Hard Cover, 100p.
ISBN 1-55246-444-X @ $30.00
From the very beginning of his writing career, August Derleth set out to create
The Sac Prairie Saga. The story of the people of Sac Prairie in their day to day
lives. Derleth believed that if he told this story well, he would in fact tell
the story of his civilization -- past and present. After all people are people
whether they hail from middle America or from the east or west coast.
In a series of novels, short stories and 15 volumes of poetry
published in his life time, Derleth accomplished this task. But his plans were
cut short by his death. He left many novels upublished, and many stories
uncollected after their brief magazine appearances, and many poems unpublished
in manuscript form in his files, all meticulously filed away.
This new collection of poems -- all written in the 1930s and
selected from his type-written manuscripts -- now appears over 30 years after
his death. Perhaps this collection will stimulate the reader to revisit the
other volumes of the Sac Prairie Saga? Your reading time will be well rewarded.
The railroad bridge that Derleth crossed frequently to visit
the marshes on his nature walks, and where many of these poems were first
recorded in his pocket diary, was recently destroyed. This volume recaptures the
past; the fractured span of railroad track across the Wisconsin River is the
present; and both predict the future for the people of Sac Prairie.
August Derleth, in a writing career that began at age 15, in
1924, until his untimely death in 1971, never left his roots in Sauk City,
Wisconsin. He wrote and edited more than 150 books and operated a publishing
company devoted to fantasy fiction. He was also for many years the literary
editor and a columnist for the Capital Times of Madison, Wisconsin. Derleth was
one of the most versatile and important writers about middle America of his
time.
About The Illustrator
Rodger Gerberding has illustrated some 45 books to date, in a variety of genres. He has done illustrations for Fritz Leiber (Gummitch and Friends, Donald M. Grant) Thomas Monteleone (Between Floors, Subterranean Press), Poppy Z. Brite (Swamp Foetus, AKA Wormwood, Borderlands-Dell), Donald Wandrei, (Colossus, Don't Dream, and the forthcoming Dead Titans Waken, both from Fedogan and Bremer). Rodger's work has appeared in countless periodicals, both in the continental U.S. and abroad, and he has numerous one person and group shows to his credit throughout the U.S. He is also widely published as a writer; a small book Rodger wrote on local history and speculation, Some Council Bluffs Ghosts, from Inflatable Sleep Press, recently sold out on publication. He divides his time between Council Bluffs, Iowa and Omaha, Nebrasha.