Peter Ruber (September 29, 1940 – March 6, 2014) was a
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
author, editor and publisher. He had been an advertising executive, book publisher and, for the past two decades, a consultant and free-lance journalist for many leading business information technology magazines. He lived on Long Island, New York with his wife, three sons, three grandchildren and a mountain of books and literary papers.
As a publishing executive, he came to know Arkham House founder
August Derleth
August William Derleth (February 24, 1909 – July 4, 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 th ...
. Between 1962 and 1971 he published many books by Derleth, some under his Candlelight Press imprint, and researched his former colleague's life and time for nearly forty years.
Ruber became the editor for
Arkham House
Arkham House is an American publishing house specializing in weird fiction. It was founded in Sauk City, Wisconsin, in 1939 by August Derleth and Donald Wandrei to publish hardcover collections of H. P. Lovecraft's best works, which had ...
in 1997, after
Jim Turner left to found
Golden Gryphon Press
Golden Gryphon Press was an independent publishing company, specializing in science fiction, fantasy, dark fantasy and cross-genre novels. It was founded in 1996 by Jim Turner, former editor at Arkham House, and was operated by his brother Gary ...
. Ruber drew criticism for the hostile opinions of various authors he expressed in his story introductions within his anthology ''
Arkham's Masters of Horror'' (2000).
Ruber authored ''The Last Bookman: A Journey into the Life and Times of
Vincent Starrett
Charles Vincent Emerson Starrett (; October 26, 1886 – January 5, 1974), known as Vincent Starrett, was a Canadian-born American writer, newspaperman, and bibliophile.
Biography
Charles Vincent Emerson Starrett was born above his grandfathe ...
: Journalist, Bookman, Bibliophile'' (NY: Candlelight Press, 1968; reprint Battered Silicon Dispatch Box, 1995) and was the editor of over 25 books. He did much research for a biography on
August Derleth
August William Derleth (February 24, 1909 – July 4, 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 th ...
(as yet unpublished) and
Seabury Quinn
Seabury Grandin Quinn (also known as Jerome Burke; December 1889 – December 24, 1969) was an American government lawyer, journalist, and pulp magazine author, most famous for his stories of the occult detective Jules de Grandin, published in ' ...
. He also began editing for
Battered Silicon Dispatch Box all of Vincent Starrett's works, with 22 of a projected 25 volumes already in print.
In 2000 Ruber edited a collection of previously unpublished stories by
H. Russell Wakefield for Ash-Tree Press. For the same publisher, in 2003, he edited ''Night Creatures'' by
Seabury Quinn
Seabury Grandin Quinn (also known as Jerome Burke; December 1889 – December 24, 1969) was an American government lawyer, journalist, and pulp magazine author, most famous for his stories of the occult detective Jules de Grandin, published in ' ...
.
Rumours of his ill-health circulated for some time; he suffered a stroke in 2004 and his editorial duties at Arkham House lapsed due to this.
Ruber died on March 6, 2014.
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ruber, Peter
1941 births
2014 deaths
American book editors
American book publishers (people)
Male speculative fiction editors