Classic Horror Lovers discussion

Over on our thread for member's introductions, a discussion developed about writer and editor August Derleth (1909-1971), friend and pen pal of H. P. Lovecraft, and founder of Arkham House, the small press that was largely responsible for making Lovecraft the household word he is today in macabre fiction circles. Derleth's own writing spanned a number of genres (he was a man of quite varied interests), but definitely included classic horror. His tales in that vein are often Cthulhu Mythos (a term he coined!) pastiches, but not always. Opinion about the merits of his writing vary, among readers in general and in this group; I thought he deserved a thread of his own for that kind of discussion.

Although I haven't read much of his work, I know the negative assessment of his Mythos stories comes mainly from the branch of the Lovecraft fan community that considers HPL's existential pessimism to be the best, and an essential, feature of his work. Derleth doesn't have that outlook; and he also divides the Great Old Ones into two groups, the really malevolent and dangerous ones, and the less sinister ones who are inclined to police and thwart the first bunch. There is actually an adumbration of the latter idea in Lovecraft's own "The Shadow Out of Time;" and it's worth recognizing, IMO, that HPL himself didn't view his Mythos stories as a unit with a consistent cosmology and dovetailing details; on the contrary, that corpus itself itself has a lot of glaring contradictions and inconsistent details from story to story. My opinion is probably colored by the fact that I'm from the camp within Lovecraft fandom that isn't enamoured with the existential pessimism, and tends to view it as usually a tacked-on "moral of the story" that would have been better omitted; but personally, I don't fault Derleth for his own adaptation of the Mythos vision, and I doubt that Lovecraft would have complained about it.

The four Derleth stories that I personally greatly enjoyed are: the Mythos pastiches "the Dweller in Darkness" and "Beyond the Threshold" (both contained in Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos, and "The House in the Valley" (included in Androids, Time Machines & Blue Giraffes: A Panorama of Science Fiction); and the non-Mythos story "The Return of Andrew Bentley," set in his native Wisconsin. (I've also watched the adaptation of the latter yarn on Boris Karloff's old Thriller TV show, and it scared the bejabbers out of me as a little kid! :-) )

I have always enjoyed A. D. I recently picked up the Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos

Karloff's old Thriller TV show was one of the best and scariest ever.

Werner wrote (in part):

Over on our thread for member's introductions, a discussion developed about writer and editor August Derleth (1909-1971), friend and pen pal of H. P. Lovecraft, and founder of Arkham House, the small press that was largely responsible for making Lovecraft the household word he is today in macabre fiction circles.

Nice post, Werner. Yeah, I guess I was the person who was perceived as “dissing” Derleth. While I stand by my assessment of Derleth as a relatively minor writer, perhaps I should amplify my feelings a bit. You’re absolutely right, Werner, about the Lovecraft fan base’s dislike of Derleth’s mythos pastiches on the grounds that they more or less contradict Lovecraft’s nihilistic world view. (I know that S. T. Joshi has trumpeted this complaint.) Personally, I tend to gravitate toward the more pessimistic cosmology offered by Lovecraft, but I’m not doctrinaire about that being a necessary component of any Lovecraft pastiche. I actually think it’s hard to write any sort of decent pastiche and I don’t think Derleth succeeds very well — not because his writing is different from or is inconsistent with Lovecraft’s — but because the writing style and content aren’t all that impressive, especially the latter material that he supposedly “co-wrote” with Lovecraft. (And, just to be clear, I’m not staking out an anti-Derleth position because I’m a huge admirer of Lovecraft; I think a handful of HPL’s stories stand the test of time, but I find a lot of his stuff hard to wade through.)

As for Derleth’s other writings — I’ve read a few of the Solar Pons stories, but they’re not really in my wheel house. Never been a great fan of Holmsian pastiches. I’ve read some of his “serious” regional stuff (i.e., from the Sac Prairie and Wisconsin sagas) and it’s really quite good.

As for Derleth’s more mainstream supernatural fiction, I’ve read some of his really early pieces and most if it is pretty awful. But perhaps that’s to be expected; he wasn’t much more than a kid when he wrote a lot of this. I personally think he hits his stride as a writer in the 40s with stories that are formulaic, yet entertaining and fairly well written such as “The Lonely Place”, “The Extra Passenger”, “Mister George”, etc.

Canavan, good, informative post, too; you're clearly much better read in Derleth's work than I am. I'll keep an eye out for the stories from the 4os that you mentioned above. And I had no idea he wrote Sherlock Holmes pastiches (unlike you, I like that sort of thing); so I'll be adding The Adventures of Solar Pons to my to-read shelf. Thanks for the tip!

I would tentatively recommend to people interested in Derleth’s non-Lovcraftian horror the collection Mr. George and Other Odd Persons , published by Arkham House and with Derleth writing under his pen name, Stephen Grendon. Used copies can be found at a fairly cheap price (in the $30 to $40 range).

We also must make sure we appreciate what Derleth did to keep H. P. Lovecraft "alive".

http://www.innsmouthfreepress.com/blo...

David wrote:

We also must make sure we appreciate what Derleth did to keep H. P. Lovecraft "alive”.

You’ll hear some of HPL’s more enthusiastic proponents argue something to the effect that his genius was so staggering that ultimately, even without Derleth’s intervention as editor of Arkham House, HPL’s legacy would have been assured. I’m not so convinced. There’s no way to know for sure, of course, but I suspect that were it not for Derleth, Lovecraft would be remembered today to the same degree we remember other pulp writers from the first half of the 20th century (e.g., Seabury Quinn or Manly Wade Wellman).