August Derleth

American novelist, short-story writer, poet, historian, and editor

• Born: February 24, 1909
• Birthplace: Sauk City, Wisconsin
• Died: July 4, 1971
• Place of death: Sauk City, Wisconsin

Biography

August William Derleth was a prolific Wisconsin author. His work includes novels, short stories, poetry, autobiography and memoir, biography, history, works for younger readers, and numerous edited anthologies. He wrote realistic regional literature as well as science fiction, horror stories, mysteries, and several volumes of Sherlock Holmes pastiches (featuring his character, Solar Pons). He played a key role in popularizing the work of the early twentieth century writer of supernatural stories, H. P. Lovecraft, and was cofounder of Arkham House publishing company in Sauk City, Wisconsin.{$S[A]Grendon, Stephen;Derleth, August}{$S[A]Mason, Tally;Derleth, August}{$S[A]Heath, Eldon;Derleth, August}{$S[A]West, Simon;Derleth, August}{$S[A]West, Michael;Derleth, August}{$S[A]Holmes, Kenyon;Derleth, August}{$S[A]Garth, Will;Derleth, August}{$S[A]Devon, Romily;Derleth, August}

Derleth was the son of William Julius and Rose Louise Volk Derleth. His parents ran a blacksmith shop in the small Wisconsin River town of Sauk City. He attended St. Aloysius parochial school there and later the University of Wisconsin, where he received a B.A. degree in 1930. He showed an early interest in writing and sold his first story to the publication Weird Tales at the age of seventeen. Following his graduation from college, he spent a year working for a Minneapolis publisher, then returned to Sauk City, where he spent the rest of his life.

After publishing several popular works, his first serious piece of fiction, Still Is the Summer Night, was published by Scribner’s in 1937. The work gained him the attention of Sinclair Lewis, Edgar Lee Masters, and Helen C. White, who served as his sponsors for a Guggenheim Fellowship, which he was awarded the following year. This also marked the beginning of what was to be a major focus of his creative effort in the years ahead, his Sac Prairie Saga.

In the years that followed, he wrote at an amazing rate in all of the genres mentioned above, and the Sac Prairie Saga took shape as a series of novels (ten), collections of short stories (six), and journals and other forms of creative prose (seven) recording the life of his home area. Much of his poetry and juvenile writing is also set in this locale. Playing out on a larger canvas, his Wisconsin Saga, a series of five novels, deals with the larger history of the state.

Book publishing and editing represent another major direction in Derleth’s career. In his youth he had developed an interest in the work of H. P. Lovecraft and had corresponded with the author. His inability later to find a publisher for a collection of Lovecraft’s magazine stories led to the founding (with fellow author Donald Wandrei) of Arkham House publishing company in 1939. The central purpose of this venture was to bring the work of Lovecraft and other writers of the pulp horror/science-fiction school to a wider audience. The vast majority of the anthologies edited by Derleth during the years that followed were dedicated to this task, and his edited volumes of the work of Lovecraft alone run to more than twenty volumes. Many of his own writings in the horror/science-fiction genre were inspired by or written in posthumous collaboration with the man he considered his mentor in the field.

Along with his writing and publishing, Derleth was also a strong promoter of regional literature. He taught a course in the subject at the University of Wisconsin (1939-1940), led local writing workshops, founded and edited a poetry journal (Hawk and Whippoorwill, 1960-1963), and served as the literary editor for the Madison Capital-Times from 1941 until his death. He also edited several anthologies of Wisconsin literature.

Derleth was married briefly (1953-1959) to Sandra Winters, a woman many years his junior. They had two children, April Rose, born in 1954 and Walden William, born in 1956. When the marriage ended in divorce, Derleth was granted custody of the children, and they resided with him in a large stone house which he called “Place of Hawks,” built on a piece of land he had purchased in Sauk City in 1939. In addition to his many other interests, he was a dedicated collector of books, comic books, records, stamps, and coins, as well as an inveterate walker and mushroom hunter. He died in 1971 at the age of sixty-two of a heart attack, following several years of declining health.

Derleth’s literary reputation rests primarily on his role as a major figure of the early twentieth century American regionalist movement. His best works of this kind—from the Sac Prairie and Wisconsin Sagas, such works as Evening in Spring, Village Year, Walden West, Wisconsin in Their Bones, and The Hills Stand Watch—stand as classics of the genre. He also deserves mention for his work as an editor and publisher of early twentieth century horror/science fiction and in particular the writings of Lovecraft. His greatest flaws were overproductivity and a general unevenness in his work, but his importance is indisputable.

Bibliography

Bishop, Zealia. “A Wisconsin Balzac: A Profile of August Derleth.” In The Curse of Yig. Sauk City, Wis.: Arkham House, 1953. One of the few articles of any length on the life and career of August Derleth.

Blei, Norbert. “August Derleth: Storyteller of Sac Prairie.” Chicago Tribune Magazine, August 15, 1971. A very informative and interesting article based on an interview with Derleth. Derleth’s opinions and point of view are presented in a sympathetic manner. A good quality short study on Derleth and his work.

Grant, Kenneth B. “August (William) Derleth.” In The Authors. Vol. 1 in Dictionary of Midwestern Literature. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001. A brief biographical and critical overview.

Grobe Litersky, Dorothy M. Derleth: Hawk . . . and Dove. Aurora, Colo.: National Writers Press, 1997. The first major, book-length, comprehensive critical study of Derleth’s life and works.

Haining, Peter. The Classic Era of American Pulp Magazines. Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2000. Looks at Derleth’s contribution to the pulps and the relationship of pulp fiction to its more respectable literary cousins.

Liebow, Ely M., ed. August Harvest. New York: Magico Magazine, 1994. Essays dealing with Derleth’s work in all genres.

Muckian, Michael, and Dan Benson. “One of the State’s Great Writers Is Nearly Forgotten.” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Magazine, August 13, 1995, p. 8. A biographical sketch, accompanied by an account of efforts by Derleth’s children and admirers to reissue his work and create new interest in him; also includes an interview with Derleth’s son, who talks about his father’s death wish in the last years of his life.

Schroth, Evelyn M. The Derleth Saga. Appleton, Wis.: Quintain Press, 1979. The only available study of Derleth’s Sac Prairie Saga. The body of work is interpreted from Schroth’s personal point of view, but the discussion does give the reader an overview of this important series of works, rated by some as Derleth’s finest literary achievement.

Schultz, David E., and Scott Connors, eds. Selected Letters of Clark Ashton Smith. Sauk City, Wisc.: Arkham House, 2003. August Derleth is among the most prolific correspondents in this collection of Smith’s letters, and this is an excellent source for an informal glimpse of the author in his own words.

Starrett, Vincent. Introduction to The Adventures of Solar Pons. London: Robson Books, 1975. A short introduction to Derleth and his Solar Pons creation. Since so little is available on Derleth, students who wish additional information on the Solar Pons series could also consult introductions in these collections: The Reminiscences of Solar Pons (1961; an introduction by Anthony Boucher and “A Chronology of Solar Pons,” by Robert Patrick), and The Return of Solar Pons (1958; introduction by Edgar W. Smith).

Stephens, Jim. Introduction to An August Derleth Reader. Madison, Wis.: Prairie Oak Press, 1992. A solid biographical and critical overview of Derleth and his works.

Wilson, Alison W. August Derleth: A Bibliography. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1983. The best full-length source available for information on the life and works of August Derleth. The book begins with a preface, an introduction, and a chronology, including interesting details on his activities and literary reputation. Lists and explains briefly all of his works, divided into “Fantasy World” and “Sac Prairie and the Real World.” Contains a helpful index by title.

Zell, Fran. “August Derleth’s Gus Elker Stories in One Volume.” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Cue, November 10, 1996, p. 13. A review of Country Matters, arguing that the Gus Elker stories are formulaic and predictable but that they have preserved a bucolic world and way of life prior to television.