This post is brought to you by The Book of the Black Sun, a classic Mythos collection by G. W. Thomas. Originally published in 2002, it is the oldest tome we have at RAGE m a c h i n e Books, and it still sells well. Of course, it sports a different cover these days with its second edition thanks to the talented M. D. Jackson. This gathering of short-short, short and novella length tales is a kind of self-referring mandela of Lovecraftian weirdness. A sequel of sorts appeared later with The Book of the Black Sun II: The Book Collector. A third volume, The Book of the Black Sun: Black Millennium will happen some day…
When you’ve been reading Mythos stories for decades like I have, you get kind of jaded after a while. It is rare to find one that really fires you up. Instead, if you are like me, you become more interested in the personalities that formed that initial Lovecraft Circle. All things Weird Tales become intriguing from the letter column to biographies and commentaries. One of the best of these secondary sources is the Arkham Sampler that August Derleth produced from Winter 1948 to Autumn 1949, eight issues of poetry, fiction, essays and reviews. These chapbooks printed at 1200 copies an issue are a real spotlight on the workings behind Arkham House and its authors.
Now I’m not going to list all the contents here. That would be tedious. Besides it is more fun to go and have a look. Pieces like “Fantasy on the March” by Fritz Leiber have been looked at before. All eight issues are available online for free. What I am going to list is the fiction from each issues with some comments. Many of these stories have been collected elsewhere since but back in 1949 they were the only place to read them.(Some still are.)
Volume One, Winter 1948
“Messrs. Turkes and Talbot” by H. Russell Wakefield was from an earlier collection Ghost Stories (1932) is a fascinating chiller simply because the protagonist is in the book-selling business, which Wakefield was. It feels autobiographical. I haven’t read his bio so I am only guessing but…
“Mara” by August Derleth as by Stephen Grendon is one of Derleth’s “Stephen Grendon” stories. He used this pseudonym in Weird Tales, but not always because he had a second story under his own name. I think he felt these tales were slightly better than his others. If not better, perhaps different. He collected them all in Mr. George and Other Odd Persons (1963).
“The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath” (Part 1) by H. P. Lovecraft is one of my favorite HPL pieces. For Derleth and Arkham House it posed a bit of a problem. Not long enough to fill a book, it was too odd for a magazine serial. Derleth cut it into four pieces for Sampler. This serial alone was a great reason to spend a dollar. The entire thing would appear in book form in 1955 but not at AH but Shroud Publishers!
Volume Two, Spring 1948
“A Damsel with a Dulcimer” by Malcolm M. Ferguson was later reprinted in Night’s Yawning Peal: A Ghostly Company (1952). Ferguson was a super-fan who wrote six stories, some of which appeared in Weird Tales. This story was the third.
“The Wind in the Lilacs” by August Derleth as by Stephen Grendon
“The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath” (Part 2) by H. P. Lovecraft
Volume Three, Summer 1948
“A Kink in Space-Time” by H. Russell Wakefield later appeared in Arkham House’s Strayers from Sheol (1961).
“The Loved Dead” (Weird Tales, May-June-July 1924) by C. M. Eddy, Jr. and H. P. Lovecraft is unusual in that it is an actual reprint from Weird Tales. This story caused a bit of tempest in a teapot because of its necrophilia elements. By 1948, much of that would have been forgotten.
“Strangers from Hesperus” by Norman Markham is a new story by a one-shot author. Probably a friend of Derleth’s from Sauk City?
“The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath (Part 3) by H. P. Lovecraft
Volume Four, Autumn 1948
“The Sign” by Lord Dunsany from Jorkens Has a Large Whiskey (1940). Arkham House published The Fourth Book of Jorkens in 1947, though this story is from the third collection by Putnam UK in 1940.
“Nut Bush Farm” by Mrs. J. H. Riddell from Weird Stories (1882) is an oldie but a goodie. AH didn’t do a Riddell collection, so I think Derleth was just looking for a cheap reprint.
“The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath” (Part 4) by H. P. Lovecraft
“Change of Heart” by Robert Bloch was not a reprint but a new tale. It later was collected in Atoms and Evil (1962).
Volume Five, Winter 1949
“The Spring Night” (aka “The Summer Night”) by Ray Bradbury later appeared in The Martian Chronicles (1950). Many of the stories in this SF classic appeared in Planet Stories alongside Leigh Brackett space operas. This one segment had a different landing.
“Dear Pen Pal “ by A. E. van Vogt is an unusual tale for the Canadian SF writer, about a human who has a correspondence with an alien. It later appeared in Donald A. Wollheim’s Pulp Out of this World Adventures, July 1950.
“The Swallowers of Universes” by Peter Viereck is a solitary fiction piece from this award-winning poet.
“Time to Rest” by John Wyndham as by John Beynon Harris and later appeared in New Worlds, August 1949. Wyndham would become world famous in 1951 with The Day of the Triffids. Derleth reprinted this story in Far Boundaries: 20 Science-Fiction Stories that same year. Also collected in Seeds of Time (1956).
“Open, Sesame!” by August Derleth as by Stephen Grendon
Volume Six, Spring 1949
“The Root of Ampoi” by Clark Ashton Smith is a more SF Horror tale from the Californian poet. It later appeared in Fantastic, August 1961.
“Technical Slip” by John Wyndham as by John Beynon Harris later appeared in Imagination, December 1950.
“The Last American” (1889) by J. A. Mitchell is an elderly SF classic about the rediscovery of America in the year 2951. It is typically satirical as such books are. Derleth used it here probably because it was in the public domain. He needed content with “Dreamquest” finished.
Volume Seven, Summer 1949
“The One Who Waits” by Ray Bradbury later appeared in Fantasy and Science Fiction, February 1951
“In the Year 2889” by Jules Verne and Michel Verne from 1889 is a controversial text. Experts now realize it was entirely written by Jules’ son, Michel. It often is reprinted but Derleth was the first.
“Journey to the World Underground” (Part 1) by Ludvig Holberg (as Lewis Holberg) from 1741 is another crusty old book that Derleth may have felt he was helping readers to rediscover. Being in the public domain didn’t hurt either.
“The Door” by David H. Keller, M.D. would later appear in Arkham House’s Tales from Underwood (1952). Keller was a bit of a prince back in the Pulp days but his reputation has fallen since. AH would be his publisher after the Pulps with another collection The Folsom Flint and Other Curious Tales (1969).
Volume Eight, Autumn 1949
“The Triumph of Death” by H. Russell Wakefield
“Footnote to Dunne” by Anthony Boucher is interesting because Boucher and J. Francis McComas would launch The Magazine of Fantasy in October 1949. They added the “& Science Fiction” with the second issue. Derleth may have been helping them out with a little promotion, but also getting into the good graces of future magazine editors. (A very necessary thing for a writer.)
“Holiday” by Ray Bradbury later appeared in Argosy, May 1964.
“Journey to the World Underground” (Part 2) by Ludvig Holberg as by Lewis Holberg
“The Song of the Pewee” by August Derleth as by Stephen Grendon
Derleth killed the publication after the eighth issue. Whether this was because it was costing too much or for some other reason I don’t know. Publishers try many different ways to promote their books. Some work. Some don’t. I, of course, wish it had gone on longer. Still, if publishing the Sampler cut into the tiny budget Derleth had for books, it may not have been worth it.
Conclusion
Much of what I have said here is merely surmise. (If you want critically researched stuff I point you to S. T. Joshi. I’m no academic, just a fanboy.) As I said at the beginning, this is what I find fun, imagining Augie Derleth and his fellows creating this small window on Arkham House. Such glimpses are rare when all you read are the original stories collected and re-collected with the latest Bob Eggleton cover. Derleth offered much for a dollar back in 1948-9 (roughly fourteen bucks today!). Fans would have loved reading Bloch, Bradbury, Wyndham and even Derleth that wasn’t available anywhere else. Not quite a fanzine, The Arkham Sampler acted a little in that way. (Another great example of a window on time is the fanzine Scientifiction, which was a UK based zine that shows John Wyndham and his pals as they really were. Perhaps I will look at that zine next.)
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