Quality Paperback, 180
pp.
ISBN 1-896648-98-3 @ 18.00
Cloth Hard Cover with Dustjacket, 180 pp.
ISBN 1-896648-98-3 @ 28.00
About the Book
Despite Wisconsin's rich literary heritage, no critical work has ever been
published about the state's most important writers. August Derleth's Wisconsin
Writers & Writing now becomes the first reference work of its kind to discuss
the writings of Hamlin Garland, Glenway Wescott, Edna Ferber, Zona Gale, Mark
Schorer, and some of the lesser-known writers and poets who have written books
that should be on everyone's reading list.
August Derleth, one of Wisconsin's important regional
writers, wrote these essays in 1965 for a lecture series he presented at the
University of Wisconsin, where he frequently taught classes on regional writing
for nearly three decades.
They are a testament of Derleth's love of regional literature and knowledge he
gained from a lifetime of reading. They also reveal a man who is able to
evaluate the works of other writers in an unbiased manner both historically and
critically.
The manuscript for Wisconsin Writers & Writing was only recently discovered in
the author's home by one of the editors, who was the first person in 25 years to
be allowed to examine a wealth of unpublished manuscripts that have long been
presumed missing.
Because Derleth did not consider his own work important
enough for discussion, the editors of this volume have written separate essays
evaluating a writer too important in his own right to be forgotten.
About the Editors:
Peter Ruber is one of Derleth's former publishers who is now editing an
extensive list of Derleth's unpublished manuscripts, and presents a personal
view of the author and his work. He has edited August Derleth's Country
Matters, Return to Sac Prairie, In a Quiet Graveyard, and
other volumes soon to be
published.
Co-editor Dr. Kenneth B. Grant of the University of
Wisconsin -Baraboo/Sauk is writing a biography of August Derleth, and presents
the academic view of a man who achieved considerable stature among his peers as
a writer, a pioneer publisher of fantasy fiction, an educator, and literary
critic and columnist.