Article: Cornerstone of the macabre: After six decades, the small but sturdy Arkham House still stands.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)

Sixty-three years ago this autumn, a tome of terror landed with an enervated thump on the American book market: ``The Outsider and Others,'' by H.P. Lovecraft.

Perhaps the book languished because the Great Depression still held sway in 1939. Or perhaps it was because its author was unknown beyond a circle of readers who favored the strange stories in pulp magazines like Weird Tales, where much of Lovecraft's fiction had appeared before his demise from cancer on March 15, 1937.

At any rate, the book sold slowly. The price was $5, quite reasonable for an edition of 553 pages. And its publisher, the brand-new Arkham House, even offered a sweetheart deal: If ...

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