Donald Wandrei
Donald Wandrei was an influential American writer born on April 20, 1908, in St. Paul, Minnesota. He displayed literary talent from a young age, beginning his studies in English writing at the University of Minnesota at just sixteen. Wandrei's early work included contributions to university publications and the sale of his first story to the renowned magazine Weird Tales during his high school years. He published several significant works in 1928, including a poetry volume and a fantasy novel.
After briefly working in New York City's publishing sector, Wandrei returned to Minnesota to pursue a Ph.D. but left before completion to focus on writing and public relations. In 1939, he co-founded Arkham House with August Derleth, a pioneering publishing company for fantasy fiction, which allowed him to promote the works of H. P. Lovecraft while also writing his own stories. Over his nearly fifty-year career, Wandrei produced numerous short stories, novels, and poetry collections, navigating genres from science fiction to detective fiction. He created a unique detective character, Professor I. V. Frost, blending elements from iconic figures like Sherlock Holmes. Wandrei's legacy continued after his passing in 1987, with his works being collected and appreciated by fantasy fiction enthusiasts.
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Donald Wandrei
- Born: April 20, 1908
- Birthplace: St. Paul, Minnesota
- Died: 1987
Biography
Donald Wandrei was born on April 20, 1908, in St. Paul, Minnesota, the second son of David G. and Jeannette A. Wandrei. The precocious Wandrei was only sixteen when he began studying in the English writing program at the University of Minnesota. He wrote for all of the university publications, including the literary journal Minnesota Quarterly, and he became an editor at the Minnesota Daily.
His taste, however, was for fantasy fiction, which he began writing as an undergraduate. In 1926, during his junior year in high school, Wandrei sold his first story to Weird Tales, the leading title among horror-fantasy publications. In his senior year he published his first volume of poetry, Ecstasy, and Other Poems (1928), as well as his first fantasy novel, Dream-Horror (1928), and a collection of his short stories from the pulp magazines, The Hungry Flowers (1928).
Upon receiving his B.A. in 1928, Wandrei moved to New York City, where he found work in the advertising department of book publisher E. P. Dutton & Co. After less than a year in New York, however, Wandrei returned to St. Paul to pursue a Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota and to be close to his younger brother, Howard, who was in the last year of a three-year term in the Minnesota State Reformatory in St. Cloud. Wandrei encouraged his brother to find an outlet in writing, and in 1931 they published a collaborative volume of verse, Dark Odyssey.
In 1932, Wandrei left Minnesota without completing the Ph.D. and returned to New York, where he found success as a public relations executive while continuing to publish several short stories a year in the pulps. The Great Depression notwithstanding, Wandrei was able to save a great deal of money and in 1939 he staked it all in founding, with fellow fantasy writer August Derleth, Arkham House, the first American publishing company to specialize in fantasy fiction.
Wandrei’s dedication to editing and publishing the works of H. P. Lovecraft led to a falling off in the output of his own fiction, although in the nearly fifty years from the founding of Arkham House until his death, Wandrei was able to write more than a dozen short stories and a novel, The Web of Easter Island (1948). He also gathered the stories of his most prolific period, the 1930’s, into two anthologies: The Eye and the Finger (1944) and Strange Harvest (1965). Wandrei also continued to write poetry and his final collection of verse, Poems for Midnight, appeared in 1964.
Although the bulk of Wandrei’s writing is in the science- fiction and fantasy categories, he also brought his technology- oriented science-fiction sensibilities to detective fiction in the stories he wrote for Clue Detective magazine between 1934 and 1937. In these stories, he created Professor I. V. Frost, a high tech detective who combined the Victorian rationalism of Sherlock Holmes, the hard-boiled demeanor of Philip Marlowe, and the gadgetry of Buck Rogers, to fight crime in 1930’s New York.
Wandrei’s popularity among readers of fantasy fiction continued long after his death in 1987. His collected works appeared shortly thereafter: Collected Poems (1988) and Colossus: The Collected Science Fiction of Donald Waldrei (1989).