Arkham House in The 21st Century
April (Rose) Derleth became president of Arkham House in 2002, having appointed Peter Ruber as her consulting editor and the successor to James Turner. The house’s mission was to return to classic weird fiction, which Ruber sought to do. Ruber drew criticism for the hostile opinions of various authors he expressed in his story introductions within Arkham's Masters of Horror (2000). Rumours of his ill-health circulated for some time and it appears his editorial duties at Arkham House later lapsed due to this.
August Derleth's children April and Walden (Wally) Derleth co-owned the publisher. April ran the business while Wally has currently no direct involvement in its day-to-day operations. April earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1977. She became majority stockholder, President, and CEO of Arkham House in 1994. She remained in that capacity until her death. She was known in the community as a naturalist and humanitarian. April Derleth died March 21, 2011. The publisher's website announced in April 2011 that April Derleth's children will take over the running of the publisher - Danielle Jacobs has been named President, and her brother Damon Derleth as Vice President.
The house's publishing schedule slowed considerably between 2000-2006, with only nine books issued—In the Stone House by Barry N. Malzberg (2000); Book of the Dead by E. Hoffmann Price (a collection of memoirs of writers known by Price, 2001); Arkham House's Masters of Horror (ed. Peter Ruber, 2000); The Far Side of Nowhere by Nelson Bond (2002); The Cleansing by John D. Harvey (a horror novel, 2002); Selected Letters of Clark Ashton Smith (ed. Scott Connors, 2003); Cave of a Thousand Tales by Milt Thomas (a biography of pulp writer Hugh B. Cave, 2004); Other Worlds Than Ours, another collection by Nelson Bond (2005); and Evermore (a collection of tales in tribute to Edgar Allan Poe, ed. James Robert Smith & Stephen Mark Rainey, 2006).
No books have been issued under Arkham House's sole imprint since 2006. Books were previously published in almost every year since the publisher's founding in 1939 (except for 1940 and 1955/56), so the four-year gap 2006-10 could be seen to mark the lowest point thus far in Arkham House's publishing fortunes.
In 2005, Arkham House was awarded the World Fantasy Award for Small Press Achievements—the trophy was a bust of H. P. Lovecraft.
In early 2009 it was announced that George Vanderburgh of Battered Silicon Dispatch Box, and Robert Weinberg, would jointly take over the editorial duties at Arkham House. Battered Silicon Dispatch Box has issued in 2009 four new volumes of stories by August Derleth under a joint imprint with Arkham House which constitute Arkham House's only output since 2006.
Publishing activity seems to have begun to ramp up anew, however, with a reissue (2010) of The Arkham Sampler (1948-49), a limited ed (250 sets) two-volume facsimile reprint of the now-rare magazine issued by Arkham House that ran four issues a year 1948-1949. This work is being issued by Arkham House co-published with the August Derleth Society. Additionally a novel, Jon Lellenberg's Baker Street Irregular, has been announced for publication in Nov 2011.
George Vanderburgh's blog at Battered Silicon Dispatch Box has made the further announcements of a forward publishing schedule as follows:
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