Publication
Lovecraft was quite critical of The Shadow Over Innsmouth, writing to August Derleth that the story "has all the defects I deplore—especially in point of style, where hackneyed phrases & rhythms have crept in despite all precautions.... No—I don't intend to offer 'The Shadow over Innsmouth' for publication, for it would stand no chance of acceptance."
The story was rejected by Weird Tales editor Farnsworth Wright when Derleth surreptitiously submitted it for publication in 1933. "I have read Lovecraft's story...and must confess that it fascinates me," he wrote to Derleth. "But I don't know just what I can do with it. It is hard to break a story of this kind into two parts, and it is too long to run complete in one part."
It was eventually published as a slim book by William L. Crawford's Visionary Publishing Company with a run of 200 copies—the only book of Lovecraft's fiction distributed during his lifetime. After Lovecraft's death (and Wright's), it appeared in an unauthorized abridged version in the January 1942 issue of Weird Tales.
August Derleth called The Shadow Over Innsmouth "a dark, brooding story, typical of Lovecraft at his best."
Read more about this topic: The Shadow Over Innsmouth
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