August Derleth

August Derleth (1909–1971) was a prolific regional novelist and weird-fiction author, but his greatest importance is as a preserver: with Donald Wandrei he founded Arkham House in 1939 specifically to keep Lovecraft’s stories in print, and in doing so built the foundation of modern weird and horror publishing. He also extended (and, controversially, systematised) the ‘Cthulhu Mythos’ himself. Few individuals shaped a genre’s survival so directly.