August Derleth: Savior of Clark Ashton Smith?

August Derleth: Savior of Clark Ashton Smith?

Well, maybe.

There seems to be plenty of debate about whether Derleth saved Lovecraft from the ash can of history, but here we have more fuel to the flames. John D. Haelfele in the Fall 2010 Weird Fiction Review (Vol 1 No 1) exposits on the energy that Derleth expended to not only print Smith’s works in several volumes, but also to promote his sculpture at a time when Smith needed cash.

In 1941, Smith was in a bad spot, and asked for money from Derleth. Derleth promptly responded with a check. He expedited a plea to readers of Arkham House if they wanted to see Smith in print. Haefele documents that Donald Wolheim, Roy Squires and even William Baring-Gould responded with an affirmative. By November a press release was out, and in 1942 he was making arrangements to put ink to paper.

Smith obtained copies of his books from Derleth, and resold them from his house for extra cash.

Haefele goes on the explain the complexities of working with Smith into the late 1950′s when Smith’s new wife, Carol, began to have greater visions than Smith himself had – or at least she expected to execute grand ideas. Into the early 1960′s, “pocketbooks” (i.e. paperbacks) were suggested, detailed art or dust jackets of books that materialized slowly, and for briefer or longer periods, Ray Bradbury, Jack Chalker, Roy Squires, Donald Fryer, Glenn Lord, and Donlad Grant all began to be involved in Smith’s affairs until, and beyond his death in 1961.

The debate over Derleth’s impact on Lovecraft is unsettled, but now we must also determine how much Derleth assisted Smith’s legacy.

Palo Mayombe and New Jersey

Reminiscent of Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Body Snatchers (1881), the Miskatonic Books staff became inspired to research since the revelation of two bodies were rcently stolen in catholic cemeteries in New Jersey.

It appears this was not the first incident – no not by far.

In the style of Karl Kolchak, “news story”.

• 17 October 2002   by Maya Kremen, The Herald News, Palo’s spirits have mostly African names, but practitioners gathered in Hernandez’s Belleville basement chanted the Lord’s prayer in Spanish, over and over, like an incantation. … Palo {Mayombe} also has a darker side. For anywhere from several hundred to several thousand dollars, Palo priests, called Paleros, serve as consultants to dead spirits, who they believe have the power to do almost anything the Paleros bid them to do. For quick results, Paleros use human bones and skulls to call upon the spirits represented by them. Because they deal in actual human remains, both the spirits and the Paleros are thought to have superhuman strength. Recently, Palo has gained a higher visibility than devotees would like. Over the past three months, Newark police have arrested four practitioners for pillaging graves for ceremonial bones.
• 9 January 2004 NEWARK – Prosecutors spent Thursday outlining their case against a Cuban man accused of trying to obtain dead body parts from two Newark cemeteries. Authorities say Oscar Cruz hired someone to steal remains from three graves at Mount Pleasant and Holy Secular cemeteries.
• 4 May 2004  NEWARK, N.J. A 61-year-old woman accused of being a high priestess in the Palo Mayombe religious cult was convicted Monday of stealing human remains from cemeteries.
• 24 Novemebr 2004 The Times (New Jersey), Lisa Coryell, HOPEWELL TOWNSHIP – As forensic experts yesterday sought to identify a human skull found near the bank of the Delaware River here on Monday, police consulted with religious experts to determine what cult might have left the decrepit remains and other items in the Titusville section.
• 7 July 2009 The Stamford Times, Chase Wright, Toddler’s body may have been used in ritual, Stamford investigators, along with the Passaic County CSI unit and Clifton Police exhumed Imani’s coffin at Woodland Cemetery in the city’s South End and found it empty. Imani’s body was found a day earlier by two men fishing off the bank of the Passaic River in Clifton, N.J.
• 23 February 2011, Star-Ledger, Middlesex County. One was a little boy, dead by age 2, his body laid to rest on a gently sloping hill in Perth Amboy. The other was a man who lived 70 years longer. Joseph Lamela died in 1977, his final resting place a granite mausoleum in Woodbridge. Strangers in life, the two are entwined in death, their remains stolen from separate cemeteries in recent months for use in what authorities say could be the rituals of a religious cult.

It appears that some new form of cultish practice from the previously subdued practice of Palo Mayombe originated when the ancient religion of ancestors mixed in to the Tex-Mex drug wars a generation ago.  Adolfo Costanza originally of Miami, FL lived in Mexico in the late 1980′s, and cultivated a following in the drug culture as he preached invulnerability to participants if human sacrifices were made.   It came to an end when an American Mark Kilroy was kidnapped, murdered, dismembered, and utilized in a ceremony.  Authorities then crushed Costanza and his gang.

That is not to say that the New Jersey incarnation is explicitly related to this previous event.  A seeming pattern of raiding some catholic graves is in effect.  The police in this month’s incident hinted at a cult practice being suspect.  The Miskatonic staff is interested in how the investigation progresses in the recent grave robbing.

In the Beginning (Horror Paperbacks Before WWII)

Many readers of the Miskatonic Books blog are familiar with the pulps – magazines printed on very inexpensive paper.  Prior to the 20^th century, even newsprint had “rag” or cotton fibers in it to help absorb the ink-on-metal-dye process.  As cotton prices exploded during the U.S. Civil War, lignite was added to paper and it became cheaper.  You can tell because the acid in paper without cotton quickly turns yellow.

[Lovecraft once complained that his Weird Tales were turning to dust only months after having purchased them.]

The pulps were quick-turn, throw-away items for the mass market.  They tended to have lurid and sensational covers with prurient content.  It was in these magazines that teenaged boys – a prime market – learned about the Weird Tales phenomenon, and then in the mid-1930′s the scientifiction trend.

However, in England, the Penguin Books company had a different idea.  They came up with a “paperback” book that cheapened the process of book making and was competitive with pulps.  The “boards” and “dust covers” were an expensive part of the usual book.  They found a way to print on a slightly heavier paper stock and glue the pages into the binding in a rapid manner.  Perhaps one of the first “horror” paperbacks, albeit a crime paperback, was Anthony Berkeley Cox’s The Poisoned Chocolates Case (UK) Penguin, Sept. 1936.

These “paperbacks” were an immediate hit.  Penguin spun off a subsidiary, Pelican, to make classics available to the masses, and a different group to make current topics books.  The company came to New York in 1939 (Robert deGraff) with instant sales igniting and pushing volume to an eager market (and later Ian Ballantine joined the firm).

In the U.S., Joseph Meyers was watching.  WWII curtailed UK’s Penguin activities, but in 1941 Meyers created Avon “pocket books” and an immediate lawsuit by Penguin-Pocket ensued.  Undeterred, he printed up mysteries and westerns.  It is at this point both Weird Tales and August Derleth noticed the trend and began to feed recycled weird-tale stories into this market.  In 1942 Popular Library Books joined the avalanche.  In 1943 the Army Services editions were created on heavy, durable paper so they could endure rough handling by the (general infantry) G. I. Joe’s.

Horror was a type of theme in these early paperbacks, but only minimally.  While much adventure, crime, western, and other fantasy was printed, probably the most notable mass market circulation of pure horror was in the Army Service Editions.  It was August Derleth who placed two books in this list.  It’s estimated that there were just over 1300 total titles between 1942 and 1946 (120 million copies).  Derleth landed Sleep No More, and a Lovecraft based edition The Dunwich Horror and Other Weird Tales (R-33) shown below.

Bodies Stolen From Two New Jersey Cemeteries

Is it just me or is the world stranger than fiction.

Authorities in Middlesex County, N.J., are investigating the disappearance of human remains from two cemeteries in recent months.

Someone stole the remains of a 72-year-old man in a Woodbridge cemetery and a 2-year-old boy in Perth Amboy, officials said. Investigators said it may be the work of some kind of satanic group.

A visitor at St. Mary’s Cemetery in Perth Amboy discovered an open grave on November 28, 2010, and called police. Officers discovered that the remains of the toddler were gone.

Then on February 15, 2011, a passerby at Most Holy Rosary Cemetery in Woodbridge contacted cemetery officials to report that a granite mausoleum had been disturbed. The remains of the 72-year-old man had been taken.

If you have any information, you should call the Woodbridge Police at (732) 634-7700 or the Perth Amboy Police at (732) 442-4400, or the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office at (732) 745-3300. 

H. P. Lovecraft Off Broadway

Tuesday, February 22, 2011; Posted: 02:02 PM – by BWW News Desk

The Drama Desk nominated, New York Innovative Theatre Award winning RadioTheatre will present six of the greatest stories written by the grand master of horror himself, HP Lovecraft, live and onstage for the first time ever as part of THE H.P. LOVECRAFT FESTIVAL, March 17-April 3 at The Kraine Theater (85 East 4th Street).

PROGRAM A
March 17, 18, 19, & 31 @ 8pm
March 20 @ 4pm
April 2 @ 8pm

Dagon
A man is shipwrecked on a strange island where he finds a lost world of fish people.

From Beyond
A mad scientist goes where no man has gone before.
The Beast in the Cave
A lost cave explorer is attacked by something in the dark

Pickman’s Model
Just how does the artist Pickman get such remarkable detail in his horrifying paintings?

PROGRAM B:
March 24, 25, & 26 @ 8pm
April 1 @ 8pm
April 3 @ 4pm

The Dunwich Horror
A seminal work in Lovecraft’s famous Cthulu Mythos wherein a backwoods family worships the ancient ones who will return one day to destroy mankind.

The Music of Erich Zann
A weird pianist plays maddening music that is indescribable.

Tickets ($18/$15 students) are available online at www.horseTRADE.info or by calling Smarttix at 212-868-4444. All performances are at The Kraine Theater (85 East 4th Street between 2nd Ave and Bowery).

RADIOTHEATRE Now in it’s 7th Season Radiotheatre combines the artistry created during the Golden years of Radio when Sound was king and Story Telling, along with great voices, music and sound effects…as well as, the individual imaginations of its audiences…were the primary ingredients used to provide a memorable, live, theatrical experience. Of course, we do like to add some 21st Century touches…such as cinematic scripts, fully scored orchestral sound tracks which you won‘t hear anywhere else, a plethora of aural effects and, sometimes, a few visuals, too…creating a unique production with non-traditional, modern, innovative stage presentation!

Praise for RadioTheatre’s last NYC production, H.G.Wells’ THE TIME MACHINE currently on tour:

“Of all the treasures of NYC’s contemporary avant garde theatre scene, it is difficult to find a performance art company as innovative, yet, traditional as Radiotheatre…” TOTAL Theatre Magazine, London

“Attention grabbing theatre! Critics Pick!” Backstage

“For those of you who love your story telling turned up to 11…this is for you!” nytheatre.com

“Incredible science fiction…very involving…the acting pulls you right in!” Aisle Say

“In short, if you love Wells, science fiction and horror genres, this dramatization will prove enjoyable so program your time machines and blast off for an evening!” OffOffOnline

“A final key element in this show’s success is the evocative musical score by Radiotheatre. Much more than incidental music, it works like a top-notch movie score, alternately cradling and illuminating the action. It’s just perfect.” StageMage

COMING FALL 2011: THE H.P. LOVECRAFT FESTIVAL continues! In an unprecedented event in live theatre…Dan Bianchi has adapted and scored for the stage 50 of Lovecraft’s greatest literary works and for the next few seasons, Radiotheatre is proud to present them in a series of world premieres. For more info visit http://www.radiotheatrenyc.com

HORSE TRADE THEATER GROUP is a self-sustaining theater development group; with a focus on new work, it has produced a massive quantity of stimulating downtown theater. Horse Trade’s Resident Artist Program offers a home to a select group of Independent Theater artists, pooling together a great deal of talent and energy. It is also the home of FRIGID New York – the first and only festival of its kind in New York City.

Dracula’s Guest

In the January 2011 (issue 77) Scary Monsters Magazine, Bob Statzer reviews the scholarly debate on the short story Dracula’s Guest. The novel, Dracula, was created between 1890 and 1897 with revisions going to the last months before publication.  The classic novel was originally known as The Un-Dead, and published as Dracula. The original notes for the novel eventually came to rest in Philadelphia’s Rosenbach Museum in 1973.  Then, without much warning, an original 541 page manuscript surfaced in the 1980′s, originally owned by Stoker’s friend Thomas Donaldson.  From this information more can be deduced.

Mrs. Stoker first published the short story, Dracula’s Guest,  in 1914 within a collection of other stories.   In an 1892 Stoker outline, Jonathan Harker was supposed to be attacked in Munich in late April.  This section was dropped, but elements from this story line remained in other chapters until the final edits.  Ostensibly, Bram Stoker was using the 30th April – the eve of St. Walpurgis (Walpurgisnacht) as the background for these early concepts. From Stoker’s Dracula’s Guest: “Walpurgis Night was when, according to the belief of millions of people, the devil was abroad – when the graves were opened and the dead come forth and walked. When all evil things of earth and air and water held revel.”

Luis Ricardo Falero (1851-1896) "Departure of the Witches"

There are also three chapters deleted from the “final” cut of Dracula, and of those it appears a few parts went into creating Dracula’s Guest.  If you have ever read the book, it is a powerful narrative, but it can’t stand the strain of too close attention. To the scholar, it often asks more questions than it answers.  Now we can understand why.  As an editor, Stoker was a “cut and paste” man.   If he wrote it, and didn’t like it, he might as easily make it into a short story, or tack it into some other novel down the way.  He often physically clipped parts of his manuscript, and pasted them elsewhere.

Statzer tells us that the first chapter of the book we now have was originally chapter 4 and page 103 of the original manuscript!   To make things odder, the 1912 revision excised chapter 16 of the 1903 version.  Dracula has been through a lot – as character, and as a book!

Statzer does not mention Lovecraft’s claim about Miniter.  Lovecraft reports that Edith Miniter claimed to have been offered the job of revising Dracula by an agent of Stoker’s back in the 1890′s, but refused, finding the manuscript unmanageable.   Based on the historicity of the manuscript, it appears Lovecraft was right again.  Stoker managed on his own, and we now have Dracula.

The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman.

THE YELLOW WALLPAPER is considered by many to be a classic in modern horror literature.  The story was first published in 1892 and is told through the protagonist’s journal entries, which she writes secretly over several months, while staying in a rented secluded  mansion.  As she narrates the story, she reveals that she has been suffering from a nervous condition and has been prescribed rest with strict orders not to work or socialize.  Unfortunately, her husband is a physician who doesn’t think anything is wrong with her that a little rest and fresh air won’t cure.  As time passes and the narrator is alienated from the activities and people that enliven her spirit, she sinks deeper and deeper into a depression that preys upon her mind.  She becomes obsessed with the hideous yellow wallpaper in her room and succumbs to a delusion, which drives her across the line separating reality from fantasy.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman (July 3, 1860 – August 17, 1935) was a prominent American sociologist, novelist, writer of short stories, poetry, and nonfiction, and a lecturer for social reform. She was a utopian feminist during a time when her accomplishments were exceptional for women, and she served as a role model for future generations of feminists because of her unorthodox concepts and lifestyle. Her best remembered work today is her semi-autobiographical  short story The Yellow Wallpaper which she wrote after a severe bout of postpartum psychosis.

In January 1932, Gilman was diagnosed with incurable breast cancer.  An advocate of euthanasia  for the terminally ill, Gilman committed suicide on August 17, 1935 by taking an overdose of chloroform. In both her autobiography and suicide note, she wrote that she “chose chloroform over cancer” and she died quickly and quietly.

Below is a free ebook of THE YELLOW WALLPAPER is brought to you by Arcane Wisdom Press for your digital library.  Enjoy!  Just click the cover art below to download the book.

Don’t Make Derleth Mad! (1937)

“Wind Over Wisconsin” … will be at your favorite book store next year … Derleth who was singled out by Sinclair Lewis as one of Wisconsin’s most promising writers … didn’t actually accuse the {Sauk City village} board of anything, what he did … was to ask the board to itemize its expenses…

{The board} calls Derleth a publicity seeker and claims he was angered when they turned down his candidacy for the library board…

Derleth is a man of letters – but he has the physique of a fullback … broad and barrel-chested and affects a yellow, turtle-neck sweater, which matches his blond, wavy hair. His heavy chin protrudes belligerently.

{He says in his broadside, “Wind Over Sauk City” that} … “The people of this village have for some time been treated to the spectacle of a village board dominated by … little tin-horned gods …”.

Is there any wonder Mr. Derleth specialized in horror? Actually, Derleth was a fine historian, and we now remember him as the creator of Arkham House.

One supposes that all is forgiven, as there is now an August Dereth park in existence in his hometown.

Each segment of the antiquarian newspaper article is easily read if you click on it and expand it into a new window.

part a

part b

part c

part d

W. H. Pugmire Reads From SOME UNKNOWN GULF OF NIGHT

Later this year ARCANE WISDOM PRESS will be publishing W. H. Pugmire‘s SOME UNKNOWN GULF OF NIGHT.  Below Mr Pugmire reads from the forthcoming title.

There will be a very small hardcover limited edition print run followed by a Trade Paperback.  Matthew Jaffe is doing the cover art and illustrations for this one.  We’ll post the cover art as soon as it comes in.

Linwood Vrooman Carter

Lin as Baby ! Won first prize (of course).

Horror and Weird Fantasy has its characters, and sometimes that rare individual becomes a lightning rod. Forest Ackerman, August Derleth, Adolph de Castro, L Sprague de Camp, and Lin Carter all spring to mind.

Lin had an odd name, Linwood Vrooman Carter, and from the time he found a stack of old pulps getting ready to be tossed out, he became fixated on fantasy. His lifelong dream, from his earliest days, was to be a professional cartoonist. That didn’t happen, but along the way he became a poet, a convention stalwart, collector of all things weird, and in the 1960′s he made quite a mark as an editor, writer, and correspondent of Tolkein.

Lin's High School Photo

Lin was a Florida boy, and got terrific marks in school, but became known quickly as a poet and extrovert. He attended college, and in his spare time created his own fan magazine and hob-nobbed via correspondence with most of those in the field.

Lin Posing in Costume - about age 20

In the 1960′s, after placing numerous illustrations and articles in fanzines and prozines, he and L Sprague de Camp came up with a plan to revive Conan the Barbarian and created Sword and Sorcery with a few of their colleagues. Science Fiction didn’t know what to make of this, but it soon consumed the then-stagnant sales of SF and is now a dominant part of the field. Over a roughly ten year period, millions of S&S paperback and comic issues were sold. Lin had his own monthly column in an SF magazine, and for about a year wrote scripts for Marvel’s TV comic cartoon, Spiderman. These were some of the oddest segments in its history, presaging the 21st century oddities of the Cartoon Network.

Now virtually forgotten except by those who are still fans or knew him, Lin was always a cutting figure filled with life and energy.  He was one of the true celebrities of the genre.

Lin About 1975

[Some images, above, from Chris Perridas' collecion]