Arkham House Books

[divemaster]

I just purchased a collection of books published by the well regarded Arkham House and Donald M. Grant publishers. I'm not sure where to get started in my reading, so I'll name a few titles/authors. Hopefully some Dopers out there will be able to comment on some of these. I look forward to your opinions!

Lots of Lovecraft. I'm pretty familiar with the fiction, but what about Selected Letters? I have all 5 volumes. Are they worth my time?

Blooded on Arachne by Michael Bishop

The Rim of the Unknown by Frank B. Long

Dwellers in Darkness by August Derleth

A Rendezvous in Averoigne by Clark Ashton Smith. Actually, I ended up with a whole slew of CAS books.

The following by Brian Lumley:
The Horror at Oakdeene
Beneath the Moors
The Caller of the Black

Ramsey Campbell's The Height of the Scream and Demons by Daylight

Basil Copper's From Evil's Pillow and And Afterward, the Dark.

There's quite a bit more (C.L. Moore, Robert E. Howard, and others) but I don't want to gum up this post with too many titles.

Please offer an opinion if you have read any of these!

[AuntiePam]

Quick -- look in the Ramsey Campbell collections and tell me if you see "The Hands".

[AuntiePam]

So you bought these books to read -- not for their collector value? Cool beans!

The Cthulhu mythos isn't my favorite reading material, but I've heard good things about all of the writers you mention.

If you want an expert opinion, go to http://www.egroups.com and sign up for the Chapel Perilous and Grimoire groups. We just finished a nice discussion on HPL and his imi--, followers, which included Derleth and a few of the others you bought.

I've also heard good things about the HPL letters. He was supposedly a fabulous correspondent, and very generous in his friendships. I'll bet those are good.

I'd read the Ramsey Campbell first -- except that the others will suffer by comparison. Yeah, save the best for last. Enjoy! I am so envious.

Will you come back with book reports?

[JosephFinn]

The Letters are indeed worth reading. Lovecraft had a very interesting circle of friends, especially the young Robert Bloch (author of "Psycho" and "Night of the Ripper," as well as many other classics).

[divemaster]

Quick -- look in the Ramsey Campbell collections and tell me if you see "The Hands".
Alas, this is not one of the stories listed. But, as your suggestion, I will put the Campbell on top of the stack. (I'm just about to finish Sturgeon's More than Human) I read one of Campbell's novels last year (The Doll that Ate His Mother). I might have read something else of his in one of the many anthologies I have.

So you bought these books to read -- not for their collector value? Cool beans!
Both, actually. Most are first editions with print runs of 5000 or less. Absolutely pristine condition, with the exception of Lumley's first book. I was aware of their collectibility when I bought them. (I certainly paid enough!) But, I'm not one of those who puts my books on a shelf never to be read. They will be enjoyed.

Speaking of Lumley, I was hoping someone would pop in here who had read these. I know he went on to do the Necroscope series (which strikes me as hack-work), but these predate those and look to have a totally different style.

The Cthulhu mythos isn't my favorite reading material, but I've heard good things about all of the writers you mention.
Yeah, I've got a lot of the mythos books. I've actually only read the original Lovecraft. I've yet to delve into the stylistic continuations that make up the mythos. I like Lovecraft, but only in small doses. Reading his stories one right after another, I find they start to all sound alike. I mean, how many times can you read about "monstrous geometric formulations impossible to describe"? :)

The Letters are indeed worth reading. Lovecraft had a very interesting circle of friends, especially the young Robert Bloch (author of "Psycho" and "Night of the Ripper," as well as many other classics).
Thanks for the opinion. I'll take a gander at the first volume and see what it does for me and go from there.

I'll try out that link (much appreciated!) after next week. I'll be traveling and away from computers during that time.

Anyone want to check in on any of the other authors?

[Ukulele Ike]

You MOTHERFUCKER!!!!

{cough. ahem.}

So, uh, divemaster, ol' buddy ol' pal, uh, which Robert E. Howards were included in this collection you bought?

SKULL-FACE AND OTHERS, huh? You know, Howard's stories weren't really that great, kinda, uh, "dated," y'know. Howzabout I take this one off your hands? I'll give you, say, ten bucks for it? Have another beer, it's on me.

[Ukulele Ike]

Sorry about that. I'll behave.

Longtime Arkham reader/collector checking in. I like the tales in Lumley's CALLER OF THE BLACK, which was his first collection. I'm less fond of the novel BENEATH THE MOORS, but I must say it has one of the most inadvertantly hilarious dustjacket illustrations I've ever seen. (A drawing of a dinosaur-headed creature with a man's torso in the forground. Standing behind it, with an expression of "Whoaaa, dude!" is a 1970s-dressed jowly guy with a bad haircut and droopy moustache)

The first Copper collection, FROM EVIL'S PILLOW, is also good. The lead-off story, "Amber Print," is probably the best thing he's ever done.

re: Lovecraft's letters. Yes, yes, YES...definitely worth reading! Some folks say his letters are better than his fiction!

I've read all five volumes, but if you want to start with the most interesting jump ahead to Volume III, which covers 1929-1931. These were the years when HPL did most of his antiquarian traveling: to upstate New York, to Virginia, to Charleston, SC, to Quebec City, and to St. Augustine, Florida.

Congratulations on the acquisition of some of the best and best-produced books of weird fiction ever published!

(You wanna sell me Smith's SELECTED POEMS...?)

[AuntiePam]

I gotta ask (but you're under no obligation to answer) -- how did you come by the collection?

That's a going-out-of-business sale not to be missed. Or did someone die?

[Necros]

Ukulele Ike said:

re: Lovecraft's letters. Yes, yes, YES...definitely worth reading! Some folks say his letters are better than his fiction!


I'll echo this, but go further. Most folks who know Lovecraft say his letters are better than his fiction. Old H.P. was one of those people who documented pretty much every experience in his life to his wide circle of friends and associates. Not to mention that he was very active in the amateur press movement, which I think is an oft-overlooked historical curiosity, and makes for interesting reading.

Also, if you want to tie your experiences with the letters together in a more coherent form, you might pick up H.P. Lovecraft: A Life by S.T. Joshi. It's out of print, I believe, but you should be able to pick it up used.

[divemaster]

So, uh, divemaster, ol' buddy ol' pal, uh, which Robert E. Howards were included in this collection you bought?
I'll check the shelf for the titles when I get home this evening. I know these particular editions were published by Grant in large, nicely-illustrated volumes. I've never read any Howard. He committed suicide at age 30, didn't he?

re: Lovecraft's letters. Yes, yes, YES...definitely worth reading! Some folks say his letters are better than his fiction!andI'll echo this, but go further. Most folks who know Lovecraft say his letters are better than his fiction.
OK! Lovecraft's letters come before the mythos. There seems to be a consensus here.

Also, if you want to tie your experiences with the letters together in a more coherent form, you might pick up H.P. Lovecraft: A Life by S.T. Joshi. It's out of print, I believe, but you should be able to pick it up used.
I don't have that one, but I do have the biography by L. Sprauge de Camp. That was part of the collection as well. I've enjoyed de Camp's fiction, so I have high hopes for the bio. I've read that it is supposed to be good. Thoughts?

I gotta ask (but you're under no obligation to answer) -- how did you come by the collection?
I don't mind sharing (the info, that is; not the books :D ). I have been very active buying and selling books on eBay. Other than this collection, my activity has been primarily Stephen King. I actually have every single King first edition hardcover, including all the novels, the Dark Tower series (also published by Grant), Six Stories, the relatively scarce My Pretty Pony and Cycle of the Werewolf, the original Bachman paperbacks, and many of the anthologies where a King story was first published (999 being one of the nicest).

Anyway, someone was auctioning off his entire collection of the OP. He was an Aussie and was moving overseas and needed to lighten his load. I was the only bidder. I think the price scared everyone off. Also, it was a very long and detailed listing and the guy wrote it up in a Lovecraftian style, talking about bidders appeasing the elder gods and all that. Actually, it was quite clever.

What escaped most people is that even given the price, the whole lot was still a bargain. A total of 66 books, all but a Clark Ashton Smith paperback series (Panther publishers) being hardbacks. As I mentioned, most are first printings; a few seconds. What also slipped through was that one of the books in the lot was Stephen King's Dark Tower I, Grant First Edition, which as you may know, fetches a really nice price from collectors. I was able to turn around and sell that one for $425 (I already had a copy), which really helped offset the price of the collection.

[dropzone]

Originally posted by Ukulele Ike
Some folks say his letters are better than his fiction!
As is the fiction of all those who followed him. I'm quite jealous, too. I used to have Mythos collections from the seventies by many of those guys and I really miss them.

[Ukulele Ike]

Originally posted by Necros
Most[/i] folks who know Lovecraft say his letters are better than his fiction.

Yeah, you're right. I just didn't want to be accused of seeming over-enthusiastic. <grin>

I dig the letters as much for their view of 1920s-30s history through the eyes of an extremely bright wacko as for their insight into the wacko himself.

Incidentally, in other news for HPL letter-lovers, Ohio University Press has recently released LORD OF A VISIBLE WORLD: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY IN LETTERS, also edited by S.T. Joshi, the planet's leading Lovecraft Nerd (and THAT'S saying something!). The Amazon.com entry for this book includes an intelligent and thoughtful review, and discussion of HPL's epistolary prowess, by some guy down in Texas.

[Ukulele Ike]

Originally posted by divemaster
I do have the biography by L. Sprauge de Camp. That was part of the collection as well. I've enjoyed de Camp's fiction, so I have high hopes for the bio.

Hoo hah! I can just hear Joshi griding his teeth and stamping his little feet!

Here's some of his statements from LOVECRAFT: A LIFE:

"...the worst failing of de Camp's biography is his treatment of Lovecraft's philosophical thought. Although a popular writer on science, de Camp is not a trained philosopher and is entirely incapable of tracing the sources or evolution of Lovecraft's worldview and the degree to which it structured his literary work...At the same time, de Camp harps upon Lovecraft's racial views all out of proportion to their significance in his general philosophy...

"In short, de Camp simply did not have the intellectual and personal resources to write a biography of Lovecraft. He was out of his depth, and this makes his schoolmasterly chiding of Lovecraft all the more galling...

"And yet, for all its inadequacies, de Camp's biography did do some good...the volume did indeed give Lovecraft wider exposure in the general literary world and helped to interest an entirely new generation of enthusiasts and scholars in Lovecraft the man and writer."

It won't kill you to read it; I've read it myself. But Joshi's bio is by far the better book. Don't let his pompous tone in the above excerpt drive you off!

[divemaster]

Oh great. Another book to add to my shelf. I'm already out of room, and when I have to start stacking in corners, it's going to be your fault!

;)

[Ukulele Ike]

Oh, wait, I just realized you said that the Howards are published by Grant. Still a great buy, but the Arkham Howards run a thousand bucks or more on the collector's market.

I didn't realize that Grant published Howard...I'd love to hear what else ya got, in general.

Yes, Howard did commit suicide...shot himself in his car at the age of 29. He thought his mother was dying (she was, but he died first) and felt he didn't want to go on without her.

I'm not a huge fan of his fiction, but he's interesting as a literary character (Ditto for Clark Ashton Smith*, as a matter of fact). I prefer the Bran Mak Morn stories to the Conans..."Worms of the Earth," "Pigeons from Hell," and "Black Canaan" are supposed to be his three best stories, from a horror-lover's perspective.




*In my office I have a framed 1947 letter from Smith to his editor, Don Wandrei, discussing some changes is a pseudo-decadent poem he wrote in French. The nicest thing about it is that it's signed Klarkash-Ton, the nickname HPL gave him.

[divemaster]

No, the Howard and Lovecraft editions are not the ones where the story or collection first saw the light of day. Those, indeed, would be way out of the price range this government biologist can afford! Rather, Grant and Arkham House were nice enough to publish very nice collections in (let's see here...checking pub dates) the late 60s through early 80s. Most seem to have come out in the early 70s.

The books by the other authors, and a few more I didn't mention, are I believe actual first appearances of the work.

The three Howard books are Marchers of Valhalla, which contains the title work, "The Grey God Passes," and "The Thunder Rider", The Sowers of the Thunder, which contains "The Lion of Tiberias," the title work, "Lord of Samarcand," and "The Shadow of the Vulture" Black Colossus, which contains the title work and "Shadows in the Moonlight"

By the looks of the illustrations, Howard is slightly out of my genre. Valkryes and Conan-types are not exactly up my alley. But I need to read him to get a feel for his contribution to fantasy. (I have read Pigeons from Hell). Pity about his demise.

Do the authors M.P Shiel, Theodore Roscoe, and Harold Lamb ring any bells?

Auntie Pam! I checked through one of the anthologies in this collection, Nameless Places, edited by Gerald W. Page. One of the stories is Campbell's The Last Hand. Is this the one to which you were referring?

[AuntiePam]

Divemaster -- you lucky devil!!

I did my homework (finally) and the Campbell story I'm looking for really is called "The Hands". The short story bibliography says it's only been published twice -- in Cutting Edge (a collection edited by Dennis Etchison) and Alone With the Horrors. So that's not it. Thanks for checking!

[Ukulele Ike]

AuntiePam: ALONE WITH THE HORRORS was published by Arkham in 1993, and may still be available at the cover price. I haven't read "The Hands" (originally published in 1980) but I will posthaste.

dmaster: M.P. Shiel is the GOODS! I assume you've got a copy there of the 1975 Arkham title XELUCHA AND OTHERS?

Oddly enough, the screwball 1959 Harry Belafonte/Mel Ferrer Armageddon flick THE WORLD, THE FLESH, AND THE DEVIL credits M.P. Shiel and his short novel THE PURPLE CLOUD as the primary screenwriting source.

Small world, huh?

[AuntiePam]

Thanks, Ike. I was told that collection was pretty much unobtainable, but I'll take your word on it. Off to search.

[divemaster]

Originally posted by Ukulele Ike
dmaster: M.P. Shiel is the GOODS! I assume you've got a copy there of the 1975 Arkham title XELUCHA AND OTHERS?

You keep on exciting me, Ukulele Ike. Two of the books in the collection are Shiel's Xelucha and Others (1975--creepy face on the cover!) and Prince Zaleski and Cummings King Monk (1977).

Let's see, who else? Ok, how about Russell Kirk's The Princess of All Lands and Watchers at the Strait Gate? I didn't mention Kirk at first because I read TPoAL as my first foray into this set. A good read. Another neat Arkham House cover; nothing overt, but captivating all the same. I remember reading Kirk's opinion columns in the newspaper. (As a conservative, I figured he should automatically go to the top of the stack :) ).

I can't tell you how great it has been hearing y'all's opinions and comments on these books and authors. I will be out of town and away from the SDMB from tomorrow morning through Friday. So, please feel free to add anything else you want, and I'll take a peek when I get back. I didn't want my silence to be interpreted as a lack of interest.

[AuntiePam]

Ike! Checked Arkham and it's not in print, but I found 21 reasonably priced copies on http://www.abe.com -- joy joy joy joy.

Someone on an e-group recently asked everyone to describe the most disturbing short story they'd ever read, and what one guy said about "The Hands" made it sound pretty special. So I'm excited.

Not quite as excited as Divemaster, but excited.

(Wonder if he needs someone to help guard his books while he's gone.) <insert evil smiley>

[lesa]

divemaster - You are going to post the text of each book as you read it, aren't you? Surely you can type and read at the same time.

I have really enjoyed The Annotated H. P. Lovecraft and More Annotated H. P. Lovecraft. I hope they do another one.

[Danielinthewolvesden]

Ok, you don't have to tell us, but I am sure we would like to know- just how much DID the set "set you back"?

My freind (who was working there) found a set of original Arkam house books that some lady donated to the Santa Monica Public Library, after her husband died- she likely had no idea of how much they were worth. Altho the Library did not put them on the shelves, some idiot had 'stamped" them all in, and with the Libraries embossed seal & all that= lowering their value some 90%. The Library could have sold them and taken care of all their (not so) petty cash problems for a while.

[AuntiePam]

That's true about library copies, but I've spent almost-big bucks on library copies if that's all I can find. Stamps and card pockets, cracked bindings, etc., doesn't matter.

But I'm more of a reader than a collector, I guess.

[Ukulele Ike]

The only ex-library Arkham I have is Manly Wade Wellman's WHO FEARS THE DEVIL? (1963), which I got for fifteen bucks about ten years ago.

It had a short print-run, just around 2,000 copies, and is pretty scarce now...decent copies run $250 and up.

I really wanted it as a reading copy; it's a collection of the "John the Balladeer" stories, about a guy who wanders around Appalachia with a silver-strung guitar, encountering ghoulies and ghosties from American folklore. "The Desrick on Yandro" is one of the best of them.

It also has a way-cool piece of jacket art by Lee Brown Coye, who I consider the greatest of all the old WEIRD TALES illustrators.

[AuntiePam]

I love Silver John. I have three from the Doubleday Science Fiction book club, 1980 -- just book club stuff, but they're treasures anyway. I've heard someone is going to be reprinting some of these, and a nice Fritz Lieber collection as well.

I think now's a good time to be reading horror, SF, noir and dark fantasy. Well, if you can afford it.

[Ukulele Ike]

Originally posted by AuntiePam
a nice Fritz Lieber collection as well.

Are you another one of those folks who buys every copy of CONJURE WIFE s/he comes across? I know I am.

If this thread ends up being just you and me and divemaster, I'm bringing a pinochle deck next time.

Incidentally, what did you think of Joe R. Lansdale's THE BOTTOMS, and BLOOD DANCE?

[AuntiePam]

Ha! (Nickel a point?)

I haven't finished either of them. I'm a bit miffed about "The Bottoms" -- if I'd paid attention, I would have known that it's a fleshed-out version of a short story that I just read a few months ago. So I'm waiting until the memory of "Mad Dog Summer" isn't so fresh.

I'm saving "Blood Dance" -- don't know what for. Just don't want to think that there's no more Joe on the shelves.

What did you think? I've heard some disappointed comments from Lansdale readers, on "The Bottoms."

Right now I'm reading "King Rat" by China Mieville and next up is Dan Simmons' "Darwin's Blade", or "Tigana".

[Ukulele Ike]

I've heard really good things about THE BOTTOMS...reviewers are calling it Joe's breakout book. About damn time, I'd say. I liked it a LOT, but I'd never read "Mad Dog Summer."

Subterranean Press just brought out a gorgeous edition of his novella THE BIG BLOW, about Negro boxing champ Jack Johnson, the Great White Hope, and the Galveston Hurricane of 1900; be careful, I understand that was short story first, too.

Im currently reading the book on the Irish Rebellion the Dublin Dopers sent me; the new bio of Aleister Crowley from St. Martin's; and THE MONSTER MAKER AND OTHER STORIES by W.C. Morrow, a nifty little small-print volume from Midnight House of Seattle.

[Ukulele Ike]

Oh, and I was lying about knowing how to play pinochle. But I'll take you on at cribbage.

[AuntiePam]

Let's hope so -- the guy deserves more attention. Your current reading sounds intriguing. Haven't heard of W.C. Morrow.

Yep, "The Big Blow" was Joe's contribution to Doug Winter's "Revelations" collection. An excellent story. Maybe even better than "Mad Dog Summer." Tighter.

I'm starting to develop a real bias in favor of short stories, in genre fiction anyway. I thought "Mad Dog Summer" was perfect, as it was.

James Sallis said (sort of) in the latest Fantasy & Science Fiction that that genre writers are at their most creative when writing short stories. And he said great things about a collection of stories from Neal Barrett, Jr., one of Joe's buddies.

I haven't read any Barrett, not even "The Hereafter Gang." Sallis said something like "if Barrett's ever written a bad line, he hasn't seen it."

I suppose you've read Barrett?

[Ukulele Ike]

Morrow was a protege of Ambrose Bierce, doing his writing in San Francisco in the late 19th century. His one collection during his lifetime was THE APE, THE IDIOT, AND OTHERS (1896). It's considered a famous "lost book" of horror short fiction.

You may have encountered some of his short stories in anthologies..."Over an Absinthe Bottle" is his most famous.

I have a couple of Barrett's books, but I haven't read them yet. THE HEREAFTER GANG is supposed to be terrific.

[divemaster]

Ok, I'm back in town, and am resurrecting this thread to wrap up a couple of points and thank all parties for a very interesting discussion.

from lesa divemaster - You are going to post the text of each book as you read it, aren't you? Surely you can type and read at the same time.
"It was a dark and stormy night"...oh, wait, wrong book ;)

from DitWD Ok, you don't have to tell us, but I am sure we would like to know- just how much DID the set "set you back"?
The set cost me $1300, wich included insured priority air from Australia. I think the box was about 75 pounds! Since 58 of the 66 books were hardbacks, I would break even if I could sell each one for about $22.

In compiling a inventory for insurance purposes, I found most of these books selling for considerably more than that. At the very least, $35 for some; $75-$100 for many others; and a few for over $150-$200. And since I already sold the King book for $425, my investment is even better!

Given that, the value of these books to me is in the enjoyment of being able to hold in my hand wondrous words from authors; and from publishers who produce these works as a labor of love (as well as some profit). It's hard to describe to a non book-lover, but knowing that these editions carry with them a sense of specialness makes reading them all that more enjoyable. I can't really explain it, but reading the same story from a mass-market Bantam paperback just isn't the same.

from Ukelele Ike Are you another one of those folks who buys every copy of CONJURE WIFE s/he comes across? I know I am.
I read this for the first time last year! I'm a big Lieber fan from what little I've read. I have several Lieber SF anthologies, and have come across some of his work in other collections. Was Gather, Darkness any good? It looked like it was in the same theme as Conjure Wife. That reminds me, one of the other books in my new collection is Bazaar of the Bizarre. I've yet to look through it.

I finished half of one of the Campbell collections this week. My journey has just begun!