August Derleth

August William Derleth
Name	August William Derleth
Pseudonyms	August Derleth, Comte d'Erlette
Personal Information
Gender	Male
Date of Birth	February 24, 1909
Place of Birth	United States of America, Wisconsin, Sauk City
Date of Death	July 4, 1971
Place of Death	Sauk City, Wisconsin, United States of America
Professional Information
Employers	Marvel, Arkham House, Weird Tales
Titles	Writer, Publisher
First Work	Unknown
Notable Creations	Cthulhu Mythos (formalisation/consolidation); In collaboration with Mark Schorer: Tcho-Tcho people, Zhar and Lloigor

Personal History

August William Derleth was born in Sauk City, Wisconsin, on February 24, 1909. He died there on July 4, 1971.

Professional History

Despite a prolific and varied bibliography Derleth is prominently known as a publisher and writer of horror stories.

Cthulhu Mythos

August Derleth was a correspondent and friend of Howard Phillips Lovecraft,

Derleth coined the term Cthulhu Mythos to described the fictional universe created by the collaborative works of Lovecraft and other writers, including Clark Ashton Smith and Robert E. Howard.

When Lovecraft died in 1937, Derleth and Donald Wandrei collected and assembled some of his stories for publication, but facing to the disinterest of publishers, they decided to found Arkham House in 1939, and published their first anthology, The Outsiders and Others, the same year.

Marvel Comics

As publishers or copyright holders, Arkham House allowed, "by special arrangement" or "by permission", Marvel Comics to adapt a few H.P. Lovecraft's tales:

• "The Terrible Old Man" in Tower of Shadows #3 (January, 1970),
• "The Music of Erich Zann" as "The Music From Beyond" in Chamber of Darkness #5 (June, 1970),
• "Pickman's Model" in Tower of Shadows #9 (January, 1971),
• "The Haunter of the Dark" in Journey Into Mystery (Vol. 2) #4 (April, 1973)

Robert E. Howard's poem "Lines Written in the Realization That I Must Die" was published in Savage Sword of Conan #7 (August, 1975) under Copyright 1946 by August Derleth for "Skullface and Others".

A couple of August Derleth's own horror stories were also adapted by Marvel Comics:

• "Bat's Belfry" (1926) in Vampire Tales #3 (February, 1974), written by Don McGregor and penciled by Vicente Ibañez.
• "The Drifting Snow" (1939) in Vampire Tales #4 (April, 1974), written by Tony Isabella and penciled by Esteban Maroto.

Some of Derleth's creations were adapted, pastiched or referenced in other comics:

Eltdown Shards and Cultes des Goules

• The Tcho-Tcho, Lloigor and Zhar, created With Mark Schorer in the story "The Lair of the Star-Spawn" (1932).
• Zvilpogghua, created in "The Lurker at the Treshold" (published in 1946), a story written by Derleth from fragments written by Lovecraft with the name taken from "From the Parchments of Pnom" by Clark Ashton Smith.
• The Celeano Fragment were mentioned in Scarlet Witch #1, prompting later references of the Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe to Professor Laban Shrewsbury, along with the creation of the Tomes of planet Celeano, Celeano, in Tomes of Eldritch Knowledge.

Work History

• 12 subjects created by "August Derleth"
• 3 works adapted from the stories that "August Derleth" wrote

Trivia

• Derleth inspired a character in the Cthulhu Mythos, the Comted'Erlette (Francois-Honore Balfour), used by H.P. Lovecraft, Robert Bloch and Lin Carter in their stories. This character has yet to be confirmed in-universe, but Strange Academy #11's Character Spotlight Variant cover (June, 2021) by Arthur Adams depicted the book Cultes des Goules ("Cults of Ghouls"), written by Comte d'Erlette, among various eldritch tomes.

See Also

• 1 mention(s) of August Derleth
• 1 image(s) of August Derleth

Links and References

• August Derleth on Wikipedia.org
• August Derleth on H.P. Lovecraft wiki