Chapter 2

Adventure--1929--February 1

HO FOR LONDON TOWN

Argosy-All-Story--1929--February 2 to February 23 (Serial 4 parts) (W.H.--BOOK) (The Queen's Warrant--POCKETBOOK)

IN OLD NARADA FORT

Adventure--1929--February 15

ASOKA'S ALIBI

Argosy-All-Story--March 9 to March 23--1929 (Serial 3 parts)

BY ALLAH WHO MADE TIGERS

Argosy-All-Story--1929--April 27 to May 11 (Serial 3 parts)

FLAME OF CRUELTY

Romance--1929--August

THE INVISIBLE GUNS OF KABUL

Adventure--1929--October 1 to December 1 (Serial 5 parts) (Cock O' the North--BOOK)

CONSISTENT ANYHOW

Adventure--1930--February 1

THE AFFAIR AT KALIGAON

Argosy--1930--May 24 to June 7 (Serial 3 parts)

KING OF THE WORLD

Adventure--1930--November 15 to February 15, 1931 (Serial 7 parts) (Jimgrim--BOOK)

ELEPHANT SAHIB

Argosy--1930--December 6 to January 10, 1931 (Serial 6 parts)

BLACK FLAG

Adventure--1931--May 1

THE MAN ON THE MAT

Adventure--1931--August 1

THE BABU

Adventure--1931--October 1

THE EYE TEETH OF O'HARA

Adventure--1931--November 1 (The Valiant View--BOOK)

CASE 13

Adventure--1932--January 1

CHULLUNDER GHOSE, THE GUILELESS

Adventure--1932--March 1

WATU (a reminiscence)

Adventure--1932--April 1

WHITE TIGERS

Adventure--1932--August 1 to August 15 (Serial 2 parts)

C.I.D.

Adventure--1933--March 1 to April 15 (Serial 4 parts) (C.I.D.--BOOK)

THE MAN FROM POONCH

Argosy--1933--June 17 (The Valiant View--BOOK)

THE RED SEA CARGO

Adventure--1933--August

MILK OF THE MOON

Argosy--1933--September 17

CAMERA

Argosy--1934--January 6

THE GODS SEEM CONTENTED

Argosy--1934--September 15

BENGAL REBELLION

Blue Book--1935--January

BATTLE STATIONS

Adventure--1935--May 1 (Purple Pirate--BOOK)

CLEOPATRA'S PROMISE

Adventure--1935--June 15 (Purple Pirate--BOOK)

PURPLE PIRATE

Adventure--1935--August 15 (Purple Pirate--BOOK)

FLEETS OF FIRE

Adventure--1935--October 1 (Purple Pirate--BOOK)

THE WOLF OF THE PASS

All Aces--1936--Hay

THE ELEPHANT WAITS

Short Stories--1937--February 25

COMPANION IN ARMS

Adventure--1937--November

ROMAN HOLIDAY

Golden Fleece--1938--October

THE NIGHT THE CLOCKS STOPPED

Adventure--1941--March

ODDS ON THE PROPHET

Short Stories--1941--August 10

FULL MOON

Famous Fantastic Mysteries--1953--February (Full Moon--BOOK) (There Was A Door--BOOK)

Written under the pen-name of WALTER GALT these tales of Billy Blain, pugilist--all from Adventure Magazine

THE GONER 1912--February

THE SECOND RUNG 1912--June

DORG'S LUCK 1912--August

ACROSS THE COLOR LINE 1912--October

LOVE AND WAR 1912--November

THE TOP OF THE LADDER 1912--December

ONE YEAR LATER 1913--February

NOTHING DOING 1914--September

THE RETURN OF BILLY BLAIN 1914--November

BILLY BLAIN EATS BISCUITS 1916--January

BILLY BLAIN'S ONIONS AND GARLIC 1916--February

Two articles under this pen-name

FRANCIS BANNERMAN--A MAN OF MYSTERY & HISTORY 1912--May

ELEPHANT HUNTING FOR A LIVING 1912--July

His sagas; with a story sequence of various characters by Dr. J. Lloyd Eaton

Talbot Mundy was a prolific writer of historical tales and stories of adventure-intrigue, his particular forte being tales of India and the Near East. Twelve of his novels are listed in THE CHECKLIST OF FANTASTIC LITERATURE, with themes of mysticism, black versus white magic, lost-race, and even true science fiction. Many others of his stories are borderline fantastics.

In the field of fantastic literature his works are highly prized (often highly priced, also) and many such readers find, possibly to their surprise, that they also enjoy his other stories. This may be due in some part to the fact that Mundy used the same characters over and over again, in novels in which each played the lead and as sub-characters in other novels. One keeps meeting old friends.

This leads to one difficulty in reading Mundy, however. If one is going to meet these characters, it is much more enjoyable to watch them develop from birth, so to speak--and not vice versa, like coming into a theatre in the middle of the picture. But, a reading sequence is a real difficulty. Each story is complete in itself, but the characters are re-shuffled into various combinations and any one of them may, and does, strike off into a novel of his own, only to reappear at a later date in some combination with other such characters. It is confusing, to say the least. To add to the confusion, all or nearly all of Mundy's stories first appeared in magazines, largely in Adventure, but later in Argosy. As his popularity grew, his older stories were republished in book form, as well as each of his new novels, so that the date of publication of his books means nothing as far as reading chronology is concerned.

Before going any further, it may be interesting to digress a bit, and consider some of his earlier stories in Adventure Magazine, and more particularly as they apply to his books. No attempt is being made to give a complete listing of his magazine stories here. Adventure Magazine began publication in November 1910, but the earliest issue that I have for reference is that of August 1911. This contains a short story by Mundy, "The Phantom Battery." By this time he was publishing five to eight short stories per year. These early stories were mostly about the British Army and the most important was his "The Soul of A Regiment," (February 1913) a tale of native troops in the ill-fated first expedition against the Dervishes in Egypt, with a surprise, terrific, ending. This story was published as a book, "The Soul of A Regiment," (Alex Dulfer, San Francisco, 1925) and was anthologized by Arthur Sullivant Hoffman in "Adventure's Beet Stories--1926" (Doran, New York, 1926). It was reprinted in Adventure Magazine in April 1917 and followed next month be a sequel, "The Damned Old Nigger." Three of his early novelettes (1913), "Hookum Hai," "For the Salt He Had Eaten," and "Machassan Ah," will be found in the book "Told in the East," (Bobbs-Merrill, Indianapolis, 1920). The first two concern the Sepoy Revolt and the third is a humorous story of the British Navy. All are good tales. The characters in the latter appear also in "An Arabian Night" (Adventure, November 1913). The first of his Indian hillman type stories is probably the short novel "The Letter of His Orders" (Adventure, September 1913). His first serial, "For the Peace of India" (Adventure, February to April 1914) was published in the book "Rung Ho" (Scribners, New York, 1914) and is another good story of the Sepoy Rebellion. In January and July 1914, appeared two stories about the Princess Yasmini, a character that he used extensively in later novels--as the lead, with King, with Ranjoor Singh, and in the Jimgrim-Ramsden saga. The first of his sagas (Dick Anthony of Arran) was never published in book form. This series included eight novelettes and short novels, enough to fill four or five books, and appeared in successive issues of Adventure Magazine, beginning August 1914. These were very good adventure tales of a Scotch gentleman fighting for Iran against Old Russia, but are rather dated now. Following this, most of his novels appeared first in a magazine and were then immediately published in book form.

This brings us to the "Jimgrim-Ramsden Saga," the greatest of them all. If the early (and later) development of the associated characters is added, it continues through twenty-one books (twenty-two novels), and fifteen books (sixteen novels) for the actual Jimgrim-Ramsden stories. This is not counting some eighteen novelettes and novels found in magazines only.

This Saga, in the main, is the story of James Schuyler Grim, (Jimgrim) a remarkable characterization, beginning as an American "Lawrence in Arabia" and evolving into a human but unapproachable high priest of the occult. There is Jeff Ramsden, the strong man and his closest friend, who with the Australian, Jeremy Ross, make up the triumvirate of Grim, Ross, and Ramsden, with their henchman Narayan Singh, the indomitable Sikh. (Who cuts throats with an outward thrust.) Later the multimillionaire, Meldrum Strange, hires them to fight evil. Then, Athelbert King, a hero of novels in his own right, joins up, making a quartet. Other characters from Mundy's novels appear--the seductive and dangerous Princess Yasmini; Cotswold Ommony, the forester of India; the Babu, Chullunder Ghose; the Gunga Sahib, and O'Hara.

His sagas

For an interesting reading sequence, the following is suggested. *** means excellent escapist reading--and fantastic (***) means excellent escapist reading--not fantastic Numbers indicate a book Indented numbers with letter mean magazine only Major characters, and their appearances, follow each title (Ramsden tells many of the stories and is not listed except as necessary to connect the series.)

JIMGRIM-RAMSDEN, et al, Saga

(***) 1. GUNS OF THE GODS (Bobbs-Merrill) Yasmini 1.

(***) 1a. A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN (Adventure January 1914) Yasmini 2.

(***) 1b. GULBAZ AND THE GAME (Adventure July 1914) Yasmini 3.

(***) 2. THE WINDS OF THE WORLD (Cassell) Yasmini 4. Ranjoor Singh 1.

(***) 3. HIRA SINGH (Bobbs-Merrill) Ranjoor Singh 2.

*** 4. KING--OF THE KHYBER RIFLES (Bobbs-Merrill) King 1. Yasmini 5.

(***) 5. JIMGRIM AND ALLAH'S PEACE (Appleton-Century) Jimgrim 1.

(***) 5a. THE "IBLIS" AT LUDD (Adventure 1/10/22) Jimgrim 2.

(***) 6. TEE SEVENTEEN THIEVES OF EL-KALIL (Hutchinson) Jimgrim 3.

(***) 7. THE LION OF PETRA (Appleton-Century) Jimgrim 4.

(***) 8. THE WOMAN AYISHA (see THE HUNDRED DAYS--Century) Jimgrim 5.

(***) 9. THE LOST TROOPER (Hutchinson) Jimgrim 6.

(***) 10. THE KING IN CHECK (Appleton-Century) Jimgrim 7.

*** 10a. A SECRET SOCIETY (Adventure 8/10/22) Strange 1. Jimgrim 8.

*** 10b. MOSES AND MRS AINTREE (Adventure 1/10/22) Strange 2. Jimgrim 9.

*** 11. THE MYSTERY OF KHUFU'S TOMB (Appleton-Century) Strange 3. Jimgrim 10.

*** 12. THE CAVES OF TERROR (Hutchinson) Yasmini 6. Strange 4. Ramsden King 2.

(**) 13. JUNGLE JEST (Century) Ommony 1. King 3.

(**) 14. THE MARRIAGE OF MELDRUM STRANGE (Hutchinson) Ramsden Strange 5. Ommony 2. Chullunder Ghose 1.

** 15. OM; THE SECRET OF AHBOR VALLEY (Bobbs-Merrill) Ommony 3.

(***) 16. THE HUNDRED DAYS (Century) Jimgrim 11. King 4.

*** 17. THE NINE UNKNOWN (Bobbs-Merrill) Chullunder Ghose 2. Jimgrim 12. King 5.

*** 18. THE DEVIL'S GUARD (Bobbs-Merrill) Chullunder Ghose 3. Jimgrim 13.

*** 19. JIMGRIM (Century) Chullunder Ghose 4. Jimgrim 14.

(***) 20. THE GUNGA SAHIB (Appleton-Century) Chullunder Ghose 5. Quern 1.

(***) 20a. THE WHEEL OF DESTINY (Adventure 11/1/28) (This is roughly the same as the first four chapters of "The Gunga Sahib" From there on, any relationship between the book and the magazine stories seems to be coincidental.)

(***) 20b. THE BIG LEAGUE MIRACLE (Adventure 11/15/28) Quorn 2.

(**) 20c. ON TEE ROAD TO ALLAH'S HEAVEN (Adventure 12/1/28) Quorn 3.

(**) 20d. GOLDEN RIVER (Adventure I/1/29) Quorn 4.

(**) 20e. A TUCKET OF DRUMS (Adventure 2/1/29) Quorn 5.

(***) 20f. IN OLD NARADA FORT (Adventure 2/15/29) Quorn 6.

(***) 20g. ASOKA'S ALIBI (Argosy, 3 parts 3/9/29) Quorn 7.

(***) 20h. THE AFFAIR AT KALIGAON (Argosy, 3 parts 5/24/30) Quorn 8.

(***) 21. C.I.D. (Century) Chullunder Ghose 6.

(**) 21a. THE BABU (Adventure 10/1/31) Chullunder Ghose 7. O'Hara 1.

(**) 21b. THE EYE TEETH OF O'HARA (Adventure 11/15/31) O'Hara 2.

(***) 21c. CASE 13 (Adventure I/1/32) O'Hara 3. Chullunder Ghose 8.

(***) 21d. CHULLUNDER, THE GUILELESS (Adventure 3/1/32) Chullunder Ghose 9.

(**) 22. THE RED FLAME OF ERINPURA (Hutchinson) Chullunder Ghose 10.

MONTE, et al, Saga

(**) a. CAKES RESPECTS AN ADVERSARY (Adventure 12/3/18)

(***) b. AMERICA HORN IN (Adventure 1/3/19)

(***) c. JACKSON TACTICS (Adventure 2/18/19)

(***) d. HEINE HORNS INTO THE GAME (Adventure 3/18/19)

(***) e. THE END OF THE BAD SHIP BUNDESRATH (Adventure 4/18/19)

(***) 1. THE IVORY TRAIL (Bobbs-Merrill)

** 1a. THE SHRIEK OF DUM (Adventure 9/3/19)

*** 1b. BARABBAS ISLAND (Adventure 10/18/19)

(**) 1c. IN ALEPPO BAZAAR (Adventure 1/19/20)

(***) 2. THE EYE OF ZEITOON (Bobbs-Merrill)

TROS Saga

*** 1. TROS OF SAMOTHRACE (Appleton-Century)

*** 2. QUEEN CLEOPATRA (Bobbs-Merrill)

(***) 3. PURPLE PIRATE (Appleton-Century)

A final note from the editor. Three other books by Mundy are classed as fantasy, and, though not connected with the above sagas, are worthy of mention as fantastic.

*** 1. BLACK LIGHT (Bobbs-Merrill)

*** 2. FULL MOON (Appleton-Century)

*** 3. THE THUNDER DRAGON GATE (Appleton-Century)

Good luck and best wishes to anyone so influenced by this listing as to attempt collecting these stories. A full purse will help.

FINIS

A very few copies available:

A CHECKLIST OF FANTASTIC MAGAZINES Photo-offset booklet of dates, volume and number 30 cents

AN INDEX ON THE WEIRD & FANTASTICA IN MAGAZINES Mimeographed--8-1/2" X 11"--162 pages Truly excellent coverage of the field 2 dollars

PAST AND FUTURE & THE LAST GENERATION Mimeographed--three stories Two are extreme rarities 50 cents

The information is here, but apparently not the market

We still hope to produce

A CHECKLIST OF IMAGINATIVE FICTION

A supplement to "The Checklist of Fantastic Literature"

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