All Eyes on Arkham
Founded in 1939 to preserve the work of widely regarded horror master H.P. (Howard Phillips) Lovecraft, Arkham House has been publishing some of the best horror fiction for the past 70 years. Really, though, it saw its heyday during the 1960s and 1970s. Many of these titles are long out of print and difficult to come by (at a good price), but luckily Springfield-Greene County Library patrons can utilize the MOBIUS Catalog to check out many of these items. Here are just a few suggestions:
At the Mountains of Madness, and Other Novels by H.P. Lovecraft: Detailing a disastrous expedition on Antarctica in 1930, At the Mountains of Madness is an increasingly chilling plea by survivor William Dyer in the hope of preventing another planned and highly-publicized expedition. While on the Antarctic continent, Dyer and his expedition slowly start to realize that they are not alone, that the continent believed to be uninhabited is anything but. The descriptions Lovecraft gives were in a large part inspired by the paintings of Nicholas Roerich and the illustrations of Gustov Dore. Contemporary author Michael Chabon has cited At the Mountains of Madness as “one of the greatest short novels in American literature, and a key text in my own understanding of what that literature can do.”
Dwellers in Darkness by August Derleth: Derleth and author Donald Wandrei started Arkham House, and after Wandrei lost interest in it, Derleth served as the sole editor and publisher. Derleth had been a friend and correspondent of H.P. Lovecraft's, and named the publishing house after Lovecraft's fictional New England town. Derleth also coined the term "Cthulhu Mythos," after a central Lovecraft character, to describe the fictional world Lovecraft and successors like Derleth wrote about. Robert M. Price, in his preface to a collection of Cthulhu stories, described the story “Dwellers in Darkness” (which is oddly not included in the collection) as "an important milestone in the development of the Cthulhu Mythos," and stated that "Derleth's command of regionalism is evident on every page...There is a sense of things happening in a rich, real world." Some of the stories that appear in the collection are "The Ormolu Clock," "A Knocking in the Wall," and "The Place of Desolation."
This Mortal Coil by Cynthia Asquith: Lady Cynthia Asquith was not only part of the British aristocracy, she was an important early anthologist of horror stories. She was able to get some of the best writers (Algernon Blackwood, Walter De La Mare, Rosemary Timperley) to produce new stories, and many of those stories were some of the authors' best work and are still anthologized (A great example being Roald Dahl's Book of Ghost Stories). Asquith was a good friend of D.H. Lawrence, L.P. Hartley, and served as secretary to Peter Pan creator J.M. Barrie. This Mortal Coil was Asquith's only collection of supernatural stories, with a few additional stories appearing in some of her other anthologies, but in this writer's opinion these stories are some of the most chilling in the genre. "The Lovely Voice" will most definitely stick with you, and "The White Moth" is an unraveling mystery that will indeed surprise. Asquith's two most anthologized stories, "The Corner Shop" and "God Grante that She Lye Stille," are also included, the latter of which was adapted for a 1961 episode of the TV series Thriller. Witch House by Evangeline Walton: Witch House was the first full-length novel published by Arkham House. It tells the story of the Quincy family—Elizabeth, her brothers, her daughter Betty Ann—and the estate that has been in their family for generations and left to them by their aunt, Sarai. Strange things have been happening to Betty Ann, and she believes that Sarai has reached across the divide to torment her. But when Elizabeth employs the aid of Dr. Carew, it becomes clear that something more sinister is at play. Witch House has been described as "a completely original work of marked power and a fine quality of imaginative adventure." Walton (a pen name for Evangeline Wilna Ensley) herself is best known for her fantasy series The Mabinogion Tetralogy.The Doll: and One Other by Algernon Blackwood: Journalist, broadcast narrator, and novelist, Algernon Blackwood was one of the most prolific writer of ghost stories. Scholar S.T. Joshi stated that Blackwood's stories were some of the best of weird fiction and that his collection Incredible Adventures may be "the premier weird collection of [the 20th] or any other century." Not only did H.P. Lovecraft consider him one of the masters of the genre, but Blackwood has influenced numerous authors like William Hope Hodgson, Margery Lawrence, the aforementioned Evangeline Walton, and contemporary write Ramsey Campbell, who is considered the leading writer of ghost stories today. The Doll and One Other, published by Arkham in 1946, consists of the novellas “The Doll” and “The Trod.” “The Doll” tells the story of Colonel Masters and his daughter, the strange object that has been delivered to their home, and the danger it presents. “The Trod” tells the tale of a small English town where everyone is provided with a guard, lest they be left alone and disappear.
Other Dimensions by Clark Ashton Smith: Smith was part of H.P. Lovecraft's inner circle and is considered one of the masters of the horror genre, though many of his tales fall into the realms of science fiction and fantasy. Arkham House published 13 volumes of Smith's fiction and letters. Other Dimensions collects the 25 stories that were left to be published in book form at the time of Smith's death in 1961. The tales had appeared in the magazine Weird Tales and other pulp magazines between 1910 and 1953. Some of the stories included in this volume are "Marooned in Andromeda," "The Kiss of Zoraida," "The Necromantic Tale," and "An Offering to the Moon." Of the collection, it has been said that every story "demonstrates anew Smith's mastery of the fantastic tale—his prose style has no peer in our time—his fertile imagination remains fresh and unexcelled—and his way with language creates a mood of utter strangeness.
Xelucha and Others by M.P. Shiel: The writer Rebecca West once remarked, "Sensible people ought to have a complete set of Shiel." M.P. (Matthew Phillips) Shiel is now best remembered for his apocalyptic novel The Purple Cloud, which is thought to have in part influenced H.P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness. Stephen King has also cited The Purple Cloud as an influence for his novel The Stand. Xelucha and Others collects 12 tales taken from Shiels short story collections Shapes in the Fire, The Pale Ape and Other Pulses, and Here Comes the Lady. The critic Gahan Wilson gave a positive review of the collection, citing the title story as "an excellent example of Shiel's knack for decadence and is highly informative regarding the dietary preferences of graveyard worms."
Please contact your local branch if you need assistance placing any of these items on hold or if you’d like more suggestions for spooky tales.
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