August Derlethust William Derleth (24 February 1909 – 4 July 1971) was an American writer and anthologist. Though best remembered as the first book publisher of the writings of H.P. Lovecraft, and for his own contributions to the Cthulhu Mythos and the cosmic orror genre, as well as his founding of the publisher Arkham House (which did much to bring supernatural fiction into print in hardcover in the US that had only been readily available in the UK), Derleth was a leading American regional writer of his day, as well as prolific in several other genres, including historical fiction, poetry, detective fiction, science fiction and biography. Derleth wrote more than 150 short stories and more than 100 books during his lifetime.