New to me, The Dealings of Daniel Kesserich by Fritz Leiber. It’s of interest for being an early strongly Lovecraft-influenced tale of substantial length, and for being left out of the book Fritz Leiber and H.P. Lovecraft: Writers of the Dark. Apparently the setting is the California of the small desert towns. It was drafted by a young raw Fritz Leiber in 1936, under the influence of Lovecraft.
There’s no mention of it in Joshi’s survey book Rise and Fall of the Cthulhu Mythos, and Joshi remarks elsewhere that it “it is not to be considered a ‘Lovecraftian’ story” even though it does include Lovecraft’s “style and trademark concepts” — which makes it sound even more interesting than a simple Mythos monster romper-stomper. Early attempts by major writers at Lovecraft’s style and themes are always of interest here at Tentaclii and I’m pleased to find a substantial non-Derleth one that I was previously unaware of. There’s more… the Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction Literature also terms it “a Wellsian romance”, and Supernatural Fiction Writers calls it “clearly influenced by H. G. Wells” — which again appeals due to my interest in Wells’s The Time Machine. Definitely one for my reading pile, and it’s short enough to pick up when in the mood and to get through fairly quickly.
Presumably Lovecraft was sent a carbon of the draft of Dealings of Daniel Kesserich? Joshi writes of… “Fritz Leiber, who had shown some of his first attempts at sword-and-sorcery to his correspondent H. P. Lovecraft” so it might be fairly safe to assume he could have also sent the draft of “Daniel Kesserich”.
Later the tale was revised and pitched at the pulp magazine Unknown Worlds. Presumably it was then rejected or held, or sent back for revision, since it was filed and lost for around 50 years.
There’s no audiobook or ebook. A free “to borrow” copy is available on Archive.org, and I see that the slim hardback edition is currently available at a fairly modest price on Amazon.
