David H. Keller

David Henry Keller (December 23, 1880 – July 13, 1966) was an American writer who worked for pulp magazines in the mid-twentieth century, in the science fiction, fantasy, and horror genres. He was also a psychiatrist and physician to shell-shocked soldiers during World War I and World War II, and his experience treating mentally ill people is evident in some of his writing, which contains references to mental disorders. He initially wrote short stories as a hobby and published his first science fiction story in Amazing Stories in 1928. He continued to work as a psychiatrist while publishing over sixty short stories in science fiction and horror genres. Technically, his stories were not well-written, but focused on the emotional aspects of imaginative situations, which was unusual for stories at the time.

Biography Keller was born in Philadelphia on December 23, 1880. Keller was the Assistant Superintendent of the Louisiana State Mental Hospital at Pineville until Huey Long's reforms removed him from his position in 1928. He specialized in psychoanalysis and also worked in hospitals in Tennessee and Pennsylvania. Keller's first published work was "Aunt Martha", (1895, Bath Weekly) under the pseudonym Monk Smith. Keller remained an active contributor to Amazing Stories through the late 1930s. This began an intense writing period for Keller, but he was unable to support his family solely on a writer's income, so he set up a small private psychiatric practice out of his home in Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania. Gernsback also commissioned Keller to edit his magazine Sexology from 1934 to 1938. Keller died on July 13, 1966. Keller's work often expressed strong right-wing views. Everett F. Bleiler claims he was "an ultra-conservative ideologically". Bleiler described the series of stories in "The Menace" as "probably the most offensive to be found in early science-fiction". The last of these, "The Insane Avalanche", is a racist story about removing the black and lower-class white populations of America through violence and deportation. In a collection of early science fiction, editors Isaac Asimov and Martin Greenberg described Keller as "one of the most conceptually sophisticated" science fiction writers of his time, Bleiler described Keller as "a very poor technician" with "no power of criticism" when it came to writing fiction. However, he also argued that Keller "occasionally wrote fable-like stories, detached from daily realities and surrogate science fiction realities, that were excellent". His 1932 horror tale "The Thing in the Cellar" has had 14 reprintings. The story features a boy who is frightened of the cellar, because he knows something is there. To prove that he is incorrect, his family locks him in the kitchen with the open cellar. The boy is found dead the next morning. Keller also created a series of fantasy stories called the Tales of Cornwall sequence, about the Hubelaire family; these were influenced by James Branch Cabell. Keller also wrote some fantasy work inspired by his interest in Freudian psychology, including "The Golden Bough" (1934) and The Eternal Conflict (1939 in French; 1949 English). This list is incomplete. Keller wrote many of his stories years before publishing them. The Abyss (in Solitary Hunters and The Abyss. 1948) The Homunculus (1949) The Lady Decides (1950)

Short fiction The conclusion of Keller's two-part "Life Everlasting" was cover-featured on the August 1934 issue of Amazing Stories. Keller's "Tiger Cat" was the cover story in the October 1937 Weird Tales. Keller's "Lords of the Ice" was the cover story in the December 1939 Weird Tales, illustrated by Hannes Bok. "The Revolt of the Pedestrians" (Amazing Stories, February 1928) "The Menace" (Amazing Stories Quarterly Summer 1928) "A Biological Experiment" (Amazing Stories, June 1928) "The Psychophonic Nurse" (Amazing Stories, November 1928) "Stenographer's Hands" (Amazing Stories Quarterly Fall) "The Dogs of Salem" (Weird Tales, September 1928) "The Yeast Men" (Amazing Stories Quarterly, April 1928) "White Collars" (Amazing Stories April) "The Jelly Fish" (Weird Tales Jan) "The Worm" (Amazing Stories Mar "The Damsel and Her Cat" (Weird Tales Apr "The Bloodless War" (Air Wonder Stories, July 1929) "The Boneless Horror" (Science Wonder Stories, July 1929) "The Flying Fool" (Amazing Stories, July 1929) "The Feminine Metamorphosis" - (as Amy Worth) Science Wonder Stories, August 1929) "The Battle of the Toads" (Weird Tales, October 1929) "The Tailed Man of Cornwall" (Weird Tales, November 1929) "Dragon's Blood" (Fanews ) "Air Lines" (Amazing Stories, January 1930) "Creation Unforgivable" (Weird Tales, April 1930) "The Ivy War" (Amazing Stories, May 1930) "Boomeranging 'Round the Moon" (Amazing Stories Quarterly, Fall 1930; reprinted in Science Fiction Classics, Winter 1967, ed. Ralph Adris (Magazine Productions) ) "The Cerebral Library" (Amazing Stories, May 1931) "Free as the Air" (Amazing Stories, June 1931) "The Rat Racket" (Amazing Stories, November 1931) "The Pent House" (Amazing Stories, February 1932) "The Thing in the Cellar" (Weird Tales, March 1932) "The Hidden Monster" (Oriental Stories, Summer 1932) "No More Tomorrows" (Amazing Stories, December 1932) "A Piece of Linoleum" - (as Amy Worth; 10 Story Book December 1933) "The Lost Language" (Amazing Stories, January 1934) "The Dead Woman" (Fantasy Magazine, April 1934) "The Literary Corkscrew" (Wonder Stories, March 1034) "Binding Deluxe" (Marvel Tales, May 1934) "The Doorbell" (Wonder Stories, June 1934) "The Golden Bough" (Marvel Tales, Winter 1934) "The Living Machine" (Wonder Stories, May 1935) "Dust in the House" (Weird Tales, July 1938) "The Thirty and One" (Marvel Science Stories, November 1928) "The Moon Artist" (Cosmic Tales, Summer 1939) "The Goddess of Zion" (Weird Tales, Janunary 1941) "The Red Death" (Cosmic Stories July 1941) "The Bridle" (Weird Tales, September 1942) "Heredity" (The Vortex #2, 1947) "The Face in the Mirror" (in Life Everlasting and Other Tales of Science, Fantasy and Horror, The Avalon Company, 1947. Reprinted in: Life Everlasting and Other Tales of Science, Fantasy and Horror (1974), in Hyperion Press's Classics of Science Fiction series. Also reprinted in: Keller Memento, 2010, by Ramble House) "The Perfumed Garden" (The Gorgon v2 #4, 1948) "The Door" (The Arkham Sampler Summer 1949) "Chasm of Monsters" (1951; also published in The Folsom Flint and Other Curious Tales, 1969, by Arkham House, and Keller Memento, November, 2010, by Ramble House, ) ) "The Folsom Flint" (1952; also published in The Folsom Flint and Other Curious Tales, 1969, by Arkham House, and in Keller Memento, 2010, by Ramble House, ) ) "Fingers in the Sky" (1952; also published in The Folsom Flint and Other Curious Tales (1969) by Arkham House, and in Keller Memento, 2010, by Ramble House, "The God Wheel" (Tales from Underwood, Arkham House and Pellegrini & Cudahy, 1952) ) "The Opium Eater" (Tales from Underwood, Arkham House and Pellegrini & Cudahy, 1952) "The Golden Key" (Destiny, Spring 1953. Also published in The Folsom Flint and Other Curious Tales (1969) by Arkham House, and in Keller Memento (2010) by Ramble House. ) "The Question" (Fantastic Worlds, Fall 1953) "In Memoriam" (Dark Mind, Dark Heart, ed. August Derleth, Arkham House, 1962) "The Landslide" (The Folsom Flint and Other Curious Tales, Arkham House, 1969) ) "The House Without Mirrors" (Weird Tales #1, December 1980, ed. Lin Carter, published by Zebra Books/Kensington Publishing Corp.)

Early works Works on this list come from the David H. Keller Collection description at the Swarthmore College Library.

Nonfiction The Sexual Education Series (Roman Publishing Company, New York, 1928), It included: Sex and Family Through the Ages The Sexual Education of a Young Man Sexual Education of the Young Woman Love, Courtship, Marriage Companionate Marriage, Birth Control, Divorce, and Modern Home Life Mother and Baby Sexual Diseases and Abnormalities of Adult Life The Sexual Life of Men and Women After Forty Diseases and Problems of Old Age Sex and Society "The Psychology of Fear" (in The Thing in the Cellar, 1940, by The Bizarre Series #2) "The Med-Lee: News Digest of the 9th Medical Battalion" (12-19-26 November, 10 December 1941) "Love Stimulants" (in "Sexology", August 1941) "Dr. David H. Keller on His Half a Century of Writing" in The Last Magician: Nine Stories from Weird Tales, April 1978, P.D.A. Enterprises (The David H. Keller Memorial Library #1) "What Price Beauty?" (in The Fanscient, #3 Spring 1948, edited by Donald B. Day. The Portland Science Fiction Society) "Author, Author: David H. Keller, M.D." (in The Fanscient, #5 Fall 1948, edited Donald B. Day. The Portland Science Fiction Society) "Book Reviewing" (in The Fanscient, #7 Spring 1949, edited by Donald B. Day. The Portland Science Fiction Society) "Stories and Life" (in The Fanscient, #9 Fall 1949, edited by Donald B. Day. The Portland Science Fiction Society) "Longevity" (in Operation Fantast, #5, June 1950, edited by Ken Slater) "Shadows over Lovecraft" (in Howard Phillips Lovecraft Memorial Symposium, 1958, Steve Eisner. University of Detroit. Published in Fresco, Spring 1958, v. 8, no. 3, a quarterly magazine published by the University of Detroit) "Titus Groan: An Appreciation" (in Exploring Fantasy Worlds: Essays on Fantastic Literature, edited by Darrell Schweitzer. Borgo Press. I.O. Evans Studies in the Philosophy and Criticism of Literature #3. This is the same review that appeared in Operation Fantast, #4, March 1950)