August William Derleth (February 24, 1909 – July 4, 1971) was an American writer and anthologist. He was the first book publisher of the writings of
H. P. Lovecraft
Howard Phillips Lovecraft (, ; August 20, 1890 – March 15, 1937) was an American writer of Weird fiction, weird, Science fiction, science, fantasy, and horror fiction. He is best known for his creation of the Cthulhu Mythos.
Born in Provi ...
. He made contributions to the
Cthulhu Mythos The Cthulhu Mythos is a mythopoeia and a shared fictional universe, originating in the works of American Horror fiction, horror writer H. P. Lovecraft. The term was coined by August Derleth, a contemporary correspondent and protégé of Lovecraft, t ...
and the
cosmic horror genre and helped found
Arkham House
Arkham House was 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 ...
, a publishing company which did much to introduce hardcover prints of United Kingdom supernatural fiction works to the United States. Derleth was also a leading American
regional writer of his day, as well as prolific in several other genres, including
historical fiction
Historical fiction is a literary genre in which a fictional plot takes place in the Setting (narrative), setting of particular real past events, historical events. Although the term is commonly used as a synonym for historical fiction literatur ...
,
poetry
Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...
,
detective fiction
Detective fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an criminal investigation, investigator or a detective—whether professional, amateur or retired—investigates a crime, often murder. The detective genre began around ...
,
science fiction
Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...
, and
biography
A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or curri ...
. Notably, he created the fictional detective
Solar Pons
Solar Pons is a fiction
Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying character (arts), individuals, events, or setting (narrative), places that are imagination, imaginary or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portr ...
, a pastiche of
Arthur Conan Doyle
Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for ''A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Hol ...
's
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes () is a Detective fiction, fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a "Private investigator, consulting detective" in his stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with obser ...
.
A 1938
Guggenheim Fellow
Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon individuals who have demonstrated d ...
, Derleth considered his most serious work to be the ambitious ''Sac Prairie Saga'', a series of fiction, historical fiction, poetry, and non-fiction naturalist works designed to memorialize life in the Wisconsin he knew. Derleth can also be considered a pioneering naturalist and conservationist in his writing.
Life
The son of William Julius Derleth and Rose Louise Volk, Derleth grew up in
Sauk City, Wisconsin.
["August Derleth Services Wednesday in Sauk City", ''Capital Times'', July 6, 1971, p. 24, col. 2.] He was educated in local parochial and public high school. Derleth wrote his first fiction at age 13. He was interested most in reading, and he made three trips to the library a week. He would save his money to buy books (his personal library exceeded 12,000 volumes later on in life). Some of his biggest influences were
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, minister, abolitionism, abolitionist, and poet who led the Transcendentalism, Transcendentalist movement of th ...
's essays,
Walt Whitman
Walter Whitman Jr. (; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist, and journalist; he also wrote two novels. He is considered one of the most influential poets in American literature and world literature. Whitman incor ...
,
H. L. Mencken's ''
The American Mercury'',
Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson ( – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, literary critic, sermonist, biographer, editor, and lexicographer. The ''Oxford ...
's ''
The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia
''The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia'', originally titled ''The Prince of Abissinia: A Tale'', though often abbreviated to ''Rasselas'', is an apologue about bliss and ignorance by Samuel Johnson. The book's original working title was ...
'',
Alexandre Dumas
Alexandre Dumas (born Alexandre Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie, 24 July 1802 – 5 December 1870), also known as Alexandre Dumas , was a French novelist and playwright.
His works have been translated into many languages and he is one of the mos ...
,
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe (; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic who is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales involving mystery and the macabre. He is widely re ...
,
Walter Scott
Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European literature, European and Scottish literature, notably the novels ''Ivanhoe'' (18 ...
, and
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau (born David Henry Thoreau; July 12, 1817May 6, 1862) was an American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher. A leading Transcendentalism, transcendentalist, he is best known for his book ''Walden'', a reflection upon sim ...
's
Walden
''Walden'' (; first published as ''Walden; or, Life in the Woods'') is an 1854 book by American transcendentalism, transcendentalist writer Henry David Thoreau. The text is a reflection upon the author's simple living in natural surroundings. T ...
.
Forty rejected stories and three years later, according to anthologist Jim Stephens, he sold his first story, "Bat's Belfry", to ''
Weird Tales
''Weird Tales'' is an American fantasy and horror fiction pulp magazine founded by J. C. Henneberger and J. M. Lansinger in late 1922. The first issue, dated March 1923, appeared on newsstands February 18. The first editor, Edwin Baird, printe ...
'' magazine in 1926. Derleth wrote throughout his four years at the
University of Wisconsin
A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...
, where he received a
B.A. in 1930.
During this time he also served briefly as associate editor of Minneapolis-based
Fawcett Publications
Fawcett Publications was an American publishing company founded in 1919 in Robbinsdale, Minnesota, by Wilford Hamilton "Captain Billy" Fawcett (1885–1940).
It kicked off with the publication of the bawdy humor magazine ''Captain Billy's Whiz ...
''Mystic Magazine''.
Returning to Sauk City in the summer of 1931, Derleth worked in a local canning factory and collaborated with childhood friend
Mark Schorer (later Chairman of the
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...
English Department). They rented a cabin, writing Gothic and other horror stories and selling them
to ''
Weird Tales
''Weird Tales'' is an American fantasy and horror fiction pulp magazine founded by J. C. Henneberger and J. M. Lansinger in late 1922. The first issue, dated March 1923, appeared on newsstands February 18. The first editor, Edwin Baird, printe ...
'' magazine. Derleth won a place on the O'Brien Roll of Honor for ''Five Alone'', published in ''Place of Hawks'', but was first published in ''Pagany'' magazine.
As a result of his early work on the ''Sac Prairie Saga'', Derleth was awarded the prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship; his sponsors were
Helen C. White, Nobel Prize-winning novelist
Sinclair Lewis
Harry Sinclair Lewis (February 7, 1885 – January 10, 1951) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and playwright. In 1930 Nobel Prize in Literature, 1930, he became the first author from the United States (and the first from the America ...
and poet
Edgar Lee Masters of ''
Spoon River Anthology'' fame.
In the mid-1930s, Derleth organized a Ranger's Club for young people, served as clerk and president of the local
school board
A board of education, school committee or school board is the board of directors or board of trustees of a school, local school district or an equivalent institution.
The elected council determines the educational policy in a small regional area, ...
, served as a parole officer, organized a local men's club and a
parent-teacher association. He also lectured in American regional literature at the University of Wisconsin and was a contributing editor of ''Outdoors Magazine''.
With longtime friend
Donald Wandrei, Derleth founded
Arkham House
Arkham House was 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 1939. Its initial objective was to publish the works of H. P. Lovecraft, with whom Derleth had corresponded since his teenage years. At the same time, he began teaching a course 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. His hobbies included fencing, swimming, chess,
philately
Philately (; ) is the study of postage stamps and postal history. It also refers to the collection and appreciation of stamps and other philatelic products. While closely associated with stamp collecting and the study of postage, it is possibl ...
and comic-strips (Derleth reportedly used the funding from his Guggenheim Fellowship to bind his comic book collection, most recently valued in the millions of dollars, rather than to travel abroad as the award intended.). Derleth's true
avocation
An avocation is an activity that someone engages in as a hobby outside their main occupation. There are many examples of people whose professions were the ways that they made their livings, but for whom their activities outside their workplaces w ...
, however, was hiking the terrain of his native Wisconsin lands, and observing and recording nature with an expert eye.
Derleth once wrote of his writing methods, "I write very swiftly, from 750,000 to a million words yearly, very little of it pulp material."
In 1948, he was elected president of the Associated Fantasy Publishers at the
6th World Science Fiction Convention in
Toronto
Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...
.
He was married April 6, 1953, to Sandra Evelyn Winters. They divorced six years later.
Derleth retained custody of the couple's two children,
April Rose Derleth and
Walden William Derleth. April earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1977. She became majority stockholder, President, and CEO of Arkham House in 1994. She remained in that capacity until her death. She was known in the community as a naturalist and humanitarian. April died on March 21, 2011.
In 1960, Derleth began editing and publishing a magazine called ''Hawk and Whippoorwill'', dedicated to poems of man and nature.
Derleth died of a heart attack on July 4, 1971, and is buried in St. Aloysius Cemetery in Sauk City.
The
U.S. 12 bridge over the
Wisconsin River
The Wisconsin River is the longest river in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, at approximately 430 miles (692 km) long. As a tributary of the Mississippi River, it is part of the Mississippi River System. The river's name was first recorded in 1673 b ...
is named in his honor. Derleth was
Roman Catholic
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...
.
In Derleth's biography, Dorothy M. Grobe Litersky stated that Derleth was bisexual, and maintained long-term romantic relationships with both men and women. This assertion has not been verified; no names were given of these romantic partners (in the interest of privacy according to Litersky), and no evidence or acknowledgement of Derleth having a bisexual or homosexual orientation has ever been found in his personal correspondence.
Career
Derleth wrote more than 150 short stories and more than 100 books during his lifetime.
The ''Sac Prairie Saga''
Derleth wrote an expansive series of novels, short stories, journals, poems, and other works about
Sac Prairie. Derleth intended this series to comprise up to 50 novels telling the projected life-story of the region from the 19th century onwards, with analogies to
Balzac's ''
Human Comedy'' and
Proust
Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust ( ; ; 10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, literary critic, and essayist who wrote the novel (in French language, French – translated in English as ''Remembrance of Things Pas ...
's ''
Remembrance of Things Past''.
This, and other early work by Derleth, made him a well-known figure among the regional literary figures of his time: early
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...
winners
Hamlin Garland and
Zona Gale
Zona Gale (August 26, 1874 – December 27, 1938), also known by her married name, Zona Gale Breese, was an American novelist, short story writer, and playwright. She became the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1921. The close r ...
, as well as Sinclair Lewis, the last both an admirer and critic of Derleth.
As Edward Wagenknecht wrote in ''Cavalcade of the American Novel'', "What Mr. Derleth has that is lacking… in modern novelists generally, is a country. He belongs. He writes of a land and a people that are bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh. In his fictional world, there is a unity much deeper and more fundamental than anything that can be conferred by an ideology. It is clear, too, that he did not get the best, and most fictionally useful, part of his background material from research in the library; like Scott, in his Border novels, he gives, rather, the impression of having drunk it in with his mother's milk."
Jim Stephens, editor of ''An August Derleth Reader'', (1992), argues: "what Derleth accomplished… was to gather a Wisconsin mythos which gave respect to the ancient fundament of our contemporary life."
The author inaugurated the ''Sac Prairie Saga'' with four novellas comprising ''Place of Hawks'', published by Loring & Mussey in 1935. At publication, ''
The Detroit News
''The Detroit News'' is one of the two major newspapers in the U.S. city of Detroit, Michigan
Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United S ...
'' wrote: "Certainly with this book Mr. Derleth may be added to the American writers of distinction."
Derleth's first novel, ''Still is the Summer Night'', was published two years later by the famous
Charles Scribners' editor
Maxwell Perkins, and was the second in his Sac Prairie Saga.
''Village Year'', the first in a series of journals – meditations on nature, Midwestern village American life, and more – was published in 1941 to praise from ''
The New York Times Book Review
''The New York Times Book Review'' (''NYTBR'') is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times'' in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely rea ...
'': "A book of instant sensitive responsiveness… recreates its scene with acuteness and beauty, and makes an unusual contribution to the Americana of the present day." The ''
New York Herald Tribune
The ''New York Herald Tribune'' was a newspaper published between 1924 and 1966. It was created in 1924 when Ogden Mills Reid of the '' New York Tribune'' acquired the '' New York Herald''. It was regarded as a "writer's newspaper" and compet ...
'' observed that "Derleth… deepens the value of his village setting by presenting in full the enduring natural background; with the people projected against this, the writing comes to have the quality of an old Flemish picture, humanity lively and amusing and loveable in the foreground and nature magnificent beyond." James Grey, writing in the ''
St. Louis Dispatch'' concluded, "Derleth has achieved a kind of prose equivalent of the ''Spoon River Anthology''."
In the same year, ''Evening in Spring'' was published by Charles Scribners & Sons. This work Derleth considered among his finest. What ''
The Milwaukee Journal
The ''Milwaukee Journal Sentinel'' is a daily morning broadsheet printed in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where it is the primary newspaper and also the largest newspaper in the state of Wisconsin, where it is widely read. It was purchased by the ...
'' called "this beautiful little love story", is an autobiographical novel of first love beset by small-town religious bigotry. The work received critical praise: ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...
'' considered it a story told "with tenderness and charm", while the ''Chicago Tribune'' concluded: "It's as though he turned back the pages of an old diary and told, with rekindled emotion, of the pangs of pain and the sharp, clear sweetness of a boy's first love." Helen Constance White, wrote in ''The Capital Times'' that it was "… the best articulated, the most fully disciplined of his stories."
These were followed in 1943 with ''Shadow of Night'', a Scribners' novel of which ''
The Chicago Sun'' wrote: "Structurally it has the perfection of a carved jewel…. A
psychological novel of the first order, and an adventure tale that is unique and inspiriting."
In November 1945, however, Derleth's work was attacked by his one-time admirer and mentor, Sinclair Lewis. Writing in ''
Esquire
Esquire (, ; abbreviated Esq.) is usually a courtesy title. In the United Kingdom, ''esquire'' historically was a title of respect accorded to men of higher social rank, particularly members of the landed gentry above the rank of gentleman ...
'', Lewis observed, "It is a proof of Mr. Derleth's merit that he makes one want to make the journey and see his particular Avalon: The
Wisconsin River
The Wisconsin River is the longest river in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, at approximately 430 miles (692 km) long. As a tributary of the Mississippi River, it is part of the Mississippi River System. The river's name was first recorded in 1673 b ...
shining among its islands, and the castles of Baron Pierneau and Hercules Dousman. He is a champion and a justification of regionalism. Yet he is also a burly, bounding, bustling, self-confident, opinionated, and highly-sweatered young man with faults so grievous that a melancholy perusal of them may be of more value to apprentices than a study of his serious virtues. If he could ever be persuaded that he isn't half as good as he thinks he is, if he would learn the art of sitting still and using a blue pencil, he might become twice as good as he thinks he is – which would about rank him with Homer." Derleth good-humoredly reprinted the criticism along with a photograph of himself sans sweater, on the back cover of his 1948 country journal: ''Village Daybook''.
A lighter side to the ''Sac Prairie Saga'' is a series of quasi-autobiographical short stories known as the "Gus Elker Stories", amusing tales of country life that
Peter Ruber, Derleth's last editor, said were "… models of construction and… fused with some of the most memorable characters in American literature." Most were written between 1934 and the late 1940s, though the last, "Tail of the Dog", was published in 1959 and won the ''Scholastic Magazine'' short story award for the year. The series was collected and republished in ''Country Matters'' in 1996.
''Walden West'', published in 1961, is considered by many Derleth's finest work. This prose meditation is built out of the same fundamental material as the series of Sac Prairie journals, but is organized around three themes: "the persistence of memory… the sounds and odors of the country… and Thoreau's observation that the 'mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. A blend of nature writing, philosophic musings, and careful observation of the people and place of "Sac Prairie". Of this work, George Vukelich, author of "North Country Notebook", writes: "Derleth's ''Walden West'' is… the equal of Sherwood Anderson's ''Winesburg,Ohio'', Thornton Wilder's ''Our Town'', and Edgar Lee Masters' ''Spoon River Anthology''." This was followed eight years later by ''Return to Walden West'', a work of similar quality, but with a more noticeable environmentalist edge to the writing, notes critic
Norbert Blei.
A close literary relative of the ''Sac Prairie Saga'' was Derleth's ''Wisconsin Saga'', which comprises several historical novels.
Detective fiction and "Solar Pons"
Detective fiction represented another substantial body of Derleth's work. Most notable among this work was a series of 70 stories in affectionate pastiche of
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes () is a Detective fiction, fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a "Private investigator, consulting detective" in his stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with obser ...
, whose creator, Sir
Arthur Conan Doyle
Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for ''A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Hol ...
, he admired greatly. The stories feature a Holmes-styled British detective named
Solar Pons
Solar Pons is a fiction
Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying character (arts), individuals, events, or setting (narrative), places that are imagination, imaginary or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portr ...
, of 7B
Praed Street in London. These included one published novel as well (''Mr. Fairlie's Final Journey''). The series was greatly admired by such notable writers and critics of mystery and detective fiction as
Ellery Queen
Ellery Queen is a pseudonym created in 1928 by the American detective fiction writers Frederic Dannay (1905–1982) and Manfred Bennington Lee (1905–1971). It is also the name of their main fictional detective, a mystery writer in New York City ...
(
Frederic Dannay),
Anthony Boucher
William Anthony Parker White (August 21, 1911 – April 29, 1968), better known by his pen name Anthony Boucher (), was an American author, critic, and editor who wrote several classic mystery novels, short stories, science fiction, and radio dr ...
,
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 ...
, and
Howard Haycraft.
In his 1944 volume ''
The Misadventures of Sherlock Holmes'', Ellery Queen wrote of Derleth's "The Norcross Riddle", an early Pons story: "How many budding authors, not even old enough to vote, could have captured the spirit and atmosphere with as much fidelity?" Queen adds, "his choice of the euphonic Solar Pons is an appealing addition to the fascinating lore of Sherlockian nomenclature." Vincent Starrett, in his foreword to the 1964 edition of ''The Casebook of Solar Pons'', wrote that the series is "as sparkling a galaxy of Sherlockian pastiches as we have had since the canonical entertainments came to an end."
Despite close similarities to Doyle's creation, Pons lived in the post-World War I era, in the decades of the 1920s and 1930s. Though Derleth never wrote a Pons novel to equal ''The Hound of the Baskervilles'', editor Peter Ruber wrote that "Derleth produced more than a few Solar Pons stories almost as good as Sir Arthur's, and many that had better plot construction."
Although these stories were a form of diversion for Derleth, Ruber, who edited ''
The Original Text Solar Pons Omnibus Edition'' (2000), argued: "Because the stories were generally of such high quality, they ought to be assessed on their own merits as a unique contribution in the annals of mystery fiction, rather than suffering comparison as one of the endless imitators of Sherlock Holmes."
Some of the stories were self-published, through a new imprint called "
Mycroft & Moran", an appellation of humorous significance to Holmesian scholars. For approximately a decade, an active supporting group was the Praed Street Irregulars, patterned after the
Baker Street Irregulars
The Baker Street Irregulars are fictional characters who appear in three Sherlock Holmes stories, specifically two novels and one short story, by Arthur Conan Doyle. They are street boys who are employed by Holmes as intelligence agents. The na ...
.
In 1946, Conan Doyle's two sons made some attempts to force Derleth to cease publishing the Solar Pons series, but the efforts were unsuccessful, and were eventually withdrawn.
Derleth's mystery and detective fiction also included a series of works set in Sac Prairie and featuring Judge Peck as the central character.
Youth and children's fiction
Derleth wrote many and varied children's works, including biographies meant to introduce younger readers to explorer
Jacques Marquette
Jacques Marquette, Society of Jesus, S.J. (; June 1, 1637 – May 18, 1675), sometimes known as Père Marquette or James Marquette, was a French Society of Jesus, Jesuit missionary who founded Michigan's first European settlement, Sault Ste. M ...
, as well as
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, minister, abolitionism, abolitionist, and poet who led the Transcendentalism, Transcendentalist movement of th ...
and
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau (born David Henry Thoreau; July 12, 1817May 6, 1862) was an American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher. A leading Transcendentalism, transcendentalist, he is best known for his book ''Walden'', a reflection upon sim ...
. Arguably most important among his works for younger readers, however, is the Steve and Sim Mystery Series, also known as the Mill Creek Irregulars series. The ten-volume series, published between 1958 and 1970, is set in Sac Prairie of the 1920s and can thus be considered in its own right a part of the ''Sac Prairie Saga'', as well as an extension of Derleth's body of mystery fiction. Robert Hood, writing in the ''New York Times'' said: "Steve and Sim, the major characters, are twentieth-century cousins of Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer; Derleth's minor characters, little gems of comic drawing." The first novel in the series, ''The Moon Tenders'', does, in fact, involve a rafting adventure down the
Wisconsin River
The Wisconsin River is the longest river in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, at approximately 430 miles (692 km) long. As a tributary of the Mississippi River, it is part of the Mississippi River System. The river's name was first recorded in 1673 b ...
, which led regional writer
Jesse Stuart to suggest the novel was one that "older people might read to recapture the spirit and dream of youth." The connection to the ''Sac Prairie Saga'' was noted by the ''
Chicago Tribune
The ''Chicago Tribune'' is an American daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1847, it was formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper", a slogan from which its once integrated WGN (AM), WGN radio and ...
'': "Once again a small midwest community in 1920s is depicted with perception, skill, and dry humor."
Arkham House and the "Cthulhu Mythos"
Derleth was a correspondent and friend of
H. P. Lovecraft
Howard Phillips Lovecraft (, ; August 20, 1890 – March 15, 1937) was an American writer of Weird fiction, weird, Science fiction, science, fantasy, and horror fiction. He is best known for his creation of the Cthulhu Mythos.
Born in Provi ...
– 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 depicted in the series of stories shared by Lovecraft and other writers in his circle.
When Lovecraft died in 1937, Derleth and
Donald Wandrei assembled a collection of Lovecraft's stories and tried to get them published. Existing publishers showed little interest, so Derleth and Wandrei founded
Arkham House
Arkham House was 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 1939 for that purpose. The name of the company derived from Lovecraft's fictional town of
Arkham,
Massachusetts
Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...
, which features 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".
Dirk W. Mosig, S. T. Joshi, and
Richard L. Tierney were dissatisfied with Derleth's invention of the term ''Cthulhu Mythos'' (Lovecraft himself used ''Yog-Sothothery'') and his presentation of Lovecraft's fiction as having an overall pattern reflecting Derleth's own Christian world view, which they contrast with Lovecraft's depiction of an amoral universe. However,
Robert M. Price points out that while Derleth's tales are distinct from Lovecraft's in their use of hope and his depiction of a struggle between good and evil, nevertheless the basis of Derleth's systemization are found in Lovecraft. He also suggests that the differences can be overstated:
Derleth ''was'' more optimistic than Lovecraft in his conception of the Mythos, but we are dealing with a difference more of degree than kind. There are indeed tales wherein Derleth's protagonists get off scot-free (like "The Shadow in the Attic", "Witches' Hollow", or "The Shuttered Room"), but often the hero is doomed (e.g., "The House in the Valley", "The Peabody Heritage", "Something in Wood"), as in Lovecraft. And it must be remembered that an occasional Lovecraftian hero does manage to overcome the odds, e.g., in "The Horror in the Museum", "The Shunned House", and "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward".
Derleth also treated Lovecraft's
Great Old Ones as representatives of elemental forces, creating new fictional entities to flesh out this framework.
Such debates aside, Derleth's founding of Arkham House and his successful effort to rescue Lovecraft from literary oblivion are widely acknowledged by practitioners in the horror field as seminal events in the field. For instance,
Ramsey Campbell
Ramsey Campbell (born 4 January 1946) is an English horror fiction writer, editor and critic who has been writing for well over fifty years. He is the author of over 30 novels and hundreds of short stories, many of them winners of literary awa ...
has acknowledged Derleth's encouragement and guidance during the early part of his own writing career, and
Kirby McCauley has cited Derleth and Arkham House as an inspiration for his own anthology ''
Dark Forces''. Arkham House and Derleth published ''
Dark Carnival'', the first book by
Ray Bradbury
Ray Douglas Bradbury ( ; August 22, 1920June 5, 2012) was an American author and screenwriter. One of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers, he worked in a variety of genres, including fantasy, science fiction, Horror fiction, horr ...
, as well.
Brian Lumley cites the importance of Derleth to his own Lovecraftian work, and contends in a 2009 introduction to Derleth's work that he was "… one of the first, finest, and most discerning editors and publishers of macabre fiction".
Important as was Derleth's work to rescue H.P. Lovecraft from literary obscurity at the time of Lovecraft's death, Derleth also built a body of horror and spectral fiction of his own; still frequently anthologized. The best of this work, recently reprinted in four volumes of short stories – most of which were originally published in ''Weird Tales'', illustrates Derleth's original abilities in the genre. While Derleth considered his work in this genre less important than his most serious literary efforts, the compilers of these four anthologies, including Ramsey Campbell, note that the stories still resonate after more than 50 years.
In 2009,
The Library of America selected Derleth's story ''The Panelled Room'' for inclusion in its two-century retrospective of American Fantastic Tales.
Other works
Derleth also wrote many historical novels, as part of both the ''Sac Prairie Saga'' and the ''Wisconsin Saga''. He also wrote history; arguably most notable among these was ''The Wisconsin: River of a Thousand Isles'', published in 1942. The work was one in a series entitled "The Rivers of America", conceived by writer
Constance Lindsay Skinner during the
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...
as a series that would connect Americans to their heritage through the history of the great rivers of the nation. Skinner wanted the series to be written by artists, not academicians. Derleth, while not a trained historian, was, according to former Wisconsin state historian
William F. Thompson, "… a very competent regional historian who based his historical writing upon research in the primary documents and who regularly sought the help of professionals…". In the foreword to the 1985 reissue of the work by
The University of Wisconsin Press, Thompson concluded: "No other writer, of whatever background or training, knew and understood his particular 'corner of the earth' better than August Derleth."
Additionally, Derleth wrote a number of volumes of poetry. Three of his collections – ''Rind of Earth'' (1942), ''Selected Poems'' (1944), and ''The Edge of Night'' (1945) – were published by the
Decker Press, which also printed the work of other Midwestern poets such as
Edgar Lee Masters.
Derleth was also the author of several biographies of other writers, including
Zona Gale
Zona Gale (August 26, 1874 – December 27, 1938), also known by her married name, Zona Gale Breese, was an American novelist, short story writer, and playwright. She became the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1921. The close r ...
,
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, minister, abolitionism, abolitionist, and poet who led the Transcendentalism, Transcendentalist movement of th ...
and
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau (born David Henry Thoreau; July 12, 1817May 6, 1862) was an American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher. A leading Transcendentalism, transcendentalist, he is best known for his book ''Walden'', a reflection upon sim ...
.
He also wrote introductions to several collections of classic early 20th century comics, such as ''
Buster Brown'', ''
Little Nemo in Slumberland'', and ''
Katzenjammer Kids
''The Katzenjammer Kids'' is an American comic strip created by Rudolph Dirks in 1897 and later drawn by Harold Knerr for 35 years (1914 to 1949).[pen name
A pen name or nom-de-plume is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name.
A pen name may be used to make the author's na ...]
s Stephen Grendon, Kenyon Holmes and Tally Mason.
Derleth's papers were donated to the
Wisconsin Historical Society
The Wisconsin Historical Society (officially the State Historical Society of Wisconsin) is simultaneously a state agency and a private membership organization whose purpose is to maintain, promote and spread knowledge relating to the history of ...
in Madison.
Bibliography
Awards
* O'Brien Roll of Honour for short story, 1933
* Guggenheim fellow, 1938
See also
*
August Derleth Award
*
List of authors of new Sherlock Holmes stories
*
List of horror fiction authors
*
List of people from Wisconsin
*
Mark Schorer
*
Sherlock Holmes pastiches
Notes
References
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
* Meudt, Edna
'August Derleth: "A simple, honorable man",'''Wisconsin Academy Review'', 19:2 (Summer, 1972) 8–11.
*
*
*
Schorer, Mark. "An Appraisal of the Work of August Derleth", ''The Capital Times'', July 9, 1971.
*
Further reading
*
Robert Bloch
Robert Albert Bloch (; April 5, 1917September 23, 1994) was an American fiction writer, primarily of crime fiction, crime, psychological horror fiction, horror and Fantasy Fiction, fantasy, much of which has been dramatized for radio, cinema and ...
. "Two Great Editors". ''Is'' No 4 (Oct 1971). Reprint in Bloch's ''Out of My Head.'' Cambridge MA: NESFA Press, 1986, 71–79.
*
Lin Carter
Linwood Vrooman Carter (June 9, 1930 – February 7, 1988) was an American author of science fiction and fantasy, as well as an editor, poet and critic. He usually wrote as Lin Carter; known pseudonyms include H. P. Lowcraft (for an H. P. Lov ...
"A Day in Derleth Country" ''Is'' No 4 (Oct 1971). Reprint in ''Crypt of Cthulhu'' 1, No 6.
* John Howard. "The Ghosts of Sauk County". ''All Hallows'' 18 (1998); in Howard's ''Touchstones: Essays on the Fantastic''. Staffordshire UK: Alchemy Press, 2014.
* David E. Schultz and S.T. Joshi (eds). ''Eccentric, Impractical Devils: The Letters of August Derleth and Clark Ashton Smith.'' NY: Hippocampus Press, 2020.
External links
The August Derleth Society
August Derleth Bibliography*
*
* Derleth Collection guides at University of Wisconsin Libraries
paperscomicsat Syracuse University
;Works
*
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Derleth, August
1909 births
1971 deaths
University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni
20th-century American short story writers
American mystery writers
20th-century American novelists
Cthulhu Mythos writers
American horror writers
People from Sauk City, Wisconsin
Hugo Award–winning writers
Novelists from Wisconsin
American science fiction editors
Solar Pons
American anthologists
American male novelists
American male short story writers
Catholics from Wisconsin
20th-century Roman Catholics
Writers from Wisconsin
Writers of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction
Writers of Sherlock Holmes pastiches
American weird fiction writers
20th-century American male writers