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A Traveler in Time
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.
14 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1953
About the author
August Derleth
796 books308 followersAugust William Derleth was an American writer and anthologist. Though best remembered as the first book publisher of the writings of H. P. Lovecraft, and for his own contributions to the Cthulhu Mythos and the Cosmic Horror genre, as well as his founding of the publisher Arkham House (which did much to bring supernatural fiction into print in hardcover in the US that had only been readily available in the UK), Derleth was a leading American regional writer of his day, as well as prolific in several other genres, including historical fiction, poetry, detective fiction, science fiction, and biography
A 1938 Guggenheim Fellow, Derleth considered his most serious work to be the ambitious Sac Prairie Saga, a series of fiction, historical fiction, poetry, and non-fiction naturalist works designed to memorialize life in the Wisconsin he knew. Derleth can also be considered a pioneering naturalist and conservationist in his writing
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augus...]
A 1938 Guggenheim Fellow, Derleth considered his most serious work to be the ambitious Sac Prairie Saga, a series of fiction, historical fiction, poetry, and non-fiction naturalist works designed to memorialize life in the Wisconsin he knew. Derleth can also be considered a pioneering naturalist and conservationist in his writing
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augus...]
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
May 11, 2026
Scifi, short story by a master,well done!!
December 31, 2025
Tongue-in-cheek time traveling tale from the curator of the Cthulhu Mythos.
Vanderkamp is a crazy looking crank who lives with his nagging sister. Of Dutch decsent, he has a keen interest in the original New York when it used to be called New Amsterdam, so much so that he built his own time machine to take him back there.
I'll give Vanderkamp credit for acknowledging where he got the idea from ('H. G. Wells was there first. I owe it to Wells.'), as well as his model for the machine itself, a spinning top design stolen from the pages of Brick Bradford, a 1930s comic strip hero in the vein of Flash Gordon who I confess to never having heard of.
Originally published in Orbit volume 1, number 2, 1953.
Vanderkamp is a crazy looking crank who lives with his nagging sister. Of Dutch decsent, he has a keen interest in the original New York when it used to be called New Amsterdam, so much so that he built his own time machine to take him back there.
I'll give Vanderkamp credit for acknowledging where he got the idea from ('H. G. Wells was there first. I owe it to Wells.'), as well as his model for the machine itself, a spinning top design stolen from the pages of Brick Bradford, a 1930s comic strip hero in the vein of Flash Gordon who I confess to never having heard of.
Originally published in Orbit volume 1, number 2, 1953.
November 30, 2020
Typical story about an eccentric inventor who invents a time machine and takes it back to 1650 to New Amsterdam. Told from the perspective of a newspaper reporter who is assigned to write the story as a local color piece. He doesn't believe the story, but is hard put to account for the valuable antiques that begin to show up. Not much to recommend except it's a cute way to spend a half hour or so.
March 14, 2018
17/20 32 mins. Part of LibriVox Audiobook “Short SF Collection Vol. 058”. Quite well narrated by Dan Grozinski dg73. I’m a sucker for time traveler stories, this one is not really that great though..
February 14, 2021
not a bad little time travel story, if a bit generic. thought the little twist at the end was fun but nothing astounding, 2.5 stars!
June 12, 2021
...just another time travel/time machine story.
Nevertheless entertaining !
Would recommend !
June 8, 2026
'So how do you time travel?'
"'Look,' he said, 'time is a dimension like space. You can go up or down this ruler,' he snatched a steel ruler and waved it in front of me, 'from any given point. But you move. In the dimension of time, you only seem to move. You stand still; time moves. Do you get it?'
"I had to confess that I didn't.
A Fun little Time Travel that's a Bit Nasty but Wickedly Funny. One that made me Laugh because...well...it's a Bit Nasty. And has a Wicked Sense of Humour.
If You could be Young Again, would you want to Start your Life Over Again and Do If Right This Time.....?
If You knew that 30 years in the Future that the World would be Annihilated in a Nuclear Holocaust, would You Escape into the Past.....?
It's one of the Only Time Travel stories I can think of that deals with the Cocept of whether You Become Older or Regress in Age as You Travel Back and Forth in Time. And it becomes a Plot Point the story revolves around but that's all I will say about that.
It reminds me a bit of the Star Trek TOS episode "All Our Tomorrows" (season 3, episode 23) where Kirk, Spock and McCoy, Travel Back in Time and Spock Eats Animal Flesh and makes out with a Sexy Cavewoman (Mariette Hartley).
A lot of fun and a Recommended Read for those who Time Travel Stuff like I do.
"'Look,' he said, 'time is a dimension like space. You can go up or down this ruler,' he snatched a steel ruler and waved it in front of me, 'from any given point. But you move. In the dimension of time, you only seem to move. You stand still; time moves. Do you get it?'
"I had to confess that I didn't.
A Fun little Time Travel that's a Bit Nasty but Wickedly Funny. One that made me Laugh because...well...it's a Bit Nasty. And has a Wicked Sense of Humour.
If You could be Young Again, would you want to Start your Life Over Again and Do If Right This Time.....?
If You knew that 30 years in the Future that the World would be Annihilated in a Nuclear Holocaust, would You Escape into the Past.....?
It's one of the Only Time Travel stories I can think of that deals with the Cocept of whether You Become Older or Regress in Age as You Travel Back and Forth in Time. And it becomes a Plot Point the story revolves around but that's all I will say about that.
It reminds me a bit of the Star Trek TOS episode "All Our Tomorrows" (season 3, episode 23) where Kirk, Spock and McCoy, Travel Back in Time and Spock Eats Animal Flesh and makes out with a Sexy Cavewoman (Mariette Hartley).
A lot of fun and a Recommended Read for those who Time Travel Stuff like I do.
February 12, 2024
In 1953, a man named Vanderkamp builds a time machine in his workshop in the Bowery section of Manhattan and repeatedly travels to 1650, when the neighborhood was a Dutch colony known as New Amsterdam. There, Vanderkamp befriends a Dutch woman named Anna Van Tromp who bears a striking resemblance to his nagging sister, Julie. Vanderkamp tells Anna about the future, often bringing back small appliances and gadgets from his time until one day when Vanderkamp and his sister disappear. A few weeks later, Anna appears in the Bowery.
A passable short story with a convoluted payoff. The reason for Anna’s appearance in 1953, and her subsequent fate, makes no sense in the context of the story. It was as if Derleth could not find a more suitable ending.
A passable short story with a convoluted payoff. The reason for Anna’s appearance in 1953, and her subsequent fate, makes no sense in the context of the story. It was as if Derleth could not find a more suitable ending.
February 15, 2021
Time (mostly) and space are the objectives of this story. Derleth tells us a story about time travels and he succeeds in this attempt. Elementary scientific knowledge and imagination are all it takes and Derleth is a master of both.
September 21, 2017
An adequate story that needs a bit more. Much too close to HG Wells.
October 2, 2019
Lowkey evil, I love it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 10, 2020
Short, entertaining story
November 28, 2020
Not very engaging...
Read
June 10, 2021Honestly don't know what time traveling will be like, but does it ever seem even remotely possible?
November 29, 2021
3,5 stars rounded up to 4.
October 31, 2024
Sort of creepy the relationship between brother and sister.
October 18, 2022
Not every one who was a Lovecraft contemporary was a compelling writer. Derleth succeeds outstandingly in that capacity.
October 29, 2021
Time travel is taken very lightly in this one. Focus is on comedy that is mildly funny.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews