It wasn't just the Dark Trinity of HPL/CAS/REH that Arkham House kept in hardcovers during those bad times. Derleth gave William Hope Hodgson his first US publication, hardcover or otherwise, in 1946. Ray Bradbury, Fritz Leiber and Carl Jacobi all got their first taste of hardcover publication in 1947 courtesy of Arkham House.

When it comes to women in weird fiction, Derleth can hold his head high. In the first fifteen years of Arkham House, Derleth published books by Evangeline Walton, Leah Bodine Drake and Zealia B. Bishop. Evangeline Walton was one of the first authors published by Arkham House after HPL, CAS and Derleth himself.

Near the end of his life, Derleth was instrumental in launching the careers of Ramsey Campbell, Brian Lumley and David Drake. All three authors are quite forthright in acknowledging the debt they owe Derleth and the gratitude they feel. Ramsey Campbell, especially, likes to point out that nobody seemed to have a bad thing to say about Derleth... until Derleth was in his grave. It was only after Augie's demise that the detractors crawled out of the woodwork, like rats in the walls.

I should also mention that Derleth's Sherlockian tales of the detective, Solar Pons, are quite well-regarded. The best site devoted to them is hosted by the indefatigable Bob Byrne. Check it out here.

Doug Draa, the editor of the estimable Weirdbook magazine, wrote an excellent tribute to Derleth a few years ago. It's jam-packed with great covers of Derleth collections and anthologies edited by Derleth. Check it out here.

To sum it up, I will not say that Derleth never made a mistake or that he was a master at writing cosmic horror. I will say that fans of weird fiction owe him. We owe him a lot.