If one wanted to start on Derleth \u2018as an entertaining fiction writer\u2019, where would one start? Here\u2019s what the landscape looks like to me, after a short survey:<\/p>\n
Science-fiction:<\/strong><\/p>\n August Derleth\u2019s science-fiction collection is all in a book called Harrigan\u2019s File<\/em>, and below are Archive.org links to the tales, in the order of appearance in the book. The tales are said to be akin to Arthur C. Clarke\u2019s Tales from the White Heart<\/em>, and all feature newspaperman Tex Harrigan running up against strange inventions and curiously weird-science occurrences. If you want the book it\u2019s a late Arkham House title, and as such it seems to be fairly easy to get hold of in used print at around $35 inc. shipping.<\/p>\n McIlvaine\u2019s Star<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n \nA Corner for Lucia<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n \nInvasion from the Microcosm<\/a>.<\/p>\n \nThe Thinker and the Thought<\/a>.<\/p>\n \nThe Other Side of the Wall.<\/p>\n \nAn Eye for History.<\/p>\n \nThe Maugham Obsession<\/a>.<\/p>\n \nA Traveler in Time<\/a>.<\/p>\n \nThe Detective and the Senator.<\/p>\n \nProtoplasma.<\/p>\n \nThe Ungrateful House<\/a>.<\/p>\n \nBy Rocket to the Moon.\n<\/p>\n \nThe Man Who Rode the Saucer.<\/p>\n \nFerguson\u2019s Capsules<\/a>.<\/p>\n \nThe Penfield Misadventure<\/a>.<\/p>\n \nThe Remarkable Dingdong<\/a>.<\/p>\n \nThe Martian Artifact<\/a>.<\/p>\n \nSo that\u2019s basically all the science-fiction he wrote, and they sound rather fun in a 1950s way.<\/p>\n The Cthulhu Mythos tales:<\/strong><\/p>\n What of his Cthulhu Mythos tales? The Nocturnal Revelries<\/em> blog recently ploughed through all of August Derleth\u2019s Cthulhu Mythos Fiction<\/a> and gave a flavour of just how repetitive and \u2018haunted house\u2019 it all gets. Regrettably he refers vaguely to the repetitions, rather than saying which ones are not<\/em> repetitive and\/or are actually the best of the bunch. But that job appears to have already been done by others. A well-edited \u2018best of\u2019 the relevant Derleth is apparently to be found in the book In Lovecraft’s Shadow: The Cthulhu Mythos Stories of August Derleth<\/em><\/a> (1998). (TOC<\/a>). Or it could be found\u2026 if it was affordable, as it\u2019s now become collectable and thus ridiculously expensive. Time for a budget ebook edition of this collection, I’d suggest, if the copyrights and estates permit it. Although at least the book\u2019s long Introduction<\/a> is online for free in HTML. I can\u2019t do the same Web linkage for this book as I do above for Harrigan\u2019s File<\/em>, since many of the contents are not on Archive.org.<\/p>\n Solar Pons:<\/strong><\/p>\n The other big and alluring strand is of course his detective-mystery tales of the Sherlock Holmes-alike Solar Pons, said to be among the better Holmes pastiches and also rather good mystery stories in their own right. Both hefty volumes of the Solar Pons Omnibus<\/em> are on Archive.org, but only as \u201cBooks to Borrow\u201d and these are said to collect all the Derleth Pons stories. Just as well, as they list at forbidding prices in print. The problem here is that apparently this Solar Pons Omnibus <\/em>managed to badly corrupt the text. These problems were corrected by the revised The Original Text Solar Pons Omnibus, <\/em>but this is also now ridiculously expensive. Regrettably there appears to be no handy eight-story \u201cThe Best of Solar Pons\u201d as an \u00a36 ebook, with the text in good form, to serve as a brisk sampler for those who might be interested in starting in on the full set of tales. The other problem is that others have also done \u2018pastiches of pastiches\u2019 for Pons, and these now obscure Derleth\u2019s own Pons in the listings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If one wanted to start on Derleth \u2018as an entertaining fiction writer\u2019, where would one start? Here\u2019s what the landscape …<\/p>\n