August Derleth regarded Evening in Spring (1941) as perhaps the best novel he ever wrote. The product of many years' work, the novel began as a novella written as early as 1929, under the title "The Early Years." Derleth wrote successive drafts of this text, showing some of them to his friend H. P. Lovecraft, who commented incisively upon them. Then, around 1940, he wrote the novel as we have it in a few months. This is a poignant tale of young...