#Arkham House

[vintagerpg]

This is The Mask of Cthulhu (1958), one of two explicitly Cthulhu Mythos collections by Derleth published under his name at Arkham House (the other is the superior, but not by much, The Trail of Cthulhu, 1962).

After all these years, I’m still trying to figure Derleth out. He obviously knew Mythos stories would sell, and Lovecraft Mythos stories in particular (hence the five or so volumes of “posthumous collaborations” Derleth published at Arkham House). But his own Mythos tales feel so half-hearted. They lean into some of Lovecraft’s worst tendencies (particularly litanies of unpronounceable names) and casually misunderstand the source material, as evidenced by the foisting of a weirdly black and white morality onto a cosmology Lovecraft emphatically portrayed as based on meaninglessness. The stories here are hard to get through, honestly, especially when you compare them to Derleth’s really fucking fantastic horror, like “The Lonesome Place” (do yourselves a favor). And yet, our modern conception of the Mythos is largely understood through Derleth’s bored tinkering. Call of Cthulhu, the RPG, certainly owes just as much to Derleth’s half-hearted taxonomies as it does Lovecraft’s raw cosmicism. And these crummy Mythos stories really do overshadow Derleth’s really good work, almost by design. It’s weird.

Anyway, whatever about the stories. This cover by Richard Taylor is perfect in every way. The color, the typography, the big group of happy frog people enjoying a quiet moonlit evening outside. Totally perfect. I love it.

[weirdlookindog]

Ramsey Campbell [editor] - New Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos. Arkham House, 1980

Art by Jason Van Hollander (b. 1949)

[bookmaven]

THE HOUSE ON THE BORDERLAND, and Other Short Novels by William Hope Hodgson. (Sauk City, WI: Arkham House, 1946) Cover art by Hannes Bok. 3014 copy edition.

‘The House on the Borderland is unique in several ways. The narrative itself is a double-frame narrative: the editor of the volume is presenting a manuscript he found under mysterious circumstances, describing the account of two fishermen who themselves discovered a hand-written account of the cosmic haunting of a recluse’s remote home.

Additionally, the novel is one of the earliest examples of the departure of horror fiction from the Gothic style of supernatural, psychological hauntings, to more realist, science-fiction/cosmic horror themes. The recluse is, among other events, transported to a mysterious supra-universal plane populated by monsters and elder gods; and his house withstands assaults from legions of monsters as he travels across time and the solar system.

The book was very influential on H. P. Lovecraft, who himself was famous for the cosmic horror themes in his work. The concept of an uncaring, and even evil, universe that Lovecraft found so disturbing is front and center in this supremely strange novel.’

source [a newer print edition]

source [radio play]

source [audio from Libre Vox]

[kekwcomics]

MAGAZINE OF HORROR Vol. 6, No. 2 (#32) (Health Knowledge, 1970)

[basicallyanotherwitchesthing]

Russell Kirk - The Princess Of All Lands - Arkham House - 1975 (jacket by Joe Wehrle, Jr.)

[howardia]

Sons of CIMMERIA, here is a good source of rare Howard prints and ephemera; and a depot of other materials of the PULP GIANTS and MASTERS of the WEIRD!

[strangeaeonbooks]

~On the last day of horror... Happy Halloween!~

~A book bound in bird skin (ostrich) and the folks who carried on in Howard's stead~

[hplovecraftmuseum]

Henry S. Whitehead (Mar. 5, 1882 - Nov. 23, 1932) was an American Espiscopal minister and fiction writer whose works appeared in Weird Tales magazine. A contemporary of H. P. Lovecraft, HPL visited Whitehead at his home in Florida while he was traveling southward in his later years. Dispite the difference in the two men's religious backgrounds - Lovecraft being a Mechanist/Materialist and athiest/agnostic, the pair apparently found their fiction writing efforts a basis for friendship. Whitehead had at least 3 collections of supernatural tales published by Arkham House Publishers. The dustcover art printed in purple below was featured in the Neville Spearman series of British reprints of Arkham House originals. (Exhibit 300)

[yamimichi]

I was not aware of this. Good to know.

what's wrong with derleth? Explain it to me like Idk anything, because I was under the impression he was the primary reason lovecraft's work survived as long as it did after his death

Sort of yes and sort of no.

Lovecraft wanted his estate to go to his friend, a young gay man and author named Robert Barlow, but August Derleth was an older cishet white man in the 30s and was like "lol no" and was a cunt about it and also wrecked Barlow's reputation.

It's true that Derleth founded Arkham House in order to publish Lovecraft's work, and ended up essentially preserving generations of weird fiction and pulps that would've otherwise been lost to time more or less single handedly, but he also meddled with Lovecraft's work and made edits that Sucked and his work wasn't restored until ST Joshi did the legwork in like the 90s for it.

He also did a LOT of anti-Native racism. They're all pretty guilty of it, but Derleth's is particularly egregious with the Tcho-Tcho (who should be thrown out completely) and Ithaqua (who needs a lot of work to be decoupled from the W*/ice cannibal from Algonquin/Aashinabe spirituality but is still imo salvageable)

He also, and this is more personal, just flat out sucked at writing.

[ednito]

It's here! It's now the SPOOKY SCARECROW HOUSE!! Anything related to these will have It's own tag lmao

(Also these heads headshots would be great for stickers or charms)

[discipleofvenom]

So I was playing Batman Arkham Knight a few nights ago and I heard a militia soldier say hashtag city of fear, everyone post your pictures! I swear Jason hired the most funniest soldiers in his militia! I wish I got it on video.

Anyways, I'm fucking crying from laughter!😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣

[weirdlookindog]

Ronald Clyne - Not Long for This World, 1948

[bookmaven]

NIGHT’S BLACK AGENTS by Fritz Leiber, Jr. (Sauk City, WI: Arkham House, 1947) 3084 copies. A collection of 8 weird tales and 2 heroic fantasies, and the author’s first book. Cover by Ronald Clyne.

contents

Smoke Ghost

The Automatic Pistol

The Inheritance / The Phantom Slayed

The Hill and the Hole

The Dreams of Albert Moreland

The Hound / Diary in the Snow

The Man Who Never Grew Young

The Sunken Land

Adept's Gambit

[kekwcomics]

H P LOVECRAFT "DAGON AND OTHER MACABRE TALES" (Arkham House, 1965)

From my own collection.

[froot-batty]

There is even a fair number of direct comparisons to be drawn between those organs of a house and those of a human body.

[snuize]

I’m so obsessed with the #mecore edits or whatever it is that I always see on tiktok so I made my own :D

content warning: lots and lots of fake blood, lots of exploding heads and some mean mean words :,(