{{Short description|1939 collection of stories by H. P. Lovecraft}} {{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}} {{Infobox book | name = The Outsider and Others | title_orig = | translator = | image = File:The_Outsider_and_Others_book_cover.jpg | caption = Dust-jacket illustration by Virgil Finlay. | author = H. P. Lovecraft | illustrator = | cover_artist = Virgil Finlay | country = United States | language = English | series = | subject = | genre = Fantasy, horror, science fiction | published = 1939 (Arkham House) | media_type = Print (hardback) | pages = 533 | preceded_by = | followed_by = }}
'''''The Outsider and Others''''' is a collection of stories by American writer H. P. Lovecraft. It was released in 1939 and was the first book published by Arkham House. 1,268 copies were printed.<ref name=joshi/> It went out of print early in 1944<ref>''Futurian War Digest'', April 1944, quoted in [http://news.ansible.co.uk/a321.html ''Ansible 321''], April 2013</ref> 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.<ref name=joshi>{{cite book | last=Joshi | first=S.T. | authorlink=S. T. Joshi | title=Sixty Years of Arkham House: A History and Bibliography | location=Sauk City, WI | publisher=Arkham House| pages=21–22 | year=1999 | isbn=0-87054-176-5}}</ref> 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".<ref name=EFB>E. F. Bleiler, ''The Guide to Supernatural Fiction'', Kent State University Press, 1983. p. 320-22</ref>
==Genesis== {{original research|section|date=April 2016}} 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.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=De Camp |first=L. Sprague |title=Lovecraft: a biography |title-link=Lovecraft: A Biography |last2=Camp |first2=Lyon Sprague de |publisher=Doubleday |year=1975 |isbn=978-0-385-00578-4 |edition=1. |location=Garden City, N.Y |pages=432 |author-link=L. Sprague de Camp}}</ref> After some attempts to place the omnibus volume with major hardcover publishers without any success, the two men realized that no publisher would be willing to take a chance with the collection.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Joshi |first=S.T. |title=H. P. Lovecraft: a life |title-link=H.P. Lovecraft: A Life |date=1997 |publisher=Necronomicon Press |isbn=978-0-940884-88-5 |edition=2. print |location=West Warwick, RI |pages=634 |author-link=ST Joshi}}</ref> Derleth and Wandrei 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.<ref name=":1" /> 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.<ref name=":0" /> Even at that bargain price, only 150 orders were received for ''The Outsider and Others'' before its appearance in 1939.<ref name=":0" />
''The Outsider'' 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.
==Contents==
''The Outsider and Others'' contains the following tales:
# "Howard Philips Lovecraft: Outsider", by August Derleth & Donald Wandrei # "Dagon" # "Polaris" # "Celephais" # "Hypnos" # "The Cats of Ulthar" # "The Strange High House in the Mist" # "The Statement of Randolph Carter" # "The Silver Key" # "Through the Gates of the Silver Key" # "The Outsider" # "The Music of Erich Zann" # "The Rats in the Walls" # "Cool Air" # "He" # "The Horror at Red Hook" # "The Temple" # "Arthur Jermyn" # "The Picture in the House" # "The Festival" # "The Terrible Old Man" # "The Tomb" # "The Shunned House" # "In the Vault" # "Pickman's Model" # "The Haunter of the Dark" # "The Dreams in the Witch-House" # "The Thing on the Doorstep" # "The Nameless City" # "The Lurking Fear" # "The Call of Cthulhu" # "The Colour out of Space" # "The Dunwich Horror" # "The Whisperer in Darkness" # "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" # "The Shadow out of Time" # "At the Mountains of Madness" # "Supernatural Horror in Literature"
While the stories in the collection have appeared in other Lovecraft books, ''The Outsider and Others'' has never been reprinted in its original form.<ref name=joshi />
==Reception== E. F. Bleiler called ''Outsider'' "a major book in the history of American supernatural fiction", saying Lovecraft's writing "reveals a vivid imagination, a remarkable ability at the creation of mythic thought, an excellent command of scholarly detail, and many of the indescribable characteristics of a powerful mind at work.<ref name=EFB/> ''Thrilling Wonder Stories'' hailed the collection as "a magnificent tribute to the brilliance of H. P. Lovecraft" and declared it "a milestone in fantasy literature, equal almost in importance to the collected tales of Edgar Allan Poe.<ref>Eldon Heath, "Scientibook Review", ''Thrilling Wonder Stories'', April 1940, p.126. Reviewer Heath, however, is identified by some sources as a pseudonym of Arkham publisher August Derleth.</ref>
==In popular culture== ''The Outsider and Others'' is featured in August Derleth's stories ''The Dweller in Darkness'' and ''Beyond the Threshold''.
==References== {{reflist}}
==Sources== *{{cite book | last=Jaffery | first=Sheldon | authorlink=Sheldon Jaffery | title=The Arkham House Companion | location=Mercer Island, WA | publisher=Starmont House, Inc.| pages=1–2 | year=1989 | isbn=1-55742-005-X}} *{{cite book | last=Chalker | first=Jack L. | authorlink=Jack L. Chalker | author2=Mark Owings | title=The Science-Fantasy Publishers: A Bibliographic History, 1923-1998 | location=Westminster, MD and Baltimore | publisher=Mirage Press, Ltd. | year=1998| page=26}} *{{cite book | last=Nielsen | first=Leon | title=Arkham House Books: A Collector's Guide | location=Jefferson, NC and London | publisher=McFarland & Company, Inc.| pages=46–47 | year=2004 | isbn=0-7864-1785-4}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Outsider and Others, The}} Category:1939 short story collections Category:Short story collections by H. P. Lovecraft Category:Arkham House books