Old Boys' Book Collectors Part Nine

Peard Sutherland (1902-1954)

I first came across the name Peard (rhymes with ‘beard’) Sutherland, journalist, newspaper cartoonist, poet, and collector, when I was researching the Old Boys’ Book Collector’s series of posts back in Feb/Mar 2009. I had come across an article in Herbert Leckenby’s Collectors’ Digest, Vol. 8, No. 92, August, 1954, From the Editor’s Chair, The Death of Peard Sutherland.

The letter reporting the passing of Vancouver, B. C. story paper collector Peard Sutherland was sent by Bill Gander. I had heard of Bill Gander, publisher of The Story Paper Collector in Winnipeg, Manitoba, but Peard Sutherland was an unknown, even to today’s story paper collectors. The article mentioned a wife and two children, and I managed to find and contact Rill and Glinda Sutherland, Peard’s two daughters, who were happy to aid me in adding his biography to this Old Boys’ Book Collector’s series.

Let me quote from a long article from the Vancouver Sun’s Sunday Magazine of 6 May, 1950, titled How to Stay Young, which referred to Sutherland as “Vancouver’s Mr. Hobby.” The article was penned by Peard’s good friend Clyde Gilmour, a newsman, critic, and broadcaster, famous for his long-running, record-breaking, CBC radio show Gilmour’s Albums.

“Peard Sutherland was born 29 Mar 1902, in Durham, Ontario, a second-generation Canadian of Scottish-Irish descent. His mother was a professional pianist, and his father was an all around showman who at one time was a clown in the Ringling Brothers Circus. As a stage trouper, Sutherland Pere also trod the boards in everything from “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” to Shakespeare.”

Peard’s unusual Christian name was chosen from his fathers Irish friend, William Peard. The family moved to Winnipeg, Manitoba, where Peard spent his elementary years. He was passionate about books, especially the Oz books of L. Frank Baum, and had a keen interest in illustration and cartooning. His first cartoon was published 29 Mar 1908 in a Winnipeg newspaper, when he was just six years old, and featured Frederick Burr Opper’s Happy Hooligan. The introduction to the lure of printer’s ink would shape his whole life.

“I did a song and dance act when I was six years old,” said Peard, “It was probably awful but kids have always been able to get away with murder on the stage.”

In 1916 the family moved on to Toronto, where Peard, still a teenager, began drawing political cartoons for the Toronto Star. On Saturday’s he worked in the art department of T. Eaton’s Toronto store. In 1918 he contributed to United Briefs and war cartoons to the Canadian Courier newspaper. When his parents separated Peard and his mother moved to the United States, where he worked as a sports-writer and editorial cartoonist for newspapers in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Wheeling, West Virginia; and Chicago, Illinois. His father moved on to Chicago and died there sometime in the twenties.

“I even had a whirl at fiction writing during my newspaper days,” he told Gilmore, “Sold about half a dozen stories, none of which has ever appeared in anthologies of the world’s literature. I figured I’d better drop it unless there was a real chance that I could become a big leaguer -- so I dropped it.”

From Chicago they relocated to Vancouver, British Columbia, where Peard Sutherland lived for the rest of his life. In Vancouver Peard took employment on the Vancouver News Herald as a journalist. In 1928 he became an employee of the British Columbia Telephone Company, where he became assistant public relations manager in the forties. He was also Chairman of the Advertising and Sales Bureau of Vancouver, B.C. He edited the house magazine Telephone Talk and contributed poetry to The (Winnipeg) National Home Monthly magazine, both in the thirties.

Peard met Dorothy Maud Parker, who was born in Vancouver in 1912, at White Rock, B. C., in 1928 or 1929. He first saw her at an outdoor campfire put on by a youth group. She was reading a book. Naturally Peard was atttracted and in 1933 they were married.

He contributed poetry to The Poet, including one titled Cheerio!, in 1930. In 1945 he contributed a sweet rhythmic poem, Prelude, to Tick Tock No. 3, a publication of the National Amateur Press Association from Seattle, Washington. He served on the Vancouver Aquarium Board and in 1950 was Vice President of the Vancouver Tourist Bureau. In 1954 he was on the planning committee for the British Empire and Commonwealth Games.

The Sutherland library contained a notable collection of English and French literature, philosophy, poetry, nature, mythology and art history. He had a notable collection of juvenile fiction featuring a complete set of the Oz books and Henty’s historical boys fiction. He had a special love of British story papers and annuals that were his passion as a boy. “Some of the best things ever written, when viewed in proper focus, were written for children,” he said. The prize of his collection was the complete volumes of Chums dating back to 1899 (Chums folded about 1940), and priceless copies of the The Scout (Baden-Powell’s story paper) and The Boy’s Own annuals.

In story papers Peard concentrated on The Gem, featuring Tom Merry, junior skipper of St. Jim’s and The Magnet, with the famous Billy Bunter. He kept a running correspondence with story paper collector’s around the world and referred to himself proudly as the only British Columbian member of the London Old Boys’ Book Club. His all-time favorite book was “The Wizard of Oz.” He owned a complete set of the Oz books owned jointly with twelve year old Rill. They knew them by heart. “As a child,” Rill wrote me, “I remember more about Billy Bunter, Tom Merry, The Ten Pirates, and Jack O'Lantern than Andersen or Grimm.”

Peard’s collecting did not stop at literature, boys’ books, cartoons and illustration. He also collected baseball data dating back to 1912. His phonograph collection featured his favorite singer, Al Jolson, and Bing Crosby, John McCormack, Chauncey Olcott, and Harry Lauder. Clyde Gilmour again: “His casual chitchat is sprinkled with brief impromptu mimicries of Al Jolson, the late Harry Lauder and other luminaries, and if you ask him for the words of a song he is likely to sing them instead of just say them.”

Many nights, while the family sat around the dinner table, supper done, Peard would read aloud from a volume of poetry by Burns, Shelley, Keats, or Coleridge. At some point during the recital, to make them laugh, he would make a hat out of a linen napkin and put it on his head, then hide his face with it. Every Sunday he would enter the den, shut the door, and type poetry and correspondence all day long. He loved his own birthday and told everyone for the fun of getting all the birthday greetings.

Peard Sutherland’s favorite holiday was Christmas and he was designing his own Christmas cards before he was married. These cards also served as a family record. Toto, a Scottish Terrier, featured in many of them. Toto passed away in 1949. “Toto was part of the Sutherland Clan before I came along,” Rill recalled, “Apparently, he was a great guardian of the wee babe in the buggy. He tolerated ‘strangers in the glen’ but I can remember he was banished to the basement a few times over the years. He was definitely father's dog but I always loved him. When Toto died, father really mourned his loss.”

Rill’s arrival was noted in the Christmas cards. Her unusual name was taken from the river Rill, which ran by St. Jim's Boys' School in the fictional Tom Merry stories in The Gem. Peard also collected books by Scottish authors (Burns, Scott, Stevenson,) and Rill’s name also reflected Sir Walter Scott's poem Lady Of The Lake: “The stag at eve had drunk his fill, where danced the moon on Monan’s rill.”

Rill had a nickname from the Oz books as well: Princess Ozma. Next Glinda’s arrival was heralded in the cards. She was named after the Good Witch from The Wizard of Oz, which had been Peard’s first beloved childhood book. The cards show mother, father, and the two charming sisters’ love of theatrics and make-believe.

After Peard’s death, from arteriosclerosis, on June 11, 1954, Dorothy, Rill, and Glinda Sutherland moved from Point Grey to Kitsilano, where Dorothy Sutherland built an apartment building, The Sutherland, in 1956. She managed the Sutherland until 1995 and passed away in 2004. Most of the story papers, the Gem’s, and the Magnet’s, were donated to the St. George’s School for boys. Some of the original art went to the Vancouver Art Gallery. The baseball items were given to a fellow named Bert, a delivery driver for Nelson’s Laundry, who had shared Peard’s passion for the sport. Peard never missed a World Series.

It has been a pleasure, I’m sure you will agree, making the acquaintance of the Sutherlands. Peard Sutherland’s remarkable life would have been undeservedly forgotten but for a chance encounter with his name in back numbers of the old Collectors’ Digest and the wholehearted co-operation of his daughters, Rill and Glinda Sutherland. His last Christmas card featured a quote, in his own handwriting, from his own composition, Cheerio!

Cheerio!

(last verse)

So, through my parting word, I would make known

That, though the night descends, with me all’s well.

And thus my wish: to frame in that terse speech

A glad soul’s merry hail and fond farewell.

One word expresses it.

Be it my last, ere from this life I go.

World, hear my valedictory -- Cheerio!

Old Boys' Book Collectors Part Eight

BARRY ONO,

the Self-proclaimed “King of the Penny Dreadfuls”

by Michael Holmes

There is an excellent biography of this colourful character given in the introduction to the catalogue collection of his books published by the British Library. Incidentally Ono's collection was bequeathed to the British Museum when he died, but remained un-catalogued for over 20 years until Louis James used it while researching his book FICTION FOR THE WORKING MAN in the late 50s early 1960s.

For those unfamiliar with Ono I give the following thumbnail sketch: Barry Ono’s real name was Frederick Valentine Harrison (1876 - 1941) and as he explains in the article below he began collecting as a London schoolboy when penny dreadfuls were still in their heyday. He became a music hall performer in the years prior to WWI and, for reasons unknown, adopted the stage name Barry Ono. He had a relative success as a stage performer with his act ‘The Old Music Hall in Twelve Minutes’ in which he'd imitate various stars of the past, their songs and monologues. He also composed songs himself and I recently discovered an old song book of his in the British Library. In the front cover margin is printed a note which very tellingly illustrates Ono's love of self-publicity, exaggerated patriotism, and the influence of Victorian boys literature:

‘Barry Ono wrote, composed and sang ‘Give Three Cheers for Belgium, what have they done to the Kaiser?’ within three hours of news in London papers of the German invasion of Belgium, thus claiming to be the First Artiste in the world to SING a song of the War, and the first Author to WRITE one.

Ono seems to have always dabbled in book-dealing and when times were lean with his stage career he was able to earn a living as a bookseller. In fact he made quite a success of it and had several shops around London. He seems to have retired from the stage at the end of the 20’s and went on to make a fairly good living as a book dealer. Ono was not shy about blowing his own trumpet as you can see, and an echo of this charming braggadocio can be seen in his advertisements from the time where he describes his collection as “… bigger than all the museums of the world combined, and bigger than any other collection.”

It certainly was a vast collection from several accounts, and between the years 1933 and 1936 the little ‘Collector's Miscellany,’ a monthly pamphlet for collectors of old boys books, published an ongoing list of the Ono library. He was prolific in producing articles for the above publication, and would also write for overseas equivalents like ‘Dime Novel Round-Up.’ These would usually be lively and warm-hearted in their praise for the old books, and true to form Ono would usually work in a want ad for anyone harbouring old penny numbers.

The year before the article below appeared Ono had taken part in a hobbies exhibition at the famous London department store, Selfridges. The famous picture of him seated amongst a stall covered in penny dreadfuls, was taken at this. His passionate half hour talks on the joys of collecting old bloods during the exhibition seems to have prompted the Pathe News to make a short on him and his books.

Ono was a collector first and a dealer second, or so it would seem to me. His door was always open to fellow collectors and to any interested members of the general public who wanted to view his books. One of the rarest bloods which he had - MAY TURPIN THE QUEEN OF THE ROAD (only a combined part 1 & 2 issued by the infamous Newsagents Publishing Company) -- is said to have come from an old collector called Charley Harris who found it for a few pennies in the Caledonian Road market. The late collector, Bill Lofts, himself a former collector of old boys books and author of several books on the subject, related the anecdote he had heard of how Charley had taken the old penny number to Barry Ono who had paid him £5 for it, a sizeable sum equivalent to a month's wages at the time. If he was anything he was not mean.

Barry Ono died on the 6th February 1941 in Barnstable. His name still lives on amongst the handful of collectors of bloods and dreadfuls, and it always adds an extra special poignancy to a volume when you see his old book-label pasted inside.

THE BAZAAR Feb 28, 1936

COLLECTING PENNY DREADFULS
THE LITERATURE OF THRILLS AND HORRORS

BY BARRY ONO

the well known variety star who has the world's largest collection of old boys’ ‘bloods’ and ‘penny dreadfuls.’ On the variety stage Mr. Ono was largely responsible for the revival of interest in Victorian popular songs. To the music hall profession he is known as ‘our unofficial K.C.,’ on account of his skilled advocacy of the profession’s case to the authorities on entertainment’s tax and other political problems.

“I could easily serve a six month sentence here with pleasure” said a man looking round my library. And what, ladies and gentlemen does that library contain - Hamlet, Don Quixote, Robinson Crusoe, all the books with which people are in the habit of saying they could spend a lifetime on a desert Island? Not a bit of it. My library consists entirely of penny dreadfuls. Over a thousand of them.

We are apt to sniff at each other's pleasures. The man who likes old masters feels superior to the man who merely likes old port, and if our taste is for Bach, jazz fills us with righteous anger. This sniffiness however is not a law of nature. The large hearted few can enjoy both port and old masters, Bach and jazz at different times and in different places. It is to these I appeal on behalf of the penny dreadful

This picturesque byway in literature has its special interest and we lose something if we refuse to turn down it now and then even if the name on the signpost is ‘Cut Throat Alley.’

To begin with the people who enjoy penny dreadfuls, whether openly or secretly, are by no means only office boys or Smith Minors. Robert Louis Stevenson had a passion for them and I could reel off lists of doctors, clergy and hard-bitten scientists who have coveted my library.

YOUTHFUL ENTERPRISE

One big mental specialist offered me a small fortune for ‘The Mysteries of Bedlam’ and ‘The Maniac of the Deep’ and any with lunacy in their titles.

A Mormon came all the way for Salt Lake City to persuade me to part with my copy of ‘Jessie The Mormon's Daughter’ and an Australian almost wept when I refused to sell him ‘Ned Kelly; or The Ironclad Australian Bushranger.’

I began my collection early. My mother, having listened to the warnings issued by schoolmasters and clergymen as to what happened to boys who read penny bloods, forbade me my favourite literature. But although I only had 2d pocket money a week I still managed to spend 10d on ‘dreadfuls.’

We lived off the Waterloo Road, and in those days there was a row of iron spike topped railings down the steps leading to the bridge. I had seen the old iron man with his barrow, and one day when I looked like going without my ‘Boys Standard’ and ‘Boys Leisure Hour’ I pulled up a loose rail and sold it to him for 2d. After that my stock of dreadfuls grew and the railings vanished spear by spear.

At the age of twelve I became a proprietor of the Boys' Lending Library. I bound my ‘Boys Standards’ and ‘Sweeney Todds’ up in brown paper volumes of twelve numbers. The entrance fee was sixpence and a penny per week per volume. Soon the queue outside our house grew so long that the police interfered and my career as librarian ended.

In 1903 I sold my whole collection for £4. If I could buy it back now for £250 it would be a bargain, My present collection has been built up since 1912. It consists of tales written between 1840 and 1900, the great age of the penny dreadful.

These old books were by no means the sordid rubbish which the puritanical considered them J.F. Smith, the historian, and Phiz (Hablot K. Browne) the Dickens illustrator, both worked on them.

Even the penny-a-line hacks, whose names are forgotten by all but collectors, were many of them competent writers who knew how to keep suspense alive from week to week and understood the construction of a plot as few authors today understand it.

Not all of them were proud of their excursions into the lurid. When Edward Lloyd, the publisher of those fascinating works, VARNEY THE VAMPYRE OR THE FEAST OF BLOOD and THE SECRETS OF THE SEWERS OF LONDON, became a rising literary light in the Reform Club, he commissioned Edward Viles, a fellow writer of dreadfuls and creator of the famous Black Bess saga, to go round all the coffee houses and buy up every number of his works that could be found lying about for patrons to read as they ate their fish and chips. Fortunately Viles did not succeed in buying and destroying all Lloyd's tales, for I have nearly 200 in my collection.

VALUABLE COPIES DESTROYED

Often people do not realise the value of such books, particularly when they happen to be stained or tattered as old boys' books tend to be.

The other day a man brought me in a small bundle some of which I had thought to be unobtainable. “Where did you get these?” I asked, “Oh, there were stacks of them in the house where I was caretaker, but after the old owner died his son told me to put them on the boiler fire. I just saved these because I thought they might interest you.” “Interest me,” I said, “why man you have burnt a fortune.”

The days of ‘Gentleman Jack’ ‘Turpin and Bess’ and ‘The She Tiger or the Female Fiend of Paris’ are so long past that when ‘Dracula’ was written people hailed it as a new sort of book. To those who knew the old dreadfuls it was very mild stuff.

In the great days of the thriller, light and shade were stronger and the colours were slapped on with a vigorous brush.

For instance a reputable publisher giving instructions to the engraver for woodcuts to illustrate Lloyd's stories told him that the eyes of the victims must protrude from their sockets and blood be shown spurting from the place where a head had been, while the head itself, likewise bespattered with gore, reposed on the ground in the forefront of the picture.

Often the titles, especially the second titles, of such books were masterpieces in themselves. It would be difficult to outdo “The Blighted Heart, or The old Priory Ruins” or “Deadwood Dick the Prince of the Road” or “The Black Rider of the Black Hills” or “Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber of Fleet Street.”

This last had a long history before it reached its familiar form. When it first appeared Todd was a mean, slinking figure. Then one day a man, now a personage in the wholesale book trade, picked up a copy for 6d on a stall and took it to Charles Fox, the publisher and editor of “The Boys Standard,” who to his surprise bought it for 30s.

Copyright laws were lax in those days, so Fox got one of his staff to recreated Todd in a new and more delightfully horrible image, making him heavy and coarse, with a bulldog face and adding for the first time the subtitle “The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.”

Fox made a fortune out of Todd. George Sala to his great annoyance was often accused of being the author. Actually Todd was written by Thomas Peckett Prest, the notorious pirate of Dickens's works.

DIRTY WORK

Publishers of the dreadful were always competing with each other in this way. For instance, when John Cassell wanted a new writer he offered J.F. Smith, author of “Stanfield Hall” and “Minnie Grey,” who was then busy on a serial for another publisher, double salary to come to his firm.

Smith accepted, and before leaving the office put all of his characters on a boat in the Hudson River and drowned them. The MS was sent down to the printer, and it was not until the public outcry that the publisher discovered what had happened. Being a resourceful man he called in Pierce Egan the younger, who restored the characters to life and continued their careers for some 50 instalments.

All sorts of people collect dreadfuls for all sorts of reasons. One old man I knew used to chuckle to think he possessed a copy of THE LONDON MISCELLANY containing THE MYSTERY IN SCARLET written by Malcolm J. Errym, and illustrated by Phiz for which Robert Louis Stevenson had spent a fortune in vainly advertising.

Some people seek escape in these simple narratives from the tortured psychology of the modern novel. To many middle-aged men the ‘dreadful’ is still the key to that boys world in which all heroes are perfect gentlemen and blood is still hot and bright.

THE SONS OF BRITANNIA, HANDSOME HARRY OF THE FIGHTING BELVEDERE, and CHING-CHING were in a class apart. For virility, characterisation, originality of plot and in many cases, sheer artistry of illustration we have nothing quite like them today. Can it be wondered they have become the cult of the highbrow?

***

Photos and an Interview with Barry Ono can be found HERE.

*Thanks to Joe Rainone for the Barry Ono photo. Big Three Penny Dreadfuls photo courtesy Michael Holmes.

Old Boys' Book Collectors Part Seven

William Henry Gander (1898-1966), a news-agent in Transcona, Manitoba, (born in England), published The Story Paper Collector, Vol. 1 No. 1, for Jan-Mar 1941. No. 1 was reprinted in Mar 1943 in an edition of 104 copies. “I must here express gratitude to Ralph Cummings “Dime Novel Round-Up,” and the now-suspended “Collector's Miscellany,” long published in England by Joseph Parks, for the inspiration necessary to attempt this modest endeavor.” He died 4 August 1966.



Following are the first two issues (John Medcraft was a later contributor) courtesy of collector Bill Blackbeard as typed up by Dave Couch for the Bloods & Dimes group. Bill Gander was also part of the Collector's Digest and his portrait appeared on the cover of the Xmas 1955 Annual drawn by Bob Whiter. A (poor) color photo of the cover appears at the bottom of this post.

Another useful group is CB&M for collectors of Children's books, story papers and magazines.




The Story Paper Collector

Printed and issued occasionally by Wm. H. Gander, P. O. Box 60,
Transcona, Manitoba, Canada.
---------------------------------------------------------------
No. 1. JANUARY-MARCH, 1941 Vol. 1.
---------------------------------------------------------------

"THE BOYS' FRIEND"
A FAMOUS BRITISH BOYS' JOURNAL--
1895-1927
-----o-----
By W. H. G.

One of the longest lived and most popular of the boys' story
papers published in Great Britain during the period in which it
flourished was the "Boys' Friend." From the first number to the
last (Jan. 29, 1895 until Dec. 31, 1927) it was issued in the
same size -- about 14 1/2 x 11 inches -- and on the same
familiar green paper, with the exception of a change for a few
weeks to yellow paper in 1899, during the excitement of the
early days of the war in South Africa.

No. 1 was a "double number" of 16 pages at the same price as the
8-page numbers that followed: one halfpenny (1c.) This issue
contained about the same quota of serials and completes as is
found in succeeding issues, the extra space being filled with
articles and news items, plus a full page of "What the Editor
has to say," which included a portrait of the Editor. Later we
learn this gentleman relinquished control of the paper before it
actually commenced publication, and that another gentleman whose
name was still later revealed to be Hamilton Edwards had charge
of the paper from the first number.

Among the articles in No. 1 was a denunciation of the "penny
dreadful" --but I am told that some of Mr. Edwards' writers also
contributed to those same penny dreadfuls; maybe their writings
became purified when Mr. Edwards used them. In addition to
editing his papers, he also wrote serials for some of them -- he
eventually controlled a large group of papers, not only for
boys, but also for girls and grown-ups too.

No. 47 was the first Christmas Double Number, the first of a
long line of them. Among the contributors during the first year
were Reginald Wray and Henry St. John, both of whom wrote for
Mr. Edwards for many years. Mr. St. John was known in other
literary spheres as Henry St. John Cooper, I believe.

The paper continued on what appears to have been an uneventful
career, apparently growing in popularity. Then came the war in
South Africa, and beginning with No. 250, Nov. 4, 1899, there
commenced a series of "war numbers," some on yellow paper, some
double numbers. After a few months this war fever subsided and
the "B.F." resumed a more normal appearance.





During the halfpenny series several other authors who
contributed to the "B.F." for many years made their appearance;
among them Sidney Drew, Henry T. Johnson, and A. S. Hardy.
"Nelson Lee," popular for many years as a detective rivalling
"Sexton Blake," appeared during this period.

The last of the halfpenny series was No. 332, June 8th, 1901.
With the next week's issue a new series was started, 16 pages,
selling at one penny (2c.). The old series numbering was
continued, along with the new, during the first year -- the only
instance that has come to my notice of this being done among the
British boys story papers of that period.

No. 41, new series, March 22, 1902, was the Oxford and Cambridge
Boat-race Number, and was printed in blue ink -- probably the
only time this was done.

Judging by the amount of advertising carried the paper
flourished mightily during the next ten years. For some time
double numbers carried colored covers, but after about four
years these were dropped, not to return until 1915. In 1902
another paper, "Boys' Realm," on pink paper, was started, and in
1903 the "Boys' Herald," on white paper, appeared -- all under
the same control. While very similar to the "B. F.," the "Realm"
later specialized in sport, and the "Herald" in hobbies.

Mr. Edwards came to be an important personage in the publishing
company, the Amalgamated Press Ltd., and was made a director.
About 1912 he seems to have relinquished personal control of his
papers, which were divided between other editors. The "B. F."
carried on with little change in appearance, but no longer
travelled in company with the "Herald" -- which was suspended in
that year -- and the "Realm." A little later a recent arrival,
"Dreadnought," joined up as running mate. It was absorbed in
1915.

By 1914 the paper seems to be not doing so well. No Christmas
double number appeared. In February, 1915, control passed into
the hands of Mr. H. A. Hinton, who had been very successful with
the "Magnet," the "Gem," and the "Penny Popular." In No. 715,
Feb. 20, was published the first of the very popular series of
"Rookwood" school stories, which ran for eleven years. Then
followed four "bumper" numbers, enlarged, with colored covers.
This must have been one of the biggest "booms" put on for any
boys' paper. And it must have been a success, for the good old
"B.F." flourished anew for many years more, though now with a
slightly changed make-up, and stories that appear a little more
juvenile.

In January of 1916 the 21st Anniversary Number was issued with a
colored cover; it contained messages from various notable
persons, including Hamilton Edwards. War conditions caused a
reduction to twelve pages in March, 1916. The Christmas issue
for that year was the last with a colored cover. In January 1918
a further cut left only eight pages; in March the price was
raised to three-halfpence (3c). Popular authors during this
period were "Owen Conquest," "Duncan Storm" and "Maurice
Everard," all of whom contributed many serials and series
between 1915 and 1925.

Came the end of hostilities, and in June of 1919 the pages were
increased to twelve, the price still three-halfpence. No. 973,
Jan. 31st, 1920, was the 25th Birthday Number, and contained the
first instalment of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's sporting story,
"Rodney Stone". The 1000th No. of the new series was dated
August 7th, 1920, but was not celebrated particularly beyond
editorial comment.

Late in 1922 the pages were increased to sixteen, the pre-war
size, the price raised to twopence. Until this time the paper
again seems to have been very popular. At times a lot of
advertisements were carried, so that two issues just before
Christmas, 1921, were increased in size by four pages to
accomodate all of them. The Christmas Number for that year also
consisted of sixteen pages; this was the last increased page
special number issued.

Mr. Hinton left the Amalgamated Press in 1921, I believe, but
the style of the paper, and that of its companions, "Magnet,"
"Gem" and "Popular" did not change. In January, 1923, stories by
the now world-famous P. G. Wodehouse began to appear.

But in 1922 an event occurred which was no doubt a contributing
factor to the decline of not only the "Boys' Friend" but also of
the "Boys' Realm," which, suspended in 1916, was revived in 1919
in the same form. This was the launching by the same publishers
of the "Champion," a paper with smaller pages than the "B.F.,"
and which had a colored front page on every issue. Other papers
of similar attractive appearance followed.

The good old "Green 'un" carried on for several years, but
looking at the copies for this period it can be seen that all
was not well. In 1925 the columns, which from the start had
numbered five to the page, were changed to four. Then, after No.
1298, April 24, '26, drastic changes were made. Stories by Owen
Conquest, Maurice Everard and Duncan Storm were no longer
carried.

The paper was "reconstructed to suit the modern boy." Size of
page and color were the same, but there were now three wide
columns to the page, volume numbering and the words "New Series"
were dropped, and the pages were numbered 1 to 16 in each issue,
instead of being carried on through the volume. At this time,
for some reason, the apostrophe in "Boys'" was changed from
after the "s" to before it; the paper was now the "Boy's
Friend."

But this attempt to revive the old paper was not a success; by
the end of 1926 the columns were again four to the page, and
reprint stories and pages of comics were being used. No. 1384,
December 24, 1927, was the last Christmas Number -- the 33rd. In
the previous week's issue the Editor, in boosting a "war" story
just starting, made reference to the stories run in the paper
many years before, predicting the war of 1914-18. Before this
time the pages of comics had been dropped.

When the faithful who had stayed with their favorite paper thus
far opened their copies for the week after Christmas -- No.
1385, December 31st, 1927, they learned that in future the paper
would be incorporated with that "really live" boys' weekly, the
"Triumph." After a few weeks "Boy's Friend" appeared no more on
the cover of "Triumph" and the old paper was now just a memory.
In all a total of 1717 issues were published. During one week in
almost 33 years the paper failed to appear; this was in 1926, at
the time of the general strike.

It is interesting to note that the "Boys' Realm" was changed to
small pages in 1927, and survived the change by only about a
year, while the "Girls' Friend," a similar style of paper
published by the same company since the late '90's, went through
the same change and suffered the same fate not long after.

Twice since then the Amalgamated Press has tried to revive the
large-size page story paper. Late in 1934 there appeared "Boys
Broadcast," which ran to only 13 or so numbers before being
changed to smaller page-size. In 1938 "Modern Boy," a very
popular paper started in 1928, was changed to the large size.
The new series began with a big "splash," but lasted less than
six months before reverting to smaller pages.

The day of the large-page "journal" type of story paper seems to
be definitely past, and is not likely to return. But looking
through my volumes and loose numbers of the "Boys" Friend," in
my opinion an outstanding boys' paper of a past era, I get a
thrill that I fear will not be felt thirty years hence by
present-day boys when they peruse hoarded copies of their own
favorite papers -- or so-called "comic" magazines.
---------------------------
BUY
War Savings Stamps
And Help Win The
War!
These Stamps make inter-
esting Souvenirs for any-
one outside Canada. Send
25c (face value) for each
one you'd like. Include
addressed envelope and 3c
stamp. Don't stick stamp
on envelope. -- Send to
Wm. H. Gander,
Transcona, Man., Canada.
--------------------------------------------------
The
"WAR ILLUSTRATED"
A weekly periodical, published in London,
featuring pictures and articles on the War
New, recent issues supplied at the price of, each, 10c
(plus postage 1c)
-----o-----
WM., H. GANDER
P O. Box 60, Transcona, Manitoba, Canada
-------------------------------------------------
NOTES

* The oldest boys' weekly still published in Britain is
"Adventure," the 1000th issue being dated December 28, 1940. The
next oldest is "Champion," the 1000th number of which is due
March 29.

* Casualties among British boys' papers have been heavy since
the war started. In order of suspension the following have been
stopped:-- "Modern Boy," "Gem," "Magnet," "Boys' Cinema,"
"Thriller," "Triumph," "Detective Weekly" (which replaced "Union
Jack" in 1933), and "Skipper." This leaves but five boys' papers
still being published in Britain.

-----------------------------------------------
SCIENCE - FICTION
MAGAZINES
We have a very large stock of back numbers of all the
"Science Fiction" Magazines -- and "Railroad Maga-
zines" -- and all other kinds. Let us know your needs.
The School Book Shop
530 Ellice Avenue
Winnipeg, Canada
----------------------------------------------

Introducing : : :

The first issue of any publication, however modest, seems to
call for some excuse for its appearance. But I do not propose to
offer any excuse. Having the equipment and ability, a legacy
from the days when I was a printer (and provided the energy is
available) it appears to me a pleasant task to produce a little
paper devoted to the collection of the British boys' papers of
the past forty years.

Having spent my early years in England it is natural that I am
still mainly interested in the British papers, especially the
"Boys' Friend" and the "Magnet Library." But I fully understand
how my American contemporaries regard the "novels" of their own
youth.

I must here express gratitude to Ralph Cummings' "Dime Novel
Round-Up," and the now-suspended "Collector's Miscellany,"
long published in England by Joseph Parks, for the inspiration
necessary to attempt this modest endeavor.

How many more issues there will be, how frequently they will
appear, remains to be seen.--
W. H. G.

-----------------------------------------------
British Story Papers --
WAR-TIME ISSUES
"CHAMPION" -- "HOTSPUR" -- "WIZARD"
-- "GIRLS' CRYSTAL"
-- also "Comics" -- "Comic Cuts & Chips," "Beano,"
"Bubbles," "Film Fun," "Knockout"
Price, each . . . . 5c
(New copies, recent issues) (plus postage 1c.)
----o----
WM. H. GANDER
P. O. Box 60, Transcona, Manitoba, Canada
-------------------------------------------------------

WANTED
TO COMPUTE MY COLLECTION
OF THE FOLLOWING BRITISH
STORY PAPERS

"MAGNET LIBRARY"

ABOUT 200 SCATTERED NUMBERS
BETWEEN Nos. 1 AND 1400

"BOYS' FRIEND" [New Series]

SOME 600 NUMBERS BETWEEN
1 & 838, AND BETWEEN 1120 & 1378
* This is the large page, green paper, story week-
ly, not the small page "Boys Friend Library"

-----o-----

-- ALL LETTERS ANSWERED --

-----o-----

Wm. H. Gander
P. O. Box 60, Transcona, Manitoba, Canada



The
Story Paper Collector

Printed and issued occasionally by Wm. H. Gander, P. O. Box 60,
Transcona, Manitoba, Canada.
---------------------------------------------------------------
No. 2. APRIL-JUNE, Vol. 1.
---------------------------------------------------------------

THE "MAGNET" LIBRARY

This poetical appreciation from a youthful supporter of the
popular "Magnet" Library appeared in No. 249 of that paper,
dated November 16th, 1912. Such enthusiasm among the readers
accounts for the very long runs enjoyed by both the "Magnet" and
"Gem" Libraries.

You ask me why I never find
The labour of the day tires;
Because, good friend, my youthful mind
Is with the chums at Greyfriars.
I love St. Jim's, so full of glee,
I revel in Tom Merry;
But all the same I'd rather be
With Wharton and Bob Cherry.

I've great regard for Johnny Bull,
Mark Linley and Frank Nugent,
They take me back to my old school --
Frank Richards, you're a true gent! --
Oh, that your Greyfriars really was!
Then Harrow School and Eton
Would bow their lordly heads, because
By Greyfriars they'd be beaten.

For me, each single working day
Is fraught with one or two fights;
Not physically, I may say,
Like those of the Removites,
But battles which I often fear
Are awkward to contend with;
I then recall the words of cheer
Frank Richards' stories end with.

Dear Editor, if you but knew
The thoughts of each supporter,
And how your book thrills through and through
The globe in every quarter!
'Tis read by many a boy and man
On train-rides, trips and tramways;
And I'll support it all I can
As sure as my name's Samways!

------------------------------------

TWO POPULAR LIBRARIES
The "Magnet" and The "Gem" Libraries
By W. H. G.

Of all the weekly story papers for boys that were being
published in Great Britain at the time of the outbreak of war in
1914 -- the Amalgamated Press alone had not less than ten --
only two were still being issued when World War No. 2 broke upon
us in 1939. (This does not take into account the "Scout" which
is in a class by itself.)

These were the "Gem" and the "Magnet" Libraries, which paced
along week by week with identical serial numbers from No. 1,
February 15th, 1908, until the last issue of the "Gem," No.
1663, dated December 30th, 1939. The "Magnet" survived until the
acute paper shortage in the spring of 1940 brought about its
suspension with No. 1683, dated May 18th.

Actually, although the two papers carried the same number each
week, the "Gem" was the older of the two, and enjoyed a slightly
longer run. The first number of an earlier series was dated
March 16th, 1907, and for a while the paper featured adventure
stories. The first one was titled "Scuttled!" But soon a series
of school stories was started, dealing at first with "Clavering
School." After a few weeks "St. Jim's" became the locale of the
stories, the important characters being transferred to the new
school. Yarns of St. Jim's (or, to use the correct name, St.
James' Collegiate School) had appeared previously in "Pluck"
Library, in 1906. These were by Charles Hamilton, whose writings
were still appearing in Amalgamated Press boys' papers within
the past two years. It has been suggested that he and Martin
Clifford, under whose name the stories in the "Gem" were
printed, were the same person.

From the time that the school stories started there was no
looking back -- the "Gem" had one in every issue for thirty-two
years.

The first series sold at one halfpenny, and proved sufficiently
popular that after a little less than a year the price was
raised to a penny -- 2c --and the pages increased from 16 and
cover to 28 and cover. With this change a new series was
started, the first issue, as already stated, carrying the date
of February 15th, 1908. The same week a new "companion paper"
was started at a halfpenny. This was the "Magnet" Library, which
from the first featured stories of "Greyfriars School," which is
imagined to be in the county of Kent, near the village of
Friardale, and not far from the sea shore. St. Jim's is placed
in Sussex, near the village of Rylcombe.

The "Gem" in those days had "baby blue" cover pages and the
"Magnet" covers usually referred to as red, though, compared
with a crepe paper sample card, it appears to be apricot.

The title of the complete story in No. 1 of the "Magnet" was
"The Making of Harry Wharton." It dealt with the sending away to
school of a very spoilt, self-willed boy, an orphan, who has
been raised by a doting elderly maiden aunt. The boy's uncle and
guardian, Col. James Wharton, had come home from army duties to
find that the boy had got entirely out of control. Thinking that
to bring out the good in the lad it would be best to get him
away from home surroundings, the Colonel decides to send Harry
to his own old school, Greyfriars. The boy does not want to go,
but is compelled to, and the first few stories deal with the way
he is "tamed down" and his true fine character is brought to
light.

Harry showed himself to be a "born leader" and eventually became
"head boy" of his class, the Remove, or Lower Fourth. Through
the years he was a leading figure in no less than 1683 stories
of Greyfriars that appeared in the "Magnet," plus other stories
in the "Penny Popular," in "Chuckles," and in the "Boys' Friend
Library."

His closest chums were Frank Nugent, already at Greyfriars when
Harry arrived, Bob Cherry, Hurree Jamset Ram Singh, from India
and popularly known as "Inky," and Johnny Bull. They formed a
group known as the "Famous Five."

So popular did the "Gem" and "Magnet" stories become that many
of them were reprinted later in other papers, including the
"Penny Popular," -- later the "Popular" -- the "Dreadnought,"
the "Triumph," the "Schoolboys' Own Library," and also in the
"Holiday Annual," which has been issued every year since 1920.

Two years passed after the starting of the "Magnet" and the time
was then considered right for another "companion paper." And so
was commenced the "Empire" Library. It had a pink cover, and No.
1 was dated February 19th, 1910. Commencing with No. 106, same
date, the "Magnet" was increased to 28 pages, the price being
raised to one penny; it was now the same size and price as the
"Gem," the new paper having 16 pages and cover for a halfpenny.

The "Empire" featured stories of Rylcombe Grammar School,
supposed to be located near St. Jim's. The leading characters
were Gordon Gay, Frank Monk, and Wootton Major and Minor. They
also appeared at times in the "Gem" stories and less frequently
in the "Magnet." The stories in the new paper were by Prosper
Howard.

This new venture was not a success; soon the school stories were
replaced by tales of business life. After about six months the
paper was changed to "Boys' Friend" size pages, eight of them,
with a program of short stories and serials. And after less than
another year it was discontinued.

The "Gem" and the "Magnet," however, continued succesfully, and
they were both issued until as recently as 1939 and 1940,
respectively. Even then it took a World War to stop them.

We have now got to the point where the two papers were well
established. Little real change was made in either through the
years. About the only difference between a copy dated, say,
1912, and one issued twenty-five years later is the difference
in style of type and make-up. The front page shows changes on
just a few occasions. Consistently through the years the program
has included one long school story, plus one or two short
stories or features, or a serial -- a program that appealed to a
large number of boys -- and girls -- all over the world.

The outbreak of war in 1914 brought to the "Magnet" a war
serial, "A World at Stake," by W. B. Home-Gall, starting in No.
343, September 5th. In the "Gem" at the time there was running
"A Bid for a Throne," a Tale of Adventure and International
Intrigue, by Clive R. Fenn. This soon became -- in No. 344 -- a
"Thrilling War Story," with war action being introduced. After
about six months war serials were dropped, but the schoolboys
had their weekly adventures amidst war-time conditions.

A feature of some of the holiday double numbers in 1914-15 were
supplements in the form of a copy of the "Greyfriars Herald" or
"Tom Merry's Weekly" the little journals supposed to have been
published by the boys of Greyfriars and St. Jim's respectively.
The "Greyfriars Herald" has appeared in different forms several
times through the years. It was issued as a separate paper late
in 1915, but only ran about four months; the paper shortage
caused its suspension. It was revived in 1919, ran for a year or
two, and was then changed to "Boys' Herald," the "Greyfriars
Herald" being included in the "Magnet" as a weekly supplement.
As such it has since run through three "series" at different
times.

No. 396 of the "Magnet," September 11th, 1915, was the last
issue with the "red" cover. The "Gem" dropped its blue cover
after No. 436, June 17, 1916. For more than twenty years both
papers appeared with cover pages of white paper.

Somewhen before the outbreak of the war the two papers, together
with another companion paper started in 1912, "Penny Popular,"
had been placed under the editorial control of Mr. H. A. Hinton,
who was mentioned in our first issue in connection with the
"Boys' Friend." He continued in control, except for the period
he was in the army, until 1921. Only during the years covered by
his occupation of the editorial chair were readers permitted to
learn the name of the Editor through the columns of the papers.

The growing paper shortage caused a reduction in pages to 20 and
cover in 1916, and to 16 including cover early in the next year,
while in 1918 the price was raised to three-halfpence (3c.).
After the war ended the pages were increased to 20; in 1922
there was another increase to 28, this time the price being
raised to twopence, with the front page printed in two colors
instead of one.

For many years after this there is little to record. Both papers
missed one week's issue during the general strike in 1926. The
1000th numbers of both were published April 2nd, 1927.

Starting with "Gem" No. 1221, July 11th, 1931, the stories from
the earliest "Gems" were reprinted, with Tom Merry arriving at
Clavering as a new boy, and then going to St. Jim's.

From 1936 to 1938 the Greyfriars tales from the earliest
"Magnets" were reprinted in the "Gem."

Late in 1937 changes were made in the appearance of both papers.
The "Magnet" adopted a cover of colored paper with No. 1553,
November 20th; this a sort of peach shade, printed in blue. The
change in the "Gem" was more drastic. The pages were smaller,
and increased to 36, the cover becoming buff, printed in blue.
This change took effect with No. 1557, December 18th.

Commencing with No. 1625, April 8th, 1939, the stories in the
"Gem" are again original, being described as "new."

The outbreak of war in September, 1939, was followed in a few
weeks with warnings in both the papers to "order your copy in
advance to avoid disappointment," and soon the adventures of Tom
Merry & Co. and Harry Wharton & Co. were again amidst war
conditions.

War proved to be disastrous to boys papers, as to many others,
and No. 1663 of the "Gem," dated December 30th, 1939, carried
the announcement that commencing the next week the paper would
be combined with the "Triumph." In this paper there appeared
from then on abbreviated reprints of early "Gem" stories. The
"Triumph" was itself suspended the following May.

The "Magnet" carried on by itself, the other weekly companion
paper of recent years, "Modern Boy," having suspended
publication with the issue dated October 14th, 1939.

The issue of the "Magnet" No. 1683, May 18th, 1940, had
editorial comment to the effect that, although the paper now had
fewer pages it would still continue to appear regularly; the
fact was mentioned that during the last war the paper was even
smaller, but lost none of its popularity, and predicted that it
wouldn't do so this time.

But, sad to say, it didn't have the chance to prove it. That
number was the last one issued, due to the sudden shortage of
paper, even though the next week's story, "The Battle of the
Beaks," was announced -- "Beaks" meaning, of course,
Schoolmasters.

* * *

That about brings the history of these two old favorites down to
date. Lots could be written about the various characters in the
stories, about the artists and authors, about the different
supplementary features that have come and gone. Perhaps these
subjects will be dealt with in a future number.

* * *

The "Gem" and the "Magnet" and their several "companion papers"
make an interesting field for the collector, though the most
likely place for coming in contact with them -- Great Britain --
is now about closed to us on this side of the Atlantic.
Collectors over there have other things to occupy their time.

Those of us who have a soft spot in our hearts for these papers
have an additional reason to look forward to the time when peace
returns once more -- the hope that both will be revived to amuse
and interest the young people and bring back pleasant memories
to those of us who are not so young any longer.

-----------------------------------------------------

AN AWFUL CURSE

Serials by Sidney Drew, a very popular boys' writer of the time,
were featured in the "Magnet" during its earlier years. The
following "awful curse on Ching-Lung" is from the instalment of
"Twice Around the Globe" in "Magnet" No. 261, Feb. 8, 1913 :-

"May his whiskers turn blue,
And his oiebrows red!
May he niver sphake afther
The moment he's dead!
May he niver grow corrns
On the ind of his nose,
Or git dhrissed in the mornin'
Widout wearin' clothes!
May food be his grub
And liquors his dhrink!
Av he dhrops overboard,
And can't swim, may he sink!
When he turrns up his toes,
Lit us have the bells rung,
And bury the blayguard
Who's known as Ching-Lung!"

One does not need the explanation that it was only Barry O'Rooney who
could thus handsomely "curse" Prince Ching-Lung!

---------------------------------------------------

TOM MERRY & JACK BLAKE

In the stories of St. Jim's in the "Gem" Tom Merry and his
friends Monty Lowther and Harry Manners usually play a leading
part, with Jack Blake, George Herries, Robert Digby and Arthur
Augustus D'Arcy having slightly less important roles. 'Twas not
ever so, as the following quotation from the "St. Jim's Who's
Who" in the 1923 "Greyfriars Holiday Annual" shows:

"BLAKE, JOHN -- . . . If Jack were given his due, he would be
in Tom Merry's place. Mr. Martin Clifford's first yarn opened
with 'Jack Blake at St. Jim's,' and for well over a year Jack
continued as the central character of St. Jim's. . . "

No doubt the stories with Jack Blake as the leading character
were those that appeared in the old "Pluck" Library in 1906, "by
Charles Hamilton." Tom Merry was the central character from the
first in the "Gem" stories.

---------------------------------------------------
The
"WAR ILLUSTRATED"
A weekly periodical, published in London,
featuring pictures and articles on the War
New, recent issues supplied at the price of, each, 10c
(plus postage 1c)
-----o-----
One set only of Nos. 1 to 70, new copies, postage paid,
$7.00
(If interested in this offer, write first -- just one set available)
-----o-----
WM., H. GANDER
P O. Box 60, Transcona, Manitoba, Canada

-------------------------------------------------

SCIENCE - FICTION
MAGAZINES
We have a very large stock of back numbers of all the
"Science Fiction" Magazines -- and "Railroad Maga-
zines" -- and all other kinds. Let us know your needs.
The School Book Shop
530 Ellice Avenue
Winnipeg, Canada

-----------------------------------

DEATH OF BARRY ONO
------
"PENNY DREADFUL" COL-
LECTION IS PRESENTED
TO BRITISH MUSEUM
------

News came from London re-
cently of the death of Barry
Ono, Music Hall artist, in every-
day life Ex-Councillor Fred Har-
rison of Camberwell, London,
at one time proprietor of six
book shops in London.

Mr. Ono left his vast collec-
tion of "Penny Dreadfuls" of the
nineteenth century to the
British Museum.

As a boy at the age of 12, he
used to bind his "Boys' Stan-
dards" and "Sweeny Todds" in
brown paper covered volumes of
twelve numbers, and rent them
out at a penny a week. Then
he sold that early collection for
four pounds ($20.00), and did
not become active again until
about 1912.

The rooms of Mr. Ono's house
in Clapham were stacked with
luridly illustrated tales of pirates,
highwaymen and Red Indians.

When the blitz began last year
he shipped his collection to the
country.

-----------------------

Bound
Volumes
-of-
MAGAZINES
FOR SALE!
(All in half-leather bindings)
FAMILY FRIEND --
Volumes 2-3, 1850.
Bound in one volume.
(Cover slightly damaged)
Volumes 4-5,1851.
Bound in one volume.
Each . . . $1.00
BLACKWOOD'S Mag. --
Volume XCI, Jan.-June, 1862.
Price . . $1.00
THE COTTAGER'S
MONTHLY VISITOR --
Volume 24, 1844.
Volume 35, 1855.
The two for . . $1.00
-----------
PLUS 20c. each for Postage
-----------
WM. H. GANDER
Transcona, Manitoba, Canada

----------------------------

PERIODICALS OF 1900-12
By ARTHUR L. BUDGE

------------

(Reprinted from "Vanity Fair," No. 18, January, 1926)

A literary feast and a great period of boys' publications. . .
What fine penny and halfpenny papers they were, too; 16 to 32
pages in each, good paper, clear large type, all for the benefit
of the boys of 20 years ago. (Note: this article was written in
1925.)

These great journals, in their way, were equal if not superior
to the old time "Boy's Standard" and others of fifty years back.
Clean, healthy and thrilling serials and complete stories, with
characters and interest alive from start to finish; pithy short
complete articles on all sports, hobbies and pastimes; how to do
this and that, how to become proficient and expert in the many
occupations of life. . . .

"Big Budget," "Boys' Leader," "Boys Herald," "Boys' Friend" and
"Boys' Realm"; "Empire," "Marvel," "Pluck," and "Union Jack"
Libraries; "Boys of the Empire," "Surprise," "Nuggets," and many
others. (Including "Gem" and "Magnet." -- W.H.G.)

Who can deny the superb writing qualities of authors like David
Goodwin, Sydney Drew, Hamilton Edwards, Henry Farmer, Henry St.
John, Maxwell Scott, T. C. Bridges, John Tregellis, and others?

Also the artists who introduced their readers to such famous
funniosities as Airy Alf, Happy Ike, Gloomy Gus, Cokee Bill, and
Last, but not least, our immortal friends Weary Willie and Tired
Tim of "Chips."

Look at some of the great serials . . Rajah Dick, Val the Boy
Acrobat, Trapper Dan, . . Wings of Gold, An Eye for an Eye,
The Missing Heir, The Silver Dwarf, Guy Prescott's Trust,
Gilbert Nameless, and the fine Boys of St. Basil's series by
Henry St. John. Also we must not pass over S. Clarke Hook's
famous trio Jack, Sam and Pete -- not omitting Algy and the dog
Rory.

The Aldine "Dick Turpin Library" -- Nos. 1 to 182 -- were a
glorious set . . The escapes and adventures of Dick,
Blueskin, Tom King & Co., against the Bow Street Runners, were
thrilling, with Beetles and Peters supplying the humorous items.

------------------------------------------------------------

: : NOTES : :

The article on page 18, "Periodicals of 1900-12," taken from
"Vanity Fair," deals, as may be gathered, with boys' papers
published in England during that period. "Vanity Fair" was a
little amateur magazine published by Joseph Parks, of Saltburn-
by-the-Sea, Yorkshire, England, from about 1917 until 1927. In
1928 it was replaced by "Collector's Miscellany." Both magazines
dealt very largely with various phases of collecting.

* * *

I must say "Thanks!" for the letters of appreciation that have
come from some who received a copy of No. 1 of "S.P.C." It's
good to know one's efforts, even though modest, are appreciated.
To the one or two who inquired: There are no subscription rates.
Producing the little magazine is a "labor of love," and grows
out of my interest in the old British weeklies, and also partly
from the hope that through it I may be able to contact other
collectors who have copies to spare that I need. So no
subscriptions are invited or expected.

Besides, if there were subs., there would have to be a regular
publishing schedule, and that would make it a less pleasant
task.

* * *

It's amazing! I mean the way the British publishers are able to
produce some boys' papers still, in spite of being right in the
front line. Shortage of paper and rising costs make an advance
in price almost certain. Nearly all other weekly story papers
are now dearer.--W.H.G.

-----------------------------------------

BRITISH STORY PAPERS
"CHAMPION" -- "HOTSPUR" -- "WIZARD"
-- "ROVER" -- "ADVENTURE" --
Price, each . . . . 7c
(New copies, recent issues) (Postage Paid)
WM. H. GANDER
P. O. Box 60, Transcona, Manitoba, Canada

------------------------------------------

WANTED ---
TO COMPUTE MY COLLECTION
OF THE FOLLOWING BRITISH
STORY PAPERS

"MAGNET LIBRARY"
ABOUT 200 SCATTERED NUMBERS
BETWEEN Nos. 1 AND 1400

"BOYS' FRIEND" [New Series]
SOME 600 NUMBERS BETWEEN
1 & 838, AND BETWEEN 1120 & 1378
* This is the large page, green paper, story week-
ly, not the small page "Boys Friend Library"
(See Overleaf)
-----o-----
-- ALL LETTERS ANSWERED --
-----o-----
Wm. H. Gander
P. O. Box 60, Transcona, Manitoba, Canada

Old Boys' Book Collectors Part Six

Penny Dreadfuls and Penny Bloods
by John James Wilson,
founder of the Edwardian era Old Boys’ Book Club on 20 Jun 1913.
From The Connoisseur, April 1932.

Old Boys' Book Collectors Part Five

Frank Jay returned to the columns of Notes and Queries (12 S. X. 18 Mar 1922) with a query on “Early Victorian Literature” dealing with the penny dreadfuls of Edward Lloyd. Replies were submitted by W. Roberts, Albert Hall, J.B., M.I.M.C., Aleck Abrahams, Andrew de Ternant, Archibald Sparke, and H., finishing in N&Q 12 S. X. 10 June 1922. Running concurrently was another Frank Jay contribution, “John Frederick Smith, Novelist” (12 S. X. 8 April 1922,) continued with contributions from P. J. Anderson, (20 May 1922) and W. B. H. (20 May 1922). From here on I only know of the activities of the old boys book collectors in Collectors Miscellany up to March 1935. *(Update: I have since found a copy of CM dated Sept 1951, still published by Joseph Parks, Saltburn-by-the-sea, Yorkshire.)

Frank Jay and Barry Ono (“King of the Penny Dreadfuls”) had a falling out when Jay sold his vast collection and referred to such penny dreadfuls as “Blueskin” as trash. Most of the collectors took Barry Ono’s side on the matter. Frank Jay seems to have resented Barry Ono’s constant references to “bloods” and “fierce boys journals.” Frank Jay died in 1934 and Barry Ono in 1941.

Across the channel the collectors of dime novels and dime novel story papers had their own small press. The best account of early dime novel fandom is Michael L. Cook's introduction to “Dime Novel Roundup: Annotated Index 1931-1981” published in 1983. The earliest small press dime novel publication was Ralph F. Cummings (Reckless Ralph‘s) “Novel Hunter's Yearbook” published in Farnumnsville, Massachusetts and sold for a dime. “At home, and over the sea, we are hunting for novels, you and me.” This ran irregularly from 1926 to 1931, when it became “Reckless Ralph's Dime Novel Roundup” still published today under the title, “Dime Novel Roundup.”

In 1931 Frank T. Fries of Orrville, Ohio put together “Midget Monthly Magazine” which continued as “Midget Story Paper” in 1932. In November, 1932, the paper was renamed “Blood and Thunder Story Paper” and ran to 1935. Issues often include reprints from other Dime Novel series such as “Work and Win” and “Boys of New York.”

Reckless Ralph had a new venture in 1932, “Novel World,” featuring articles for the dime novel collector and advertisements for the sale and trade of dime novels. It was published six times per year in Grafton, Massachusetts and ran to1933.

“The Collector’s Journal.” I don’t have dates for this publication but New Series No. 5 was dated August-September 1933. The publisher was James Madison, 465 South Detroit St, Los Angeles, Cal., U.S.A. Madison advertised his publication in the UK “Collector’s Miscellany.”

1935 brought forth the monthly “Reckless Ralph's Twenty-Five Cent Novel Library” from Ralph F. Cummings, Grafton and Fisherville, Massachusetts. “The Great Romances. Their influence on Minor Sensational Literature and the Dime Novel,” by G. H. Cordier was title story in the first issue. In 1936 Reckless Ralph was at it again with “Pioneers and Scouts of the Old West,” published from Grafton, Massachusetts. This was a four-page newsletter published by The Ezra Meeker Ox-Trail Association. Ezra Meeker was a frontiersman who traveled from Indiana to the Pacific Coast in 1852.

“The House of Beadle and Adams and its dime and nickel novels; the story of a vanished literature” by Albert Johannsen in three massive volumes,1950, University of Oklahoma Press. You can find the text entire HERE.

In Volume 21 of “The American Book Collector,” Arlington Heights, Illinois (1950 to - ?) appeared a long series of articles by J. Edward Leithead, of Philadelphia. Leithead was a “thorough researcher of the West and wrote many novels and novelettes for the Western magazines during the “Golding Era” of the pulps. He was a regular contributor to Edward Leblanc’s Dime Novel Round-Up --”

The Eleven articles in the series between 1968 and 1973 are:

"Legendary Heros and the Dime Novels."
"The Saga of Young Wild West."
"The Revolutionary War In Dime Novels."
"Tanbark And Spangles In Dime Novels."
"Buffalo Bill Multi-Storied Scout and Plainsman."
"The Outlaws Rode Hard In Dime Novel Days."
"The Diamond Dicks :Frontier Lawmen."
"The Great Detective Team : Old And Young King Brady."
"The Matchless Nick Carter."
“The Civil War in Dime Novels”
“The Klondike Stampede in Dime Novels.”

Everything is covered from the Liberty Boys of '76 to Jesse James.

At the end of the tenth article it is reported that Leithead died of a heart attack leaving one article of his left to be published. The article appeared in the next issue titled “The Klondike Stampede in Dime Novels.” Further Leithead dime-novel articles appeared in the “Dime Novel Roundup.”

In Canada William Henry Gander (1898-1966), a news-agent in Transcona, Manitoba, published The Story Paper Collector, “printed and issued occasionally,” Vol. 1 No. 1, Jan-Mar 1941. No. 1 was reprinted in Mar 1943 in an edition of 104 copies. “I must here express gratitude to Ralph Cummings “Dime Novel Round-Up,” and the now-suspended “Collector's Miscellany,” long published in England by Joseph Parks, for the inspiration necessary to attempt this modest endeavor.” It lasted for at least fifty issues. William Gander died 8/4/66.

“Children’s Periodicals of the Nineteenth Century a Survey and Bibliography” by Sheila Egoff, a native of Ontario. London: Library Association Pamphlet Number Eight., 1951.

“The Dime Novel Western” by Daryl Jones, Bowling Green State University, 1978.

Books on dime novels continue to be published. Randolph J. Cox, who took over the editing chores on “Dime Novel Roundup” from Edward T. Leblanc in 1994, (Leblanc took the reins from Ralph Cummings in 1952) published “Dime Novel Companion” in 2000 for Greenwood Press.

In 2005 Joe Rainone published “Art and History of American Popular Fiction” (NY: Almond Press) in two lavishly illustrated volumes. Vol. IA The Five cent Wide Awake Library, Vol. I The Frank Reade Weekly and Early Science Fiction in the Dime Novels and Story Papers.

“The Continental Dime Novel” was published in 2006 by by Rimmer Sterk (Dutch) and Jim Conkright (American).

Meanwhile back in England, in 1941, Montague Summers (1880-1948) wrote “A Gothic Bibliography” published in a limited edition of 750 numbered copies by The Fortune Press. His information on penny bloods and penny dreadfuls is full of falsehoods and errors and all information should be absorbed with skepticism. This is followed by “A Bibliography of Bloods” by John Medcraft privately printed in Dundee in 1945.

Herbert Leckenby (b.1889) founded the Collector’s Digest in 1946. The co-founder was Robert Charles Blythe (b. 1913.) It was edited by Eric Fayne, and is published today by Mary Cadogan. Collector's Digest Christmas Annuals began publishing in 1947 and was edited by Herbert Leckenby & H. Maurice Bond.

[Image courtesy Norman Wright]

Story paper enthusiasts from the Collector's Digest founded The London Old Boys' Book Club, still active today, in 1948 and the Northern Old Boys' Book Club followed in 1950. In Australia they have the Sydney Old Boys' Book Club otherwise known as the Golden Hours Club. “The Golden Hours Magazine” was published in Sydney by Syd Smith. It lasted seven issues produced over four years Mar1960 to Feb 1964.

In October, 1948 “Boys will be Boys the story of Sweeney Todd, Deadwood Dick, Sexton Blake, Billy Bunter, Dick Barton, et al” by E. S. Turner, was published in London by Michael Joseph Ltd. A new revised edition followed in 1957 and a further new revised edition in 1975.

“Popular Fiction 100 Years ago; an unexplored tract of literary history” by Margaret Dalziel came out in 1957 from London publishers Cohen and West.

“The Autobiography of Frank Richards,” Memorial Edition, came out in 1962 from C. Skilton and “Greyfriars School: a prospectus” compiled from the records of the late Frank Richards (pseud.) by J. S. Butcher reached its second edition in 1965. The publisher was Cassell. “Together with some notes and comments on the teaching staff, scholars and domestic staff, and on the environs, history and sporting achievements of the school.”



“Fiction for the Working Man, 1830-50: a study of the literature produced for the working classes in early Victorian urban England” by Louis James published in 1963 by Oxford University Press has some interesting stories about eccentric collectors of penny bloods.

The first issue of “Book and Magazine Collector,” a monthly, still in publication, was published in March 1984. The magazine was closely linked with authors from the London Old Boys Book Club. The publisher is John Dean. [Thanks to Huib van Opstal for the date.]

In 1970 William Oliver Guillemont Lofts (b.1923) and Derek John Adley (b.1927) offered “The Men Behind Boys’ Fiction” published by Howard Baker. “The Saint and Leslie Charteris” by Lofts and Adley came out in 1971 from Hutchinson Library Services. In 1975 the two authors published “The World of Frank Richards” published by Howard Baker.

Mary Cadogan and Patricia Craig published “You’re a Brick, Angela! A new look at girl’s fiction from 1839-1975” (V. Gollancz 1976), “Women and Children First: the fiction of the two world wars” (Gollancz 1978) and “Frank Richards, the chap behind the chums” (Viking 1988).

“The Durable Desperadoes” by William Vivian Butler was published by Macmillan in 1973. A past President of the London Old Boys Book Club, John Wernham, published a number of books under the Museum Press imprint including a series of “Charles Hamilton Companions.” He also published “Sexton Blake a Celebration of the Great Detective,” and “Lightning Swords & Smoking Pistols: the swashbucker in story-papers and comics,” co-written by Norman Wright and David Ashford.

In 1988 Kirsten Drotner wrote “English Children and their Magazines 1751-1945.” Publisher was Yale University Press.

“Bullies, Beaks, and Flannelled Fools: an Annotated Bibliography of Boys’ School Fiction 1742-1990” by Robert J. Kirkpatrick, 1990. “The Encyclopaedia of Boys’ School Stories” by Robert J. Kirkpatrick, Ashgate Publishing Company, January 2000. “The Encyclopaedia of Girls’ School Stories” by Sue Sims and Hilary Clare, Ashgate Publishing Company, January 2000.

In 2002 Steve Holland published the Encyclopedia of Children’s Literature v.2.1 (EoCL) in CD format from Underworld Studios. Among the many, many contributors were Norman Wright, Jess Nevins, William H. P. Crewsdon, Jim Mackenzie, Eric Bates, Dennis L. Bird, and Steve Holland.

Joseph Parks “Collector's Miscellany” and Herbert Leckenby's “Collector's Digest” were both being published simultaneously in 1951 so it seems there was no direct connection between the two Old Boys' Book Clubs. The first collected Victorian story papers and penny dreadfuls, the second mostly post-Victorian story papers. There were, however, meetings between some of the second OBCC members and penny dreadful collector's Barry Ono and A. Lawson.

Not every person mentioned in these posts belonged to the official clubs. Bill Lofts, for instance was a member of the London Club, but his co-writer Derek Adley never was. There are many different avenues to collecting, pulps run up against dime novels, and penny dreadfuls opposite story papers like “The Magnet,” while academics are fond of G.W.M. Reynolds, J. F. Smith, and the “London Journal.” A book length study could even include such pulp fanzines as “Xenophile,” and “Blood 'n' Thunder” which often cross over into dime novel territory.