Editing Ramsey Campbell (section)

===The influence of H. P. Lovecraft and ''The Inhabitant of the Lake and Less Welcome Tenants''===
Campbell first encountered the works of [[H. P. Lovecraft]] at age eight (1954), via the story "[[The Colour Out of Space]]", which he found in the [[Groff Conklin]] anthology ''Strange Travels in Science Fiction'', and within the next few years read "[[The Rats in the Walls]]" and "[[The Dunwich Horror]]", encountered in the Wise and Fraser anthology ''Great Tales of Terror and the Supernatural''. At the age of twelve, Campbell attempted to write a novel titled ''Broken Moon'', influenced by [[Arthur Machen]], but it petered out after fifty pages.<ref>Stefan R. Dziemanowicz. "An Interview with Ramsey Campbell" in S.T. Joshi, ed. ''The Count of Thirty: A Tribute to Ramsey Campbell'', West Warwick, RI: [[Necronomicon Press]], 1993, p. 15</ref> By the age of 14, he discovered Lovecraft's ''Cry Horror!'', a British edition of the collection entitled ''The Lurking Fear'', and read it in one day, finding the fiction's sense of awesomeness as well as horror extraordinarily appealing. He had also read Arthur Machen's major horror stories by this age, and some works by [[John Dickson Carr]], which led him to write, at 14 years old, a 100-page Carr pastiche (unfinished) titled ''Murder By Moonlight''.<ref>Stefan R. Dziemanowicz, "The Ramsey Campbell Interview", ''Tekeli-li! Journal of Terror'' No 3 (Fall 1991), p. 19-20.</ref> This piece was published in 2020 as ''The Enigma of the Flat Policeman'', including annotations from the adult author reflecting on his psychological state at the time of composition. 
[[File:Gla'aki,_the_Inhabitant_of_the_Lake,_created_by_Ramsey_Campbell.jpg|thumb|right|An image of Gla'aki from Campbell's story "The Inhabitant of the Lake"]]

On leaving school at age sixteen, Campbell went to work in the Inland Revenue as a tax officer (1962–66). Campbell sold various early stories to editors including [[August Derleth]] and [[Robert A.W. Lowndes]]. His concept of what was possible in the Weird genre was highly influenced by Lovecraft for the next few years. In December 1961, Campbell completed the story "The Church in High Street" (previously titled "The Tomb-Herd") which he sent to August Derleth at [[Arkham House]],<ref>{{Cite web |title=Flame Tree PressFlame Tree Press |url=https://www.flametreepress.com/authors/index.php?ga=ramsey-campbell.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220814010312/https://www.flametreepress.com/authors/index.php?ga=ramsey-campbell.html |archive-date=2022-08-14 |access-date=2024-05-03 |website=Flame Tree Press}}</ref> an imprint singlehandedly responsible for preserving the legacy of H P Lovecraft. Derleth accepted the story in February 1962 and it became Campbell's first professionally published tale, appearing in the Derleth-edited anthology ''[[Dark Mind, Dark Heart]]''. Campbell wrote various other tales of the [[Cthulhu Mythos]] between 1961 and 1963. Derleth gave the young writer invaluable advice on improving his writing style (their correspondence has been published in a single volume from PS Publishing).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ramsey Campbell, Certainly [trade paperback] by Ramsey Campbell |url=https://pspublishing.co.uk/ramsey-campbell-certainly-trade-paperback-by-ramsey-campbell-5211-p.asp |access-date=2024-05-04 |website=PS Publishing |language=en}}</ref>{{Unreliable source?|date=January 2025|reason=[[WP:NOTADVERT]]}}

Forming his literary apprenticeship with stories modelled after Lovecraft's themes, Campbell's first collection, ''[[The Inhabitant of the Lake and Less Welcome Tenants]]'' (Arkham House, 1964), published when he was eighteen years old, collects his Lovecraftian pastiches to that date. Campbell has written, "In 1964 I was several kinds of lucky to find a publisher, and one kind depended on my having written a Lovecraftian book for Arkham House, the only publisher likely even to have considered it and one of the very few then to be publishing horror."<ref>Ramsey Campbell. ''[[Alone with the Horrors: The Great Short Fiction of Ramsey Campbell 1961–1991|Alone With the Horrors]]'' Sauk City, WI: Arkham House, 1993, p. ix</ref> The title story of the collection introduces Campbell's invention of a tome of occult lore similar to Lovecraft's forbidden [[Necronomicon]], ''The Revelations of Gla'aki'' (see [[Books of the Cthulhu Mythos]]).