Talbot Mundy
Encyclopedia
Talbot Mundy (April 23, 1879 – August 5, 1940) was an English writer. He also wrote under the pseudonym Walter Galt.

Life and work

Born in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, at age 16 he ran away from home and began an odyssey in India, Africa, and other parts of the Near and Far East. By age 29, he had begun using the name Talbot Mundy, and a year later arrived in the United States, starting his writing career in 1911.

His first published work was the short story "Pig-sticking in India", which describes a popular, though now outlawed, sport practiced by British forces. Mundy went on to become a regular contributor to the pulp magazines, especially Adventure
Adventure (magazine)
Adventure magazine was first published in November 1910 as a monthly pulp magazine. Adventure went on become one of the most profitable and critically acclaimed of all the American pulp magazines...

and Argosy
Argosy (magazine)
Argosy was an American pulp magazine, published by Frank Munsey. It is generally considered to be the first American pulp magazine. The magazine began as a general information periodical entitled The Golden Argosy, targeted at the boys adventure market.-Launch of Argosy:In late September 1882,...

.

Many of his novels, including his first novel Rung Ho!, and his most famous work King of the Khyber Rifles
King of the Khyber Rifles
King of the Khyber Rifles is a novel by British writer Talbot Mundy. Captain Athelstan King is a secret agent for the British Raj at the beginning of the First World War...

, are set in India during the British Raj in which the loyal British officers encounter ancient Indian mysticism. The novels portray the citizens of Imperial India as enigmatic, romantic and powerful. His British characters have many encounters with the mysterious Thugee Cults. The long buildup to the introduction of his Indian Princess Yasmini and the scenes among the outlaws in the Khinjan Caves clearly influenced fantasy writers Robert E. Howard
Robert E. Howard
Robert Ervin Howard was an American author who wrote pulp fiction in a diverse range of genres. Best known for his character Conan the Barbarian, he is regarded as the father of the sword and sorcery subgenre....

  and Leigh Brackett
Leigh Brackett
Leigh Douglass Brackett was an American author, particularly of science fiction. She was also a screenwriter, known for her work on famous films such as The Big Sleep , Rio Bravo , The Long Goodbye and The Empire Strikes Back .-Life:Leigh Brackett was born and grew up in Los Angeles, California...

. Other science-fiction and fantasy writers who cited Mundy as an influence included Robert A. Heinlein
Robert A. Heinlein
Robert Anson Heinlein was an American science fiction writer. Often called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was one of the most influential and controversial authors of the genre. He set a standard for science and engineering plausibility and helped to raise the genre's standards of...

, E. Hoffmann Price, Fritz Leiber
Fritz Leiber
Fritz Reuter Leiber, Jr. was an American writer of fantasy, horror and science fiction. He was also a poet, actor in theatre and films, playwright, expert chess player and a champion fencer. Possibly his greatest chess accomplishment was winning clear first in the 1958 Santa Monica Open.. With...

, Andre Norton
Andre Norton
Andre Alice Norton, née Alice Mary Norton was an American science fiction and fantasy author under the noms de plume Andre Norton, Andrew North and Allen Weston...

, H. Warner Munn
H. Warner Munn
Harold Warner Munn was an American writer of fantasy, horror and poetry. He was an early friend and associate of authors H. P. Lovecraft and Seabury Quinn...

, Marion Zimmer Bradley
Marion Zimmer Bradley
Marion Eleanor Zimmer Bradley was an American author of fantasy novels such as The Mists of Avalon and the Darkover series. Many critics have noted a feminist perspective in her writing. Her first child, David R...

 and
Daniel Easterman. James Hilton
James Hilton
James Hilton was an English novelist who wrote several best-sellers, including Lost Horizon and Goodbye, Mr. Chips.-Biography:...

's novel Lost Horizon was partly inspired by Mundy's work.

His related Jimgrim series, which has mystical overtones and part of which is available over the web from theosophical sites, ran in Adventure
Adventure (magazine)
Adventure magazine was first published in November 1910 as a monthly pulp magazine. Adventure went on become one of the most profitable and critically acclaimed of all the American pulp magazines...

magazine before book publication. Mundy was associated with Theosophy
Theosophy
Theosophy, in its modern presentation, is a spiritual philosophy developed since the late 19th century. Its major themes were originally described mainly by Helena Blavatsky , co-founder of the Theosophical Society...

's movement, a friend of Katherine Tingley
Katherine Tingley
Katherine Augusta Westcott Tingley was a social worker and prominent Theosophist. She was the founder of the Theosophical Society Pasadena. She founded and led the Theosophical community Lomaland in San Diego, California.Tingley grew up in Newbury, Massachusetts. She married Philo B. Tingley in...

.

Beginning in the late 1920s Mundy wrote a number of stories about Tros of Samothrace
Samothrace
Samothrace is a Greek island in the northern Aegean Sea. It is a self-governing municipality within the Evros peripheral unit of Thrace. The island is long and is in size and has a population of 2,723 . Its main industries are fishing and tourism. Resources on the island includes granite and...

, a Greek
Greeks
The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....

 freedom fighter who aided Britons and Druids in their fight against Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....

.

Biography

  • Donald M. Grant
    Donald M. Grant
    Donald M. Grant, Publisher, Inc. is a fantasy and science fiction small press publisher in New Hampshire that was founded in 1964. It is notable for publishing fantasy and horror novels with lavish illustrations, most notably Stephen King's The Dark Tower series and the King/Peter Straub novel The...

     (compiler), Talbot Mundy: Messenger of Destiny
    Talbot Mundy: Messenger of Destiny
    Talbot Mundy: Messenger of Destiny is a collection of memoirs about Talbot Mundy compiled by Donald M. Grant. The book includes a bibliography of Mundy's works. It was released in 1983 by Donald M. Grant, Publisher, Inc. in an edition of 1,475 copies....

    (Donald M. Grant, Publisher, Inc., 1983)
  • Brian Taves, Talbot Mundy, Philosopher of Adventure (McFarland, 2005)
  • Brian Taves (editor) Talbot Mundy, Winds From the East (Ariel Press, 2006) (an anthology of Mundy short stories and articles)

Jimgrim/Ramsden

  • Guns of the Gods (1921)
  • The Winds of the World (1917)
  • Hira Singh's Tale (1918)
  • King of the Khyber Rifles
    King of the Khyber Rifles
    King of the Khyber Rifles is a novel by British writer Talbot Mundy. Captain Athelstan King is a secret agent for the British Raj at the beginning of the First World War...

    (1916)
  • Jimgrim and Allah's Peace (1936)
  • The Seventeen Thieves of El-Kalil (1935)
  • The Lion of Petra (1932)
  • The Woman Ayisha (1924)
  • The Lost Trooper
  • The King in Check (variant title Affair in Araby,1933)
  • The Mystery of Khufu's Tomb (1935)
  • The Caves of Terror (variant title The Gray Mahatma, 1924)
  • Jungle Jest (1932)
  • The Marriage of Meldrum Strange
  • Om: The Secret of Ahbor Valley (1924)
  • The Hundred Days (1931)
  • The Nine Unknown (1923)
  • The Devil's Guard (variant title Ramsden, 1926)
  • Jimgrim (1931) (sometimes Jimgrim Sahib
  • The Gunga Sahib (1934)
  • C.I.D. (1932)
  • The Red Flame of Erinpura (1934)
  • Jimgrim, Moses, and Mrs. Aintree (first book publication of 1922 magazine story, 2008)

Tros

  • Tros of Samothrace
    Tros of Samothrace
    Tros of Samothrace is a fantasy novel by author Talbot Mundy. It was published in 1934 by Appleton-Century. The novel was constructed of novellas which first appeared in the magazine Adventure in 1925-1926....

    (1925)
  • Queen Cleopatra (1929)
  • Purple Pirate
    Purple Pirate
    Purple Pirate is a fantasy novel by author Talbot Mundy. It was first published in 1935 by Appleton-Century.-Plot introduction:The novel concerns the further adventures of Tros of Samathrace who battles intrigue in Cleopatra's court while he woos her sister.-Reception:Galaxy reviewer Floyd C...

    (1935)

Non-series

  • Rung Ho! (1914)
  • The Ivory Trail (1917)
  • The Eye of Zeitoon (1920)
  • Told in the East (Short Stories, 1920)
  • Her Reputation (1923)
  • The Soul of a Regiment (Chapbook Reprint of Short story, 1924)
  • Cock o' the North (1929) (variant title Gup Bahadur, 1929, UK)
  • Black Light (1930)
  • W. H.: A portion of the record of Sir William Halifax (1931) (variant title The Queen's Warrant, 1953, US)
  • When Trails Were New (1932)
  • Caesar Dies (1934)
  • All Four Winds: Four Novels of India (omnibus, 1932)
  • Full Moon (variant title, There Was a Door, 1935)
  • Romances of India (omnibus, 1936)
  • East and West (variant title Diamonds See in the Dark, 1935)
  • The Valiant View (Short Stories, 1939)
  • Winds from the East: A Talbot Mundy Reader (Fiction, Poems and Non-Fiction, 2006)
  • A Transaction in Diamonds: Talbot Mundy in the Pulps, 1911 (The Talbot Mundy Library, volume 1)
  • The Soul of a Regiment (The Talbot Mundy Library, volume 2, NYP)
  • In a Righteous Cause: Talbot Mundy in Adventure, 1913 (The Talbot Mundy Library, volume 3)
  • The Letter of His Orders—Three Short Novels from Adventure, 1913 (The Talbot Mundy Library, volume 4)
  • Love and War–The Battles of Billy Blain (The Talbot Mundy Library, volume 5, NYP)
  • The Sword of Iskander (The Talbot Mundy Library, volume 6, NYP)
  • A Soldier and a Gentleman (The Talbot Mundy Library, volume 7)

External links

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