Donald Wandrei

Donald Wandrei (April 20, 1908-October 15, 1987) was born in St. Paul in 1908. Before attending the University of Minnesota, Wandrei worked part-time in the Saint Paul Public Library and the Hill Reference Library, which exposed him to literature he would not otherwise have had access to. He graduated with a degree in English in 1928. After college he began contributing stories and poems to Weird Tales and other publications and was influenced by his friend and mentor, the horror-fantasy writer H. P. Lovecraft. He worked in advertising in New York for many years while making his mark in the world of fantastic fiction. He returned to St. Paul after serving in the army during World War II.

Wandrei finished his first story when he was a teenager, but he was not published until he was twenty. In the 1930s, he published many stories and poems in pulp magazines. He was close friends with H. P. Lovecraft and others in Lovecraft’s circle. Wandrei wrote several novels, but only one was speculative fiction. Later, he branched out into detective fiction. He co-founded Arkham House, a publishing house dedicated to keeping the legacy of Lovecraft alive. His books include Colossus, The Web of Easter Island, and The Eye and the Finger.