August Derleth

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August Derleth : biography

February 24, 1909 – July 4, 1971

A significant number of H. P. Lovecraft fans and critics, such as Dirk W. Mosig,Mosig, "H. P. Lovecraft: Myth Maker" (1976), collected in Mosig at Last, Necronomicon Press 1997. S. T. Joshi,Joshi, H. P. Lovecraft: A Life, Necronomicon Press 1996, pp. 403–4. and Richard L. Tierney"The Derleth Mythos" in Meade & Penny Frierson (eds), HPL (1972) 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 Derlerth’s systemization are found in Lovecraft. He also suggests that the differences can be over stated:

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’. http://crypt-of-cthulhu.com/lovecraftderleth.htm

Derleth also treated Lovecraft’s 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 obscurity are widely acknowledged by practitioners in the horror field as seminal events in the field. For instance, Ramsey Campbell has acknowledged Derleth’s encouragement and guidance during the early part of his own writing career,For example, in The Count of Thirty (Necronomicon Press 1993), p.11. and Kirby McCauley has cited Derleth and Arkham House as an inspiration for his own anthology, Dark Forces.Kirby McCauley, Introduction, Dark Forces (1980). Arkham House and Derleth published Dark Carnival, the first book by Ray Bradbury, 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 fifty 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

Although Derleth was not a trained historian, he 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 in the Great Depression 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 professional 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."

Derleth wrote several volumes of poems, as well as biographies of Zona Gale, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau.

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, and the foreword to Tales from an Indian Lodge by Phebe Jewell Nichols. Derleth also wrote under the noms de plume Stephen Grendon, Kenyon Holmes and Tally Mason.

Derleth’s papers and comic book collection (valued at a considerable sum upon his death) were donated to the Wisconsin Historical Society in Madison.

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