PulpRack

Labels: Age of Aces, Captain Philip Strange, Donald Keyhoe

As noted in the posting of the first section of The Gault Papers, R.T. "Ditch" Gault based a great deal of his information on the biography of Talbot Mundy by Peter Berresford Ellis, The Last Adventurer: The Life of Talbot Mundy (Donald Grant, 1984), and the bibliography of his works by Donald Grant, ed., Talbot Mundy: Messenger of Destiny (Donald Grant, 1983). Not yet published at the time Gault compiled his bibliographic essay -- nor yet before his death -- was Brian Taves' critical biography, Talbot Mundy, Philosopher of Adventure: A Critical Biography (McFarland & Company, 2005). 


In researching his book, Brian delved into more sources than Ellis had available and uncovered a great deal of material that Ellis didn't cover. Brian traveled to many place Mundy had lived and talked to people who knew Mundy, including his widow and stepson.


Brian is now working on another book, this one about silent film producer Thomas Ince. Mundy worked with Ince. The new book, due in the Autumn, describes how Mundy began working at Ince's studio and how the two men met in Africa.


Ellis' book was sorely needed at the time it was published. It's still good reading, but it has become a bit dated now. Seventy-one years after Mundy's death, there is still more to learn about this grand old fictioneer who shook the pages of Adventure magazine and whose works still thrill readers today.


Links:


Brian's thesis-centered Winds From the East: A Talbot Mundy Reader is also available from Amazon.


His forthcoming book, Thomas Ince: Hollywood's Independent Pioneer, will be available in November 2011.

Labels: Brian Taves, Peter Berresford Ellis, R.T. Gault, Talbot Mundy, Thomas Ince

The fourth and final section of The Gault Papers.


As noted in the first part of “The Gault Papers,” posted previously at The PulpRack, the following information was compiled and posted to the Internet by the late R.T. "Ditch" Gault under the title "Bibliographic Information on Talbot Mundy's Tibetan, Jimgrim, and Tros Story Series." See more info about the Gault Papers at those previous posts.

The information below wraps up Gault's bibliographic material on Mundy. It appeared at the end of his other citations and comments. I've set it apart from the other sections, as its focus differs slightly from that of the other bibliographic areas he developed. By the way, the accompanying illustration comes from the Classics Illustrated edition of King of the Khyber Rifles.


Talbot Mundy Omnibus Editions

1933.
All Four Winds
Hutchinson and Co. (1933) 1232 pages.
Contains King -- of the Khyber Rifles, Jimgrim, Black Light, and Om.

1936.
Romances of India
A. L. Burt (1936) 1033 pgs. McCelland & Sewart (1936) 1033.
Contains King -- of the Khyber Rifles, Guns of the Gods, and Told in the East (1923).

Nonfiction

1947.
I Say Sunrise.
No magazine publication.
Published post-humuously. First British ed.: Andrew Dakers Ltd. (London, 1947), 182 pgs. First American ed.: Milton F. Wells (Philadelphia 1949), 187 pgs.

- Reprints:
S. J. R. Saunders (Toronto 1949), 187 pgs. DeVorss & Co. (1964), 182 pgs., trade pb.; early printings of the DeVorss ed. had same cover as Dakers ed. My copy of DeVorss' 6th printing (1983) lists only the copyright date for 1947. DeVorss ed. is most likely a rpt. of the British first ed.
Mundy's personal mystical philosophy.

Thus Spake the Devil, which he planned to publish under the pseudonym "Malloy Grayson." He was unable to sell it, and later completely rewrote the ms., and it is that version which was eventually published as I Say Sunrise. *(NOTE 1)

* NOTE:

1.  Peter Barresford Ellis, Last Adventurer, p. 208.

- R.T. Gault

LINKS:

Last Adventurer: The Life of Talbot Mundy by Peter Beresford Ellis is also available from Amazon. This biography may be in short supply. Click here to learn more from Amazon.

Talbot Mundy: Messenger of Destiny by Donald M. Grant is also available from Amazon. This book may be in short supply. Click here to learn more from Amazon.

Talbot Mundy, Philosopher of Adventure: A Critical Biography by Brian Taves is also available from Amazon

Labels: Adventure, R.T. Gault, Talbot Mundy

As noted in the first two parts of “The Gault Papers,” posted elsewhere at The PulpRack, the following information was compiled and posted to the Internet by the late R.T. "Ditch" Gault under the title "Bibliographic Information on Talbot Mundy's Tibetan, Jimgrim, and Tros Story Series." See more info about the Gault Papers at those previous posts. Now, on to Gault’s Tros essay:

Bibliographic Information on Talbot Mundy's Tros of Samothrace Series

The saga of Tros of Samothrace is the most unified and sustained of Talbot Mundy's extended works. It is probably his best-remembered and most influential series, especially among science fiction and fantasy writers, who borrowed much from the cycle.

Shortly after Mundy finished Om he began planning a novel that he called Queen Cleopatra. He put the project aside, and instead produced a massive epic based around one of the supporting cast members of his projected novel, a Greek sailor-adventurer named Tros of Samothrace. Mundy's aim may have been to create interest for his Cleopatra novel in the pages of Adventure (abbreviated below as A). The series sparked a hot historical debate that ran for a decade. Mundy's revisionism, especially his view of Rome as a proto-fascist state, was ahead of its time.

The Tros Saga

1925-6.
Tros of Samothrace.

- 1. Tros of Samothrace, A: 10 February 1925.

- 2. The Enemy of Rome, A: 10 April 1025.

- 3. Prisoners of War, A: 10 June 1925.

- 4. Hostages to Luck, A: 20 August 1025

- 5. Admiral of Caesar's Fleet, A: 10 October 1925.

- 6. The Dancing Girl of Gades, A: 10 December 1925.

- 7. Messenger of Destiny, A: 10 February 1926

- 8. Messenger of Destiny, A: 20 February 1926.

- 9. Messenger of Destiny, A: 28 February 1926.

These nine installments were rewitten as Tros of Samothrace.
First American ed.: D. Appleton-Century Co. (September 1934), 949 pgs. First English ed.: Hutchinson & Co. (October 1934), 960 pgs; Buccaneer Books, 1995.

The length of the final novel gives some idea of the scope of the work. The novel spans from 55 BC, as Caesar makes plans to invade Britain, and ends with the failure of those invasion plans.

1929.
Queen Cleopatra.
Not published in magazine form.
First American ed.: Bobbs-Merrill (February 1929), 426 pgs; and a special edition limited to 265 copies, signed by author, also dated February 1929. First English ed.: Hutchinson & Co. (March 1929).

As in original plan, Cleopatra is the main protagonist, but Tros' role may have expanded due to the popularity of the Adventure series. Ends with the assassination of Caesar, and Cleopatra's escape from Rome.

1935.
The Purple Pirate.

- 1. Battle Stations, A: 1 May 1935.

- 2. Cleopatra's Promise, A: 15 June 1935.

- 3. The Purple Pirate, A: 15 August 1935.

- 4. Fleets of Fire, A: 1 October 1935.

These four installments were rewritten as Purple Pirate. First American ed.: D. Appleton-Century Co. (October 1935), 367 pgs. First English ed.: Hutchinson & Co. (November 1935), 496 pgs; Amereon Ltd, 1991.

This novel concerns civil wars after Caesar's death. Ends before Cleopatra's death.

Two paperback reprints of the Tros Saga have generally confused many readers who haunt used bookshops.

The Avon printings of the late 1960s:
Avon published Tros of Samothrace in four volumes, breaking them at the same place that Mundy did:

- 1. Tros (1967) comprised installments 1 & 2; reprinted by Tandem Books (London 1971).

- 2. Helma (1967) comprised installments 3 & 4; reprinted by Tandem Books (London 1971).

- 3. Liafail (1967) comprised installments 5 & 6; reprinted by Tandem Books (London 1971).

- 4. Helene (1967) comprised installments 7, 8 & 9; reprinted by Tandem Books (London 1971).

Avon also reprinted The Purple Pirate and Queen Cleopatra (both 1970) with wonderful and sexy Frank Frazetta covers.

The only kind thing that can be said about the Zebra Books' reprinting of the Tros Saga is that they did keep it in print. Zebra published Tros of Samothrace in three volumes, breaking the stories in illogical mid-points of the Mundy originals:

- 1. Lud of Luden (September 1976), comprised installments 1, 2, and the first half of 3 (Prisoners of War). Numerous misprints and spelling errors.

- 2. Avenging Liafail (October 1976), comprised the last half of installment 3, plus 4 and the first half of 5 (Admiral of Caesar's Fleet). Numerous misprints and spelling errors.

- 3. The Praetor's Dungeon (November 1976), comprised the last half of installment 5, with 6 through 9. Numerous misprints and spelling errors.

- 4. Purple Pirate (January 1977). Order of the novels is misrepresented on the cover. Extremely badly printed (almost unreadable), with ultra fine print, monstrous proof and copy reader's errors, and the usual misprints and spelling errors. An incredibly bad production all round.

- 5. Queen Cleopatra (April 1978). Order of the novels is misrepresented on the cover. The usual stupid errors, but much improved over Purple Pirate.

Zebra Books was hot on series novels and liked to number their Science Fiction and Fantasy books, even if they didn't need numbers (a lamentable trend begun by Pinnacle Books in the late 1960s). Zebra numbered their covers of the Tros series Volume 1 through 5, but got the order of the last two wrong, listing Purple Pirate as vol. 4 and Queen Cleopatra as vol. 5! This must have confused the hell out of the readers to learn that Caesar was dead in Vol. 4, and finally assassinated in Vol. 5. Maybe somebody else will reprint the saga again, and do it right.

- by R.T. Gault

Links:


Last Adventurer: The Life of Talbot Mundy by Peter Beresford Ellis is also available from Amazon. This biography may be in short supply. Click here to learn more from Amazon.

Talbot Mundy: Messenger of Destiny by Donald M. Grant is also available from Amazon. This book may be in short supply. Click here to learn more from Amazon.

Talbot Mundy, Philosopher of Adventure: A Critical Biography by Brian Taves is also available from Amazon


There are some Tros eBooks available for the Kindle at Amazon, but I don’t know which versions or editions on which they are based.

Labels: Talbot Mundy, Tros

As noted in the first part of “The Gault Papers,” posted previously at The PulpRack, the following information was compiled and posted to the Internet by the late R.T. "Ditch" Gault under the title "Bibliographic Information on Talbot Mundy's Tibetan, Jimgrim, and Tros Story Series." See more info about the Gault Papers at that previous post. Now, on to Gault’s JimGrim essay:

Bibliographic Information on Talbot Mundy's Jimgrim Series

Stories concerning James Grim (Jimgrim) formed the longest sustained series written by Talbot Mundy. The series ran from 1922 until 1932. Jimgrim supposedly died in Jimgrim (1930-31). Mundy did not take this seriously, knowing full well that he could bring him back whenever he needed to. Later titles with Chullunder Ghose as the protagonist are seen, here, as final parts of the "Jimgrim Saga." Also included are several precursors to the Jimgrim saga that were written before 1922, utilizing characters who were eventually worked into the Jimgrim universe.

The Jimgrim books were not published in logical or sequential order. All stories, known, are given below in the order they were published in Adventure magazine. This is believed to be the general sequential order of the stories as well.

Not all of the Jimgrim stories that appeared in magazine form were published in book editions. More Jimgrim stories appeared in English book editions than in American editions. This may hint that the Jimgrim stories were more popular in England than in America.

Most of these stories were defined by the magazines as "novels," though many of them would be defined today as "short novels." A typical Mundy installment in Adventure ran from 50,000 to 60,000 words. None of the Jimgrim stories are listed as "Short Stories" in Grant's bibliographies of Mundy's works, so all Jimgrim magazine stories have been considered uniformly throughout.

All original Jimgrim stories were published in Adventure unless otherwise noted. Reprints and later editions have been ignored. Date at extreme left is the year of first publication.

Early Works that relate to the "Jimgrim Saga":

1914.
A Soldier and a Gentleman.
Adventure: November 1914. No book publication.
Introduces the Princess Yasmini, heroine of King -- of the Khyber Rifles (1916) and early Jimgrim tales. Yasmini is a well-known prototype (and also an archetype) known as the "dangerous woman." In most of the stories in which she appears she is often a double agent, playing off two employers while proceeding with her own agenda.

1915.
Winds of the World.
Adventure: 3 installments, July - September 1915.
First English ed: Constable & Co (1916). First American ed: Bobbs Merrill Co (1917). Princess Yasmini.

1916.
King -- of the Khyber Rifles.
Everybody's Magazine, 9 installments beginning May 1916.
Frist ed: Bobbs-Merrill Co. (1916). First English ed.: King, of..., Constable & Co. (1917). Many subsequent rpts.
Introduces Athelstan King, who appears in the Jimgrim tales. King is the prototype of Mundy's British colonial secret service agents.

1921.
Guns of the Gods.
Adventure: 4 installments, 3 March - 3 May 1921.
First American ed.: Bobbs-Merill Co, (June 1921). First English ed.: Hutchinson & Co. (November 1921).
The youth of Princess Yasmini.

The Jimgrim Saga:

1921.
Jimgrim and Allah's Peace.
Adventure: “Adventure of El Karak,” 10 November 1921, and “Under the Dome of the Rock,” 10 December 1912.
First English ed.: Hutchinson & Co. (1933). First American ed.: D. Appleton-Century Co (1936).
First appearance of Jimgim in Mundy's work. In the early stories he is an American who works for the British Secret Service in the near-east.

1922.
Almost all of Mundy's output for this year were Jimgrim related stories.

1922.
The "Iblis" at Lud. 
Adventure: 10 January 1921. No book publication.

1922.
The Seventeen Thieves of Elalil.
Adventure: 20 February 1921.
First English ed.: Hutchinson & Co. (1935). No American book ed.

1922.
The Lion of Petra. 
Adventure: 20 March 1922.
First English ed.: Hutchinson & Co. (1932). First American ed., D Appleton-Century Co. (1933).

1922.
The Woman Ayisha. 
Adventure: 20 April 1922.
First English ed.: Hutchinson & Co (1930). First American ed.: The Hundred Days and the Woman Ayisha, The Century Co. (1931); dust cover lists title as The Hundred Days (see below, 1930).

1922.
The Lost Trooper. 
Adventure: 30 May 1922.
First English ed.: Hutchinson & Co. (1931). No American book ed.

1922.
The King in Check. 
Adventure: 10 July 1922.
First English ed.: Hutchinson & Co. (1933). First American ed.: D. Appleton-Century Co. (1934).

1922.
A Secret Society.
Adventure: 10 August 1922.
No book publication.
Jimgrim resigns from the British Secret Service to be a free agent.

1922.
Moses and Mrs. Aintree.
Adventure: 10 September 1922.
No book publication.

1922.
The Mystery of Khufu's Tomb. 
Adventure: “Khufu's Real Tomb,” 10 October 1922.
First English ed.: Hutchinson & Co. (1933). First American ed.: D. Appleton-Century Co. (1935).

1922.
Caves of Terror.
Adventure: “The Grey Mahatma,” 10 November 1922.
First American ed., Garden City Publishing Co. (1924). First English ed.: Hutchinson & Co. (1932).
No Jimgrim, but with related characters King, Rasmden, and Yasmini. The first Jimgrim-related story to be set in India rather than in the near-east.

1922.
Benefit of Doubt.
Adventure: 10 December 1922.
See Jungle Jest (below, 1923).
Related to Jimgrim tales because of appearance of King. First appearance of Cottswold Ommany, hero of Om.

1923.
Jungle Jest. 
Adventure: “Benefit of Doubt” (above), “Treason,” 10 1923, and “Diana Against Ephesians.” First two stories appeared before The Nine Unknown (below), and the last story directly after.
First English ed.: Hutchinson and Co. (1930). First American ed.: the Century Co. (1930).
Cottswold Ommany.

1923.
The Nine Unknown. 
Adventure: 5 installments, 30 March - 10 August 1923.
First American ed.: Bobbs-Merrill Co., (March 1924). First English ed.: Hutchinson & Co. (June 1924).
Jimgrim arrives in India with style. The first of Mundy's genuinely mystical books.

1923.
The Marriage of Meldrum Strange.
Adventure: 10 October 1923. First English ed.: Hutchinson & Co. (1930). No American book ed.
Strange was Jimgrim's millionaire backer after he left the British. Lots of the regular characters, plus Ommany.

1923.
The Hundred Days. 
Adventure: “Mohammed's Tooth,” 10 December 1923.
First English ed.: Hutchinson & Co. (1930). First American ed.: The Hundred Days and the Woman Ayisha (1931).
Two novels in one volume (see Woman Ayisha, above).

1924.
Om: The Secret of Ahbor Valley
Adventure: 6 installments, 10 October - 30 November 1924.
First American ed. Bobbs-Merrill Co. (1924). First English ed. Hutchinson & Co. (1925).
Not properly a Jimgrim novel, but Ommany and some of the supporting characters appear in Jimgrim stories. Mundy's sole published output for 1924.

1925.
Mundy's entire output for 1925, and the first quarter of 1926, were stories about Tros of Samothrace, which would ultimately be published as Tros of Samothrace (1934), which had more than 949 pages in the American ed.

1926.
The Devil's Guard.
Adventure: Rasmden, 5 installments, 8 June - 8 August 1926.
First American Edition: Bobbs-Merrill (1926). First English ed.: Rasmden, Hutchinson & Co. (1926).
Jimgrim and Co. go to Tibet searching for Shambhala.

1927.
The Red Flame of Erinpura. 
Adventure: 1 January 1927.
First English ed.: Hutchinson & Co. (1934). No American book ed.
Chullunder Ghose is the protagonist.

1930-31.
Jimgrim.
Adventure: King of the World, 7 installments, 15 November 1930 - 15 February 1931.
First American ed.: The Century Co. (March 1931). First English ed. Hutchinson & Co. (April 1931).
Global adventure tale with settings in southern France, Egypt, India, Nepal, and Tibet. Jimgrim supposed dead in explosion of villain's monastery near lake Koko Nor.

1931.
The Babu. 
Adventure: 10 October 1931.
No book ed.
Chullunder Ghose tale.

1931.
Case 13.
Adventure: 1 January 1932.
No book ed.
Chullunder Ghose tale.

1931.
Chullunder Ghose the Guileless. 
Adventure: 1 March 1932.
No book ed.
Chullunder Ghose tale.

1933.
C.I.D. 
Adventure: 4 installments, 1 March - 15 April 1933.
First English ed.: Hutchinson & Co (June 1932). First American ed.: The Century Co. (November 1932).
Chullunder Ghose tale. The Adventure installments were published after the book edition was already on sale, an unusual order of things.

1934-5.
Mundy's long association with Adventure magazine, and his prolific period as a writer, were coming to an end. Mundy's only new major work for Adventure came in 1935 when he produced a new Tros of Samothrace series for them. This was eventually the novel The Purple Pirate (1935).

- by R.T. Gault

Links:

Tom Roberts’ Black Dog Books is publishing a series of books in its Talbot Mundy Library. Several volumes already are available, which include some of the stories listed above.

There is a Kindle edition of The JimGrim Novels, which includes six novels, at Amazon.

Last Adventurer: The Life of Talbot Mundy by Peter Beresford Ellis is also available from Amazon. This biography may be in short supply. Click here to learn more from Amazon.

Talbot Mundy: Messenger of Destiny by Donald M. Grant is also available from Amazon. This book may be in short supply. Click here to learn more from Amazon.

Talbot Mundy, Philosopher of Adventure: A Critical Biography by Brian Taves is also available from Amazon

Labels: JimGrim, R.T. Gault, Talbot Mundy

Labels: JimGrim, R.T. Gault, Talbot Mundy, Tibetan, Tros

Welcome to the new home of The PulpRack.

The process for maintaining the former Website-based PulpRack was becoming too clunky for me to manage in a timely manner--the demands on my time have become greater in recent years, and using my blogs is a quicker and more efficient method for me to put info out into the world, so I allowed the PulpRack Website to go moribund. Actually, I didn't really know if it had any traffic anymore.

However, at PulpFest in Columbus, Ohio, more than one person said, "I tried to access the PulpRack the other day, and it wasn't there." So, here we are.

I'm kicking off this relaunch of the PulpRack in its new incarnation as a blog with a brief PulpFest 2011 report. In the following weeks, I'll be posting new stuff interspersed with reposts of items that originally resided on the PulpRack Website. People apparently still refer to bibliographies and other items that were posted there. My original intention for the PulpRack was to serve as a reference site. With the proliferation of information-access apps and whatnot through mobile devices and the ubiquity of the Internet, I thought my site had become a redundant resource. But apparently not.

So, onward to PulpFest!

This was my first PulpFest. My last pulp convention was PulpCon 35 in 2006. Both of the guests of honor at that convention (Philip Klass [May 9, 1920 – February 7, 2010] and Anastassios Kyriakakos aka Ernest Chiriacka [1913-2010]) have died since that time.

Walker Martin has posted an entertaining PulpFest report at Laurie Powers' enjoyable blog, Laurie's Wild West. I'll just add a few remarks to complement that report from my perspective.

I was thrilled to see a pulp convention that was dynamic and thriving. Unfortunately, the last couple of PulpCons I attended had dwindling attendance. Many vibrant dealers and fans who had been at the PulpCons I had initially attended are now gone: Howard DeVore, Harry Noble, Jack Deveny, et al. Some are now in a fragile state: Al Tonik--whose PulpCon reports I read in fanzines which were the source of my knowledge about pulp fandom--is no longer able to attend; Nick Wooda Carr--whose articles on pulp westerns taught me tons about that genre--moves very slowly these days; and Don Hutchison--the Dapperest Gentleman in Pulp Fandom, author of The Great Pulp Heroes and editor of Scarlet Riders and It's Raining More Corpses in Chinatown--is showing his age, though still demonstrates grace and panache.

But PulpFest 2011 also had a lot of younger folks in attendance, many who were attending their first pulp convention and had only recently learned about the world of pulp culture. And they were very interested and enthusiastic and eager to learn more and  to participate in fandom. I was also pleased to see an expanded number of dealers and types of products available. This is all good news for the continued health and growth of our eccentric hobby. (Maybe -- after I've looked around and seen the focus of some other hobbies -- pulp fandom isn't so eccentric as we fans occasionally like to imagine.)

I was pleased to see available a greater number of books reprinting pulp stories. That there is a market for these kinds of books demonstrates the viability of this realm of writing that pulp fans love, and that the writing is, at heart, good: I recognize that's a pretty generalized statement, and it probably deserves a posting all its own. But the best pulp writers demonstrated a verve and mastery of narrative that's just as dynamic and entertaining to readers today as at the time their works were originally published.

Now, back to PulpFest itself.

(I said above "a few remarks," but looks like I've gotten a bit more long winded than I expected when I started writing this post.)

Okay, back to brief.  PulpFest 2011 rocked. Great people, excellent programming, fun times. I hadn't intended to spend a lot of cash on items, except for maybe two reprint books. I ended up buying three reprints, two old paperback anthologies of western stories, a Have Gun Will Travel tie-in novel by Noel Loomis (after Chuck Welch decided to pass on it), and three pulp magazines. I would have purchased more if  the budget would have allowed such a spree, but I anticipate I'll be contacting some of the small press publishers in attendance for an order or two in the coming months as my coffers allow. As it is, I have plenty of pulp reading ahead of me for the coming weeks.

I gave a reading as a "new pulp fictioneer" from three of my works in progress: an excerpt from Space Detective, an alternative-1950s SF/hard-boiled detective novel I'm working on with British artist Mike Fyles; a chapter from Shalimar Bang, about a contemporary pulp-styled action-adventure team; and a short chapter from a western novel, The Express Agent.  The audience was interested, the Q&A lively, and the experience overall was very enjoyable. I look forward to doing another reading someday.

I also joined five other new pulp fictioneers -- Dr. Art Sippo, Greg Gick, Win Scott Eckert (of Wold Newton fame), Wayne Reinagel, and Bill Craig -- in a panel moderated by Airship 27's Ron Fortier. The topic was new pulp writing. Quite a number of people were in the audience, and again the crowd was enthusiastic and very nice. Ron did a great job moderating, and all the panelists did a fine job providing background on new pulp-styled writing and offering encouragement to the audience members to learn and read more.

I'm looking forward to next year's 'Fest!

Labels: PulpCon, PulpFest, reading, Ron Fortier