pulp fiction to an art form, but there’s still a lot of the pulp in it. Nevertheless, though I prefer Poe and Thomas Ligotti, Lovecraft does manage to satisfy the 12-year-old boy still lurking in my psyche, so I shouldn’t complain. In fact, some of his stories (like “Cool Air,” “The Music of Erich Zann,” “The Thing on the Doorstep,” and “The Strange High House in the Mist”) are among my favorites in the genre.
My feelings about Lovecraft are very similar. He had a tremendous impact on the genre, but I can't say that I enjoy all of his works. I enjoy atmospheric horror writing, but sometimes his stories get lost in the miasmic atmosphere he creates.
I love your videos on publishers. Keep it up
Thanks, will do!
I enjoyed this quite a bit, and look forward to the next publisher you feature!
Thanks, Josh! The next publisher I profile will probably be either Fantasy Press or Shasta Publishers, both of which were specialty SFF presses in the 1940 and 50s. Fantasy Press was the more prolific of the two, but Shasta arguably had the more prestigious lineup of authors and titles.
I look forward to it!
As always so interesting. I’m deeming my toes into some the horror books. I love hearing about the old authors and publishing house that are responsible for what we read today. 😊
Thank you! I love trying to understand the history and evolution of genre fiction. It helps me put modern books and authors in at least a semblance of perspective. I'm glad others feel the same way too.
Thank You!
You're welcome!
Excellent video Bridger! I had no idea Tanith Lee had worked with Arkham house. I have been intrigued by some of her works. Particularly her “Tales from the Flat Earth” Series. A few of these books I’m definitely going to have to add some to my TBR list.
Thanks! I read Lee's Tales from the Flat Earth for the first time a couple of years ago. I found her writing fascinating, but I could never quite shake the sense that I wasn't enjoying it as much as I thought I should. There was something about her writing style that disagreed with me. I hope you have a better experience.
You’re video gave me a sense of dread by the music selection itself 😅thank you
Sticking to fantasy 🙈😅😱😀
I own about sixty Arkham House books, the oldest of which are the Lovecraft 'stop-gap' volumes. In the early nineties I very nearly bought a copy of The Outsider, but decided against it when it transpired that the asking price for the book's dust jacket alone was $600! I shudder to think what the book would fetch nowadays.
That's awesome that you've collected so many! I can empathize with you about the early volumes put out by Arkham. I was fortunate to acquire a few of the early titles at bargain prices about 20 years ago, but due to their scarcity and increased interest in pioneers such as Lovecraft and C.A. Smith, it's nearly impossible to find them at anything close to a reasonable price today.
Great freakin show
Man
Really enjoyed it
Thanks! It makes me happy to hear that.
As a child and young adult I found the covers of Brian Lumley's paperbacks to be so scary I've never actually read any of his books!
His vampire-focused Necroscope series has some startlingly effective cover artwork (perhaps too effective). :)
You earned a subscription.
Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed the video.
Top notch! I do wonder if the whispery delivery is difficult, only because Ron Perlman once commented that the whispery voice he used as Vincent in 1986-88's "Beauty & the Beast" was not good for his vocal cords...I kinda hope it doesn't bother you, though, 'cause it's mesmerizing.
Thanks! That's actually my natural speaking voice, so no cause for concern about my cords. :)
I own many Arkham House books including Lovecraft's Selected Letters (Vol 1-5). Yes, they are abridged, but they will whet your appetite for the unabridged letters. Hippocampus Press published complete letters to various correspondents. I own many of those. At this point, I enjoy Lovecraft's letters and they provide insight and greater depth into his works.
I've only read a few excerpts from Lovecraft's letters, and I found them fascinating. I could see why Wandrei and Derleth felt so strongly about wanting to collect and publish them. Thanks for the head-up about the Hippocampus Press edition!
Very cool video. Last year (2021) at PulpFest I scored a Skull-Face and a Genius Loci, two of my Holy Grails. My first Arkham came in the mail in 1989, A Rendezvous in Averoigne. It came with a golden 1939-1989 catalog which I still have. Rendezvous had just come out the year before. Very informative vid! Loved it.
Thanks! That was quite a score! Both of those books are pretty scarce, with print runs of only 3,004 and 3,047 copies. They're two of my favorites in my own Arkham House collection.
I don't have any of the AH catalogs, but I wish I did. I hope to acquire one at some point.
@@thelibraryladder I was sure stoked to get a last day bulk deal on those two. He didn't want to have to pack it all up. Always thought Loci was one of the most attractive of the early Smiths. And Skull Face, it's a Howard with a Bok cover I have admired for years, and awesome. Very nice collection you have, far more vast than my own!
@@ChrisLAdams I agree about those covers. Bok is one of my favorite illustrators. I have several of the early science fiction and fantasy hardcovers he did covers for. His style is so uniquely recognizable.
I bought the 'Collected Letters of HP Lovecraft'....5 vol.Arkham House...2 years ago for $600...I have been offered over 3K.....the volumes are in excellent condition..i bought from a used bookstore in Montana..
That's a great find! I love browsing used bookstores in out-of-the-way places. You never know what treasures you might discover.
@@thelibraryladder Indeed.....
Very interesting. The part about the pulps being disposable fiction rings true. About fifteen years ago a friend of mine who collects and helps republish pulp authors asked me to scan some stories from western pulps that were on microfiche at the Denver Public Library. I can't remember the author's name, but I managed to find two or three "lost stories" that were not on lists compiled by the best experts in the field. I'm betting there are many fine stories that truly have been lost or still await rediscovery somehow.
Thanks for sharing that experience! In one sense, those old pulp stories weren't completely lost, because you were able to find copies of them. But from the standpoint of the vast majority of potential readers, they were effectively lost, because people had little or no convenient opportunity to read them.
I analogize the old pulp stories to the the silent film era. Most films produced during the silent era were printed on nitrate film stock that deteriorated rapidly within a few years, especially if not stored in a climate-controlled environment. Studios were fine with that, because they never expected to show the films again after their initial run in theaters. There would always be new movies to distribute, and television didn't exist yet, so they never bothered to make longer lasting copies of most early films once the technology to do so was developed.
Consequently, most silent films were truly lost to film decay, and only some of the most famous films from that era were preserved. Even today, it's difficult for viewers to find many of the surviving films outside of the Criterion Collection and occasional showings on Turner Classic Movies.
We owe so much to these wonderful publishers for a wealth of fantastic fiction that we would otherwise never had the pleasure of reading.
My favorite CZcamsr is back 👍🏻
Thanks! It's been a challenging couple of months, and I hope to increase my output of videos going forward, with a little more variety of genres. This month is horror-themed.
@@thelibraryladder Looking forward to it
Just stumbled upon this channel, I liked the content/subject so I subscribed with notifications. Is the presenter/creator of this YT channel a voice actor? Cheers.
Thanks! I'm glad you're enjoying the channel. I'm not a professional voice actor. However, at the suggestion of viewers, I recorded a few short stories as audiobooks earlier this week. The first of the stories, Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart, will be uploaded here on my channel in just a few minutes. I plan to upload the rest over the next couple of weeks. If viewers/listeners enjoy them, I might continue to make more.
Very interesting. I have several Arkham House titles that I purchased directly, via mail order, from the company in the late 1970s and early 1980s. I also kept most of the catalogs that they sent out though I cut off the covers and displayed them in various offices that i occupied over the years. Looking back, i should, of course, have kept them intact.
Oh, the tragedy of those dismembered catalogs! I've never run across a complete copy of one of their catalogs, but I've seen scans of some of their pages. They make a nice addition to an AH collection. Thanks for sharing!
I have a collection of vintage magazines from the 1900s-1950s, some of which I've framed for hanging on the wall. If the framing mattes used are thick enough, you can mount the entire magazine, so it remains intact.
@@thelibraryladder So, I looked around the house and found the 1999 (60th Anniversary) and the "2005-2006" catalogs in mint condition. The latter came with an order form dated April 2005 which I also still have. I'm still looking for the "Gold" catalog which may be laying around somewhere. The cover of the 1980 catalog is on display in my home office.
@@justinecooper9575 Yep, I’m jealous. That’s a great find. :)
Wow, what a great channel!! I have beena book tube watcher for a while now and if it weren't for Moid I wonder how long it would've taken me to find yours. I do have a question, are these all your personal collection? Or is this an actual library? I marvel at the cover art and naturally the content. I'm so hard pressed to find these hidden gems. I started scooping up some SciFi pulps on ebay, but it's a crapshoot for physical quality.
Hi, thanks! I'm glad you found my channel, too. All of the books are in my personal collection. I've been collecting vintage books for more than 40 years and decided to share them here on CZcams about a year ago. EBay can be a very good source of books (I found many in my collection there), but patience is often needed while waiting for the right edition in the right condition and at the right price.
Great video! One of my brothers got into Lovecraft when I was very young and reading Sherlock Holmes and Poe.Just wish filmmakers had done a better job adapting his work, same goes for Stephen King . Thank you
Thanks! I've never understood why filmmakers have consistently failed to make a decent Lovecraft adaptation. If only Guillermo del Toro had managed to complete his version of At the Mountains of Madness that he was working on a few years ago...
Wish I could find this kind of writing community. Must have been an amazing time.
I agree. It was a veritable who's who of future all-time speculative fiction greats in the Lovecraft Circle. Lovecraft's collected letters and other correspondence (which Arkham House published) provide significant insight into how the group of authors collaborated. Unfortunately, I've only read a small portion of them.
@@thelibraryladder Well, I can always talk to these great writers in my head.
@@edwardlecore141 It’s one thing to talk to imaginary people in your head, but if Lovecraft’s stories have taught you anything, you should get worried if they start answering you back. 🙂
That's a pretty sad ending to the story, though. It really would have been great if Arkham would have churned out some works of the big writers.
The really sad thing is that Arkham did publish some of the all-time greats early in their careers (e.g., Robert Bloch, Ray Bradbury, Fritz Leiber, Ramsey Campbell, etc.), but couldn't hold on to them once Arkham helped them become famous.
It makes sense, though, because Arkham was too small to support the production and marketing costs associated with publishing potential bestsellers. It always remained a tiny, mom-and-pop-type business that sold its small print runs via subscription.
Out of curiosity I plugged in the 1939 numbers in the inflation calculator. The initial investment was almost $81,000 in today's money, and a $3 book in 1939 would run nearly $64 today, so you can see it was targeted at a very specific set of enthusiasts. And I don't think a press run of 1200+ was all that small in 1939. I think they were thinking big.
Thanks for running the numbers! I didn't mention in the video that Arkham House was also renowned for the quality of their physical books (the printing, binding, etc.). They intentionally chose expensive, high-quality production as a way of countering the negative reputation of pulp stories in literary circles and public libraries (which became a significant source of their mail-order customers).
1,200 copies was a small print run when compared to the scale of the mainstream publishers, which is why the production costs for Arkham House were so high. They didn't have the economies of scale to enable the printer (a specialty printer of college yearbooks and magazines) to make a profit at a lower price point.
It's one of the reasons nearly all of their titles from the 1940s and 50s (and beyond) are small format books. It was a lot cheaper, and if I recall correctly, only the first two Lovecraft books, Hodgson's The House on the Borderland, and Howard's Skull-Face, were printed in a full-sized format during the early period.
They could have gone the route of low-cost publishers such as A.L. Burt and Grosset & Dunlap, which used cheaper paper stock, boards, bindings, and printing techniques. Such an approach might have allowed them to price the books at $1.00-$1.50, but it would have undermined their goal of achieving literary recognition and respect for the genre.
The fact that most of their early titles took years (and sometimes decades) to sell out their print runs is evidence that their pricing was far too high for their target market (or that their marketing efforts were insufficient). As an interesting side note, the best-selling title from Arkham's first decade was the science fiction novel Slan. However, Derleth wanted to focus on horror rather than SF, so he wasn't aggressive in pursuing additional SF titles to bolster the bottom line. Several high profile SF authors approached Arkham House, but eventually were published elsewhere. Quite the missed opportunity!
@@thelibraryladder It seems that books have gotten a whole lot more affordable over time, since even a cheap edition $1 to $1.50 book would have been a $20 -$30 book today by strict inflation extrapolation. Clearly buying books was something only the better off classes could afford and yet people were paying $.25 or more ($5 today) for pulp magazines.
It seems that small book publishers today are still following Arkham House's formula of limited runs of select titles and quality materials.
@@chucklitka2503 I believe you're right. As printing technologies became more automated and less labor-intensive, production costs plummeted.
Bound books were considered minor luxuries for many people back then, which is why the introduction of cheap paperbacks ($0.25-0.35) in the late 1940s had such a profound impact on the book market by making them available to almost anyone.
Also, it's probably useful to note that people had fewer potential uses for their disposable income back then. Many of the personal services and entertainment options we enjoy today weren't widely available (if at all), so people might have been more inclined to spend money on relatively pricey books and magazines back then. I'm just speculating, though.
Just want to tell you that I'm italian, and I watch all your videos, and I LOVE your channel!
Grazie! I'm so glad you enjoy them!
I have a question for you. I enjoy reading many different genres, and I'm slowly expanding my coverage of them on the channel to match my interests. Are there particular genres or videos of mine that you prefer, or do you like the smorgasbord approach I'm taking?
@@thelibraryladder maybe I'm the wrong person to ask, I devote myself to reading everything, and I'm also a published horror writer and I have a ten year career as a comic book writer (horror, fantasy and science fiction comics)... I vastly enjoy your channel BECAUSE of your smorgasbord approach!
@@michele.monteleone Thanks for the feedback. I prefer the smorgasbord approach, too. It matches my reading interests, and it furthers my goal of creating a kind of reference library on my channel for information about classic books and authors across a range of genres.
I asked the question because I was curious whether someone from Italy would have an interest in wide-ranging videos covering books and authors that might not be as well-known or widely read outside the US/Canada/UK. I'm intrigued by the fact that a significant percentage (~15%) of my viewers are from outside those three countries, and I want to understand that part of my audience better. Thanks again, and best of luck in your writing career!
@@thelibraryladder in Italy, Mondadori Editore, publishes Urania since 1952 a vast sci-fi collection. For 70 years (and counting) every month Urania bring to Italy one (at the beginning, now 3) science fiction books, and almost every book is written by an american or english author. So we know really well the genre. We also have the huge Fantacollana collection, similar to Urania, but devoted to fantasy.
By the way, you really should take a look to the marvelous original covers of the Urania collection made by Karen Thole and their distinguished design!
@@michele.monteleone Thanks for letting me know about those publishers. I wasn't aware of them. I'm glad so many of those classic science fiction and fantasy books have been translated. And you're absolutely right; the cover art by Thole is marvelous! (As you might have guessed from some of my earlier videos, I'm a book illustration enthusiast.)
You have a really good voice.
Thanks!
15:54 I've always found THE GREEN ROUND something of an oddity. On the one hand, it's probably the worst of Machen's stories. On the other, it contains the best, most-terrifying scene he ever wrote.
Great point!
with that voice you should be narrating the Twilight zone. Wow!
"You're traveling through another dimension..."
(Thanks!)
As for your questions at the end, I'd say that Lovecraft's influence isn't overrated, but I would like to see other early 20th century writers get just as much recognition as he gets. I find many of them (such as Arthur Machen and William Hope Hodgson) to be capable of writing MUCH better and more-terrifying works than Lovecraft's stories.
This is a really great video. Thanks for making it.
Thanks for commenting! I completely agree with you. I appreciate Lovecraft and the influence he's had, but I generally prefer other early writers such as Machen, Hodgson, C.A. Smith and M.R. James.
@@thelibraryladder Thanks for replying!
To be fair, one could argue that M.R. James DOES get a lot of mainstream recognition, even today. I just wish the other writers from that era could too.
@@EricHeidenAuthor That’s why I created this channel - to shine a light on older or overlooked books and authors across a variety of genres. I plan to highlight those early authors, although it’s going to take me a while to get to all of them. :)
7:47 Added that one last year.
I’m loving your content fella, but I think there’s a fire in your basement
Just the mist from the moors in my backyard seeping in to add a little atmosphere at twilight. :)
My personal opinion is that Arkham House books with the colophon of issued books are extremely undervalued. I've been building my collection for forty years. I am only missing 2-3 high priced keys.
That's amazing! Those early Lovecraft and Smith volumes from the 1940s and 50s are so hard to find these days, and when they do pop up for sale, the prices are, as you put it, "not insignificant." I acquired most of my Arkham House collection 15-20 years ago when the older books were considerably more affordable and probably undervalued.
@@thelibraryladder Every once in a while I'll search for Arkham House books. Your vid popped up.
@@thelibraryladder I just ordered "The Casebook of Solar Pons," and the paper bound "The First Twenty Years."
Welcome to my channel!
@@thelibraryladder Smith as a writer of horror was better than Lovecraft. I like Lovecraft, but "Double Shadow," chilled my soul.
Great lesson. Thank you. I had just begun my Arkham House collection when the Arkham House website went down, seemingly never to return. Do you know if they are officially defunct?
Thanks! As I was making this video, I discovered that the Arkham House website recently went offline. I don't know why, but I'd guess that Derleth's heirs decided to bring the enterprise to a close, since it hasn't published any new titles since 2010, and much of the company's remaining inventory was sold off around that time (a few titles in my collection came from that sale).
Fascinating!
Thanks! I'm glad you found it interesting.
@@thelibraryladder I have been reading Lovecraftian fiction since the early 2000s. It was great to see a detailed history of this publishing company. Without Derleth, I don't think that anybody today would even know about HPL! Or hardly anyone, at least...
@@davidhughett6081 Thanks! Those are my thoughts as well.
@@thelibraryladder All HPL fans owe him a huge debt, for sure.
I see that BAFS tease at 17:02 ! On the subject of the video, though: what are a few Lovecraft stories you'd recommend? I made the mistake of starting with his early dream cycle material, and, well, let's say I think I see why he reportedly came to be embarrassed by it.
I wondered how many people would recognize those paperback editions. I plan to do a video (or perhaps a series of them) on the early fantasy authors Ballantine featured in the series, including Cabell, Eddison, Walton, Dunsany, Morris, and Mirrlees.
Regarding Lovecraft's stories, I share your disappointment with his dream cycle. I'd suggest trying The Rats in the Walls (a more traditional spooky story), At the Mountains of Madness, The Whisperer in the Darkness, The Shadow over Innsmouth, Dagon, The Dunwich Horror, and The Cats of Ulthar. They all suffer to an extent from some of Lovecraft's unfortunate tendencies as a writer, but I think they're representative of what made him so remarkable as well.
I look forward to your video(s) on those older fantasy authors! I feel as though much of what's labelled "fantasy" today has such a different type of appeal it's almost a different genre. As someone who's drawn to the older material, I often feel isolated in my reading tastes.
I will give those Lovecraft stories a shot--thanks!
I really appreciate your channel. You seem like a nice guy, would like to have coffee and chat about books with you sometime. Cheers.
Thank you for your very kind comment! I'm glad you find my videos interesting. I love talking about books, authors and the history of various genres, and I plan to feature more small publishers like Arkham House in future videos.
I enjoyed this video essay, as well as the previous Gnome press video. 2 notes:
1. No discussion of Arkham House is complete without discussing the highjacking controversy - you mentioned it obliquely in one sentence. I understand your unwillingness to touch this 3rd rail, but it is an important piece of history.
2. Lord Dunsany pronounced his name dunSANy, not DUNsany. I, like many other fans, made the same mistake until I looked into the pronunciation decades ago. It is listed almost ubiquitously as you wrote it, but that doesn't make it right. I don't recall how I learned the correct pronunciation - looking through old English Peerage records, I think (Dunsany being an English lord in Ireland, of course, complicates things). I do recall resisting it, as I had pronounced as you did, but I do recall the source being definitive. Feel free to pronounce it however you like, of course; if I find the reference I'll let you know.
Thanks for the feedback! I decided for several reasons not to focus on the controversy surrounding Derleth's appropriation of Lovecraft's works and his attempts to claim the copyrights to them, including: (a) the facts are still disputed to this day, because of conflicting biographical accounts; (b) I'd rather focus on the positive legacy of Arkham and Derleth; and (c) to do justice to the controversy would have added several minutes to the video's length, which I already felt was running long. I have my suspicions that Derleth's motives weren't entirely pure, but not enough confirmed facts to back it up.
That's the first time I've ever heard Dunsany's name pronounced that way. I've only ever heard it pronounced with the emphasis on the first syllable. Thanks for bringing it to my attention. I'll need to check up on that, because I have a video about him planned in the coming months.
Wow you have a great voice for broadcast. Would you be interested in doing a voiceover for a book promo video
Thanks! Feel free to email me more details at the address listed in the About tab of my channel page.
@@thelibraryladder you’re more than welcome. I appreciate your interest and I’ll email you
Great video on the history of Arkham House; unfortunately it seems that AH is no longer these days. It's sad really.
Thanks! AH's apparent demise is very unfortunate but not entirely unexpected, given how long it's been since its last publication. The publishing world has lost an icon.
@@thelibraryladder maybe, hopefully, someone will come along and revive it and bring in new up and coming horror and fantasy writers while still keeping a section for their classic books. I visited the their website back in 2010 , and always wanted to buy some books from them but never got the chance - it seems that whatever edge it was on pushed it over when Derleth's daughter died that same year and I think his granddaughter was trying to keep it going afterwards, but I guess it was just too far gone.
I agree. The Arkham House brand still has value, so I have difficulty imagining that no one would want to purchase it and put it to good use.
Absolutely great video! I thoroughly enjoyed it! Arkham House has always had a flavour of its own, and deserves eternal gratitude for keeping the horror and weird genre alive. Lovecraft's importance cannot be overlooked: a magnificent writer, he is the father of modern horror, and definitely deserves a place next to Poe in reshaping the old Gothic tradition.
There are a couple of things I would add: first, Derleth never gave in on quality: Arkham House books are nicely manufactured hardcover books (with only one exception, that was paperback). The other is that Wandrei never actually fell out with Derleth: it was after Derleth's demise that Wandrei started a litigation against Derleth's literary executor who apparently wanted to fold Arkham House. For a while Wandrei took over Arkham House but then passed it on to James Turner who started the new more modern era you talked about.
Thanks for your comment! I agree about the quality of the physical books themselves. They're very well bound, and the paper quality is top notch. Of course, that commitment to quality materials and bindings is a big part of why the company struggled financially. Its to their credit that they didn't give in and go the much cheaper route.
Thanks also for the heads-up about the background of the copyright dispute with Wandrei. The version of the story I was familiar with placed the dispute shortly _before_ Derleth's death. But I have to admit that the logic of the account didn't entirely make sense to me. Your version actually makes more sense.
In any event, as I understand it, Derleth had his hands full with copyright disputes with other would-be publishers of Lovecraft's works. Eventually, the controversy and attention led to most of those works entering the public domain by the early 1970s.
Thank you! I think I found the whole story in the interesting though flawed volume 'Arkham's Masters of Horror' edited by Rubin, if l remember well. I know the dispute sort of estranged Wandrei from the rest of Derleth's family, which must have been rather painful for both sides, since Wandrei had been a household name till then. Anyway, Derleth never actually had Lovecraft's copyright, which should have been Barlow's, but Barlow was too young and had too little experience to be a real literary executor, so he dropped out. I remember reading that someone challenged Derleth to prove he had the rights but nothing came out of it. On the other hand, I understand Derleth's defence of Lovecraft's work. I think that behind the copyright issues there was his genuine attempt to defend his late friend's work from speculation.
Thanks for the details. I was familiar with the Barlow background and the the dubious copyright assertions by Derleth, although technically, I don't think Barlow would ever have had ownership of the copyrights as merely the literary executor, which is more akin to a trustee with the 'power of attorney.' Ultimately, I agree with you that Derleth's motives were at least mostly pure.
I intentionally omitted discussing the details of the Lovecraft copyright issues in the video because: (a) there are conflicting biographical accounts of what happened; (b) it likely would have taken several minutes to explain the controversy; and (c) I was concerned that the video was already going to run longer than I wanted. Thanks again.
Please don't get me wrong: l just meant to give my contribution to a superb video - you egregiously managed in less than 30 minutes to encapsulate 70 years of publishing history. As l said, l really enjoyed it. Also, congratulations for the location choice, the quality of images and the sound effects. I have just subscribed, and will definitely enjoy the other videos you made. Cheers!
@@Carlo-V. I took no offense at all, and I hope my responses didn’t come across as defensive. I like learning new things, especially if it’s correcting a fact I got wrong in a video. I also just wanted to explain why I focused mainly on the positive aspects of Arkham House’s history.
I just bought "Demons and Dinosaurs," 1970. Signed by Camp. Kinda an odd volume but only 500 printed.
If you're a fan of Edgar Rice Burroughs, that volume of poetry contains a fun homage to his works. De Camp was a very versatile writer (fantasy, science fiction, historical fiction, nonfiction, etc.), and my favorites of his are his collaborations with Fletcher Pratt, particularly their Harold Shea stories (e.g., the Incomplete Enchanter).
@@thelibraryladder I do like Burroughs.
I'm kinda a dreamer with an eye on the bottom line. If you and I have this Book, there are only 498 other people in this world at this time who have this book.
I did skim through De Camps poems. Not remotely poetically interesting to me. I used to write poetry.
8:35 I wonder what those comics are. Little Nemo at the back?
I wondered the same thing. Little Nemo seems like a good guess.
I'm a bit surprised that Derelith never seemed to consider putting together, in the latter 40's/early 50's, some "tried and true" packages mixing horror and ghost stories by writers of some wider repute, such as:
Poe, M.R. James, Bierce, Conan-Doyle (he told some very creepy sf-horror tales not often talked about) and, maybe even Arthur Machen. Or include, packaged-together (with some old or new illustrations?) major/minor classics like Frankenstein with Der Golem; or Dracula with something like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (hmmm, how about Jeckyll and Hyde combined with Picture of Dorian Gray?); or Island of Dr. Moreau with Edgar Rice-Burroughs's The Monster Men, with any of these maybe including introductions/forwards by people like Bloch, Bradbury, Leiber, or even an Algernon Blackwood , the latter of whom was still alive in the late 40's, or some noted critic in the area.
And maybe it would've helped to include illustrations reprinted from either the pulps, or earlier sources, or even generating some newer works by the likes of Findlay or some of the other great pulp artists like Morey and Paul? I bought a lot of Arkham House books in the 60's, but always felt that the stories were so visual that illustrations would've been fun to see; ie an extra bonus and motivation to buy them.
Strangest of all, to me, is that it seems Derelith may never have considered culling together a collection of HG Wells' many strange, weird sf-horror-fantasy short stories, like The Flowering of the Strange Orchid, The Stolen Body, Valley of the Spiders, In the Abyss, etc, to help sustain Arkham House's "lesser" more risky efforts like, well, like Lovecraft, who, after all, was a long, slow build in popularity. Or, MAYBE...all these authors' publishing houses and family heirs would've demanded too big of a financial piece of the pie?
Thanks for your interesting and thoughtful comment! It's my understanding that Derleth attempted to do many of the things you suggested, and partially succeeded at a couple of them.
Notably, he edited several anthologies of classic horror/ghost stories, but only one of them (Nights Yawning Peal, in 1952) was published by Arkham House. The others he arranged for mainstream publishers (primarily Rinehart) to issue in the late 1940s, because he needed the proceeds from Rinehart's larger print runs to subsidize Arkham House's operations. I have some of the Rinehart anthologies Derleth edited, which are visible briefly in the video at 22:51.
I agree that the many of the Arkham House books would have benefitted from more extensive illustrations. Derleth attempted this with Seabury Quinn's short novel Roads (1948), for which Virgil Finlay provided several original interior illustrations. Roads didn't sell very well, though, which I suspect led Derleth to conclude that it wasn't a worthwhile expense for future titles, given that the company was consistently operating at a financial loss.
He also tried to obtain publication rights for stories by many better-known authors, but often the rights to their best works were held by other publishers. For example, his success in landing books by Algernon Blackwood and Lord Dunsany was limited by the facts that (a) both authors were at the tail end of their careers, past their popular peaks and (b) the stories he obtained the rights to publish are considered lesser works from the authors' late-career periods.
Wells, Stevenson, Burroughs, Doyle, etc., would have been interesting additions to the Arkham House canon, but I think it's likely he would have had great difficulty obtaining the rights to many of their stories (at affordable prices). I believe Knopf had the exclusive rights to Wells' works, while Burroughs reclaimed all his copyrights in order to publish his works himself.
@@thelibraryladder Ah, thank you for the grand "filling-in" re: all the varied things I brought up. Also, for not taking me to task for the misspellings of Derleth and Finlay. I had done some edit corrections on the comments I made, but now I see they didn't take, for some reason.
I really enjoyed the talk, and your presentation. So much enjoyed the chance to see all those wonderfully unique Arkham House dust jackets.
Back in the 70's I had a good experience working with a legal person there in getting clearances for a script I was writing at the time called THE CRY OF CTHULHU, Very nice and easy to deal with. The film project got a certain amount of traction, but never could quite get all the financial ducks in a row to get made. I have pretty good reason to believe that quite a number of ideas from it and the basic idea saw the light of day in POLTERGEIST, but...small guys don't get very far in challenging big studio projects (plus I didn't want to be yet another one of those people who jump on the litigation wagon. Just too much of that going on in my opinion.)
I now have a better understanding of the whole Arkham House/Derleth world. There sure was/is a mystique about them that is still endlessly fascinating.
Thank you so much for taking the time to respond, and thank you especially for this clear, detailed (and very relaxed) presentation. Good wishes.
My pleasure. Thanks for sharing your experience about almost making a film with AH. During the company's lean times, a not insignificant source of revenue that kept it afloat was TV and film rights negotiated with studios like Hammer and American International.
why do you speak so softly in the videos? I have to turn my volume all the way up to hear you. Plus the sound on this video is messed up: kind of choppy sounding.
I reread The Lurker after 26 years just last weekend. The ending was totally unclimactic, but overall I enjoyed it more than I would expect after all these years...
That's an issue I have with much of Lovecraft's fiction. He does a great job creating atmospherics and mood and all-around strangeness, but the plot resolutions don't always fulfill the promise of the writing style.
@@thelibraryladder but the novella is by Derleth in 99,9%, why he screwed up the ending in such a way is beyond me. It looks rushed
Lovecraft's style of writing does feel slow and archaic but I think this has a lot to do with how he felt about himself as being born too late, wishing he'd been a "gentleman" in the late 1700's or early 1800's ...
5:40 I bought "Outsider and Others," about 15 years ago for a not insignificant sum.
Ok i"d guess you paid £1000 !
@@grantross2609 Higher.
Sadly, we may finally be seeing the end of Arkham House. Their website has been down for around two months, so it's not looking too good for this historic publisher. :(
I think you might be right. 😢
@@thelibraryladder I messaged their Facebook page but I haven't heard back yet, honestly I doubt I will. I should mention that I really enjoyed your history of Arkham House video! I'm looking forward to watching more of your video.
@@tedcharter4804 Thanks! Please let us know if you receive a reply.
Those early low print run AH books must be worth a fortune nowadays
Some are, but many are still available for prices that are manageable for patient collectors. The early Lovecraft editions, though, are nearly unattainable these days. I regret deciding nearly twenty years ago not to purchase copies of The Outsider and Others and Beyond the Wall of Sleep that I ran across. The prices were more than I was willing to pay at the time, but _far_ less than what it would cost to buy them today (even after accounting for the time value of money). I'm a firm believer in the "buy low" strategy, which has been my approach to collecting over the past 40 years.
I just bought "Marginalia," for a pretty penny. I have to complete this Arkham set.
That's awesome! I wish you good hunting in your quest. I'm unlikely ever to achieve it, given the difficulty (cost) of obtaining some of the earliest Arkham volumes.
@@thelibraryladder It is very odd that I have an idée fixe on completing my Arkham House pre 1970 collection because I am fearful that a complete set will lead to further apathy.
@@thelibraryladder Funny thing. I was gonna buy "Hornbook for Witches," just a few years ago and signed copies were plentiful (even considering the run was just 553 books). Now a signed book is a rarity.
I used to own several of the Lovecraft books from Arkham House. Sadly, they were stolen from me.
Ohhh, that's painful! I can empathize.
Thieves are the worst! I am sorry and hope you can rebuild your collection someday 🙏
This man's voice
I really liked the stories HPL ghost wrote for Houdini. Real adventure. Houdini is stuck in the pyramid? Most HPL stories dont really have adventure. I think it is funny that he was a ghost writer.
I was shocked when I first learned that Lovecraft ghost-wrote stories for Houdini (almost as shocked as I was when I learned that Houdini was a published fiction author).
No Insult intended; you work so hard to give a very professional presentation in your videos that you really deserve the honest feedback: the mist effect does not work. Instead of making it look spooky like a Roger Corman set, it just looks like there's a problem with your lighting and you're all washed out. It took me almost 5 minutes to realize it was a "mist" effect.
Also, odd time to choose a bent collared washed out corduroy shirt that's at odds with all the work you go through to present a professional persona.
Once again, not intended as sniping, this video just stands apart from the others.
Thanks for the constructive feedback. No offense taken. I have mixed feelings about the mist myself. I don't regret adding the effect, but I think I might have overdone it a little.
@@thelibraryladder Or perhaps, if it's possible to make it look like it's going behind you instead of in front of you as well?
I don't know what software you're using, but an idea similar to creating another layer where you're the foreground and letting the mist pass behind you. But of course I know nothing about your software. 😉
All your data, as always, was on point. And expansive enough to inspire me to look for classics I should not spend on. . .
@@salty-walt I use Davinci Resolve editing software, and your suggestion to create separate foreground and background layers, with the mist applied to the background would have been a good approach. My challenge, though, is that my computer is several years old and there's a limit to how many layers and effects it can process before it bogs down completely. The mist effect is processor-intensive, and adding a foreground layer with a tracked mask to separate me from the background probably would have been more than my PC could handle when the animated text and book images were added in. I might try it out on my next video to see how much of a burden it adds. Thanks.
@@thelibraryladder You are most welcome.
@@thelibraryladder Oh, a half hour later the penny dropped! Instead of risking a crash for your next video deadline, you could try compiling a reworked version of this one - just for an experiment. You've got nothing to lose. It's already up.
Just an idea, your channel, your expertise. Not my business, good luck. 😁
8:08 Don't have it.
We could do without Lumley tbh
Lumley isn't one of my favorites either, but he played a significant role in popularizing horror and weird fiction in the 1960s and 70s.
He's got some good stories. But I will never forget how he turned the Titus Crow saga into a bloody space opera. It's not a lovecraftian horror. It's set in the Cthulhu Mythos universe, but the protagonists are so enlightened and advanced that it doesn't evoke that cosmic dread we know and love.
I'm a fan of the board games I'm not a fan of their novels. They fucked the lore so fk much it's ridiculous.
Gormenghast
...is a great (and surreal) dark fantasy series. I suspect Arkham House would have loved to publish it if given the chance.
Lovecraft was usually a terrible author, but an absolute fantastic world/myth creator.
I tend to appreciate Lovecraft's ideas more than his actual writing, although he did have a knack for atmospheric descriptions in his stories. I'm more partial to some of the other members of the Lovecraft Circle.