Stewart Van der Veer (1893-1966)

John Stewart Van der Veer
Singer, Author, Newspaper Reporter & Feature Writer, Soldier & Ambulance Driver, Advertising Man
Born June 27, 1893, Frankfort, Kentucky
Died December 27, 1966, at home, Odenville, Alabama

John Stewart Van der Veer was born into a distinguished and long-established family in America, on June 27, 1893, in Frankfort, Kentucky. His father, John McLelland Van der Veer, was a businessman in Frankfort, later in Enid, Oklahoma; New Orleans, Louisiana; and Birmingham, Alabama. His mother, Rosalie (Stewart) Van der Veer, was a diarist and a "belle of the Bluegrass" before her wedding in 1892. (1) Stewart Van der Veer attended public schools, Episcopal Academy in Philadelphia, and the University of Kentucky. He studied to be a singer and appeared in "The Pirates of Penzance" at Tulane University in 1914, but his singing career appears to have been brief or at most only an avocation.

In 1916, Van der Veer went to the Mexican border in service with the 141st Field Artillery Regiment, a unit of the Louisiana National Guard better known as the Washington Artillery. In 1917-1918, he was an ambulance driver and sous-chef with the Red Cross in Italy. For his service, he was awarded the Croce al Merito di Guerra. In July 1918, Van de Veer delivered one of the men in his unit to a hospital in Milano. That man had been badly wounded by the explosion of a trench mortar shell. He survived, but his experience shaped his life and art. That man's name was Ernest Hemingway.

Stewart Van der Veer worked as a feature writer for the New Orleans Times-Picayune and a musical and theatrical reporter for the Kansas City Journal. Other newspapers with which he was associated were the Enid Daily News (he and his brothers were part owners of that Oklahoma newspaper) and the Kansas City Post. He established an advertising business in Kansas City but removed to Birmingham in the fall of 1924. Again, he worked for a newspaper, the Birmingham Post, and started his own company, Van der Veer Printing and Direct Mailing Advertising Company. His brother, John McClellan "Teddy" Van Der Veer (1895-1961), was also a newspaperman, as well as a radio commentator. The two sometimes worked together.

Van der Veer had a long career and retired in 1953 to Odenville, Alabama, where he established his own 200-acre Lazy V Ranch and built a popular fishing resort called Lazy V Lakes. He died at home in Odenville on December 27, 1966, at age seventy-five. By then most of his family were gone. He died without issue.

* * *

Stewart Van der Veer was the author of the novels Death for the Lady, a murder mystery set in New Orleans (1939); Remembered April, a romance of Kentucky (1941); and Interlude at Pelican Bend (1947), an adventure story, again set in New Orleans. Near the end of his life, he sat down to write an autobiography. Entitled Walk in My Moccasins (ca. 1966), it has apparently never been published. Remembered April was syndicated in newspapers nationwide. Interlude at Pelican Bend was reviewed by a fellow Alabama newspaperman, Artemus Calloway. (2) As it so happens, Calloway was also a contributor to Weird Tales. The two had known each other since at least 1926.

In addition to his novels and newspaper work, Van der Veer wrote poems and stories published in outdoor and adventure magazines, including pulp magazines. Here are all of his credits listed in The FictionMags Index:

• "The Yellow Specter" in Weird Tales (Apr. 1926)-Reprinted in More Not at Night (1926)
• "The Beckonin' Trail" in Triple-X Western #95 (poem, June 1932)
• "Rimrock’s Ghost Killer" in Triple-X Western #98 (Sept. 1932)
• "Bandit Trap" in Triple-X Western #101 (1934)
• "Long-Range Posse" in Dime Western Magazine (Sept. 1, 1934)
• "The Smokin' Fool" Pete Rice Magazine (Jan. 1935)
• "Killer of Blind Valley" in Doc Savage (Apr. 1935)
• "Powderhorn Law" in Street & Smith's Western Story Magazine (Apr. 27, 1935)
• "Goin' Up" in Hardboiled (Dec. 1936)
•  "Romance Comes to Jericho" in Western Romances #68 (Jan. 1937)

He also had poems in the Enid Daily News. Titles include "Trail to the Setting Sun" (Mar. 27, 1921, sec. B. p.1); "The Ledger of Life" (May 1, 1921, sec. B, p. 1); and "The Drifter" (May 15, 1921, sec. B, p.1)

As you can see, his first known pulp fiction story, "The Yellow Specter," was in Weird Tales. A long time ago, I noticed what I think might have been a pattern or a connection between Weird Tales and writers in Alabama. I'll write about that next in "Weird Tales in Alabama."

Stewart Van der Veer's Story in Weird Tales

"The Yellow Specter" (Apr. 1926)

Further Reading

• "About Birmingham: Stewart Van der Veer Is Our Town's Latest Addition to Who's Who, Supplement Reveals" by Lily May Caldwell in the Birmingham News, May 21, 1942, page 10.
• "Burros Here, Hinnies to Come" by Lane Carter in the Birmingham News Magazine, September 13, 1952, page 5.
• John Stewart Van der Veer Papers, 1909-1966, Birmingham Public Library, Archives Department, description accessible by clicking here.

Notes
(1) From "'So Much in Love . . .': The Courtship of a Bluegrass Belle--Rosalie Stewart's Diary, December 1890-July 1891" by Virginia Van der Veer Hamilton in The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society, Vol. 88, No. 1 (Winter 1990), pp. 24-44 (21 pages).
(2) "Stewart Van der Veer, Birmingham Writer, Has New Book Out" by Artemus Calloway in the Birmingham News, June 1, 1947, page 52.

"The Yellow Specter" was also reprinted as «El espectro amarillo» in Narraciones terroríficas #13, published by Molino Argentina in 1939.

A poem by Stewart Van der Veer, "Romance of War," from 1920.

John Stewart Van der Veer (1893-1966)

Original text copyright 2022 Terence E. Hanley