The Shield of the Valiant

The Shield of the Valiant (1945) is one of the longest novels of the Sac Prairie saga that Derleth ever wrote. Covering the period 1938-41, it is an expansive narrative of the intertwined lives of several key citizens of that small town in Wisconsin: Rena Janney, an attractive teenager who is wooed by Kivden Sewall, to his parents' disapproval; Van Vliet Waterbury, the town's banker, overseeing the financial tribulations of citizens poor and wealthy; Royce Myron, a married man fatally attracted to the wiles of the seductive Megan Hods. Over all hangs the presence of Steve Grendon, now a successful novelist, and in many ways the town's conscience. He criticizes the townsfolk's propensity for malicious gossip, much of it fueled by religious prejudice, while at the same time luxuriating in the natural beauty of the landscape. The wonders and drawbacks of small-town life is keenly etched in this memorable novel.