Our Appendix N Archeology and Adventures in Fiction series are meant to take a look at the writers and creators behind the genre(s) that helped to forge not only our favorite hobby but our lives. We invite you to explore the entirety of the series on our Adventures In Fiction home page. Adventures in Fiction: Arkham House, Ithaqua, and In-Jokes: The Influence of August Derleth by Bradley K. McDevitt Most of you probably know the name H.P. Lovecraft, but do you know August Derleth? Bradley K. McDevitt reminds you that you have a good reason to remember him. Without August Derleth (1909-1971), you probably wouldn’t have that Cthulhu bumper sticker on your car, that Cthulhu for President poster, and certainly not that Plushie Cthulhu you have staring down at you from your geek-memorabilia shelf.  Not that Cthulhu would not exist, but he (it?) would be just one more forgotten character in a series of stories by an author unknown except to the most ardent of horror literati. Howard Phillips Lovecraft’s greatest creation and most if not all of his fiction would have passed into obscurity if not for August Derleth’s founding of Arkham House publishing. Derleth was a prolific author in his own right, expanding the scope of the Cthulhu mythos (a term Derleth himself coined), as well as hundreds of pieces of fiction that rank among the greatest pieces of horror fiction ever penned. Anyone who can read The Lonesome Places and then take a walk after dark without looking over their shoulder every few moments has better nerves than this author possesses. The scope of Derleth’s literary output beyond his horror, of which his Sherlock Holmes pastiche “Solar Pons” was the least, is mostly beyond the scope of this retrospective. In truth, even a slight perusal of his credits is astonishing, and it is a surprise to think he is not taught in more mainstream American literature classes.  But his contributions to weird fiction in general and the Cthulhu Mythos specifically are the best remembered. When Derleth’s old friend “Grampa” Lovecraft passed away, his legacy was in danger of fading much like that of his contemporary Seabury Quinn. Derleth resolved to act to prevent this from happening, and founded, with Donald Wandrei’s help, Arkham House. Their first book, a paperback edition of The Outsider and Others, became a popular read among, amusingly, the infantry...