David H Keller

David H Keller

David H. Keller (December 23, 1880 July 13, 1966), David Henry Keller (most often published as David H. Keller, MD, but also known by the pseudonyms Monk Smith, Matthew Smith, Amy Worth, Henry Cecil, Cecilia Henry, and Jacobus Hubelaire), was a writer for pulp magazines in the mid-twentieth century who wrote science fiction, fantasy and horror. He was the first psychiatrist to write for the genre. Keller was born in Philadelphia and graduated from the School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in 1903. He served as neuropsychiatrist in U.S. Army Medical Corps during World Wars I and II, and was the Assistant Superintendent of the Louisiana State Mental Hospital at Pineville until Huey Longs reforms removed him from his position in 1928. That same year, Keller would travel to New York City to meet with Hugo Gernsback, publisher of Amazing Stories, who had bought his first professionally published science fiction story, "The Revolt of the Pedestrians". Gernsback was impressed by Kellers quality of writing, unique insight, and ability to address sophisticated themes beyond the commonplace technological predictions or lurid alien encounters typically found in early pulp stories. He encouraged Kellers writing and would later call these distinctive short stories keller yarns. In 1929, Gernsback founded the magazine Science Wonder Stories and not only published Kellers work in the first issue, but listed him as an Associate Science Editor. It was this issue of Science Wonder Stories that introduced the term science fiction to the world. This began an intense writing period for Keller, but he was unable to support his family solely on a writers income and set up a small private psychiatric practice out of his home in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. Keller's work often expressed strong right-wing views (Everett F. Bleiler claims he was "an ultra-conservative ideologically"), especially hostility to feminists and African-Americans. While a number of Kellers works are considered dated and utilize plot lines or ideas that have since been dismissed as too simplistic or clichd, other stories contain the detailed ramifications of future technology and address taboo issues of that era (such as bisexuality) that a reader might expect in a modern science fiction story. The level of complexity found in Kellers writing rises above many other pulp stories of the same period and holds the promise of science fiction literature that would be fulfilled during the Golden Age of Science Fiction. Keller wrote a number of horror and fantasy stories, which some critics regard as superior to his SF work. Most notable is his 1932 horror tale "The Thing In The Cellar". 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.

David Keller's Books:

[The Thing In The Cellar]

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