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''The Outsider and Others'' is a collection of stories by author H. P. Lovecraft. It was released in 1939 and was the first book published by Arkham House. 1,268 copies were printed.〔 It went out of print early in 1944〔''Futurian War Digest'', April 1944, quoted in (''Ansible 321'' ), April 2013〕 and has never been reprinted. The volume takes its name from the Lovecraft short story "The Outsider"; ''The Outsider and Other Stories'' was Lovecraft's preferred title for a short story collection considered, but never issued, by Farnsworth Wright. The stories for this volume were selected by August Derleth and Donald Wandrei. The dust jacket art was a montage of drawings by Virgil Finlay for ''Weird Tales'' magazine, of which only one or two had originally illustrated Lovecraft stories. E. F. Bleiler describes the collection's publication as "the beginning of serious specialist publishing of fantastic fiction in America".〔E. F. Bleiler, ''The Guide to Supernatural Fiction'', Kent State University Press, 1983. p. 320-22〕 ==Genesis== In late 1937, the death of Howard Phillips Lovecraft prompted his two friends, August Derleth and Donald Wandrei, to gather a collection of Lovecraft's best weird fiction from the pulp magazines into a memorial volume. However, after several attempts to place the omnibus volume with major hardcover publishers without any success, the two men realised that no publisher would be willing to take a chance with the collection. Derleth and Wandrei thus decided to form their own company, Arkham House (Its name based on a town featured in many of Lovecraft's stories) with the expressed purpose of publishing all of Lovecraft's writings in hardcover. The omnibus volume was scheduled as the first offering from Arkham House, with a price of $5.00, while advance orders were accepted at $3.50 each. Even at that bargain price, only 150 orders were received for ''The Outsider and Others'' before its appearance in 1939. ''The Outsider'' was a perfect example of fine bookmaking. It was printed by the George Banta Co. of Wisconsin, in an edition of 1268 copies. The book was over 550 pages long, with small print, and featured a jacket by noted fantasy artist Virgil Finlay. The omnibus sold slowly but steadily. Derleth was in a position that most small publishers could only dream about. He was a successful writer and had a good deal of revenue coming in from his work not connected with publishing. He could afford to keep Arkham House going without the company realising a quick profit. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Outsider and Others」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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