The Arkham House streak continues with August Derleth as “Stephen Grendon’s” Mr. George and Other Odd Persons. For some reason August Derleth had eleven stories in the mid and late 1940s under the Grendon name. A look at the Jaffery & Cook Weird Tales index shows it was not a case of both a Derleth and “Grendon” story appearing in the same issue of Weird Tales. There are no stories as “Derleth” in Weird Tales in 1947.  Derleth had used the name Stephen Grendon as a character in one of his mainstream novels. Maybe it was a case of adopting a persona to write different stories.

Mr. George and Other Odd Persons was first an Arkham House hardback published in 1963 as by Stephen Grendon. There was a Belmont paperback from 1964 a year later as by August Derleth. The collection had ten of the Weird Tales stories plus some stories from other publications and anthologies. Two of the stories, “The Extra Passenger” and “Mr. George” were both adapted for the T. V. show Thriller in 1961. This might have been the reason for first the Arkham collection and the subsequent paperback.

Contents:

I like August Derleth a lot more when he was not attempting to write Lovecraftian cosmic horror. He had no feel for it. On the other hand, his quieter stories show greater personality especially with rural settings. Derleth’s writing shines when describing the woods with plants, trees, smells, and general feel.

Several of the Stephen Grendon stories are about children thrust into new situations due to the death of one or both parents. There are plenty of mean aunts, step-mothers, suitors of widowed mothers etc. Derleth could be accused of a healthy dose of misogyny with the number of evil step-mothers. There is an element of nostalgia in these stories about childhood. The stories are almost like what Ray Bradbury would become famous for.

There are two supernatural stories with trains as the central element. I personally like “A Gentleman From Prague” and “The Extra Passenger” which have liches. Those are both very Weird Tales weird/ gruesome stories as strike me more like 1930s August Derleth than the more pastoral stories.

If I were to edit a Best of Weird Tales anthology, I would include the story “Mr. George” as it is a quieter but entertaining story.

If you come across the Belmont paperback at a used bookstore and looking for some quiter horror, give Mr. George and Other Odd Persons a try.