August Derleth

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August Derleth

August William Derleth (* 24. February 1909 ; † 4. July 1971 ) was an American author of horror stories, publisher and editor of anthologies . He is the namesake of the August Derleth Award for the best horror novel, which is presented annually in his honor by "The British Fantasy Society" .

youth

August William, the son of William Julius Derleth and Rose Louise Volk, grew up in Sauk County, Wisconsin . At the age of 16, he sold his first story to Weird Tales magazine , which published fantastic stories. Even during his four-year study at the University of Wisconsin, which he graduated in 1930, Derleth continued to write more stories. During this time he also worked as an editor for Mystic Magazine .

Derleth was very socially committed and in the mid- 1930s he organized a. a. a ranger club for young people and worked as an employee and chairman of the local commission for education and probation officers. He was also a lecturer for the University of Wisconsin.

Friendship with Lovecraft

He was a contemporary and friend of the author HP Lovecraft . Lovecraft's figure of Comte d'Erlette (the author of Cultes des Goules ) pays homage to Derleth, whose French ancestors were called d'Erlette. After Lovecraft's death in 1937, he took some of his unpublished stories and revised or completed them for publication in Weird Tales or in book form. He used the term Cthulhu myth to define a mythology that was behind Lovecraft's work. Derleth added further deities and creatures to the myth, modified it in part and brought it more into connection with his own Christian view of the battle of God with evil.

Arkham House Publishing House

Together with Donald Wandrei , he put together a collection of Lovecraft's short stories for publication. However, since the publishers mentioned showed little interest, they founded their own publishing house called Arkham House in 1939 , primarily to publish the works of Lovecraft. The publisher's name comes from the fictional town of Arkham , Massachusetts , which Lovecraft mentions in several of his stories.

In 1939 Arkham House brought out The Outsider and Others , an extensive collection of Lovecraft's short stories. Derleth and Wandrei decided to expand Arkham House, and other publications followed regularly, including 1941 Someone in the Dark , a collection of Derleth's own horror stories.

Next life

In 1941 Derleth became editor of The Capital Times of Madison magazine . He held this position until his retirement in 1961.

On April 6, 1953, he married Sandra Evelyn Winters. In 1959 the marriage was divorced, with Derleth having custody of the children April Rose (1954-2011) and Walden William.

In 1960 he published the magazine Hawk and Whippoorwill , which was devoted to poetry about humans and nature.

Works

Derleth wrote over 150 short stories and 100 novels, including some short stories about the detective Solar Pons, who shares some similarities with Sherlock Holmes . He also wrote under the pseudonyms Stephen Grendon, Kenyon Holmes and Tally Mason.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Winners of the British Fantasy Awards 2016 , "The British Fantasy Society", September 25, 2016, engl. Accessed October 31, 2016