Ah, just in time for Halloween, but you can order it now — the September/October 2019 issue of Firsts: The Book Collectors Magazine, notable for including the first comprehensive checklist of Arkham House ephemera, Modern Era, ever published.
And this list wasn’t slapped together by some bozo who is just cribbing from and recycling old info everyone already knows. Not at all.
This list comes from no less an Arkham authority than John D. Haefele, based on long years of collecting, and in consultation with a select coterie of other ephemera-seeking savants.
You may recall that Haefele helped out with the checklist of Arkham ephemera of the classic Derleth/Wandrei years that I put together for Firsts back in October 2002. That one covered the Classic Era, from when the press started up, until the death of Derleth in 1971. A list of 100 items that recorded the history-as-it-was-made.
Haefele’s new list takes up the baton as Arkham initially reels from the demise of its founder, struggling to keep its footing. Covering the years when James Turner took over the editorial helm. The Peter Ruber period and beyond. Last I heard Haefele had totaled up 108 items, and of course provides an essay on the era.
I haven’t held a copy in my hands as yet — it is as new as new — but if you’re interested in Arkham House, trust me, it’s got info you’ll get nowhere else, from a scholar who loves the subject.
And now, after this brilliant career sidebar, I suppose Haefele can get back to writing his magnum opus, Lovecraft: The Great Tales.
