Description

A Little Yellow Book of Perilous Tales by Sax Rohmer, edited by F. Paul Wilson

Hardcover – Borderlands Press – November 2024 – 158 pages

From F. Paul Wilson’s Introduction:

Who is Sax Rohmer?

Good question.

He was born on February 15, 1883 with the name Arthur Henry Ward. As a descendant of Irish General Patrick Sarsfield, he added that to his name at age nineteen and sold his early fictions as A. Sarsfield Ward.

But whence the name “Sax Rohmer”?  In an interview, he claimed he came up with his famous nom plume by combining words from ancient Saxon: the word “sax” means “blade” and “rohmer” means “roamer.” He used both A. Sarsfield Ward and Sax Rohmer interchangeably in his writing until the pseudonym gained international recognition.

His Fu Manchu novels delivered on the promised thrills and chills and “strange deaths,” but the character orchestrating these intricate plots was a revelation. Dr. Fu Manchu answered to an organization known as the Si-Fan, what might viewed as a collective of Tong—Chinese criminal societies ruling the underworld. (Later he would rule the Si-Fan.)  But he was not concerned with the more mundane vices that funneled riches into the Tong coffers. The doctor had his eye on loftier goals. The first was to banish foreign influences from Chinese soil. After that . . .  “to crush what the West calls civilization.”  And he would pursue that goal by whatever means necessary.

So, A Little Yellow Book of Perilous Tales treats you to the very first Fu Manchu story, as well as the Madame de Medici triptych. The Devil Doctor is renowned the world over, but Madame de Medici is known to only a few Sax Rohmer fans who have read beyond the Fu Manchu tales, or are true aficionados of pulp fiction.

Enjoy.

Limited edition, signed by F. Paul Wilson.