It’s hard to believe I’ve done 700 of these Friday’s Forgotten Books posts since Patti Abbott invited me to join her online reviewing group back in 2009. You can read my first Friday’s Forgotten Books post here.
I’ve read (or reread) plenty of great books over the years to prepare for my weekly posts on Fridays. The benefit, of course, is the motivation to read books I’ve accumulated over the decades.
Take The Return of Solar Pons for example. The hardcover edition was first published in 1958 (when I was nine years old). The copy of The Return of Solar Pons is the paperback First Edition edition published by Pinnacle Books in 1975 which cost me $1.50 back then. August Derleth was a fan of Sherlock Holmes and created a clone of Sherlock that he called Solar Pons along with a companion named Parker who performed pretty much like Watson.
Derleth follows the pattern A. Conan Doyle used for his detective: introduce a crime, provide clues (and red herrings), and have the detective solve the baffling puzzle to the amazement of the Police. I enjoyed all the stories in The Return of Solar Pons especially “The Adventure of the “Triple Kent.” The “Triple” refers to the three women murdered in Kent. The Police are perplexed and call upon Solar Pons to help them solve the mystery. As with most of the Solar Pons stories, Pons sees patterns where the Police just see confusion. Pons also can solve crimes by knowing his History. In “The Adventure of the Lost Dutchman,” Pons’s research provides the keys to the solution.
If you’re a fan of Sherlock Holmes, you’ll enjoy these pastiches. And, I hope I’m around for another 700 Friday’s Forgotten Books posts! GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Introduction / by Edgar W. Smith — 1
The adventure of the lost Dutchman — 9
The adventure of the Devil’s footprints — 30
The adventure of the Dorrington inheritance — 52
The adventure of the “Triple Kent” — 76
The adventure of the Rydberg numbers — 94
The adventure of the Grice-Paterson curse — 119
The adventure of the Stone of Scone — 143
The adventure of the remarkable worm — 160
The adventure of the penny magenta — 177
The adventure of the trained cormorant — 192
The adventure of the Camberwell beauty — 211
The adventure of the little hangman — 238
The adventure of the Swedenborg signatures — 261
As you know, I’m a big August Derleth fan and have read well over 100 of his books. Because of his tremendous output, some of Derleth’s work is negligible, but not his Solar Pons short stories — vastly entertaining, every one. (His one Solar Pons novel, MR. FAIRLIE’S FINAL JOURNEY, however, is abysmal. **sigh**) The saga as continued by Basil Copper is also a great deal of fun. I haven’t yet had a chance to read the later additions to the series by David Marcum.
Derleth’s original Pons stories should be a part of any well-curated mystery library.
Jerry, you are way ahead of me on reading August Derleth’s massive oeuvre! But, I have read many of Derleth’s Solar Pons stories over the years and enjoyed them. I have Basil Copper’s Solar Pons volumes. I’ll have to track down David Marcum’s books. One of my regrets is that I didn’t buy more of Derleth’s books when I was living in Wisconsin for 10 years. They were available back in the 1970s…not so much now.
If you two (or others!) were to recommend any of his local/Wisconsin historical items, which would it be? I’ve read bits and pieces there, but much more of his horror (that in his own voice much better than the ersatz Lovecraft work) and a smattering of Pons stories (and have read most Basil Copper’s horror…haven’t yet picked up any of his Pons stories).
Wow – 700 posts! They really do add up when you do 52 a year, don’t they?
I haven’t read that much Derleth, though I have read some, including some of the Solar Pons stories. I really should go back and go through them in a more systematic way. Good review and here’s to another 700!
Jeff, thanks for your kind words! Yes, it seems like yesterday when I took Patti Abbott up on her offer to join her FRIDAY’S FORGOTTEN BOOKS group (with a little nudge by Bill Crider, too). It’s been fun (or I wouldn’t have written 700 of these review!) so I’ll continue for as long as I can as if you and Jerry and others continue to comment on them.
I was thinking of Bill and how he never missed a posting.
Jeff, Bill Crider never missed at DAPA-EM, too! Mr. Consistency!
Bill never missed a day and usually posted more than one piece every day. How did he do it?
And thank you George for being the most faithful of the faithful. I know Bill told you if you wanted a successful blog you had to post every day. And you did it. What an achievement.
Patti, thanks for your kind words! Through blogging I met you and Jerry and Deb and Todd and Steve and Michael and Neeru and so many other great people! Art, Jeff, Beth, Rick, Dan, Cap’n Bob, and Maggie transitioned from DAPA-EM to blog commentators. Every Friday I give thanks to you for inviting me to participate in this wonderful meme!
700 very impressive indeed…glad you’ve been able to keep at it, and with pleasure. 700 more can be good, if the eyes, fingers and keyboards hold out!
Todd, much of Derleth’s work is encompassed in his overall Wisconsin Saga — novel, short stories, non-fiction, poetry, journals, and historical writings that span Wisconsin’s history over the century. Some of the themes covered in the historic,al novels are the importance of the Winconsin River in the trapping industry, early mining (particularly lead) in the state, the beginning of the banking system in Wisconsin, the nascent railway industry, the struggles of native Americans as they encounter more an more settlers, early political wrangling in the state, and much more. These books are interesting and well-written, but lack the vitality and intimacy of those he wrote in the subset Sac Prairie Saga — Sac Prairie being the fictional doppelganger of Derleth’s own Sauk City. Much of Derleth’s best writing can be found in the Sac Prairie Saga, which covers the town from its very beginnings, blending individual characterizations with a love of the past and present. PLACE OF HAWKS (1935) is a near-perfect collection of four novellas as seen through the eyes of “Stephen Grendon,” Derleth’s alter-ego. Grendon is also front and center in EVENING IN SPRING (1941) a surprisingly non-mawkish tale of first love. ATMOSPHERE OF HOUSES (1939) is a collection of snippets that tie bind various residents of Sauk Prairie to the physical descriptions of their homes — a brilliant and effective method of characterization. Many of Derleth’s stories in the Sac Prairie Sage feature Stephen Grendon’s Uncle Joe and Aunt Lou, their neighbor Gus Elkins, and Stephen’s fearsome Aunt May — these stories are warm, funny, and loving portrayals of the rural life of Derleth’s youth. (The ultimate fate of some of these characters as revealed in Derleth’s Sac Prairie poetry belies the light-heartedness of these tales. To my mind, Derleth’s best writing can be found in his Steve-Sims series of juvenile novels (also know as the Mill Creek Irregulars series); these ten books evoke a time and place and community that are irresistible. All of Derleth’s writing about his beloved Wisconsin is imbued with an almost reverent sense of nature. To read Derleth is to smell the various heavy and light scents of the country, to hear the various sounds of the birds, animals, insects, and the the breeze flowing through the fields, to encounter all the colors of the plant life surrounding you, to identify the hundreds of flowers, birds, and animals that inhabit the countryside, to be one with the flowing Wisconsin River, and to appreciate the many diverse characters that can be found in a small town. Derleth’s mystery novels about Sac Prairie’s Judge Ephraim Peck are negligible, as are many (but absolutely not all!) of his horror and science fiction stories. Derleth’s importance in salvaging both H. P. Lovecraft and the Twentieth Century horror story through his Arkham House publishing company and his various anthologies cannot be underestimated, even while his efforts to continue and codify Lovecraft’s legacy can be called into question.
Thanks, jerry! An excellent set of pointers. No, indeed, a number of his Wisconsin-set horror stories (away from any attempt at Lovecraftianism) are not negligible at all.
George, one of the main reasons I check in with your blog every day is that you continually pull little jewels like this out of your hat. I’ve been somewhat familiar with Derleth since I was in high school and I’ve always felt he was undervalued, mostly, it seems, because of his unfortunate “collaborations” with Lovecraft when his own work-at least that which I’ve read-is exceptional. That said, I’ve never heard of this character or these books yet they sound wonderful. I’ll have to jump on eBay and look for a few titles. Thanks for the tip.
Byron, you won’t be sorry reading Solar Pons books! Thank you for your kind words. I’ll keep posting about books, CDs, and movies that might interest you and the other commentators on this blog.
George, this post crowded my mind with memories. Of Matt (Mathew Paust) on whose blog I first read about this character and his creator. Matt too liked the stories a lot. Of my initial days of blogging when I first submitted a book review for FFB: Desmond Bagley’s The Tightrope Men. That particular week it was being hosted by Todd Mason who welcomed me very warmly. FFB was something that I used to look forward to so eagerly. Still do.
Neeru, like you I have a lot of fond memories of Friday’s Forgotten Books over the years. The best part is meeting such knowledgeable, creative, and interesting people–such as yourself–to share the love of books and insights about them.
Always easy to warmly welcome those who want to share their love of literature, Neeru! Still climbing back up on the FFB horse, more slowly than I’d like.