Lovecraft and the 21st Century

That is not dead which can eternal lie,
And with strange aeons even death may die.
H.P. Lovecraft - The Call of Cthulhu

Arkham’s Masters of HorrorDespite Derleth’s fears, however, horror fiction became popular in the seventies with the success of novels like William Peter Blatty’s The Exorcist (1971) and Stephen King’s Carrie (1974). Derleth’s estate fell into the hands of his children, April and Walden Derleth. Though the details of the dispute have never been made public, Derleth’s estate appointed a fan named James Turner (who had no editorial experience), as editor-in-chief of Arkham House following Derleth’s death. Donald Wandrei, who had been involved in Arkham House since his return from World War II as its managing editor, left the company after Turner’s appointment.

Under Turner, Arkham House’s focus shifted from weird fiction and fantasy to science fiction. In 1974 and 1975, Turner introduced science fiction authors Michael Bishop, Greg Bear, and James Tiptree, Jr. The Wind From a Burning Woman became Arkham’s fastest selling anthology, but success came at the cost of alienating Arkham’s traditional readers.

The eighties invited Lovecraft biographer S.I. Joshi to collaborate with Turner on adjusting Arkham’s continuing mission. While Turner felt that part of Arkham’s mission was to keep publishing important authors on the house’s backlist, Joshi [ ... ]