In more ways than one, the late August Derleth is responsible for

the existence of this book.

Back in 1955--when I was in my early teens---my life was per-

manently and happily altered when I discovered Arkham House, a

small publishing firm headed by Derleth based in the village of

Sauk City, Wisconsin. Arkham House specialized (and still does)

in books of macabre and fantasy fiction, starting up in 1939 with

publication of a 1200-copy edition of a large omnibus of H. P. Love-

craft s stories entitled The Outsider and Others, which various New

York publishers had declined to bring out. Against many negative

proclamations, including those of Edmund Wilson, who referred

to Lovecraft s stories as "hack work," Derleth campaigned tire-

lessly for over thirty years to help gain Lovecraft the kind of serious

literary recognition he now enjoys.