The scope of August Derleth’s work during his prime years as a writer in the 1940s and 1950s is only now coming to light. This volume presents four long stories, two of them previously unpublished, that add nuance to the ongoing saga of Sac Prairie—a small town in Wisconsin based on his own hometown, Sauk City. “The House of Moonlight” is a delicate character sketch of Joel Merrihew, a pianist and composer who struggles with his romantic sentiments toward both men and women. “The Intercessors” speaks of Celia Valden, who made a mistake in love as a young and now strives to prevent her daughter from making that same mistake. “Design in Circles” is a moving tale of the love between a married man and a young female colleague; it takes a disturbing turn when the man’s wife is murdered. “The Lost Heart” is an expansive story of another composer, Max Brook, whose disappointment in love as a teenager continues to taint his life, even as a young admirer, April Hunt, seeks to remedy it. In these works, Derleth exhibits all his skills as a painter of lives against the backdrop of the unchanging rural milieu of Sac Prairie.
Genre: Historical Romance
Genre: Historical Romance
Used availability for August Derleth's The Lost Heart and Others