Carl Richard Jacobi
Encyclopedia
Carl Richard Jacobi was an American author. He wrote short stories in the horror, fantasy, science fiction and crime genres for the pulp magazine
market.
in 1908 and lived there throughout his life. He attended the University of Minnesota
from 1927 to 1930 where he began his writing career in campus magazines and was an undergraduate classmate of Donald Wandrei
.
His first stories were published while he was at the University. The last of these, "Moss Island", was a graduate's contribution to The Quest of Central High School, and "Mive" in the University of Minnesota's The Minnesota Quarterly. Both stories were later sold to Amazing Stories and Weird Tales
respectively and marked his debut in professional magazines. "Mive" brought him payment of 25 dollars.
He joined the editorial staff of The Minnesota Quarterly, and after graduation in 1931, he became a news reporter for the Minneapolis Star, as well as a frequent reviewer of books and plays. He also served on the staff of the Minnesota Ski-U-Mah, a scholastic publication.
Jacobi met August Derleth
in January 1931 when Derleth was visiting Minneapolis to see Donald Wandrei
. Jacobi had read Derleth's stories in Weird Tales and his Solar Pons
stories in Dragnet and asked to be introduced; they met for an evening at the Rainbow Cafe. Though Derleth and Jacobi corresponded for 40 years thereafter, Jacobi saw him but a few times in St Paul and never visited Derleth's home of Sauk City, Wisconsin. Over the following summer, when Derleth worked briefly as an editor for Fawcett Publications, outside Minneapolis, the three men frequently got together for barnstorming sessions.
After years with the Minneapolis Star, he was the editor for two years of Midwest Media, an advertising and radio trade journal. Later, he devoted himself full-time to writing. He owned his own private retreat, a cabin at Minnewashta in the Carver country outlands of Minneapolis. His intimate familiarity with the terrain and environment there provided the setting for many of his most distinguished stories. Jacobi was a lifelong bachelor.
From 1932 until his death in 1997, pulp writer Hugh B. Cave
corresponded with Jacobi. Scores of their letters are quoted in Cave's memoir Magazines I Remember (Chicago: Tattered Pages Press, 1994).
He wrote scores of tales for all the best known magazines of fantasy and science fiction and was represented in numerous anthologies of imaginative fiction published in the United States, England and New Zealand. His stories were translated into French, Swedish, Danish and Dutch. Many of his tales were published in anthologies edited by Derleth, and Arkham House
published his first three short story collections. Stories also appeared in such magazines as Short Stories
, Railroad Magazine, The Toronto Star, Wonder Stories, MacLean's magazine, Ghost Stories, Strange Stories, Thrilling Mystery, Startling Stories, Complete Stories, Top-Notch
and others. Though best known for his macabre fiction, Jacobi also wrote science fiction, weird-menace yarns and adventure stories.
By 1935, Jacobi was seeing a greater percentage of rejected stories, despite his care in polishing his work. Pressed by financial problems and the need to help his parents survive the Depression, he took a $50 a week job as a continuity writer for the local radio station where he stayed until 1940. When the pulp markets collapsed he took regular employment with one of the Honeywell Corp defense plants as an electronics inspector, a job that would last through WWII and beyond, while still pounding the typewriter off-duty. He worked the night shift at Honeywell seven days a week, which had a severe impact on both his writing schedule and his health, leading to severe heart problems.
Jacobi was always fascinated by adventure tales with a Southeast Asia setting, particularly in regard to Dutch central Borneo
and the Malay Archipelago
. Jacobi often wrote to officials working in Southeast Asia to obstain details for his stories, and he took justifiable pride in the accuracy of his knowledge of that background in his fiction.
At the time of the compilation of Revelations in Black (1947), Jacobi was at work on a novel, but it is unknown whether this was completed.
Debilitating illness crippled him during the final half-decade or so of his life, although his literary agent and biographer R. Dixon Smith did much to alleviate his various afflictions.
Jacobi died at St Louis Park, Minnesota on August 25, 1997. A photograph of him can be found at: http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/j/carl-jacobi/
Pulp magazine
Pulp magazines , also collectively known as pulp fiction, refers to inexpensive fiction magazines published from 1896 through the 1950s. The typical pulp magazine was seven inches wide by ten inches high, half an inch thick, and 128 pages long...
market.
Biography
Jacobi was born in Minneapolis, MinnesotaMinnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
in 1908 and lived there throughout his life. He attended the University of Minnesota
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is the oldest and largest part of the University of Minnesota system and has the fourth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 52,557...
from 1927 to 1930 where he began his writing career in campus magazines and was an undergraduate classmate of Donald Wandrei
Donald Wandrei
Donald Albert Wandrei was an American science fiction, fantasy and weird fiction writer, poet and editor. He wrote as Donald Wandrei. He was the older brother of science fiction writer and artist Howard Wandrei...
.
His first stories were published while he was at the University. The last of these, "Moss Island", was a graduate's contribution to The Quest of Central High School, and "Mive" in the University of Minnesota's The Minnesota Quarterly. Both stories were later sold to Amazing Stories and Weird Tales
Weird Tales
Weird Tales is an American fantasy and horror fiction pulp magazine first published in March 1923. It ceased its original run in September 1954, after 279 issues, but has since been revived. The magazine was set up in Chicago by J. C. Henneberger, an ex-journalist with a taste for the macabre....
respectively and marked his debut in professional magazines. "Mive" brought him payment of 25 dollars.
He joined the editorial staff of The Minnesota Quarterly, and after graduation in 1931, he became a news reporter for the Minneapolis Star, as well as a frequent reviewer of books and plays. He also served on the staff of the Minnesota Ski-U-Mah, a scholastic publication.
Jacobi met August Derleth
August Derleth
August William Derleth was an American writer and anthologist. Though best remembered as the first publisher of the writings of H. P...
in January 1931 when Derleth was visiting Minneapolis to see Donald Wandrei
Donald Wandrei
Donald Albert Wandrei was an American science fiction, fantasy and weird fiction writer, poet and editor. He wrote as Donald Wandrei. He was the older brother of science fiction writer and artist Howard Wandrei...
. Jacobi had read Derleth's stories in Weird Tales and his Solar Pons
Solar Pons
Solar Pons is a fictional detective created by August Derleth as a pastiche of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes.-Approach:On hearing that he had no plans to write more Holmes stories, the young Derleth wrote to Conan Doyle, asking permission to take over the job...
stories in Dragnet and asked to be introduced; they met for an evening at the Rainbow Cafe. Though Derleth and Jacobi corresponded for 40 years thereafter, Jacobi saw him but a few times in St Paul and never visited Derleth's home of Sauk City, Wisconsin. Over the following summer, when Derleth worked briefly as an editor for Fawcett Publications, outside Minneapolis, the three men frequently got together for barnstorming sessions.
After years with the Minneapolis Star, he was the editor for two years of Midwest Media, an advertising and radio trade journal. Later, he devoted himself full-time to writing. He owned his own private retreat, a cabin at Minnewashta in the Carver country outlands of Minneapolis. His intimate familiarity with the terrain and environment there provided the setting for many of his most distinguished stories. Jacobi was a lifelong bachelor.
From 1932 until his death in 1997, pulp writer Hugh B. Cave
Hugh B. Cave
Hugh Barnett Cave was a prolific writer of pulp fiction who also excelled in other genres.-Life:Born in Chester, England, Hugh B. Cave moved during his childhood with his family to Boston, Massachusetts, following the outbreak of World War I...
corresponded with Jacobi. Scores of their letters are quoted in Cave's memoir Magazines I Remember (Chicago: Tattered Pages Press, 1994).
He wrote scores of tales for all the best known magazines of fantasy and science fiction and was represented in numerous anthologies of imaginative fiction published in the United States, England and New Zealand. His stories were translated into French, Swedish, Danish and Dutch. Many of his tales were published in anthologies edited by Derleth, and Arkham House
Arkham House
Arkham House is a publishing house specializing in weird fiction founded in Sauk City, Wisconsin in 1939 by August Derleth and Donald Wandrei to preserve in hardcover the best fiction of H.P. Lovecraft. The company's name is derived from Lovecraft's fictional New England city, Arkham. Arkham House...
published his first three short story collections. Stories also appeared in such magazines as Short Stories
Short Stories (magazine)
-Origin of Short Stories:Short Stories began its existence as a literary periodical, carrying work by Rudyard Kipling,Emile Zola, Bret Harte, Ivan Turgenev and Anna Katharine Green. The magazine advertised...
, Railroad Magazine, The Toronto Star, Wonder Stories, MacLean's magazine, Ghost Stories, Strange Stories, Thrilling Mystery, Startling Stories, Complete Stories, Top-Notch
Top-Notch Magazine
Top-Notch Magazine was an American pulp magazine of adventure fiction that existed between 1910 and 1937. It was published by Street & Smith....
and others. Though best known for his macabre fiction, Jacobi also wrote science fiction, weird-menace yarns and adventure stories.
By 1935, Jacobi was seeing a greater percentage of rejected stories, despite his care in polishing his work. Pressed by financial problems and the need to help his parents survive the Depression, he took a $50 a week job as a continuity writer for the local radio station where he stayed until 1940. When the pulp markets collapsed he took regular employment with one of the Honeywell Corp defense plants as an electronics inspector, a job that would last through WWII and beyond, while still pounding the typewriter off-duty. He worked the night shift at Honeywell seven days a week, which had a severe impact on both his writing schedule and his health, leading to severe heart problems.
Jacobi was always fascinated by adventure tales with a Southeast Asia setting, particularly in regard to Dutch central Borneo
Borneo
Borneo is the third largest island in the world and is located north of Java Island, Indonesia, at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia....
and the Malay Archipelago
Malay Archipelago
The Malay Archipelago refers to the archipelago between mainland Southeastern Asia and Australia. The name was derived from the anachronistic concept of a Malay race....
. Jacobi often wrote to officials working in Southeast Asia to obstain details for his stories, and he took justifiable pride in the accuracy of his knowledge of that background in his fiction.
At the time of the compilation of Revelations in Black (1947), Jacobi was at work on a novel, but it is unknown whether this was completed.
Debilitating illness crippled him during the final half-decade or so of his life, although his literary agent and biographer R. Dixon Smith did much to alleviate his various afflictions.
Jacobi died at St Louis Park, Minnesota on August 25, 1997. A photograph of him can be found at: http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/j/carl-jacobi/