Colonel Markesan, and Less Pleasant People

by August Derleth, Mark Schorer

August Derleth and Mark Schorer. Colonel Markesan and Less Pleasant People. Sauk Arkham House, [1966]. First edition, first printing. Octavo. 285 pages. Publisher's binding and dust jacket.

Genres: Horror, Fiction

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1934

About the author

August 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...]

Reviews

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

They’re well written. Most of the stories are pretty good, with some notables like “Return of Andrew Bentley”. There’s one that’s a bit of a repeat of the same creature in “Spawn of the Maelstrom” and “The Pacer.” Could’ve done better. Some of the stories were marred by Idiot Plots which made them predictable. And there are a couple stories that are a straight-up Cthulhu Mythos, and fun to read. Not a bad collection really. It’s not serious lit per se, just fun to read, and holds your attention till finished. Still recommended.

[Ben Miller · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lovecraftian lore from two local legends. A couple of gems but pretty formulaic.