Derleth, August
Entry updated 26 August 2024. Tagged: Author.
(1909-1971) US author and editor, born in Sauk City, Wisconsin, where he spent his life. A correspondent with and devout admirer of H P Lovecraft, 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 Donald Wandrei, of the publishing company Arkham 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 (coll 1957) and The Watchers Out of Time and Others (coll 1974). In addition, he wrote two volumes of Lovecraft Cthulhu Mythos pastiches, The Mask of Cthulhu (coll 1958) and The Trail of Cthulhu (coll 1962), and edited anthologies of such stories by various writers like The Shuttered Room, and Other Pieces (anth 1959) – a title not to be confused with either of the Lovecraft collections likewise entitled (one 1970 UK and one 1971 US, contents differing) – Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos (anth 1969; vt 2vols as Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos: Volume 1 1971 and Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos: Volume 2 1971). Derleth edited Lovecraft's writings for publication, including his letters (in collaboration with Wandrei) and The Dark Brotherhood, and Other Pieces (coll 1966) – a collection of Lovecraft stories, both solo and in collaboration – and also wrote H.P.L.: A Memoir (1945) and Some 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 the Sac Prairie Saga, celebrating the Wisconsin of his own memories. He was also a copious author of detective fiction, starting with Murder Stalks the Wakely Family (1934; vt Death Stalks the Wakely Family 1937); he published a long series of Sherlock Holmes pastiches starring the character Solar Pons, who lives not in London'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" (coll 1945; vt Regarding Sherlock Holmes: The Adventures of Solar Pons 1974; vt The Adventures of Solar Pons 1975). These tales are almost all nonfantastic, though "The Adventure of the Grice-Paterson Curse" (November 1956 The Pursuit Detective Story Magazine) features a murderous strangling plant of vampiric tendency; the spoofish collaboration "The Adventure of the Snitch in Time" (July 1953 F&SF) with Mack Reynolds includes Time 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 Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot and Leslie Charteris's The Saint; elsewhere in the Pons sags, Sax Rohmer's Dr Fu Manchu makes more than one appearance.
This author's very first story, however – "Bat's Belfry" for Weird Tales in May 1926 – was of genre interest, and he remained for many years a prolific contributor to Weird Tales, mainly under his own name and the pseudonym Stephen Grendon, and to other magazines, including Strange Stories (where he used the name Tally Mason). His best work of this kind was assembled in Someone in the Dark (coll 1941), Something Near (coll 1945), Not Long for This World (coll 1948; with 11 stories cut, vt Tales from Not Long for This World 1961), Lonesome Places (coll 1962), Mr George and Other Odd Persons (coll 1963 as Stephen Grendon; vt When Graveyards Yawn 1965 UK as Derleth), Colonel Markesan and Less Pleasant People (coll 1966) with Mark Schorer, and Dwellers in Darkness (coll 1976). He wrote little sf, beyond his Tex Harrigan series about a newspaperman constantly running across zany sf Inventions and the like; it was included in Harrigan's File (coll 1975).
Derleth edited a great many Anthologies, both sf and weird. His sf anthologies include several large volumes: Strange Ports of Call (anth 1948; much cut 1958), The Other Side of the Moon (anth 1949; cut 1956; much cut 1959) and Beyond Time and Space (anth 1950; much cut 1958). His weird anthologies include Sleep No More (anth 1944; cut 1964; much cut vt Stories From Sleep No More 1967), Who Knocks? Twenty Masterpieces of the Spectral for the Connoisseur (anth 1946; much cut vt Who Knocks? 1964) and The Sleeping & the Dead (anth 1947; vt 2vols as The Sleeping and the Dead 1964 UK and The Unquiet Grave 1964). Derleth was one of the pioneering anthologists in the genre.
The history of Arkham House was chronicled in Derleth's Arkham House: The First 20 Years (1959 chap) and Thirty Years of Arkham House, 1939-1969: A History and Bibliography (1970 chap). In 1948-1949 the company published a magazine, The Arkham 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 Ashton Smith. His own extremely various output continues to await comprehensive appraisal.
Derleth was inducted into the First 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
- "In Re: Sherlock Holmes" (Sauk City, Wisconsin: Mycroft and Moran, 1945) [coll: Solar Pons: hb/Ronald Clyne]
- Regarding Sherlock Holmes: The Adventures of Solar Pons (Los Angeles, California: Pinnacle Books, 1974) [coll: vt of the above: Solar Pons: pb/]
- The Adventures of Solar Pons (London: Robson Books, 1975) [coll: vt of the above: Solar Pons: hb/]
- The Memoirs of Solar Pons (Sauk City, Wisconsin: Mycroft and Moran, 1951) [coll: Solar Pons: hb/Frank Utpatel]
- Three Problems for Solar Pons (Sauk City, Wisconsin: Mycroft and Moran, 1952) [coll: Solar Pons: hb/Ronald Clyne]
- The Return of Solar Pons (Sauk City, Wisconsin: Mycroft and Moran, 1958) [coll: includes the 3 stories in the above: Solar Pons: hb/Frank Utpatel]
- The Reminiscences of Solar Pons (Sauk City, Wisconsin: Mycroft and Moran, 1961) [coll: Solar Pons: hb/Frank Utpatel]
- The Adventure of the Orient Express (New York: Candlelight Press, 1965) [story: chap: Solar Pons: pb/Henry Lauritzen]
- The Casebook of Solar Pons (Sauk City, Wisconsin: Mycroft and Moran, 1965) [coll: Solar Pons: hb/Frank Utpatel]
- Praed Street Papers (New York: The Candlelight Press, 1965) [coll: includes two stories adapted to comic strip format: Solar Pons: hb/]
- The Adventure of the Unique Dickensians (Sauk City, Wisconsin: Mycroft and Moran, 1968) [story: chap: Solar Pons: hb/Frank Utpatel]
- Mr. Fairlie's Final Journey (Sauk City, Wisconsin: Mycroft and Moran, 1968) [Solar Pons: hb/Frank Utpatel]
- A Praed Street Dossier (Sauk City, Wisconsin: Mycroft and Moran, 1968) [coll: chap: essays and some stories: Solar Pons: illus/hb/Frank Utpatel]
- The Chronicles of Solar Pons (Sauk City, Wisconsin: Mycroft and Moran, 1973) [coll: includes Orient Express and Unique Dickensians above: Solar Pons: hb/Frank Utpatel]
- The Solar Pons Omnibus (Sauk City, Wisconsin: Arkham House, 1982) [omni of all the above minus essays: published in two volumes: edited by Basil Copper: Solar Pons: illus/Frank Utpatel: hb/nonpictorial]
- The Final Adventures of Solar Pons (Sauk City, Wisconsin: Mycroft and Moran/Shelburne, Ontario: Battered Silicon Dispatch Box, 1998) [coll: edited by Peter A Ruber: Solar Pons: hb/Jean-Pierre Cagnat]
- The Original Text Solar Pons Omnibus Edition (Sauk City, Wisconsin: Mycroft and Moran/Shelburne, Ontario: Battered Silicon Dispatch Box, 1998) [omni of all the above: published in two volumes: Solar Pons: illus/hb/Jean-Pierre Cagnat]
- The Unpublished Solar Pons (Kitchener, Ontario: The Metropolitan Toronto Reference Library, 1994) [coll: Solar Pons: hb/]
individual titles (selected)
- The Lurker at the Threshold (Sauk City, Wisconsin: Arkham House, 1945) with H P Lovecraft [Derleth was main author: hb/Ronald Clyne]
- The Beast in Holger's Woods (New York: Thomas Y Crowell, 1968) [hb/Susan Bennett]
collections and stories (selected)
- Someone in the Dark (Sauk City, Wisconsin: Arkham House, 1941) [coll: hb/Frank Utpatel]
- Something Near (Sauk City, Wisconsin: Arkham House, 1945) [coll: hb/Ronald Clyne]
- Not Long for This World (Sauk City, Wisconsin: Arkham House, 1948) [coll: hb/Ronald Clyne]
- Tales from Not Long for This World (New York: Ballantine Books, 1961) [coll: cut vt of the above: pb/uncredited]
- The Survivor and Others (Sauk City, Wisconsin: Arkham House, 1957) with H P Lovecraft [coll: hb/Ronald Clyne]
- The Mask of Cthulhu (Sauk City, Wisconsin: Arkham House, 1958) with H P Lovecraft [coll: hb/Richard Taylor]
- The Trail of Cthulhu (Sauk City, Wisconsin: Arkham House, 1962) with H P Lovecraft [coll: hb/Richard Taylor]
- The Cthulhu Mythos (New York: Barnes and Noble Books, 1997) [omni of the above two, plus six additional stories: hb/]
- Lonesome Places (Sauk City, Wisconsin: Arkham House, 1962) [coll: hb/Clarence J Laughlin and Gary Gore]
- Mr George, And Other Odd Persons (Sauk City, Wisconsin: Arkham House, 1963) as by Stephen Grendon [coll: hb/Robert E Hubbell]
- When Graveyards Yawn (London: Tandem, 1968) [coll: vt of the above: as by Derleth: pb/uncredited]
- Colonel Markesan and Less Pleasant People (Sauk City, Wisconsin: Arkham House, 1966) with Mark Schorer [coll: hb/Frank Utpatel]
- The Shadow Out of Time, And Other Tales of Horror (London: Victor Gollancz, 1968) with H P Lovecraft [coll: hb/nonpictorial]
- The Shuttered Room, And Other Tales of Horror (London: Panther Books, 1970) with H P Lovecraft [coll: vt of the above: contents differ from the coll below: pb/Picture Post]
- Caitlin (Iowa City, Iowa: The Prairie Press, 1969) [poetry: coll: chap: illus/Frank Utpatel: hb/nonpictorial]
- The Shuttered Room, And Other Tales of Horror (New York: Beagle Books, 1971) with H P Lovecraft [coll: contents differ from the coll above: pb/uncredited]
- The Watchers Out of Time and Others (Sauk City, Wisconsin: Arkham House, 1974) with H P Lovecraft [coll: hb/Herb Arnold]
- Harrigan's File (Sauk City, Wisconsin: Arkham House, 1975) [coll: hb/Frank Utpatel]
- Dwellers in Darkness (Sauk City, Wisconsin: Arkham House, 1976) [coll: hb/Frank Utpatel]
- McIlvaine's Star (no place given: Project Gutenberg, 2009) [story: ebook: first appeared July 1952 If: na/]
- McIlvaine's Star: A Science Fiction Classic (no place given: Alien Books, 2011) [story: chap: vt of the above: pb/]
- Eerie Creatures (Flesherton, Ontario, Canada: Battered Silicon Dispatch Box, 2009) [coll: pb/A R Tilbourne]
- That Is Not Dead: Black Magic & Occult Stories (Flesherton, Ontario, Canada: Battered Silicon Dispatch Box / Arkham House, 2009) [coll: pb/Matt Fox]
works as editor
Lovecraft Selected Letters
- H P Lovecraft. Selected Letters: 1911-1924 (Sauk City, Wisconsin: Arkham House, 1965) [nonfiction: coll: edited with Donald Wandrei: Lovecraft Selected Letters: hb/Gary Gore, Ronald Rich and Virgil Finlay]
- H P Lovecraft. Selected Letters: 1925-1929 (Sauk City, Wisconsin: Arkham House, 1968) [nonfiction: coll: edited with Donald Wandrei: Lovecraft Selected Letters: hb/Gary Gore, Ronald Rich and Virgil Finlay]
- H P Lovecraft. Selected Letters: 1929-1931 (Sauk City, Wisconsin: Arkham House, 1971) [nonfiction: coll: edited with Donald Wandrei: Lovecraft Selected Letters: hb/Gary Gore, Ronald Rich and Virgil Finlay]
- H P Lovecraft. Selected Letters: 1932-1934 (Sauk City, Wisconsin: Arkham House, 1976) [nonfiction: coll: edited with James Turner: Lovecraft Selected Letters: hb/Gary Gore, Ronald Rich and Virgil Finlay]
- H P Lovecraft. Selected Letters: 1934-1927 (Sauk City, Wisconsin: Arkham House, 1976) [nonfiction: coll: edited with James Turner: Lovecraft Selected Letters: hb/Gary Gore, Ronald Rich and Virgil Finlay]
individual titles as editor (selected)
- Sleep No More: Twenty Masterpieces of Horror for the Connoisseur (New York: Farrar and Rinehart, 1944) [anth: hb/Lee Brown Coye]
- Sleep No More (London: Panther Books, 1964) [anth: cut vt of the above: pb/]
- Stories From Sleep No More: Nine Masterpieces of Horror for the Connoisseur (New York: Bantam Books, 1967) [anth: much cut vt of the above: pb/]
- Who Knocks? Twenty Masterpieces of the Spectral for the Connoisseur (New York: Rinehart and Co, 1946) [anth: hb/Lee Brown Coye]
- Who Knocks? (London: Panther Books, 1964) [anth: cut vt of the above: pb/uncredited]
- Dark of the Moon: Poems of Fantasy and the Macabre (Sauk City, Wisconsin: Arkham House, 1947) [poetry: anth: hb/Frank Utpatel]
- The Sleeping & the Dead: Thirty Uncanny Tales (New York: Pellegrini & Cudahy, 1947) [anth: hb/uncredited]
- The Sleeping and the Dead (London: Four Square, 1964) [anth: cut vt of the above: rest of contents in vt below: pb/]
- The Unquiet Grave (London: Four Square, 1964) [anth: cut vt of the above: rest of contents in vt above: pb/Michel]
- The Night Side: Masterpieces of the Strange & Terrible (New York: Rinehart & Co, 1947) [anth: hb/Lee Brown Coye]
- The Night Side: Masterpieces of the Strange & Terrible (London: Four Square, 1966) [anth: cut version of the above: pb/Josh Kirby]
- Strange Ports of Call (New York: Pellegrini and Cudahy, 1948) [anth: hb/uncredited]
- Strange Ports of Call (New York: Berkley Books, 1958) [anth: cut version of the above: pb/]
- The Other Side of the Moon (New York: Pellegrini and Cudahy, 1949) [anth: hb/uncredited]
- The Other Side of the Moon (London: Grayson and Grayson, 1956) [anth: cut version of the above: all four versions comprise different selections: hb/Harold Johns]
- The Other Side of the Moon (New York: Berkley Books, 1959) [anth: cut version of the above: all four versions comprise different selections: pb/Richard Powers]
- The Other Side of the Moon (London: Panther Books, 1963) [anth: cut version of the above: all four versions comprise different selections: pb/]
- The Other Side of the Moon (London: Mayflower-Dell Books, 1966) [anth: cut version of the above: all four comprise present different selections: pb/]
- Beyond Time and Space (New York: Pellegrini and Cudahy, 1950) [anth: hb/uncredited]
- Beyond Time and Space (New York: Berkley Books, 1958) [anth: cut version of the above: pb/Robert E Schulz]
- Far Boundaries: 20 Science Fiction Stories (New York: Pellegrini and Cudahy, 1951) [anth: hb/Vincent Napoli]
- Far Boundaries (London: Sphere Books, 1967) [cut vt of the above: pb/]
- The Outer Reaches: Favorite Science-Fiction Stories Chosen by their Authors (New York: Pellegrini and Cudahy, 1951) [anth: hb/uncredited]
- The Outer Reaches: Favorite Science-Fiction Stories Chosen by their Authors (New York: Berkley Books, 1958) [anth: cut version of the above: pb/]
- The Outer Reaches (London: World Distributors (Manchester) Ltd/Consul Books, 1963) [anth: cut vt of the above: rest of contents in vt below: pb/]
- The Time of Infinity (London: World Distributors (Manchester) Ltd/Consul Books, 1963) [anth: cut vt of the above: rest of contents in vt above: pb/Norman Adams]
- Night's Yawning Peal (Sauk City, Wisconsin: Arkham House, 1952) [anth: hb/Robert Crane]
- Night's Yawning Peal (New York: New American Library, 1974) [anth: cut version of the above: pb/Don Punchatz]
- Beachheads in Space (New York: Pellegrini and Cudahy, 1952) [anth: hb/Ronald Clyne]
- Beachheads in Space (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1954) [anth: cut version of the above: hb/]
- Beachheads in Space (New York: Berkley Books, 1957) [anth: cut version of the above: pb/Richard Powers]
- Beachheads in Space (London: Four Square, 1964) [anth: cut version of the above: vt below: rest of contents in: pb/R S Lonati]
- From Other Worlds (London: Four Square, 1964) [anth: cut vt of the above: rest of contents in cut version above: pb/]
- Worlds of Tomorrow (New York: Pellegrini and Cudahy, 1953) [anth: hb/Ronald Clyne]
- Worlds of Tomorrow (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1954) [anth: cut version of the above: hb/]
- Worlds of Tomorrow (New York: Berkley Books, 1958) [anth: cut version of the above: pb/Richard Powers]
- Worlds of Tomorrow (London: Four Square, 1963) [anth: cut version of the above: rest of contents in cut vt below: pb/Edward Mortelmans]
- New Worlds for Old (London: Four Square, 1964) [anth: cut vt of the above: rest of contents in cut version above: pb/]
- Time to Come: Science-Fiction Stories of To-morrow (New York: Farrar, Straus and Young, 1954) [anth: hb/]
- Time to Come: Science-Fiction Stories of To-morrow (New York: Berkley Books, 1958) [anth: cut version of the above: pb/Robert E Schulz]
- Portals of Tomorrow: The Best Tales of Science Fiction and Other Fantasies (New York: Rinehart and Co, 1954) [anth: hb/Fiorello and Marmaras]
- Fire and Sleet and Candlelight (Sauk City, Wisconsin: Arkham House, 1961) [poetry: anth: hb/Gare Gore]
- Dark Mind, Dark Heart (Sauk City, Wisconsin: Arkham House, 1962) [anth: hb/Dale Mann and Gary Gore]
- When Evil Wakes: A New Anthology of the Macabre (London: Souvenir Press, 1963) [anth: hb/R Boldero]
- Over the Edge (Sauk City, Wisconsin: Arkham House, 1964) [anth: hb/Frank Utpatel]
- Travellers by Night (Sauk City, Wisconsin: Arkham House, 1967) [anth: hb/James Dietrich]
- Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos (Sauk City, Wisconsin: Arkham House, 1969) [anth: hb/Lee Brown Coye]
- Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos: Volume 1 (New York: Ballantine Books/Beagle Books, 1971) [anth: first half of the above: pb/]
- Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos: Volume 2 (New York: Ballantine Books/Beagle Books, 1971) [anth: second half of the above: pb/]
- Dark Things (Sauk City, Wisconsin: Arkham House, 1971) [anth: hb/Gary Gore and Herb Arnold]
- New Horizons: Yesterday's Portraits of Tomorrow (Sauk City, Wisconsin: Arkham House, 1999) [anth: illus/hb/Stephen Fabian]
nonfiction (selected)
- H.P.L.: A Memoir (New York: Ben Abramson, 1945) [nonfiction: hb/]
- Writing Fiction (New York: The Writer, 1946) [nonfiction: hb/]
- Some Notes on H.P. Lovecraft (Sauk City, Wisconsin: Arkham House, 1959) [nonfiction: chap: hb/Gary Gore]
- Arkham House: The First 20 Years, 1939-1959 (Sauk City, Wisconsin: Arkham House, 1959) [nonfiction: chap: hb/Gary Gore]
- 100 Books by August Derleth (Sauk City, Wisconsin: Arkham House, 1962) [nonfiction: chap: hb/Gary Gore]
- Thirty Years of Arkham House, 1939-1969: A History and Bibliography (Sauk City, Wisconsin: Arkham House, 1970) [nonfiction: hb/Frank Utpatel]
- Essential Solitude: The Letters of H P Lovecraft and August Derleth 1926-1931 (New York: Hippocampus Press, 2008) [nonfiction: coll: H P Lovecraft: hb/]
- Essential Solitude: The Letters of H P Lovecraft and August Derleth 1932-1937 (New York: Hippocampus Press, 2008) [nonfiction: coll: H P Lovecraft: hb/]
- Eccentric, Impractical Devils: The Letters of August Derleth and Clark Ashton Smith (New York: Hippocampus Press, 2020) with Clark Ashton Smith: [nonfiction: coll: edited by S T Joshi and David E Schultz: pb/]
about the author
- Alison M Wilson. August Derleth: A Bibliography (Metuchen, New Jersey: Scarecrow Press, 1983) [bibliography: hb/]
- Nic Howard, editor. Masters of Fantasy 2: August Derleth (Birmingham: British Fantasy Society, 1984) [anth: chap: pb/photographic]
- Ely M Liebow, editor. August Harvest: Essays Penned by Various Hands to Keep the Memory of August Derleth Green (New York: Magico Magazine, 1994) [nonfiction: anth: hb/]
- William Dutch and others. August W Derleth (1909-1971). A Bibliographical Checklist of His Works (Sauk City, Wisconsin: The August Derleth Society, 1996) [bibliography: chap: pb/]
links
- The August Derleth Society
- Solar Pons fan site
- Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- Picture Gallery
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