David Henry Keller (December 23, 1880 – July 13, 1966) was an American writer who worked for pulp magazines in the mid-twentieth century, in the science fiction, fantasy, and horror genres.

He continued to work as a psychiatrist while publishing over sixty short stories in science fiction and horror genres.

[2] Keller was the Assistant Superintendent of the Louisiana State Mental Hospital at Pineville until Huey Long's reforms removed him from his position in 1928.

[2] Keller started out writing recreationally, and had written thirteen novels and fifty short stories before he considered publishing.

[4] Keller's first published work was "Aunt Martha", (1895, Bath Weekly) under the pseudonym Monk Smith.

Writing during the era of Ford's Model T, Keller may have been the first to consider the long-term effects of mainstream automobiles in the United States.

[5] Gernsback was impressed by Keller's 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.

[7] This began an intense writing period for Keller, but he was unable to support his family solely on a writer's income, so he set up a small private psychiatric practice out of his home in Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania.

Robert Weinberg wrote that a "generous loan" from Keller "prevented Arkham from going bankrupt during a period of cash flow problems".

[1] Robert Weinberg wrote that while Keller was popular as a short story writer in the 1920s and 1930s, his novels did not sell well.

[10]: 123 John Clute describes Keller's early work, published by Hugo Gernsback, as containing "heavily foregrounded concepts and Inventions and with their endemic indifference to plausible narrative follow-through".

[4] Keller's 1928 story "The Menace" revolves about a series of black plots to take over the United States; it has been described by Bleiler as "racially bigotted".

The last of these, "The Insane Avalanche", is a racist story about removing the black and lower-class white populations of America through violence and deportation.

[4]: 212  Keller expressed misogynistic views in stories like "Tiger Cat" where an opera singer tortures men into applauding her singing.

[11] This "corrosive attitude toward both science and civilization" appeared in his "anti-feminist, racist tendencies" and occasional "sexual sadism".

[11] Keller's themes were unique from those of his contemporaries; he emphasized the humanistic and sociological approach to science fiction.

[14][15] Skeptical of relinquishing all control to new technologies, Keller's works examined the human, emotional side to scientific arguments.

[2] Clute conceded that while Keller was not a good writer, his "conceptual inventiveness, and his cultural gloom, are worth more attention than they have received".

[11] Keller's writing style reflected author and publisher Hugo Gernsback's wishes for the SF community in Amazing Stories.

[4]: 215  The St. James Guide to Science Fiction Writers praised his use of the trope where a first-person narrator gradually reveals their insanity while not realizing it themselves.

[2] Keller wrote a number of horror and fantasy stories, which some critics, including Régis Messac, regard as superior to his science fiction work.

[13] 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.

[19] Keller also wrote some fantasy work inspired by his interest in Freudian psychology, including "The Golden Bough" (1934) and The Eternal Conflict (1939 in French; 1949 English).

Donald Tuck lists "A Piece of Linoleum", "Stenographer's Hands", "The Ivy War", and "Revolt of the Pedestrians" as his most notable stories, after "The Thing in the Cellar".

Clute writes that it was unusual for a science fiction story to "treat the hypertrophy of automobile culture in the twentieth century as Dystopian".

[23] (1948) - "Helen of Troy Loki" [citation needed] (1948) - "The Perfumed Garden" - The Gorgon v2 #4 (1949) - "The Door" - The Arkham Sampler Summer (1951) - "Chasm of Monsters" - Also published in The Folsom Flint and Other Curious Tales (1969) by Arkham House, and Keller Memento (November, 2010) by Ramble House, ISBN 978-1-60543-528-2.

[16] 1895 "Aunt Martha" (as Monk Smith) in Bath Weekly 1897 "A Phenomenon of the Stars" - The Mirror Feb 1899 "Judge Not" - in The Red and Blue (University of Pennsylvania) Nov 1900 "The Silent One" - in The Red and Blue Nov 1901 "A University Story" - (as Henry Cecil), in Presbyterian Journal (University of Pennsylvania) Dec 1902 "The Birth of a Soul" - (as Henry Cecil), in The White Owl Jan 1902 "A Three Linked Tail" - (as Matthew Smith), in The White Owl March 1902 "The Winning Bride" - (as Henry Cecil), in The White Owl March 1902 "The Great American Pie House" - (as Cecilia Henry), in The White Owl April 1902 "Mother Newhouse" - (as Henry Cecil), in The White Owl May 1902 "The Greatness of Duval" - in Ursinus Weekly Oct 1924 Songs of a Spanish Lover - privately printed under the name Henry Cecil[8] (1928) The Sexual Education Series, Roman Publishing Company, New York: (1933) "Types of Science Fiction" in Science Fiction Digest, March 1933, ed.