Some of the writers August Derleth published during his 32 year reign at Arkham House have become legends among collectors and connoisseurs of weird fiction. Others have faded into unfortunate obscurity. Peter Ruber now brings 21 writers to life in detailedbiographical essays that document little-known events through exhaustive research, and their long correspondence with August Derleth. These essays and an extensive introduction provide a rare and sometimes controversial insider's history of Arkham House, in which the editor also challenges some of the myths perpetuated by misinformed critics over the last three decades. With the addition of 21 rare stories and letters (most published here for the first time), the 445 pages of "Arkham"s Masters of Horror" form a book within a book. This unique and important anthology is required reading for everyone who enjoys weird fiction, and is interested in learning more about Arkham House, its founder, and the writers who made the era from 1939 to 1971 one of the most exciting in the history of specialty press publishing. Featured writers include: H.P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, Robert Bloch, Henry S. Whitehead, Robert E. Howard, H. Russell Wakefield, Seabury Quinn, Vincent Starrett, E. Hoffmann Price, Carl Jacobi, Donald Wandrei, Ramsey Campbell, and many others.
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38 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
The whisper of the hatchet...,
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This review is from: Arkham's Masters of Horror: A 60th Anniversary Anthology Retrospective of the First 30 Years of Arkham House (Hardcover)
A good idea, but a somewhat strange book in execution. It's an anthology of little-known works by various writers originally identified with the WEIRD TALES pulp, whose works were later issued in hardback by August Derleth's one-man publishing outfit, Arkham House. Twenty-two writers are included, and each story is prefaced by an essay about the author, by editor Ruber, often based on private correspondence between the author and August Derleth. There are two specific problems: the works included are often exceedingly minor and uncharacteristic of the authors; and, the introductory essays too often have the dual goal of denigrating the author and emphasizing the saint-like understanding and kindness of editor Derleth. We're told that Robert Howard was a paranoid loonie with a suicidal mother fixation (what news!), that Clark Ashton Smith was a shiftless loafer who existed by sponging off friends, that Russell Wakefield was a cruel, womanizing drunk, etc., etc. Even the relatively saintly Ray Bradbury comes off as a greedy conniver. Most of the authors are displayed at their worst in extended extracts from begging or hectoring letters to Derleth. Interestingly, editor Ruber himself turns out to be (since 1997) the editor and presumably owner of Arkham House; what he does not turn out to be is anyone with a real appreciation of the fantastic literature of the 1920s and 1930s.Like almost all of the small press books I have seen in the past couple of years, this book has seen no proofreading whatsoever, and there are gross misprints on almost every page, many of which ironically conspire to make Editor Ruber come across as a total illiterate. Arkham collectors will want this, but other readers might give a bit of thought before purchase. There's a great dust-jacket painting showing Lovecraft's "Outsider" in a libary full of Arkham House books. In more than one way, this painting by Tony Patrick is the best aspect of the book.
8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Major Letdown,
By
This review is from: Arkham's Masters of Horror: A 60th Anniversary Anthology Retrospective of the First 30 Years of Arkham House (Hardcover)
I don't have any idea what April Derleth was thinking when printing this volume under her fathers imprint. The editor puts down all the major writers to the point that I have to write this review. I'd like to see some of this editors own fiction if he thinks so low of Robert E Howard and Clark Ashton Smith. The sad fact is that their style of writing is virtually non-existant. Originality like theirs nearly died out with Moorcock and Leiber in the 70's (though William King is a new notable worth reading). With the plethora of 800 page "I wanna be JRR Tolkien" poser's currently permeating the publishing industry it leads me to see this book as more of the wide spread jealousy held against these great writers. The book is worth the stories and the dust jacket, just skip the intro's.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Impressive at times,
By DC5 (Northwest United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Arkham's Masters of Horror: A 60th Anniversary Anthology Retrospective of the First 30 Years of Arkham House (Hardcover)
Arkham's Masters of Horror is a fairly good compilation of some of the lesser known works by authors who wrote for Weird Tales Magazine, and of those who were subsequently published by August Derleth, the co-founder (along with Don Wandrei) of Arkham House. Editor Peter Ruber gives some interesting, though somewhat biased, biographical sketches of each author. As other reviewers have noted, Ruber doesn't seem to like many of the authors. As editor it is Ruber's prerogative to give his opinon; I just wish that he had spent more time discussing the authors' lives and works, and less time discussing their difficult and often unethical business dealings with Derleth.
As previously noted, this book has its share of editing errors. I found several word omissions, mixed up sentences, and one glaring birth-to-death date error for writer E. Hoffmann Price who, according to the book, was born in 1998 and died in 1988. Perhaps the most glaring error is on the front cover, where the title is set incorrectly as ARKHAMS MASTERS OF HORROR (note the missing apostrophe indicating the possessive), but correct on the spine lettering as ARKHAM'S. I can't help wondering how that one slipped by. On the plus side, Ruber includes some of the correspondence between Derleth and the various authors. You can ignore the business talk if you like, and just concentrate on the more interesting parts, such as Ray Bradbury's discussion of his works and of his relationships with other writers. Often I found these bits of correspondence more interesting than the stories themselves (though Bradbury's story "The Small Assassins" is quite good). I'd like to see some updated letters collections or bios published for some of these authors (listen up Arkham House, Hippocampus, Night Shade, &c &c). Despite the mistakes, biases, and so forth, I found ALL of the book interesting, and I'll be looking for more works by these authors, many of whom I had heard of, but had not previously read. Mary E. Counselman, David H. Keller, Henry S. Whitehead, and Nelson Bond in particular will get my further attention.
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