August Derleth in Weird Tales

August Derleth takes a lotta crap. Some of it is deserved but some of it isn’t. Like when people say Derleth wouldn’t have been in Weird Tales without Lovecraft. That is simply not true. August’s first Weird Tales appearance was “Bat’s Belfry” (Weird Tales, May 1926), eleven years before Lovecraft’s death. His first Mythos tale was “The Lair of the Star-Spawn” (Weird Tales, August 1932) with Marc R. Schorer. This story appeared during HPL’s lifetime. Derleth had written forty stories previously to Star-Spawn. He wouldn’t write a posthumous Mythos tale until his seventy-second, “The Return of Hastur” (Weird Tales, March 1939), the year Arkham House began publishing. Of Derleth 132 appearances in WT, only 15 were Cthulhu Mythos (with one other appearing at Strange Tales). That means Derleth appeared in 40% of all issues.

So it is perfectly appropriate to talk about August Derleth, the Weird Tales author without even thinking about H. P. Lovecraft. Because his history is actually more interesting than that. Derleth began his writing career trying to get into Weird Tales. Imagine a young man living in a log cabin in Wisconson, writing ghost stories. Sometimes alone, sometimes with friend, Marc R. Schorer. Together they would write twenty-one collaborations for Farnsworth Wright and Dorothy McIlwraith, as well as several a few for Clayton’s better paying Strange Tales.

Derleth would also have a strange side career as Stephen Grendon. He would create the pseudonym for the November 1944 issue because he also had a story under his own name. But Derleth knew it could be handy to be two authors in Weird Tales if you were prolific enough. Stephen Grendon began appearing in issues without Derleth’s name. One of August’s most famous stories, “Mr. George” would appear under the Grendon pseudonym. It was filmed for Boris Karloff’s Thriller (May 9, 1961), an episode directed by Ida Lupino. Mr. George’s ghostly voice was provided by Les Tremayne.

What did August Derleth write for Weird Tales besides the collaborations, pseudonymous and Mythos tales? Derleth’s specialty was British style ghost stories. Horror fiction was just one branch of Derleth’s writing. He also wrote regional novels known as the Sac Prairie saga as well as mock Sherlock Holmes stories. he had approached the Doyle heirs about writing pastiches of Sherlock and Watson but was turned down. So he created Solar Pons, his version of Holmes. This love of Doyle’s Victorian London rubbed off on his ghost stories. Many of the early ones were short (usually two pages) and did not get covers or illustrations. (He only got four covers.) But when the editors wanted someone to write as J. Sheridan le Fanu in 1947, they called Augie.

Here are 132 appearances in Weird Tales. This record tells a story far more interesting than the over-simplified “August Derleth sucks. He ripped off Lovecraft” rant that you see frequently. That POV all too often obscures a much more complex man.

1920s

“Bat’s Belfry” (Weird Tales, May 1926)

“The Elixir of Life” (Weird Tales, July 1926) with Marc R. Schorer

“The Marmoset” (Weird Tales, September 1926) with Marc R. Schorer

“The Coffin of Lissa” (Weird Tales, October 1926)

“The Devil’s Pay” (Weird Tales, August 1926)

“The Night Rider” (Weird Tales, January 1927)

“The River” (Weird Tales, February 1927) with Marc R. Schorer

“The Black Castle” (Weird Tales, May 1927) with Marc R. Schorer

“The Turret Room” (Weird Tales, September 1927) with Marc R. Schorer

“The Sleepers” (Weird Tales, December 1927)

“Riders in the Sky” (Weird Tales, May 1928) with Marc R. Schorer

“The Philosophers’ Stone” (Weird Tales, June 1928)

“The Owl on the Moor” (Weird Tales, September 1928) with Marc R. Schorer

“The Conradi Affair” (Weird Tales, October 1928) with Carl W. Ganzlin

“The Statement of Justin Parker” (Weird Tales, December 1928)

“The Tenant at Number Seven” (Weird Tales, November 1928)

“The Tenant” (Weird Tales, March 1928)

“The Three-Storied House” (Weird Tales, July 1928)

“Melodie in E Minor” (Weird Tales, February 1929)

“The Deserted Garden” (Weird Tales, March 1929)

“A Dinner at Imola” (Weird Tales, April 1929)

“The House on the Highway” (Weird Tales, June 1929)

“Old Mark” (Weird Tales, August 1929)

“Scarlatti’s Bottle” (Weird Tales, November 1929)

“The Inheritors” (Weird Tales, December 1929)

“An Occurrence in an Antique Shop” (Weird Tales, January 1929)

1930s

“A Matter of Sight” (Weird Tales, January 1930)

“The Lilac Bush” (Weird Tales, February 1930)

“The Pacer” (Weird Tales, March 1930) with Marc R. Schorer

“The Portrait” (Weird Tales, April 1930)

“The Whistler” (Weird Tales, May 1930)

“Across the Hall” (Weird Tales, June 1930)

“Just a Song at Twilight” (Weird Tales, August 1930)

“Mrs. Bentley’s Daughter” (Weird Tales, October 1930)

“The Bridge of Sighs” (Weird Tales, September 1931)

“The Captain Is Afraid” (Weird Tales, October 1931)

“Those Who Seek” (Weird Tales, January 1932)

“Laughter in the Night” (Weird Tales, March 1932) with Marc R. Schorer

“The Bishop Sees Through” (Weird Tales, May 1932)

“In the Left Wing” (Weird Tales, June 1932) with Marc R. Schorer

“The Lair of the Star-Spawn” (Weird Tales, August 1932) with Marc R. Schorer

“The Sheraton Mirror” (Weird Tales, September 1932)

“Red Hands” (Weird Tales, October 1932) with Marc R. Schorer

“The Vanishing of Simmons” (Weird Tales, February 1933)

“The White Moth” (Weird Tales, April 1933)

“The Carven Image” (Weird Tales, May 1933) with Marc R. Schorer

“Nellie Foster” (Weird Tales, June 1933)

“An Elegy for Mr. Danielson” (Weird Tales, August 1933)

“The Return of Andrew Bentley” (Weird Tales, September 1933) with Marc R. Schorer

“A Cloak From Messer Lando” (Weird Tales, September 1934)

“The Cossacks Ride Hard” (Marvel Tales, May 1934)

“Incubus” (poem) (Weird Tales, May 1934)

“Colonel Markesan” (Weird Tales, June 1934) with Marc R. Schorer

“Wild Grapes” (Weird Tales, July 1934)

“Feigman’s Beard” (Weird Tales, November 1934)

“A Matter of Faith” (Weird Tales, December 1934) with Marc R. Schorer

“Muggridge’s Aunt” (Weird Tales, May 1935)

“Mr. Berbeck Had a Dream (Weird Tales, November 1935)

“The Satin Mask” (Weird Tales, January 1936)

“They Shall Rise” (Weird Tales, April 1936) with Marc R. Schorer

“Lesandro’s Familiar” (Weird Tales, May 1936)

“The Telephone in the Library” (Weird Tales, June 1936)

“The Return of Sarah Purcell” (Weird Tales, July 1936)

“Death Holds the Post” (Weird Tales, August-September 1936) with Marc R. Schorer

“The Woman at Loon Point” (Weird Tales, December 1936) with Marc R. Schorer One of two Derleth werewolf stories, the other being “The Case of the Totenham Werewolf” in the Solar Pons series.

“Glory Hand” (Weird Tales, February 1937)

“The Shuttered House” (Weird Tales, April 1937)

“The Wind from the River” (Weird Tales, May 1937)

“McGovern’s Obsession” (Weird Tales, September 1937)

“Three Gentlemen in Black” (Weird Tales , August 1938)

“The Drifting Snow” (Weird Tales, February 1939)

“The Return of Hastur” (Weird Tales, March 1939)

1940s

 “Bramwell’s Guardian” (Weird Tales, March1940)

“Come to Me!” (Weird Tales, March 1941)

“Altimer’s Amulet” (Weird Tales, May 1941)

“Beyond the Threshold” (Weird Tales, September 1941)

“Compliments of Spectro” (Weird Tales, November 1941)

“Here, Daemos!” (Weird Tales, March 1942)

“Lansing’s Luxury” (Weird Tales, July 1942)

“McElwin’s Glass” (Weird Tales, January 1943)

“No Light for Uncle Henry” (Weird Tales, March 1943)

“A Wig for Miss DeVore” (Weird Tales, May 1943)

“Baynter’s Imp” (Weird Tales, September 1943)

“A Thin Gentleman with Gloves” (Weird Tales, November 1943)

“The Gentleman From Prague” (Weird Tales, November 1943) as Stephen Grendon

“The Trail of Cthulhu” (also as “The House on Curwen Street”) (Weird Tales, March 1944)

“Lady Macbeth of Pimley Square” (Weird Tales, July 1944)

“Pacific 421” (Weird Tales, September 1944)

“The Dweller in Darkness” (Weird Tales, November 1944)

“Alannah” (Weird Tales, March 1945) as Stephen Grendon

“The Lost Day” (Weird Tales, May 1945)

“The God-Box” (Weird Tales, September 1945)

“The Watcher from the Sky” (Weird Tales, July 1945)

“Mrs. Lannisfree” (Weird Tales, November 1945)

“Pikeman” (Weird Tales, January 1946)

“Dead Man’s Shoes” (Weird Tales, March 1946) as Stephen Grendon

“A Collector of Stones” (Weird Tales, November 1946)

“The Extra Passenger” (Weird Tales, January 1947) as Stephen Grendon

“Mr. George” (Weird Tales, March 1947) as Stephen Grendon

“Parrington’s Pool” (Weird Tales, July 1947) as Stephen Grendon

The Churchyard Yew (Weird Tales, July 1947) as Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

“The Occupant of the Crypt” (Weird Tales, September 1947) with Marc R. Schorer

“The Ghost Walk” (Weird Tales, November 1947) as Stephen Grendon

“The Night Train to Lost Valley” (Weird Tales, January 1948) as Stephen Grendon

“Something in Wood” (Weird Tales, March 1948)

“The Tsantsa in the Parlor” (Weird Tales, July 1948) as Stephen Grendon

“The Whippoorwills in the Hills” (Weird Tales, September 1948)

“Blessed Are the Meek” (Weird Tales, November 1948) as Stephen Grendon

“Balu” (Weird Tales, January 1949) as Stephen Grendon

“The Testament of Claiborne Boyd” (also as “The Gorge Beyond Salapunco”) (Weird Tales, March 1949)

“Kingsridge 214” (Weird Tales, May 1949)

“The Blue Spectacles” (Weird Tales, July 1949) as Stephen Grendon

“The Slayers and the Slain” (Weird Tales, September 1949)

“Twilight Play” (Weird Tales, November 1949)

1950s

“The Ormolu Clock” (Weird Tales, January 1950)

“The Man on B-17” (Weird Tales, May 1950) as Stephen Grendon

“The Closing Door” (Weird Tales, July 1950)

“Potts’ Triumph” (Weird Tales, September 1950)

“Something from Out There” (Weird Tales, January 1951)

“The Keeper of the Key” (Weird Tales, May 1951)

“A Knocking in the Wall” (Weird Tales, July 1951)

“The Black Island” (Weird Tales, January 1952)

“The Place of Desolation” (Weird Tales, March 1952)

“The Night Road” (Weird Tales, May 1952)

“The Lost Path” (Weird Tales, September 1952)

“‘Sexton, Sexton, in the Wall’” (Weird Tales, January 1953)

“A Corner for Lucia” (Weird Tales, May 1953)

“The House in the Valley” (Weird Tales, July 1953)

“The Ebony Stick” (Weird Tales, September 1953)

“The Disc Recorder” (Weird Tales, November 1953)

“The Place in the Woods” (Weird Tales, May 1954)

“The Survivor” (Weird Tales, July 1954) with H. P. Lovecraft

All these issues of Weird Tales are available here.