David H. Keller

(December 23, 1880 – July 13, 1966)

David Henry Keller, M.D., was a Philadelphia physician and psychiatrist, a fan and a major early 1930s sf writer writing primarily for the pulps.

He usually published his fiction as David H. Keller, M.D., but also used the pseudonyms of Monk Smith, Matthew Smith, Amy Worth, Henry Cecil, Cecilia Henry and Jacobus Hubelaire. Fans called him Doc Keller.

Fan

Keller was a frequent contributor to fanzines, so much that Bruce Robbins compiled and published a checklist of his fanzine writing. Keller himself said, "During the past 25 years, I have contributed largely to fanzines and have never regretted it. The constant contact with youth has served to lessen the ravages of time. Many of my best friends were fanzine editors, While none ever asked me to serve as assistant editor, they all seemed to appreciate my efforts to make their magazines more interesting."

Chad Oliver said Keller contributed to his satirical one-shot zine, The Moon Puddle, "during a period when he was sending everything to fanzines."

Keller attended Midwestcon 1 in 1950 and Hydracon. He was friendly and accommodating to fans, and in 1966 (posthumously, unfortunately) he won both the Big Heart Award and First Fandom Hall of Fame. For the latter, only the third person inducted (after E. E. "Doc" Smith and Hugo Gernsback).

Keller was one of the early N3F members elected to Life Member status, along with Forrest J Ackerman. N3F Press published The Sign of the Burning Hart in 1948.

Pro

Keller wrote for the pulp magazines of the mid-twentieth century, writing fantasy and horror stories as well as science fiction. Genre historians have stated that he was the first psychiatrist to write science fiction.

In the late 1920s, Keller traveled to New York City to meet with Hugo Gernsback, publisher/editor of Amazing Stories, who had bought Keller's first published science fiction story, "The Revolt of the Pedestrians." Gernsback was impressed by Keller's quality of writing and ability to address sophisticated themes beyond commonplace technological predictions or alien encounters typically found in many of the early SF stories. He encouraged Keller's writing and later called these distinctive short stories "Kelleryarns."

In 1929, Gernsback founded Science Wonder Stories and not only published Keller's work in the first issue, but listed him as Associate Science Editor. (It was this issue of Science Wonder Stories that Gernsback began promoting the term "science fiction" to the world.) The beginning of this magazine also began an intense writing period for Keller, but he was unable to support his family solely on a writer's income and set up a small private psychiatric practice out of his home in Stroudsburg, PA.

While a number of Keller's works are considered dated and utilize plot lines or ideas that have since been dismissed as too simplistic or clichéd, other stories contained the detailed ramifications of future technology and addressed 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 Keller's writing rose above many other pulp stories of the same period and held the promise of "science fiction literature" that would later be fulfilled during science fiction's Golden Age.

Keller also 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," that has been reprinted several times in genre anthologies. Keller also created a series of fantasy stories later called the “Tales of Cornwall” sequence; these were said to have been influenced by the stories of the famous escapist novelist James Branch Cabell. Keller Memento: 25 Years of Short Stories by David H. Keller was published by Ramble House in 2010.

Original manuscripts by Keller were prizes for the first 10 fans who joined the Science Fiction League in 1934.

Personal Life

Keller was born in Philadelphia and grew up at Kellersville, his family’s ancestral home about 10 miles south of Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. He graduated from the School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in 1903.

He served as a neuro-psychiatrist in the United States Army Medical Corps during World Wars I and II, achieving the rank of lieutenant colonel, before retiring in 1945. He was the Assistant Superintendent of the Louisiana State Mental Hospital at Pineville (until Huey Long's reforms removed him from his position in 1928). Keller's medical training and unique experiences during the two world wars led to his many professional publications, including several monographs for servicemen. His specialty was treating soldiers who were "shell-shocked," the condition now known as post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD).

He was married three times: first to Ella Garis Phillips (December 11, 1880–September 27, 1923). They had two daughters, Margaret Keller Bowers (February 21, 1908–March 31, 1999) and Katharine Keller Griesemer (June 20, 1913-July 30, 1965); Margaret, or Margaretta, became a doctor like her father. His second wife was Ruth Still (May 11, 1893–October 21, 1936). They had a daughter together, Anne Keller Trevaskis (October 11, 1927–April 1982). By 1948, he was married to Celia Keller, who attended cons with him and tirelessly (and sometimes annoyingly) promoted him and his work.

He died five days after emergency surgery for a gangrenous gall bladder. He had been seriously ill in his last year, and had had a series of falls; he also suffered from diabetes, and had spent the year as an invalid, attended by Celia at Underwood, their home in Stroudsburg.

See:

• "A Checklist of the Non-Professional Writings of David H. Keller, M.D.," compiled by Bruce Robbins, in Paradox 7 (April 1966).
• Entry in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction.
• Encyclopedia of Fantasy entry.
• Technovelgy entry.
• Neglected author article in November, 2017 issue National Fantasy Fan.
• An illustrated article on Keller's book, The Sign of the Burning Hart, in the April, 2019, issue of Origin.
• Papers at Syracuse University.
• FindAGrave.
• The Final War by Keller.

Awards, Honors and GoHships:

• 1966 – Big Heart Award, First Fandom Hall of Fame.

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Person

1880—1966

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