August Derleth
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August Derleth.
August Derleth.

August William Derleth (February 24, 1909 – July 4, 1971) was an American writer and anthologist. Though best remembered as H. P. Lovecraft's primary publisher, and for his contributions to the Cthulhu Mythos genre of horror, Derleth was a prolific writer in several genres, including historical fiction, poetry, detective fiction, and biography.

Contents

Life

The son of William Julius Derleth and his wife Rose Louise Volk, he grew up in Sauk City, Wisconsin.[1] At the age of 16, he sold his first story to Weird Tales magazine. Derleth wrote throughout his four years at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he received a B.A. in 1930.[2] During this time he also served briefly as editor of Mystic Magazine.

In the mid-1930s he organised a Ranger's Club for young people, served as clerk and president of the local Board of Education, served as a parole officer, organised a local Men's Club and a Parent-Teacher Association.[3] He also lectured in American Regional Literature at the University of Wisconsin.

In 1941 he became literary editor of The Capital Times newspaper in Madison, a post he held until his resignation in 1960.

Derleth was married April 6, 1953 to Sandra Evelyn Winters; they were divorced six years later.[4] He retained custody of their two children, April Rose and Walden William. In 1960, Derleth began editing and publishing a magazine called Hawk and Whippoorwill, dedicated to poems of man and nature.

He died on July 4, 1971 and is buried in St. Aloysius Cemetery in Sauk City.[5]

Arkham House and the Cthulhu Mythos

Derleth near the time he began working on the Cthulhu Mythos.
Derleth near the time he began working on the Cthulhu Mythos.

Derleth was a correspondent and friend of H. P. Lovecraft – when Lovecraft wrote about "le Comte d'Erlette" in his fiction, it was in homage to Derleth. Derleth invented the term Cthulhu Mythos to describe the fictional universe described in the series of stories shared by Lovecraft and other writers in his circle. Derleth's own writing emphasized the struggle between good and evil, in line with his own Christian world view and in contrast with Lovecraft's depiction of an amoral universe. Derleth also treated Lovecraft's Old Ones as representatives of elemental forces, creating new entities to flesh out this framework.

When Lovecraft died in 1937, Derleth and Donald Wandrei put together a collection of that author's stories and tried to get them published. With existing publishers showing little interest, they founded Arkham House in 1939 to do it themselves. The name of the company came from Lovecraft's fictional town of Arkham, Massachusetts, which is featured in many of his stories. In 1939 Arkham House published The Outsider and Others, a huge collection that contained most of Lovecraft's known short stories. Derleth and Wandrei soon expanded Arkham House and began a regular publishing schedule after its second book, Someone in the Dark, a collection of some of Derleth's own horror stories, was published in 1941.

Following Lovecraft's death, Derleth wrote a number of stories based on fragments and notes left by Lovecraft. These were published in Weird Tales and later in book form, under the byline "H. P. Lovecraft and August Derleth", with Derleth calling himself a "posthumous collaborator." This practice has raised objections in some quarters that Derleth simply used Lovecraft's name to market what was essentially his own fiction; S. T. Joshi refers to the "posthumous collaborations" as marking the beginning of "perhaps the most disreputable phase of Derleth's activities"[6].

A significant number of H. P. Lovecraft fans and critics, such as Dirk W. Mosig[7] and S. T. Joshi,[8] were dissatisfied with Derleth's invention of the term Cthulhu Mythos and his belief that Lovecraft's fiction had an overall pattern reflecting Derleth's own Christian world view. Still there is little but praise for Derleth for his founding of Arkham House and for his successful effort to rescue Lovecraft from literary obscurity. Ramsey Campbell has also acknowledged Derleth's encouragement and guidance during the early part of his own writing career,[9] and Kirby McCauley has cited Derleth and Arkham House as an inspiration for his own anthology, Dark Forces.[10]

Other writing

Derleth at his typewriter.
Derleth at his typewriter.

Derleth wrote more than 150 short stories and more than 100 books during his lifetime. Included among that number were several novels about a Sherlock Holmes-like British detective named Solar Pons. His other series included the Sac Prairie Saga, the Wisconsin Saga, and the Judge Peck mystery series.

He also wrote introductions to several collections of classic early 20th century comics such as Buster Brown, Little Nemo in Slumberland, and Katzenjammer Kids, as well as a book of children's poetry entitled A Boy's Way. Derleth also wrote under the pseudonyms Stephen Grendon, Kenyon Holmes, and Tally Mason.

Derleth's papers and comic book collection were donated to the Wisconsin Historical Society in Madison.[11]

Bibliography

Novels

  • Murder Stalks the Wakely Family (1934)
  • The Man on All Fours (1934)
  • Three Who Died (1935)
  • Sign of Fear (1935)
  • Still is the Summer Night (1937) [Sac Prairie Saga]
  • Wind Over Wisconsin (1938) [Sac Prairie Saga]
  • Any Day Now (1938) [Sac Prairie Saga]
  • Sentence Deferred (1939)
  • Restless is the River (1939) [Sac Prairie Saga]
  • Atmosphere of Houses (1939)
  • The Narracong Riddle (1940)
  • Bright Journey (1940)
  • Evening in Spring (1941) [Sac Prairie Saga]
  • Sweet Genevieve (1942) [Sac Prairie Saga]
  • The Seven Who Waited (1943)
  • Shadow of Night (1943) [Sac Prairie Saga]
  • Mischief in the Lane (1944)
  • No Future for Luana (1945)
  • The Shield of the Valiant (1945) [Sac Prairie Saga]
  • Oliver, The Wayward Owl (1945)
  • The Country of the Hawk (1952)
  • The Captive Island (1952)
  • Fell Purpose (1953)
  • Death by Design (1953)
  • Empire of Fur (1953)
  • The House of Moonlight (1953) [Sac Prairie Saga]
  • Land of Gray Gold (1954)
  • Land of Sky Blue Waters (1955)
  • The House on the Mound (1958)
  • The Moon Tenders (1958)
  • Wilbur, The Trusting Whippoorwill (1959)
  • The Mill Creek Irregulars (1959)
  • The Hills Stand Watch (1960)
  • The Pinkertons Ride Again (1960)
  • The Ghost of Black Hawk Island (1961)
  • Walden West (1961) [Sac Prairie Saga]
  • Sweet Land of Michigan (1962)
  • The Tent Show Summer (1963)
  • The Beast in Holger's Woods (1968)
  • Mr. Fairlie's Final Journey (1968)

Short Story Collections

Short fiction

  • The Gorge Beyond Salapunco (unknown)
  • The House of Curwen Street (unknown)
  • Bat's Belfry (1926)
  • The Coffin of Lissa (1926)
  • The Devil's Pay (1926)
  • The Night Rider (1927)
  • The River (1927)
  • The Sleepers (1927)
  • The Turret Room (1927)
  • The Conradi Affair (1928) with Carl W. Ganzlin
  • The Philosophers' Stone (1928)
  • The Statement of Justin Parker (1928)
  • The Tenant at Number Seven (1928)
  • The Tenant (1928)
  • The Three-Storied House (1928)
  • "Melodie in E Minor" (1929)
  • The Deserted Garden (1929)
  • A Dinner at Imola (1929)
  • He Shall Come (1929)
  • The House on the Highway (1929)
  • The Inheritors (1929)
  • An Occurrence in an Antique Shop (1929)
  • Old Mark (1929)
  • Scarlatti's Bottle (1929)
  • "Just a Song at Twilight" (1930)
  • Across the Hall (1930)
  • The Lilac Bush (1930)
  • A Matter of Sight (1930)
  • Mrs. Bentley's Daughter (1930)
  • The Pacer (1930)
  • The Portrait (1930)
  • The Whistler (1930)
  • The Bridge of Sighs (1931)
  • The Captain Is Afraid (1931)
  • Prince Borgia's Mass (1931)
  • The Bishop Sees Through (1932)
  • The Shadow on the Sky (1932)
  • The Sheraton Mirror (1932)
  • Those Who Seek (1932)
  • The House In the Magnolias (1932)
  • Birkett's Twelfth Corpse (1933)
  • An Elegy for Mr. Danielson (1933)
  • Nellie Foster (1933)
  • The Thing that Walked on the Wind (1933)
  • The Vanishing of Simmons (1933)
  • The White Moth (1933)
  • A Cloak From Messer Lando (1934)
  • Feigman's Beard (1934)
  • The Metronome (1934)
  • Wild Grapes (1934)
  • Mr. Berbeck Had a Dream (1935)
  • Muggridge's Aunt (1935)
  • Lesandro's Familiar (1936)
  • The Return of Sarah Purcell (1936)
  • The Satin Mask (1936)
  • The Telephone in the Library (1936)
  • Glory Hand (1937)
  • McGovern's Obsession (1937)
  • The Panelled Room (1937)
  • The Shuttered House (1937)
  • The Wind from the River (1937)
  • Three Gentlemen in Black (1938)
  • Logoda's Heads (1939)
  • Mrs. Elting Does Her Part (1939)
  • The Second Print (1939)
  • The Return of Hastur (1939)
  • After You, Mr. Henderson (1940)
  • Bramwell's Guardian (1940)
  • The Sandwin Compact (1940)
  • "Come to Me!" (1941)
  • Altimer's Amulet (1941)
  • Beyond the Threshold (1941)
  • Compliments of Spectro (1941)
  • Ithaqua (1941)
  • Here, Daemos! (1942)
  • Lansing's Luxury (1942)
  • Mrs. Corter Makes Up Her Mind (1942)
  • Headlines for Tod Shayne (1942)
  • Mr. Ames' Devil (1942)
  • Baynter's Imp (1943)
  • McElwin's Glass (1943)
  • No Light for Uncle Henry (1943)
  • A Thin Gentleman with Gloves (1943)
  • A Wig for Miss DeVore (1943)
  • No Light for Uncle Henry (1943)
  • The Dweller in Darkness (1944)
  • Lady Macbeth of Pimley Square (1944)
  • Pacific 421 (1944)
  • The Trail of Cthulhu (1944)
  • Carousel (1945)
  • The God-Box (1945)
  • The Inverness Cape (1945)
  • The Lost Day (1945)
  • Mrs. Lannisfree (1945)
  • The Watcher from the Sky (1945)
  • A Collector of Stones (1946)
  • Pikeman (1946)
  • A Little Knowledge (1948)
  • The Lonesome Place (1948)
  • Saunder's Little Friend (1948)
  • Something in Wood (1948)
  • The Whippoorwills in the Hills (1948)
  • Kingsridge 214 (1949)
  • The Slayers and the Slain (1949)
  • The Testament of Claiborne Boyd (1949)
  • Twilight Play (1949)
  • The Closing Door (1950)
  • The Fifth Child (1950)
  • The Island Out of Space (1950)
  • The Ormolu Clock (1950)
  • Potts' Triumph (1950)
  • A Room in a House (1950)
  • The Keeper of the Key (1951)
  • A Knocking in the Wall (1951)
  • The Man Who Rode the Saucer (1951)
  • The Other Side of the Wall (1951)
  • Something from Out There (1951)
  • "Who Shall I Say is Calling?" (1952)
  • The Black Island (1952)
  • The Lost Path (1952)
  • McIlvaine's Star (1952)
  • The Night Road (1952)
  • The Place of Desolation (1952)
  • "Sexton, Sexton, in the Wall" (1953)
  • Century Jumper (1953)
  • A Corner for Lucia (1953)
  • The Detective and the Senator (1953)
  • The Disc Recorder (1953)
  • The Ebony Stick (1953)
  • The House in the Valley (1953)
  • Invaders from the Microcosm (1953)
  • The Maugham Obsession (1953)
  • A Traveler in Time (1953)
  • Mark VII (1954)
  • The Mechanical House (1954)
  • The Penfield Misadventure (1954)
  • The Place in the Woods (1954)
  • The Remarkable Dingdong (1954)
  • Thinker, Mark VII (1954)
  • The Dark Boy (1956)
  • The Martian Artifact (1957)
  • The Seal of R'lyeh (1957)
  • Halloween for Mr. Faulkner (1959)
  • Lovecraft and "The Pacer" (excerpt) (1959)
  • The Adventure of the Intarsia Box (1964)
  • By Rocket to the Moon (1965)
  • Ferguson's Capsules (1966)
  • The Adventure of the Unique Dickensians (1968)
  • An Eye for History (1975)
  • Protoplasma (1975)

Journals

  • Village Year: A Sac Prairie Journal (1941) [Sac Prairie Saga]
  • Village Daybook (1947) [Sac Prairie Saga]
  • Countryman's Journal (1963) [Sac Prairie Saga]
  • Wisconsin Country: A Sac Prairie Journal [Sac Prairie Saga]
  • Return to Walden West (1970) [Sac Prairie Saga]

Poems

  • Incubus (1934)
  • Omega (1934)
  • To a Spaceship (1934)
  • Man and the Cosmos (1935)
  • "Only Deserted" (1937)
  • The Shores of Night (1947)
  • Providence: Two Gentlemen Meet at Midnight (1948)
  • Jacksnipe Over (1971)
  • Something Left Behind (1971)

Poetry Collections

  • Hawk on the Wind (1938)
  • Man Track Here (1939)
  • Here on a Darkling Plain (1940)
  • Wind in the Elms (1941)
  • Rind of Earth (1942)
  • And You, Thoreau! (1944)
  • Selected Poems (1944)
  • The Edge of Night (1945)
  • Habitant of Dusk (1946)
  • A Boy's Way (1947) (Illustrated by Claire Victor Dwiggins)
  • It's a Boy's World (1948)
  • Rendezvous in a Landscape (1952)
  • Psyche (1953)
  • Country Poems (1956)
  • West of Morning (1960)
  • This Wound (1962)

Essays/articles

  • Introduction (The Mask of Cthulhu) (unknown)
  • Foreword (Who Knocks?) (1946)
  • Foreword (The Night Side) (1947)
  • Introduction (The Sleeping and the Dead) (1947)
  • Foreword (Not Long for This World) (1948)
  • Introduction (Strange Ports of Call) (1948)
  • Introduction (The Other Side of the Moon) (1949)
  • Introduction (Beyond Time and Space) (1950)
  • Foreword (The Outer Reaches) (1951)
  • Introduction (The Haunter of the Dark) (1951)
  • Introduction (Beachheads in Space) (1952)
  • Introduction (Worlds of Tomorrow) (1953)
  • Foreword (Time to Come) (1954)
  • Introduction (Beachheads in Space) (1954)
  • Introduction (Portals of Tomorrow) (1954)
  • Introduction (Worlds of Tomorrow) (1955)
  • Foreword (Dark Mind, Dark Heart) (1962)
  • Foreword (Time to Come) (1963)
  • H. P. Lovecraft And His Work (1963)
  • H. P. Lovecraft And His Work (1963)
  • Introduction (Mr. George and Other Odd Persons) (1963)
  • Introduction (Worlds of Tomorrow) (1963)
  • Introduction (Beachheads in Space) (1964)
  • Introduction (From Other Worlds) (1964)
  • Foreword (The Night Side) (1966)
  • Foreword (The Unspeakable People) (1969)
  • Clark Ashton Smith: Master of Fantasy (1974) with Donald Wandrei

Biography

History

  • The Wisconsin: River of a Thousand Isles (1942)
  • The Milwaukee Road: Its First Hundred Years (1948)
  • Saint Ignatius and the Company of Jesus (1956)
  • Columbus and the New World (1957)
  • Father Marquette and the Great Rivers (1959)

Anthologies

As Stephen Grendon

  • The Drifting Snow (1939)
  • A Gentleman from Prague (1944)
  • Alannah (1945)
  • Dead Man's Shoes (1946)
  • Bishop's Gambit (1947)
  • The Extra Passenger (1947)
  • The Ghost Walk (1947)
  • Mr. George (1947)
  • Parrington's Pool (1947)
  • Blessed Are the Meek (1948)
  • Mara (1948)
  • The Night Train to Lost Valley (1948)
  • The Tsanta in the Parlor (1948)
  • The Tsantsa in the Parlor (1948)
  • The Wind in the Lilacs (1948)
  • The Blue Spectacles (1949)
  • Mrs. Manifold (1949)
  • Open, Sesame! (1949)
  • The Song of the Pewee (1949)
  • The Man on B-17 (1950)
  • Balu (1949)
  • Miss Esperson (1962)

With H. P. Lovecraft

  • The Lurker at the Threshold (1945)
  • The Survivor (1954)
  • Wentworth's Day (1957)
  • The Gable Window (1957)
  • The Shadow Out of Space (1957)
  • The Ancestor (1957)
  • The Lamp of Alhazred (1957)
  • The Peabody Heritage (1957)
  • The Shuttered Room (1959)
  • The Dark Brotherhood (1966)
  • The Horror from the Middle Span (1967)
  • Innsmouth Clay (1971)
  • The Watchers Out of Time (1974) (unfinished)

With Marc R. Schorer

  • The Elixir of Life (1926)
  • The Marmoset (1926)
  • The Black Castle (1927)
  • The Owl on the Moor (1928)
  • Riders in the Sky (1928)
  • The Pacer (1930)
  • In the Left Wing (1932)
  • The Lair of the Star-Spawn (1932)
  • Laughter in the Night (1932)
  • Red Hands (1932)
  • The Carven Image (1933)
  • The Return of Andrew Bentley (1933)
  • Colonel Markesan (1934)
  • A Matter of Faith (1934)
  • Death Holds the Post (1936)
  • They Shall Rise (1936)
  • The Woman at Loon Point (1936)
  • Spawn of the Maelstrom (1939)
  • The Vengeance of Ai (1939)
  • The Occupant of the Crypt (1947)
  • The Figure with the Scythe (1973)

Other collaborations

  • The Churchyard Yew (1947) as Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
  • The Adventure of the Snitch in Time (1953) with Mack Reynolds
  • The Adventure of the Ball of Nostradamus (1955) with Mack Reynolds
  • The House in the Oaks (1971) with Robert E. Howard

See also

Notes

  1. ^ "August Derleth Services Wednesday in Sauk City," Capital Times, July 6, 1971, p. 24, col. 2.
  2. ^ "Author August Derleth Dies," Capital Times, July 5, 1971, p. 1, col. 6.
  3. ^ Derleth, August. "An Autobiography."[1]
  4. ^ "Author August Derleth Dies," Capital Times, July 5, 1971, p. 1, col. 6.
  5. ^ "August Derleth Services Wednesday in Sauk City," Capital Times, July 6, 1971, p. 24, col. 1.
  6. ^ Joshi, H. P. Lovecraft: A Life, Necronomicon Press 1996, p.638.
  7. ^ Mosig, "H. P. Lovecraft: Myth Maker" (1976), collected in Mosig at Last, Necronomicon Press 1997.
  8. ^ Joshi, H. P. Lovecraft: A Life, Necronomicon Press 1996, pp. 403-4.
  9. ^ For example, in The Count of Thirty (Necronomicon Press 1993), p.11.
  10. ^ Kirby McCauley, Introduction, Dark Forces (1980).
  11. ^ Derleth, August, 1909 - 1971

References

  • Bleiler, Everett (1948). The Checklist of Fantastic Literature. Chicago: Shasta Publishers, 98. 
  • Chalker, Jack L.; Mark Owings (1998). The Science-Fantasy Publishers: A Bibliographic History, 1923-1998. Westminster, MD and Baltimore: Mirage Press, Ltd.. 
  • (1962) 100 Books by August Derleth. Sauk City, WI: Arkham House. 
  • Jaffery, Sheldon (1989). The Arkham House Companion. Mercer Island, WA: Starmont House, Inc.. ISBN 1-55742-005-X. 
  • Meudt, Edna. 'August Derleth: "A simple, honorable man",' Wisconsin Academy Review, 19:2 (Summer, 1972) 8-11.
  • Nielsen, Leon (2004). Arkham House Books: A Collector's Guide. Jefferson, NC and London: McFarland & Company, Inc.. ISBN 0-7864-1785-4. 
  • Schorer, Mark. "An Appraisal of the Work of August Derleth," The Capital Times, July 9, 1971.
  • Tuck, Donald H. (1974). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy. Chicago: Advent, 137–141. ISBN 0-911682-20-1. 

External links
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