Thursday, August 18, 2011
The Gault Papers Part 2: Mundy's Jimgrim Saga
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
Winds From the East is a Talbot Mundy reader compiled by Brian Taves. It's available from Amazon.
Labels: JimGrim, R.T. Gault, Talbot Mundy
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
The Gault Papers: Talbot Mundy's Tibetan Stories
One of the writers whose work first prompted me to launch a pulp-related Website was Talbot Mundy. So it feels right for me to kick off this PulpRack blog with R.T. Gault's Mundy information.
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." After Gault's death, the site disappeared. Yet the info it contained is quite valuable to readers of Talbot Mundy, and several sites had linked to Gault's information. Thanks to Carl William Thiel, who had saved the info from Gault's site, I was able to present it at my original PulpRack Website, and I'm pleased to be able to present it here. I've edited it slightly to provide some consistency in mechanics and grammar.
Also, to make using the information easier, I've broken the single, long file into four documents: "Mundy's Tibetan Stories," "Mundy's Jimgrim Saga," "Mundy's Tros Saga," and "Omnibus Editions & Nonfiction." I'll post each section separately to the PulpRack.
As each post goes live, you'll be able to click on the tags at the bottom of the post to go to the sections you wish to see.
With thanks to Mike Chomko, once upon a time the publisher of the pulp fanzine Purple Prose and now one of the organizers of the PulpFest pulp convention, I was able to contact the Gault family. Karen Gault kindly responded in this manner:
"What a pleasant surprise to get your EMail! I enjoyed looking through your site and am happy that someone saved Ditch's site info on Mundy and is using it to reach an interested audience. You may use it with my blessing."
Our thanks to Mike and especially to Karen.
Now, onward to R.T. Gault's info. -- Duane
Bibliographic Information on Talbot Mundy's Tibetan Story Series
Talbot Mundy (born William Lancaster Gribbon in 1879) was one of the most interesting and colorful of the writers during the great age of adventure pulp fiction. Mundy worked as a British colonial civil servant, journalist, and later a poacher and a general scoundrel until his arrival in New York in 1909. I suspect (but cannot prove) that he may have also been an agent for the British Colonial Secret Service at some time in his somewhat shady history. After his arrival in America he became a U.S. citizen under the name Talbot Mundy, and began a new life as a writer of "cracking good tales," mostly for the pulp magazine Adventure.
Another important step for Mundy was his long association with Katherine Tingley's splinter Theosophist commune at Point Loma, California. He died in 1940.
The definitive biography of Talbot Mundy is by Peter Barresford Ellis, The Last Adventurer: The Life of Talbot Mundy (Donald Grant, 1984), and the definitive bibliography of his works is by Donald Grant, ed., Talbot Mundy: Messenger of Destiny (Donald Grant, 1983). [Not published at the time Gault wrote his essay, but available now is Talbot Mundy, Philosopher of Adventure: A Critical Biography by Brian Taves (McFarland & Company, 2005). -- Duane]
Most of the information presented here was developed as a result of my interest in Mundy as a "mystical novelist."
These three series -- his Tibetan novels, his JimGrim series, and his Tros of Samothrace stories -- contain or relate to most of the more mystical of Mundy's work, though I have surely missed a few. Most of the bibliographic information comes from Donald Grant's exhaustive Mundy Bibliography (noted above), but much of the organization and comments are mine. I have also attempted to add any new printings and information that have become available since 1983. Comments and corrections are welcomed.
Talbot Mundy's Tibetan Novels
Early Tibetan novels:
1923.
Om: The Secret of Ahbor Valley, written at Point Loma, Ca., in late 1922, early 1923.
Published in Adventure, 10 October - 30 November 1923.
First American Edition: Bobbs-Merrill Co. (1924) 352 pgs. First British ed.: Hutchinson & Co. (1925), 352 pgs.
- Reprints:
MacKinlay, Stone & Mackenzie: *(NOTE 1) (circa 1924), 393 pgs, with frontis. photo of Mundy.
Theosophical Press (Point Loma, 1931), 392 pgs. Crown Publishers (1962), 392 pgs, pb.
Avon Books (1967), 336 pgs, pb.
Cedric Chivers, Ltd (London), 348 pgs.
Point Loma Publications (1980), 392 pgs. trade pb.; with intro by Peter Barresford Ellis; opening poem "squeezed" onto one page.
Carroll and Graf (1984), 392 pgs, pb.; opening poem "squeezed" onto one page as in the Point Loma (1980) ed., suggesting that it was reproduced from that ed. *(NOTE 2)
1926.
The Devil's Guard, published in Adventure under the title Rasmden, 8 June 1926 - 8 August 1926.
First American ed: Bobbs-Merrill Co. (1926) 335 pgs, identified as the first edition. First British ed., as Rasmden (Spring 1926), 286 pgs.
- Reprints:
A. L. Burt Co (1927), 335 pgs.
The Oriental Club (Philadelphia 1945). 291 pgs; with Foreword by Milton F. Wells.
Avon Books, (1968), 255 pgs, pb.
1930-31.
Jimgrim, published in Adventure under the title King of the World, 1 December 1930 - 15 February 1931.
First American ed.: The Century Co.(March 1931) 385 pgs.; identified as first printing.
Hutchinson & Co. (April 1931) 312 pgs.
- Reprints:
A. L. Burt (1933), 385 pgs.
Royal Books (New York), as Jimgrim Sahib, 319 pgs, pb.
Avon Books (1968), 288 pgs. pb.
Later Tibetan novels:
1937.
Thunder Dragon Gate published in American Weekly, 8 installments, beginning 24 January 1937.
First British edition: Hutchinson & Co. (March 1937). First American ed.: D. Appleton-Century Co. (1937), 335 pgs. First Canadian ed.: Ryerson Press (1937). Pagination different for all eds.
1938.
Old Ugly Face, published in Maclean's (Canada), 3 installments beginning 15 April 1938.
First Book ed: D.Appleton-Century (Feb 1940). First British Ed.: (London, Hutchinson) June 1940. Canadian ed.: (Toronto, Ryerson Press), 1940; same pagination as the Appleton ed.
Reprint:
(Philadelphia, Wells & Shakespeare), 1950; same pagination as the Appleton ed.
Sequel to Thunder Dragon Gate.
Old Ugly Face is the last work of major fiction that Mundy published before his death in 1940. It is the only novel that Mundy wrote in longhand first. Neither Grant nor Ellis seems to have noticed (or mentioned) that Thunder Dragon Gate and Old Ugly Face are related to each other.
Relating to the Tibetan novels, Mundy wrote nonfiction pieces for Adventure providing background to his stories. These usually appeared in a regular feature entitled "The Camp Fire." *(NOTE 3)
- 10 January 1923, "The Camp Fire"; background on Ommany to tie in with short novel Treason.
- 10 October 1924, "The Camp Fire"; 2,000-word essay on background of Mahatmas, Ahbor Valley, and ancient wisdom. An extract from this was published in The Theosophical Path (Point Loma) in the February 1925 issue. Some selective quotes in Grant and Ellis.
- 8 June 1926, "The Camp Fire"; 4,000-word essay on eastern theology, dugpas, and philosophy to tie in with serial Rasmden (book title: The Devil's Guard). *(NOTE 4)
- by R.T. Gault
*NOTES
1. Grant, Talbot Mundy, p. 214: "Nine Talbot Mundy titles were published by McKinlay, Stone and Mackenzie in matched bindings. McKinlay, Stone and Mackenzie was an affiliate of Review of Reviews (Hearst), and sales of these editions were primarily mail order."
2. The Carroll and Graf ed. is not listed in Grant's bibliographies of Mundy material (see note below)
3. Penn State Library's Rare Books and Special Collections owns the Arthur Sullivan Hoffmann papers. Hoffmann was the editor of Adventure for many years, and the man most responsible for Mundy's long-running success in that magazine. Ellis' biography makes great use of Penn State's Hoffmann papers.
4. All bibliographical material from Donald M. Grant, Talbot Mundy: Messenger of Destiny (1983) unless otherwise noted.
Links:
Om: The Secret of Ahbor Valley seems to be out of print. There may be some used copies of various editions available 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.
Talbot Mundy: Messenger of Destiny by Donald M. Grant is also available from Amazon. This book may be in short supply.
Talbot Mundy, Philosopher of Adventure: A Critical Biography by Brian Taves is also available from Amazon.
Labels: JimGrim, R.T. Gault, Talbot Mundy, Tibetan, Tros
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