Quality Paperback, 250
pp.
ISBN 1-896648-26-6 @ $20.00
Black Cloth
Hard Cover with Dustjacket, 250 pp.
ISBN 1-896648-26-6 @ $28.00
About the Book
Dark-haired,
blue-eyed Jane Dousman was certainly one of the most attractive personalities of
frontier Wisconsin. She was a woman of great beauty, high-spirited and
warm-hearted.
Her husband, Hercules Dousman, was an even stronger
character, a man of remarkable capacity, friendly, talented, indefatigable. As
fur-trader, railroad-builder, grain-shipper, he became the most influential
figure of the upper Mississippi Valley and the Midwest's first millionaire.
For years Hercules Dousman had known and had secretly loved
Jane, youthful wife of King Joe Rolette, chief of the Astor fur brigades. After
King Joe's death, Jane and Hercules were married.
Theirs was a true love match, and this narrative of their
life together is the story of a mature and happily rewarding romance.
It was for Jane that the house on the mound was built. There,
in the year that the mound became part of the new state of Wisconsin, their son
was born. And at the same time, a shadow falls across Hercules' happiness. At
this point the story begins....
THE HOUSE ON THE MOUND, originally published in 1958, was the long-awaited
sequel to BRIGHT JOURNEY (1940), which told the story of Hercules Dousman's and
Jane's early years. It covers their lives together from 1848 to 1857 in the
Villa Louis — the house on the mound at Prairie du Chien.
August Derleth (1909-1971) was one the most
prolific writers of this century. He wrote and edited more than 180 books of
fiction, journals, histories, biographies, and poetry. He was a
fourth-generation citizen of Sauk City, a village on the great bend of the
Wisconsin River. Unlike so many other gifted writers of the Midwest, Derleth
elected to cultivate the home soil, to write about the land and the people he
lived with and knew. As a result, his roots are deep and his books are real and
lasting portraits of mid-America. Taken as a whole, his work is — as Sinclair
Lewis put it — "Something that will go far beyond Wisconsin."
What The Critics Said:
"The House on the Mound is what Hercules Dousman called the mansion he built at
Prairie du Chien in 1843 for his second wife. Today, as a museum of the state
historical society, it is known as Villa Louis.... The author's love for
Wisconsin and its history is evident throughout the book. A prodigious amount of
work underlies every chapter. The result is a warm, convincing evocation of the
past." — Milwaukee Journal
"August Derleth is one of the best regional writers" — Chicago Tribune
"Mr. Derleth writes with deep love of his home state.... His is a regional novel
of a high order of excellence."
— New York Times.