David H. Keller

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David Henry Keller (born December 23, 1880 in Philadelphia ; died July 13, 1966 in Stroudsburg , Pennsylvania ) was an American psychiatrist and science fiction writer.

Life

Keller studied medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and then specialized in psychiatry. He married in 1903. During the First World War he treated victims of trauma and war neurosis . During World War II he worked with the rank of colonel in the Army Chaplain's School at Harvard University . Until 1928 he worked at various clinics in Illinois , Louisiana , Tennessee and Pennsylvania.

In 1928 Keller's first story appeared in Hugo Gernsback's Amazing Stories magazine , and Keller became a regular writer of Amazing Stories and Weird Tales . Unlike his contemporary SF colleagues, who were quite optimistic about technical developments, Keller's perspective was more conservative-pessimistic. This can already be seen in Keller's first story The Revolt of the Pedestrians , in which the legs of the hypermobilized Americans of the future atrophied and “pedestrians” have become a class of persecuted and despised outlaws. These take revenge by sabotaging the electricity supply, whereupon the automotive culture and with it the motorists are doomed. At Keller, anyone who disregards the dangers of technology not only gets problems - possibly solvable - but is wiped out. Keller has been characterized as a typical representative of the Gernsback years of science fiction insofar as the sense of wonder was the essential element, while a logical and consistent design of an assumption ("What if ...") was of secondary importance.

Today, Keller is mainly seen as an SF writer, but his horror stories are quite remarkable and less dusty than his SF. For example, his story The Thing in the Cellar (1932, German as Down there is nothing! ) Was anthologized and reprinted over 30 times and translated several times. It was probably also this Weird Fiction Kellers that gained him the following of Regis Messac in France, who published his stories in the magazine Les Primaires . A selection of Keller's horror stories was collected in 2015 in The Golden Age of Weird Fiction Megapack: Volume 5 . Keller was also an early admirer of HP Lovecraft . According to Sam Moskowitz , a loan from Keller is said to have saved Lovecraft publisher Arkham House from bankruptcy.

In addition to his literary works, Keller also wrote numerous articles for popular magazines such as Your Body and Facts of Life on questions of health and hygiene, and he was also the author of a ten-volume popular sexological work.

Keller died in 1966 at the age of 85. His estate is in the David H. Keller Collection at Swarthmore College .

bibliography

The Menace (Taine short story series)
  • 1 The Menace (1928)
  • 2 The Gold Ship (1928)
  • 3 The Tainted Flood (1928)
  • 4 The Insane Avalanche (1928)
Taine (short story series)
  • 2 The Feminine Metamorphosis (1929)
  • 3 Euthanasia Limited (1929)
  • 4 A Scientific Widowhood (1930)
  • 5 Burning Water (1930)
  • 6 Menacing Claws (1930)
  • 7 The Cerebral Library (1931)
  • 8 The Tree of Evil (1934)
  • 9 Island of White Mice (1935)
  • 10 Wolf Hollow Bubbles (1934)
  • The Temple of Death (1970)
The Conquerors (novel series)
  • 1 The Conquerors (1929)
  • 2 The Evening Star (1930)
Wing Loo (short story series)
  • The Ambidexter (1931)
  • The Steam Shovel (1931)
Tales from Cornwall (short story series)
  • 1 The Oak Tree (1969)
  • 2 The Sword and the Eagle (1969)
  • 3 Raymond the Golden (1969)
  • 4 The Thirty and One (1938)
  • 5 The Battle of the Toads (1929)
  • 6 The Tailed Man of Cornwall (1929)
  • 7 No Other Man (1929)
  • 8 The Bride Well (1930)
  • 9 Feminine Magic (1970)
  • 10 The Key to Cornwall (1941)
Novels
  • The Human Termites (1929, 1979)
  • The Time Projector (1931, with David Lasser)
  • The Metal Doom (1932)
  • The Waters of Lethe (1937)
  • The Sign of the Burning Hart (1938)
  • The Television Detective (1938)
  • The Devil and the Doctor (1940)
  • The Abyss (1948)
  • The Eternal Conflict (1949)
  • The Homunculus (1949)
  • The Lady Decides (1950)
Collections
  • Life Everlasting and Other Tales of Science, Fantasy and Horror (1947)
  • The Solitary Hunters and The Abyss (1948)
  • Tales from Underwood (1952)
  • The Folsom Flint and Other Curious Tales (1969)
  • The Last Magician (1978)
  • Basement Memento (2010)
  • The Threat of the Robot and other Nightmarish Futures (2012)
  • The Twelfth Golden Age of Science Fiction Megapack (2014)
  • The Golden Age of Weird Fiction Megapack: Volume 5 (2015)
Short stories
  • The Revolt of the Pedestrians (1928)
  • The Yeast Men (1928)
  • A Biological Experiment (1928)
  • The Little Husbands (1928)
  • The Dogs of Salem (1928)
  • Unlocking the Past (1928)
  • Stenographer's Hands (1928)
  • The Psychophonic Nurse (1928)
  • The Thought Projector (1929)
  • The Jelly-Fish (1929)
  • The Worm (1929)
  • The Damsel and Her Cat (1929)
  • The Threat of the Robot (1929)
  • The Bloodless War (1929)
  • The Boneless Horror (1929)
  • The Flying Fool (1929)
  • White Collars (1929)
  • The Eternal Professors (1929)
  • Air Lines (1930)
  • A Twentieth Century Homunculus (1930)
  • Creation Unforgivable (1930)
  • The Flying Threat (1930)
  • The Ivy War (1930)
  • The Moon Rays (1930)
  • Boomeranging 'Round the Moon (1930)
  • Service First (1931)
  • The Seeds of Death (1931)
  • The Sleeping War (1931)
  • Free as the Air (1931)
  • Half-Mile Hill (1931)
  • The Rat Racket (1931)
  • The Hidden Monster (1932)
  • The Pent House (1932)
  • The Thing in the Cellar (1932)
    • German: There's nothing down there !. In: Frank Festa (ed.): The gray Madonna. Festa Horror TB # 1521, 2007, ISBN 978-3-86552-061-6 .
  • The Last Magician (1932)
  • No More Tomorrows (1932)
  • Unto Us a Child is Born (1933)
  • The Tree Terror (1933)
  • A Piece of Linoleum (1933, also as Amy Worth)
    • English: A clear case of suicide. In: Alden H. Norton (ed.): A skull made of sugar. Heyne General Series # 867, 1971.
  • Cosmos: Chapter 2: The Emigrants (1933)
  • Life Everlasting (1934)
  • Men of Avalon (1934)
  • The Golden Bough (1934)
  • The Solitary Hunters (1934)
  • The Lost Language (1934)
  • The Literary Corkscrew (1934)
  • The Dead Woman (1934)
  • Binding Deluxe (1934)
  • The Doorbell (1934)
  • Rider by Night (1934)
  • One-Way Tunnel (1935)
  • The Life Detour (1935)
  • The Living Machine (1935)
  • The White City (1935)
  • The Typewriter (1936)
  • The Perpetual Honeymoon (1936)
  • Tiger Cat (1937)
  • The Fireless Age (1937)
  • Waters of Lethe (1937)
  • Valley of Bones (1938)
  • The Mother (1938)
  • Dust in the House (1938)
  • The Moon Artist (1939)
  • No More Friction (1939)
  • The Toad God (1939)
  • Lords of the Ice (1939)
  • The Chestnut Mare (1940)
  • The Goddess of Zion (1941)
  • Calypso's Island (1941)
  • Speed ​​Will Be My Bride (1941)
  • The Red Death (1941)
  • The Pit of Doom (1942)
  • Death of the Kraken (1942)
  • The Bridle (1942)
  • The Growing Wall (1942)
  • Bindings Deluxe (1943)
  • Heredity (1947)
    • German: A decent family. In: Kurt Luif (ed.): A bride for the hereafter. Heyne General Series # 832, 1971. Also as: hereditary disposition. In: Charles G. Waugh, Martin Greenberg (Eds.): Vampire. Bastei Lübbe General series # 13134, 1988, ISBN 3-404-13134-7 .
  • The Face in the Mirror (1947)
  • The Last Frontier (1948)
  • The Perfumed Garden (1948)
  • Victory of Shadows (1948)
  • The Killer (1948)
  • Granny's Last Meal (1948)
  • The Door (1949)
  • The Final War (1949)
  • Chasm of Monsters (1951)
  • The Plot Machine (1951)
  • Fingers in the Sky (1952)
  • Sarah (1952)
  • The Folsom Flint (1952)
  • The God Wheel (1952)
  • The Opium Eater (1952)
  • The Star (1952)
  • The Folsom Man (1952)
  • The Golden Key (1953)
  • The Question (1953)
  • In Memoriam (1962)
    • German: A skull in memory. In: August Derleth (Ed.): Rendezvous with the Würgeengel. Pabel (Vampire Paperback # 36), 1976.
  • Figment of a Dream (1962)
  • The Landslide (1969)
  • The Twins (1969)
  • The House Without Mirrors (1980)
  • The Purblind Prophet (1999, with Paul Spencer)
  • The Beautiful Lady (2000)
Poetry
  • Songs of a Spanish Lover (1924, as Henry Cecil)
Non-fiction
  • The Kellers of Hamilton Township: A Study in Democracy (1922)
  • The Sexual Education Series (1928), 10 vols .:
    • Companionate Marriage, Birth Control, Divorce, Modern Home Life
    • Diseases and Problems of Old Age
    • Love, courtship, marriage
    • Mother and baby
    • Sex and Family Through the Ages
    • Sex and Society
    • Sexual Diseases and Abnormalities of Adult Life
    • The Sexual Education of the Young Man
    • The Sexual Education of the Young Woman
    • The Sexual Life of Men and Women after Forty
  • Know Yourself! Life and Sex Facts of Man, Woman, and Child (1930)
  • Portfolio of Anatomical Manikins (1932)
  • Picture Stories of the Sex Life of Man and Woman (1941)

literature

Web links

Commons : David H. Keller  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: David H. Keller  - Sources and full texts (English)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Everett Franklin Bleiler , Richard Bleiler: Science Fiction: The Gernsback Years. Kent State University Press, 1998, p. 210.
  2. ↑ Donald H. Tuck : The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy through 1968. Advent, Chicago 1974, p. 251.
  3. ↑ Sam Moskowitz: I Remember Derleth. In: Starship (Winter 1981), pp. 10-11.
personal data
SURNAME Keller, David H.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Keller, David Henry (full name); Cecil, Henry (pen name); Henry, Cecilia (pseudonym); Hubelaire, Jacobus (pseudonym); Smith, Monk (pseudonym); Smith, Matthew (pen name); Worth, Amy (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American psychiatrist and science fiction writer
DATE OF BIRTH December 23, 1880
PLACE OF BIRTH Philadelphia , Pennsylvania
DATE OF DEATH July 13, 1966
Place of death Stroudsburg , Pennsylvania