Movatterモバイル変換

[0]ホーム
URL:

  

Search SFE   Search EoF

 Omit cross-reference entries  

Derleth, August

Entry updated 13 January 2025. Tagged: Author.

Icon made by Freepik from www.flaticon.com

pic

(1909-1971) US author and editor, born in Sauk City, Wisconsin, where he spent his life. A correspondent with and devout admirer of H PLovecraft, he devoted much of his life to projects aimed at preserving Lovecraft's memory. The most important of these projects was of course the founding, with DonaldWandrei, of the publishing companyArkham House in Sauk City in order to publish Lovecraft's stories; Wandrei later resigned his interest, but Derleth carried on until his death, publishing a wide range of weird fiction, including some of his own otherwise very widely published work. He completed a number of unfinished Lovecraft stories and fragments:The Lurker at the Threshold (1945),The Survivor and Others (coll1957) andThe Watchers Out of Time and Others (coll1974). In addition, he wrote two volumes of LovecraftCthulhu Mythos pastiches,The Mask of Cthulhu (coll1958) andThe Trail of Cthulhu (coll1962), and edited anthologies of such stories by various writers likeThe Shuttered Room, and Other Pieces (anth1959) – a title not to be confused with either of the Lovecraft collections likewise entitled (one1970 UK and one1971 US, contents differing) –Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos (anth1969; vt 2vols asTales of the Cthulhu Mythos: Volume 11971 andTales of the Cthulhu Mythos: Volume 21971). Derleth edited Lovecraft's writings for publication, including his letters (in collaboration with Wandrei) andThe Dark Brotherhood, and Other Pieces (coll1966) – a collection of Lovecraft stories, both solo and in collaboration – and also wroteH.P.L.: A Memoir (1945) andSome Notes on H.P. Lovecraft (1959 chap).

But Derleth's literary activities were by no means dominated by his interest in Lovecraft. He was a prolific and successful writer of regional novels, receiving a Guggenheim Fellowship for this work; his major achievement here was theSac Prairie Saga, celebrating the Wisconsin of his own memories. He was also a copious author of detective fiction, starting withMurder Stalks the Wakely Family (1934; vtDeath Stalks the Wakely Family1937); he published a long series ofSherlock Holmes pastiches starring the characterSolar Pons, who lives not inLondon's Baker Street but the nearby Praed Street, operates mainly in the 1920s, has a brilliant and corpulent elder brother called Bancroft, and at least once visits his aged predecessor who has retired to keep bees. The Pons sequence begins with"In Re: Sherlock Holmes" (coll1945; vtRegarding Sherlock Holmes: The Adventures of Solar Pons1974; vtThe Adventures of Solar Pons1975). These tales are almost all nonfantastic, though "The Adventure of the Grice-Paterson Curse" (November 1956The Pursuit Detective Story Magazine) features a murderous strangling plant of vampiric tendency; the spoofish collaboration "The Adventure of the Snitch in Time" (July 1953F&SF) with MackReynolds includesTime Travel; two other Reynolds collaborations also involve Pons with genre tropes.The Adventure of the Orient Express (1965 chap)Recursively has cameo roles for other authors' characters including AgathaChristie'sHercule Poirot and LeslieCharteris'sThe Saint; elsewhere in the Pons sags, SaxRohmer'sDr Fu Manchu makes more than one appearance.

This author's very first story, however – "Bat's Belfry" forWeird Tales in May 1926 – was of genre interest, and he remained for many years a prolific contributor toWeird Tales, mainly under his own name and the pseudonym Stephen Grendon, and to other magazines, includingStrange Stories (where he used the name Tally Mason). His best work of this kind was assembled inSomeone in the Dark (coll1941),Something Near (coll1945),Not Long for This World (coll1948; with 11 stories cut, vtTales from Not Long for This World1961),Lonesome Places (coll1962),Mr George and Other Odd Persons (coll1963 as Stephen Grendon; vtWhen Graveyards Yawn1965 UK as Derleth),Colonel Markesan and Less Pleasant People (coll1966) with MarkSchorer, andDwellers in Darkness (coll1976). He wrote little sf, beyond hisTex Harrigan series about a newspaperman constantly running across zany sfInventions and the like; it was included inHarrigan's File (coll1975).

Derleth edited a great manyAnthologies, both sf and weird. His sf anthologies include several large volumes:Strange Ports of Call (anth1948; much cut1958),The Other Side of the Moon (anth1949; cut1956; much cut1959) andBeyond Time and Space (anth1950; much cut1958). His weird anthologies includeSleep No More (anth1944; cut1964; much cut vtStories From Sleep No More1967),Who Knocks? Twenty Masterpieces of the Spectral for the Connoisseur (anth1946; much cut vtWho Knocks?1964) andThe Sleeping & the Dead (anth1947; vt 2vols asThe Sleeping and the Dead1964 UK andThe Unquiet Grave1964). Derleth was one of the pioneering anthologists in the genre.

The history of Arkham House was chronicled in Derleth'sArkham House: The First 20 Years (1959 chap) andThirty Years of Arkham House, 1939-1969: A History and Bibliography (1970 chap). In 1948-1949 the company published a magazine,TheArkham Sampler, edited by Derleth. Competent and literate and highly energetic, Derleth was the central figure in bringing lasting popularity to Lovecraft and to other authors such as Clark AshtonSmith. His own extremely various output continues to await comprehensive appraisal.

Derleth was inducted into theFirst Fandom Hall of Fame in 2023. [MJE/DRL]

see also:Publishing;Small Presses and Limited Editions.

August William Derleth

born Sauk City, Wisconsin: 24 February 1909

died Sauk City, Wisconsin: 4 July 1971

works (selected)

series

Solar Pons

individual titles (selected)

collections and stories (selected)

works as editor

Lovecraft Selected Letters

individual titles as editor (selected)

nonfiction (selected)

about the author

links

previous versions of this entry



x
This website uses cookies.  More information here.Accept Cookies
[8]ページ先頭
©2009-2025 Movatter.jp