the maugham obsession
By August Derleth
All inventors seek success. Some few achieve
it. And now and then a Quintus Maugham
is a bit too successful for his own health.
What is a Derleth? The question pops up frequently in fantasy circles. The general consensus seems to be that a Derleth is a sort of human windmill that plucks finished manuscripts from the breeze while waving its arms in circles, printing and publishing same with its own machinery. In truth the Derleth output is prodigious, as it has been for many a year ... enough to keep rolling the presses of his own publishing firm (Arkham) as well as to keep other publishers well supplied. Here is top-flight Derleth.
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Fantastic Universe June-July 1953.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
"It's always been a moot point with me," said Harrigan one evening over a glass of sherry at the Cliffdwellers' Club, "whether or not there is such a thing as a man's being too successful. I always think of Quintus Maugham."
"You have the advantage of me," I said.
"By rights he should have been famous," Harrigan went on, warming to his subject, "but things don't always work out that way. He was a plodding inventor obsessed by an idea. What inventor isn't, given a modicum of success? Perhaps he was a product of his time, for Maugham's obsession was robots."
"The principle's sound enough."