Concord Rebel: A Life of Henry D. Thoreau

August William Derleth (1909-1971) was an American writer and anthologist. A leading American regional writer of his day, he was best remembered as the first book publisher of the writings of H. P. Lovecraft, and his own contributions to the Cthulhu Mythos and the Cosmic Horror genre. He was prolific in several other genres, including historical fiction, poetry, detective fiction, science fiction, and biography. Born on February 24, 1909 in Sauk City, Wisconsin, the son of William Julius Derleth and Rose Louise Volk, he was educated in local parochial and public high school. He wrote his first fiction at age 13 and wrote throughout his four years at the University of Wisconsin, where he received a B.A. in 1930. During this time he also served briefly as associate editor of Minneapolis-based Mystic Magazine. Sponsored by Helen C. White, Nobel Prize-winning novelist Sinclair Lewis and poet Edgar Lee Masters, Derleth was awarded the prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship in 1938 for his early work on the Sac Prairie Saga. In the mid-1930s, Derleth organized a Ranger’s Club for young people; served as clerk, president of the local school board, parole officer; and organized a local men’s club and a parent-teacher association. He also lectured in American regional literature at the University of Wisconsin and was a contributing editor of Outdoors Magazine. In 1939, he founded Arkham House with longtime friend Donald Wandrei. He became literary editor of The Capital Times in Madison in 1941, a post he held until his resignation in 1960. In 1948, he was elected president of the Associated Fantasy Publishers at the 6th World Science Fiction Convention in Toronto. In 1960, he began editing and publishing Hawk and Whippoorwill, a magazine dedicated to poems of man and nature. Derleth died on July 4, 1971, and is buried in St. Aloysius Cemetery in Sauk City. The U.S. 12 bridge over the Wisconsin River is named in his honor.