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Editors Note
I HAVE JUST DISCOVERED a boy of seventeen who promises to develop into something of a fantaisiste. He is August W. Derleth . . . & turns out to be a veritable little prodigy; devoted to Dunsany & Machen, & ambitious to excel in their chosen Field."
In writing the above words to one of his correspondents in 1926, H. P. Lovecraft could not have realized that he had just encountered the single most significant figure in the advancement of his posthumous renown. August Derleth soon became a member of the legendary Lovecraft Circle of writers, who contributed Mythos-related stories to Weird Tales magazine, but more importantly, after Lovecraft s death in 1937 Derleth founded the publishing firm of Arkham House to preserve the darkly enduring legacy of his great friend.
In recognition of August Derleth s lifelong dedication to H. P. Lovecraft and his work, all of Derleths own noncollaborative contributions to the Cthulhu Mythos are collected in the present volume. The opening Derleth Mythos section presents the authors idiosyncratic interpretation of the Mythos as forces of good versus evil; The Mask of Cthulhu section includes a story, "The Return of Hastur," that was partly read and critiqued by Lovecraft himself shortly before his death; and The Trail of Cthulhu is an interconnected five-part novel featuring Derleth s most intriguing contribution to the Mythos, Dr. Laban Shrewsbury. No one but August Derleth could have captured so skillfully the mood and design of H. P. Lovecraft s Cthulhu Mythos and yet done so in a manner all his own.
– JAMES TURNER
1996