THE STORy rArER COLLECTOR N:.�;y::1�:i.4
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MORE ABOUT THOSE BUNTER BEDS
When page 120 of S.P.C. Num· described them, so the local ber 82 was printed we sent the part reference library had a customer. of that page with the short Bunter Such books as The Handbook Beds item on it to Tom Hopperton. of the Geology of Great Britain had This is what Mr. Hopperton wrote lots to say about Bunter Beds in return: and Bunter Series, but not a squeak about who or what Bun HE "PULL" of the Bunter Beds ter was. T item really interested me. At last I found that "the new In that article on Hamil· Red Sandstone Series . . has ton's nomenclature in The Col received the name of Trias from lectors' Digest Annual I said that the fact that when fully deve "Bunter" did not seem to be a loped, as in Germany, it consists real name, and did not figure in of the three great divisions any dictionary of surnames or of Keuper, Muschelkalk, and in any directory. Bunter." Since then I have come across I could see that the imagined a couple of 1868 advertisements personal name was down the for " Bunter's Nervine," a speci· drain and, sure enough, on 1<1>ok· fic for toothache, which indi ing up Bunter in a German cates that I was wrong. dictionary I find that it simply It appeared that Bunter Beds means "brightly coloured or were perhaps named after some variegated." old-time geologist who first - ToM HoPPERTON
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.. 111 p11111l111 111 1914 The Greyfria t )rit. I• l>1111tln1111 111 111l11pl 1 d p war 1111' t11 l1 1111 '11 1111 fli nrry The Dreadnou ht wnr 11111111 •1 111111 1lrr num· hrdllfl WU• 111111d llflllln ot CHOOL STORIES Nunih r I.All !Iii w11fnued by Charles until th ·rid of th y 11 , h ··n, S Hamilton were, as we all in January of l91 , rh wur uh· know, printed or reprinted title vanished, the gr• n llVt·r in various papers besides was discontinued, a return was The Gem and The Magnet. His made to the old numbering sys stories were used to help estab tem, and the reprinting of the lish such papers as The Penny Greyfri ars stories was begun. Popular (1912 and again in 1919), These changes were brought and the new series Greyfriars about by the paper having been Herald ( 1919, the Benbow stories) . placed under ·the control of The Rookwood stories in The H. A. Hinton, Editor of The Gem Boys' Friend had a lot to do with and The Magnet. Ch arles Hamil that paper staying with us from ton's school stories being so 1915 to 1927. It lasted for less popular with his readers, it was th an two years after they were natural that Mr. Hinton should discontinued in early 1926. use them to infuse new life into A much less successful trans The Dreadnought, just as it was fusion of Hamilton literary natural for him to have Mr. blood to an ailing paper was Hamilton create Rookwood and that given to The Dreadnought in a new set of characters for The 1915, for it enabled that weekly Boys' Friend when that paper to survive for less than six was given to him to look after months after the treatment-re a few weeks later. prints of Greyfriars stories -was But The Dreadnought must started. have been too far gone for even On one or two occasions we the Hamilton magic to be effec· have seen it stated that the tive. In June of 1915 it was Greyfriars reprints began in The combined with The Boys' Friend. Dreadnought in 1913. This was When a reader asked why the not the case. In 1913 the paper paper had been stopped he was was a stablemate of The Boys' told in The B.F., in effect, that Friend when the latter was it had lacked sufficient support. still being run according to its In 1913 Mr. Hamilcon's live Hamilton Edwards tradition, the den School stories, p r bnbly re story-makeup of The Dreadnought printed from The B oys' Herald, being similar to that of The B. F. appear din The Dreadnought. + 134 THE STORY PAPER COLLECTOR • No.BJ Vol.4
THE LOWER BRANCHES
By TOM HOPPERTON
HE SUREST to bring to write of their exploits, but Frank RichardsWAY out of his Frank Richards had every reason T corner fighting was to call to be aware that the people who him old-fashioned. lntent matter most in these things-the Upon Reading: A Critical Appraisal publishers-do regard the genus of Modern Fiction for Children, as fossilised. The Bunter Books published in 1961 by Mrs. Mar were his sole post-war venture gery Fisher, headed its chapter to meet with success, and he was on school stories with the criti not alone in his misfortunes. cally ominous title of Fossils and As popular and skilled a prad:i Formulas. As a Latinist Richards tioner as Hylton Cleaver was must have disliked the form of eventually unable to sell a school the second plural, and there is story, even to his publishers of no doubt at all about how he many years standing. regarded the author's remarks Books are not too reliable a on Greyfriars-- "But now we guide. In the main they are must come to the arch-fossil, the bought by adults for boys, and a original fly in the ointment much more reliable test comes Billy Bunter Nostalgia, with the papers for which the alone, can carry you through lads fork out their own cash this sort of this thing." He ad each week. Notwithstanding the dressed the lady more in anger diagnosis of "nostalgia" by Mrs. than in sorrow. Fisher and a swarm of similar He understandably resented amateur psychologists, it seems being regarded a' a sort of probable that the present depre literary Flint Jack and, as always, cation of school stories originates his argument was that as he with the adults of the printing treated of "the eternal boy" business and not with the cash he could not be old-fashioned. customers. For nearly half a cen Certainly, as long as boys go to tury the Amalgamated Press had school there will be someone the school story as the founda-
111�11111n1t:111�11mm1•>111w111�1:11111111111HJllH1111111:c;111111m11nll111111111111:1a1111m1:t pART QNE 1'1•1111u11um1111111�1)1t11111111111:1111111un1Crn111111111Kl111111111111ci111111111111111111111111u1: 136 THE T RY l' 1'111 l '( LI I ''l'Ol tion stone of their boys' wecldl • , Tu111 Mt•n •, :1111t/11 r, w re not and many of the nine r ten ev ·ti ·rrlnt hut n ·w stories thousand tales were reprinted written to hoo i 'I lit> jc111. The three, four, and even five times. next bun cl r •u h 1cl 21:! chool Basic interests do not change as titles with St. Jt1hn nncl od rapidly as fashions may suggest. win reversing th Ir 10-2 8 There may be still a kick in the and Richards dropping ut "fossil." Incidentally, Mrs. Fisher altogether. does not define the formula of At this stage the two seniors her airy heading: it must have were still in advance and showed been a singularly flexible one to no signs of flagging. Nor did permit of such numbers. they fall behind Richards in prolificity. St. John's The School so long ac Against Him ran for 51 weeks in WEcustomed HAVE BEEN to the pre-emi The Boys' Friend, so there was nence of Frank Richards a straightaway serial equal in that in thinking back over these length to five ordinary novels or A. P. tales it needs a positive a ten-issue series of The Magnet. effort to recall that when The Where they did eventually lag Qem was founded in 1907 he behind was in the wealth of was not only not a school-story characterisation. specialist, for the very good rea When the ruthless Percy Grif son that the A. P. did not as yet fith was given the job of starting permit themselves such luxuries, The Qem he would no doubt but he was not even the favour have been delighted to pirate ite school man of the Carmelite either of these shining stars to House fiction factory. That dis add lustre to his paper, but they tinction went to Henry St. John, were the main props of the Boys' with David Goodwin a good Friend/Boys' Realm/Boys' Herald second and eventually to out group and Hamilton Edwards strip his rival. was too powerful and too auto When the firm began to re cratic for a fledgling editor to print their more popular serials risk any unwelcome poaching. in the small books of The Boys' But if Griffith could have har Friend Library in 1905, there were nessed either St. John or Good 31 school tales in the first hun win to a school-story treadmill dred volumes, ten coming from as he did Richards, instead of St. John, two from Goodwin, leaving them to flit about every and four from Richards. Two of type of fiction from historical these, Tom Merry and Co. and romance to women's serials, they
.. THE LOWER BRANCHES 137 would perforce have had to school was still boosting first stabilise their changing charac issues in 1919 and 1922 with ters and elaborate them beyond Henry St. John's Schooldays in the the sometimes sketchy outlines revived Boys' Realm and The Out which sufficed for a single serial. cast of St. Basil's in The Champion. Such elaboration would not This Realm story is a particular have been a self-contained orna· testimonial to the drawing power ment, or an end in itself. As of St. Basil's. The editor con done by Frank Richards at St. cerned was J. N. Pentelow, long Jim's and particularly at Grey famous for his Wycliffe and Hay friars it profoundly affected first garth stories. He stood down in the plotting and secondly the favour of St. John, and not even entire effectiveness of his work. Pentelow's most fervent sup If St. John or Goodwin had been porter would claim that he was subjected to such modification bashful about printing his own there could have been only one stories. result : we should now be mourn The school existed, then, for ing the passing of Greyminster nearly a quarter of a century, or St. Simeon's as loudly as we but the continuity was largely do that of Greyfriars. spurious. St. John frequently commented that the place ENRY ST. JoHN was born in looked liked a barracks and H 1869 and as he was quite as twice let " jail" slip out: judging precocious as the Richards by the number of people passing who was seven years his junior through it also had something he was already a top-liner by in common with a railway the time of the birth of the station. St. Basil's had at least A. P. weeklies. He made his ap four headmasters in its time and pearance in Volume 1 of The there was a heavy wastage of Boys' Friend and unlike most of junior staff. The boys aged, his wide-ranging rivals he after sometimes with disconcerting wards wrpte little boys' fiction rapidity. A rather gormless for other publishers. The Boys of Third-former in one serial had St. Basil's, also in The Boys' Friend by the next blossomed into a in 1899-1900, saw the birth of his most potent, grave, and reverend favourite school. Editors, too, seignior of the Sixth and a model held the place in high esteem. of what a prefect should be. The The Seventh House at St. Basil's names afforded a tenuous con was commissioned to launch nection, but the character ob The Boys' Herald in 1903 and the viously had little in common 138 THE STORY PAP .R ' )I.LL\ R with its previous incarnatl n. Fl us mn t ·r of on · of St. Basil's St. John is an author who Im• emoll ulvlslons he held auto proves with study. Much of his crntlc swny vcr a virtually stuff, and particularly that in is lated ornmunlty and could lighter vein, has a headlong, pursue his n fnrious schemes almost careless air about it and untroubled by cbecks and con it takes time to grasp that there trols-until he became so out is a good more craft in it than rageous that the Head stepped sometimes shows on the surface. in and sacked him in 'the last chapter. It seems significant that BAsrL's was divided into this pattern was set in the ST.seven houses of about 25 very first story,but whether the boys and at first appears to character necessitated the divi be a ramshackle collection of sion or the division brought loosely-linked and unnecessarily out the character is now past small units. But no weekly serial· solving. ist retailing his yarns in 6,000- Boys of England was only three word dollops could manipulate years old when St. John was casts as large as those Frank born. He, even moreso than Richards found necessary with Richards, was nourished on the St. Jim's and Greyfriars. He school stories of the Brett, Em would have bogged himself mett, and Fox tradition, and down-and his readers with him he was much less successful in -in a morass of names without shaking offtheir influence. Even recognisable characteristics or in his most light-hearted stories discernible functions. St. John, his schools were grimy, dingy, by concentrating on one small and slightly forbidding. Who's house at a time, had only to Who says that he was educated deal with a handful of boys in privately in England and France, a story and could give them and if his schools are founded adequate treatment. on his actual experience he did The next point involves a sort well to keep quiet about the of "Which came first, the chic details. One always has a feeling ken or the egg ?" consideration. of uncertainty about his head St. John was fond of using a masters, too. With Richards, mean, spiteful, and vindictive one knows. Doctors Locke and master as a key character. Such Holmes have an Olympian de a man would have limited scope tachment. Dr. Chisholm would in his persecution of the hero in like to have it, but people keep an undivided school : as the trampling on the corns of his THE LOWER BRANCHES 139
prestige, when he mounts his his cast played the appropriate high horse with alacrity, not to part in the particular story in say gusto. progress he had no compunction This label of "Doctor" is in dumping even a Headmaster. generally the indication of majes They came and went. Some were ticity. David Goodwin was a bit likeable, some were unremark more specific than most. His able, but St. John was not con premier Head was the Right cerned enough to make any of Reverend Canon Leveson of St. them grippingly impressive. Simeon's. Frank Richards presu mably knew what his Head J devised many schools masters were doctors of but I ST.in oHNhis various papers, the cannot recall that he ever took second in importance being his readers into his confidence. Greyminster. This opened in By tradition, it should have been what were nominally two stories, Divinity, and even if some of The Fourth Form at Greyminster his readers had the idea that and Chums of Greyminster but Dr. Locke went round with a was really one immensely long stethoscope in the tail-pocket serial. Herbert Haviland, want· of his frock coat it did no harm. ing to go to sea and consigned Dr. Lynn (or Saxon), St. to Greyminster, changes places Basil's first headmaster, was with a ship's boy, Tom Andrews. conceived along stately Lock Andrews naturally has a rough ian lines, but he lacked the time at the school. This is iron firmness of character of a highly improbable basis for a Richards' Heads. He pleaded old story, which did not deter others age and retired to make way for from following in its track. a passing inventive freak, while a Henry T. Johnson imitated it later Head tamely submitted shortly afterwards in The Black to being sacked through the Sheep of the School, where young machinations of a subordinate Brabazon, an escapee from a re· who a�pired to his place-and formatory (he was innocent, of he stayed sacked. This could course !) saves the life of an· '" never happen in Richardsland. other youth creeping like snail The requirements of the authors, unwillingly to school and sub of course, were rather different. stitutes for him at Sr. Bridget's. Richards had to preserve his Frank Richards picked the idea characters and slanted his plot· up and had Tom Redwing ar ting accordingly. St. John felt no riving at Greyfriars vice Leonard such necessity: as long as any of Clavering, who showed his 140 THE STORY PAPER COLLECTOR originality in wanting to join borrowings, like the language of the Army as a change from his Truthful James's partner, were sea-struck forerunners. painful and fre quent and tree. This sharing of ideas is difficult to assess with accuracy. Roger to hold up Jenkins was privileged to inspect THEREone's IS hands NO NEED in horror about the library at Rose Lawn after this. These men were not Frank Richards' death, and he stnvmg to create deathless commented in an article in The literature: they were rushing Collectors' Digest : out weekly instalments for boys, fully aware that not one reader [It contained] school stories by in a thousand would recall a other authors in editions published word of it a month after print· between the two wars. Here can be ing. The demands on them were seen Alec Waugh, P. Q. Wodehouse, excessive. The rate of pay was Desmond Coke, Rudyard Kipling, low-it had only reached £1/1/0 H. A. Vachel!, Hugh Walpole, Tal a thousand by 1939-and to bot Baines Reed, and Q. F. Bradley, make even a modest living the to name a fe w. All have been read writer needed two serials every and the parts which particularly week and to produce over half interested Charles Hamilton were a million words a year. The marked in pencil. It is clear that his demands increased with their stories owe nothing to these authors popularity, the peak being when (except perhaps in Mr. Quelch's Frank Richards accepted com· refusal to leave Qreyfriars when mitments which entailed his dismissed by Mr. Brander, which turning out 80,000 words a week bears a close resemblance to a to keep up with schedule. They similar incident in Bradley's Lan must freque ntly have been at chester Tradition) but it is also their wits' end for variation interesting to note that he was not and grasped at any straw. Even unaware of what his rivals had to Richards' well of ideas ran dry offer. occasionally and, as Mr. Lofts has This gives support to the re lated, members of the office point I stressed in Digging Round staff were called on to prime the Roots that the writers for the his pump with suggestions on weeklies operated in an almost what the next series should be percolation-proof world of their about. own. Their borrowings were In any case, as he embarked from each other, and not the on the long run of extended hard-cover authors, and those series he became progressively HOW I MET THE MAGNET 14 1 more self-contained. Once he extent. The puzzling point is had the theme, his plots more whether some of his repetitions or less automatically developed were from sub-conscious recol themselves in accordance with lection or whether he just didn't the well-defined characteristics care. It must be either one or of the cast. It was in his earlier the other, otherwise the fact days, with more single-issue would not be so obvious and tales to produce, that he leaned in such a peculiar way. on externals to a marked
Part Two Will Appear In Number 84
School Friend, Schoolgirls' Weekly, HOW I MET Schoolgirls' Own Library, and the others, but I was so "taken" with the Magnet story, one in THE MAGNET the Wharton/Quelch series, that I bought the rest in the series. by Jack Overhill I had never read anything so THEin ARTICLEThe Story Paper Collector good, but I stopped reading at Number 81, Magnets and the end of the series, but started Qems, reminds me of how I first again in September or October came to know The Magnet. I of 1925, at the beginning of became acquainted with it and the Wingate/Loder series. These its companion papers rather late, stories were very good, too. at an age when many stopped I continued to read The Mag reading them. net until the end in 1940, also I was feeling bored on Boxing reading The Schoolboys' Own Day, 1924, and went out to buy Library and buying any back something to read. I think that numbers I could find- on the it was thJ cover of The Magnet bookstalls. that made me choose it. I had I think the Wingate/Loder thought that I was too old to series would make a good movie, read boys' papers, because I had as would the High Oaks series. already given up the girls' papers,�- -E.M . ... Correction- (We are beginning to dislike that word!) pJ35, col. 1, 11th line up, should read: "this sort of thing." This is the fourth Catalogue About Catalogues or List produced under the aus pices of the (London) O.B. B. C.
And Lists *
for com errors RECEIVEDment in TOO S. P. LATEC. Number 82 SOMEcreep TYPOGRAPHICAL up and take us un -and perhaps just as well awares. Others are com in view of what happened to the mitted, it almost appears, deli Charles Hamilton Catalogue -was berately. It was the latter case a copy of The Nelson Lee Library: with the error on page 132 of A Complete Guide and Biblio The Story Paper Colleetor Num graphy to the Writings of Edwy ber 82, where we referred to Searles Brooks, a ti tie to a rouse The Charles Hamilton Catalogue the admiration of ti tiers of books of the (London) Old Boys' two hundred years ago. Book Club Charles Hamilton The book itself aroused our Library as The Greyfriars List. admiration to great heights. We had received a copy from What a tremendous amount of Roger Jenkins, the Librarian, ad time, research, energy must have mired it, and then placed it on gone into the making of it ! In one side where it could be re the 60 pages plus cover it will ferred to when the time came surely be impossible for any col to make a note of it for S. P. C. lector of Edwy Searles Brooks' When the time came, the Cata writings to look for a story by logue could not be seen. Actually, him and not find it. Also in a paper-cover novel had been cluded are all the stories that ap placed on it, partially hiding it. peared in The Nelson Lee Library, So we went ahead in a carefree whether or not written by Mr. manner and called it The Grey Brooks. friars List. That indicates just The Nelson Lee Library: A Com how good our memory is for plete Guide may be regarded as recently-acquired information. the definitive work in its field The irony of it is that, had we and is a reflection of the zeal of waited only 24 hours before Bob Blythe and his collabora printing the page, we would tors, Jack Wood, Bill Lofts, and have had a letter from Bette Jim Sutcliffe - not overlooking Pate in Australia to put us back M. F., who, says Mr. Blythe, "so on the right track. All we can do untiringly translated my hiero now is express our regrets. glyphics into type." 142 -W.H.G. COLLECTING OLD BOYS' BOOKS: NOT "A NEW CRAZE"
N LONDON Sunday news there were Happy Hours Maga paperTHE The People last January zine and in addition some short· I there was a story about the lived titles.) hobby of collecting of old Actually, the collecting of boys' "books" or, as I tend to story papers-penny dreadfuls, think of them, story papers.* penny bloods, dime novels, how The writer of the article referred ever they might be referred to to the hobby as "a new craze." in different times -and different This demonstrated his lack of places-must have begun very knowledge of his subject, for soon after publication of such the hobby is not only not new, papers or "books" was started. but on the contrary is very old. The first collectors would be The only reason that this fact readers who stacked up copies is not well known is, probably, of each week's or each month's that until comparatively recent issues of the earliest story perio· years there has been no sus· dicals as they came along and tained organization among col· then started looking for back lectors and before the mid-1920s numbers to build up and com· (as far as I know) no hobby plete their sets. This was the periodical more than very way I started, with The Empire slightly concerned with their Library, in 1910. activities. (Among my family heirlooms Indeed, until the beginning of there are two bound volumes of The Story Paper Colledor in 1941 John Cassel l's The Working Man's there seems to have been no Friend, and Family lnsrrudor: Vol magazine devoted entirely to umes 1 and 2 of the old series, the subject of ol
Mr. Ransom also stated that he As Mr. Ransom stated in The gave a good price for Boys' Weekly Novelette in 1893 any kind of Boys' Books. Any quan that he was "Established 1875," tity bought or exchanged for others. it would appear that colleeting Established 1875. Don't throw your may have existed before that NOT"A NEW CRAZE" 145 year. There would need to be a As the power behind the Old demand before someone would Boys' Book Club, Mr. Wilson was set out to supply it. From this, perhaps best known. This organiza the beginning of old boys' books tion was established in r88o, to collecting may be dated back to assist collectors to buy, sell, and ex almost 90 years ago. change Old Boys' Books and Penny VIDENCE Dreadfuls. At one time, Mr. Wilson must be gathered stated, the club had as many as E wherever it can be found, three hundred subscribers, but as so I now turn to Number the old-timers died out the member 16 of The Dime Novel Roundup, s hip fe ll to less than a hundred. dated April, 1932. This magazine Thousands of the old English was established by Ralph Cum classics changed hands through this mings of South Grafton, Massa medium. chusetts, in January, 1931, as the Some of Mr. Wilson's letters to official organ of The Happy us were written on the stationery of Hours Brotherhood, a group of the Old Boys' Book Agency which dime novel collec'.tors.* In Num was established, according to the ber 16 can be found : printed heading, in r86o, but we Mr. Q. M�redith, our Folkestone, have little information about this England, correspondent, informs us enterprise, probably conducted, in that Mr. ]. ]. Wilson, the Liverpool later years at least, by Mr. Wilson collector and dealer, died February himself. 21st. We had been in touch with The final paragraph suggests Mr. Wilson for several months, and that the buying and selling of had been favored with notes for old boys' books-and the col several interesting articles on Old lec'.ting of them-was going on Boys' Books and Penny Dreadfuls. as long ago as 1860. If this ac'.tually was the case we may One of Mr. Wilson's great date our hobby back 103 years. favorites was the fa mous Penny That is as far as I can go with Dreadful, Sweeny Todd, the the available evidence, but it is Demon Barber of Fleet Street, too far for the collecting of old and we are greatly indebted to him boys' books to be regarded as " a fo r much information regarding this new craze." lurid work. * * The Roundup is still published month Originally it was my inten ly, since 1952 by Edward T. LeBlanc, 87 School Sr., Fall River, Mass., U.S.A.: tion to stop here, having proven $3.00per year. (I hoped) my case. But I must Old Boys Book Club List.
Publisher : Joseph Parks, 2 Irvin Avenue, Saltburn-by-Sea.
NO. 7-12. JULY-DEC., 1926.
FOR SALE. Young Men of Gt Britain, Vols 12, 13, 22, 23. Young England, pub's cases, 1882, 6, 7, 8, Our Boys Journal, Vols 1, 6, 8, 9. 1880, 1. 2, Routledges, Boys Annual, 1864, Boys of England, Vols 9, 10, 11 & 15-19. 5, 7, 1870, 7, 1881, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8. Good price for clean copies. C. Lawrence, Jack Harkaway, complete series, 16 vols. 287 Acton Lane, Chiswick, W. 4. £1, Burrage's Tom Torment, bound, 7/6, Hardiboy James, 6/6, Boys Halfpenny, Daring Ching-Ching, Wonderful Chi;;; Journal, Vols 1 & 2, all pub'd, rare, £3. Ching, Best for Boys Library, 3d 6d series What offers. 140 specimen copies some 1st Tom Wildrakes Schooldays Vol's 1 & 2 issues & rare, P.D.'s, Bloods, etc. bound in Fox's 3d. 6d & 1/- Publications, Boys of 4 vols. Reynolds Mysteries of London and Bircham School. Lists and prices to E. C. Court of London, 1st issues 12 vols. Vol I Wells, 60 Stopford Road, Upton Manor, Court of London, Reynolds Miscellany, London, E. 13. vols 1-8, Dantes Inferno, Dore plates, Nugget Library 1-120 (with few except stamp for list. F. Jay, 179 Ribblesdale Rd ions) Marvel ld Nos 1-280 (various) Streatham, London, S. W. 2. Young Folks Tales. Good condition. Any reasonable price given. John Medcraft, • SALE OR EXCHANGE 40 Windsor Rd, Ilford, Essex. Marvel, various duplicates between No's The Wandering Apprentice, Bravos of Al 50 & 160. John Medcraft, 40 Windsor Rd, satia, Aldine Coy's Publications. llford, Essex. Boys of the Empire, (Brett's coloured) Vol NOT" A NEW CRAZE" 147
at times be of the wordy type, Frank Jay and Fred Harrison fo r I went on and wrote two (Barry Ono), and An Ode to Ye more pages and then decided Penny Dreadful, by Barry Ono. to reprint a part of Joseph Still another Old Boys' Book Parks' Old Boys Book Club Club was func'.tioning in the List. So, on we go 1920s, though only briefly.I have * a copy of the final issue, "No. 7-12"-which is a good way of HE COLLECTORS and dealers T some of them at least were covering six issues-of the Club both-whose names can be List, published by Joseph Parks found in Vanity Fair (Joseph and dated July-December, 1926. Parks, 1917-27) were in the main It consists of a single sheet, size not interested in the then latter· about SfxlH", printed on both day papers, but in the Vietorians: sides, half the reverse side being Frank Jay, Patrick Mulhall (Ire blank. land), Barry Ono (his stage Most of the advertisements name- hi,s real name was Fred refer to Vic'.torian papers, and Harrison), John James Wilson, apart from these there is no ]. P. Quaine (Australia), Edward thing, except for a short notice: F, Herdman, Henry Steele, J. J. We regret that after this issue, Darby, and Matthew Hunter. owing to lack of support, the Old Arthur Budge is among those Boys Book Club will cease to exist. who contributed articles, but he wrote about papers of 1900-12- John Medcraft had an adver the only one to do so. tisement offeringMarvels for sale There are only three old boys' or exchange, and Arthur Harris, books articles in Volume 1 of of Dowlais, Glam., requested in· Vanity Fair (Numbers 1 to 12, formation as to the name of the 1917-19), all by Frank Jay. In author of the Ned Nimble series.· Number 11, Oetober, 1918, there I wonder if he obtained it. are two poetical efforts: The This Old Boys' Book Club and Old Boys Book l3rigade, signed by that concluded by Mr. Wilson
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OPPOSITE PAGE-A reproduc'.tion,ac'.tual size, not facsimile 'i/'i/ but re-set as nearly like the original as is possible with 'i/'i/ Rookwood Press types, of the upper sec'.tion, frontside, of 'i/'i/ combined Numbers 7-12, Joseph Parks' Old Boys Book Club 'i!'i/ List. With this issue, that 0. B. B. Club ceased to exist. 'i/'il 148 THE STORY PAPER COLLECTOR
appear to have been commer with name and address, 8d. for cial ventures. 50 envelopes, both for l/4d., post free. Neither Mr. Budge ESIDING Almondbury, nor this other advertiser could R Huddersfield,AT Arthur Budge have been doing it for anything was successful in getting but fun, surely, even in those his advertisements into the Our days of prices that seem to us Exchange and Mart columns of to be incredibly low. The Boys' Herald in the later One of Arthur Budge's ad 1900s, in spite of the fact that vertisements informed readers these columns were forbidden that he was running a lending ground for dealers. Eventually, library. it has been stated, Hamilton Perhaps the ban was still be Edwards ruled that Mr. Budge's ing enforced in 1915. In Pluck advertisements were not to be Number 548, dated May 1st of accepted. that year, there is a small paid The earliest of his advertise advertisement: ments that I have seen was LOOK BOYS! I exchange good in The Boys' Herald in 1908. In scamps for clean Cigarette Cards, addition to handling old boys' Boys' Papers, ere. Stamp for details. books Mr. Budge was offering to Approval Sheets, Cameras, Cycles, bind for other readers Boys' Scout Goods, Bound Novels cheap. Friend Librarys, six in a volume, Arthur Budge, Almondbwy, Yorks. or 26 copies of The Boys' Herald or other weekly papers, for l/ld. This advertisement indicates a volume, guaranteeing satisfac that he was operating not only tion. He stated that he would a "business" in old boys' books pay return postage on three but was also dealing in stamps volumes sent at one time. A and general merchandise. little later the price was up to At that time Pluck was run 1/6d. a volume and could be ning free advertisements for paid in instalments. readers, having inherited this It is not easy to see how any service from The Boys' Herald one who charged such' very low through that paper's successors, rates could be regarded as being Cheer Boys Cheer and The Bo;·s' in business. He could have Journal. bound books for a lifetime and The latest of Mr. Budge's ad never have become rich. vertisements chat have come to Another reader asked 9d. for my attention were in The Boys' 50 sheets of notepaper printed Friend in 1920, in Number 1002, NOT" A NEW CRAZE" 149
August 21st, and Number 1010, wished that I had kept his October 23rd. They were paid letters, invariably included in ads., and he offered pre-war the parcels of papers. They were "Friends, Realms, Populars, etc." written on small pieces of paper and "Gems" at 1/4d. a dozen, 50 a few inches square, every · por· for 5/6d., and "BeautifulPigeons" tion covered with tiny writing. at 5/6d., "Pigeons" at 4/6d. Herbert Leckenby also bought T papers from Arthur Budge and WAS IN 1916 that I first con related in The Story Paper Collec I tacted Arthur Budge, after tor Number 17 how, after loss of seeing his advertisements in contact for several years he Cheer Boys Cheer (1912-13) or Herbert-wrote to him, only to The Boys' ]oumal (1913-15). I learn that he was no longer ordered several lots of papers handling old boys' books but from him, mainly Pluck and The did have many thousands of Boys' Friend of the 1900s. Mr. cigarette cards for disposal. That Budge had a peculiar method: would have been about 14 years supplied with a list of the papers after those two advertisements I wished to buy, and a remit. appeared in The Boys' Friend. tance, he sent me copies that came to more than I had paid. I STARTED OUT to prove that the This procedure was repeated collecting of old books is not later. something new and I seem to He appeared to be willing to have wandered rather more take a chance on my being than was necessary. I think, how honest, in order to keep me ever, that my objective has been writing to him and sending accomplished, insofar as the evi further payments. I have since dence available to me will allow. -W.H.G.
I Wish to Purchase • • Turner. - Leon Stone, 131 Pre -Colleetors' Digest Annual for toria Parade, Hornsby, N. S. W., 1947 & 1948, 20/- each offered; Australia. Colleetors' Digest, January, 1959, [Since fire destroyed his home 6/- offered; 1922 Holiday An Mr. Stone has replaced some of nual, 45/- offered. - C. F. F. his lost books, incl. all SPCs, but Rickard, 415 East 10th St., North still lacks-as of last March Vancouver, B. C., Canada. Colledors' Digest � 1, 24, 29-31, & - Boys Will Be Boys, by E. S. C. D. Annual for 1947-8-9 & 1955.] The Apocrypha of the Christian The Birth of The Scriptures come a good second with such stories as Susanna and Short Story the Elders and Bel and the Dragon. (This last could be called the the hen world's firstdetective story.) "WHICHor the CAME egg?" FIRST, This humor A passing reference to the ous rendering of an early folklore of the North American metaphysical problem has in Indians as recorded by H. W. trigued and interested many Longfellow would not be out of where literature is concerned. It place, but this can be studied in goes right back to the dawn of his Song of Hiawatha. civilisation and is as strong and Turning to ancient Greece, potent an influence on life justly regarded by many as " the and character as ever. fountain of all classical know To search thoroughly into this ledge," the works of Herodotus, matter would require countless "the father of history," stand years and vast endeavour, but, out. How many of them have fortunately perhaps, "art is long survived it is impossible to say, and life is short." One could but King Rhampsinetus and the pore over hundreds and perhaps Thief will doubtless be familiar thousands of volumes of ancient to some. Certain incidents in lore and still be as far offas ever. this story would perhaps not But everything has to start pass the censor, but like Shak from something or somewhere, spere he took "all knowledge and I will try to pen a short and, for his province." I hope, informative article on Ancient Egypt is a subject by this absorbing subject. itself, and one can say right Leaving for the present the away that the whole body of early folk tales of nations and Egyptian literature can be traced peoples, one could trace the be to Hermes Trismegistus (three ginnings of the short story to times greatest). His various the Jewish Talmud. This won writings on every subject ran derful work, which combines into thousands of volumes, none ancient folklore and belief with of which have survived. But per the elaborate ceremonial of the haps fragments of them remain Hebrews, contains sufficientmat in the folklore of other nations. ter to fill many volumes. The Saxon England from the time scholar Whiston discovered this of Alfred the Great, and its when he wrote his Josephus and stories and song, can be summed the Early Wars. up in the story of Beowulf in 150 the Mere, and the myth of King In view of the kind reception Arthur and his knights will suf· accorded the previous two servings, fice for pagan Britain. It would not be fair to neg· we present another helping . lect Wales and its remarkable and very beautiful poetry, as STILL MORE written - still preserved-by its bards Talliassin, Modred, Uwain Glyndever and, later, Owen POT-POURRI Rhoscomyill. The sagas of the Norsemen, Bookshop Browsing long preserved in the minstrelsy of the different Nordic tribes, interested to see the bring us down to the Middle I WASpicture VERY of J. N. Pentelow in Ages, regarded by many as the S.P.C. Number 80. This is the most richly endowed of all. first oneof him that I have seen. France with its wonderful He was a great author. . . Song Cycle of Roland, The Romance In Brighton, browsing around of the Four Brothers Aymon, and in a well-known bookshop, I England with William Chaucer's came across some dusty volumes The Canterbury Tales, can fit· of The Girl's Own Paper. I looked tingly be described as the be· through the pages but they ginning of popular folklore in seemed very "dry" and even the Europe. illustrations were uninteresting. Following the invention of I rather fancy .that they will be printing, the popular short story adorning those shelves for years may be regarded as having se· to come, unless some elderly cured a firm hold on all classes. lady buys them for sentimental With the vast and incomparable reasons. literature which followed, the l can remember when Foyle's rest of the subject is common famous bookshop had piles of knowledge and will, it is hoped, juvenilia on the floor. It was long survive. I surprising, the number of elderly - HENRY ADAMS PucKRIN ladies in search of ancient Chat terbox Annuals, probably remin ---
• STILL MORE POT-POURRI 153 artist. The report mentioned his at an unrecognizable-to Mag drawing of Weary Willie and netites-Greyfriars with unreg· Tired Tim for Chips and the cognizable school-mates and drawing of Chick's Own front schoolmasters. These were fea· page feature. Another link with tured from beginning to end our boyhood days severed. though we understand that the -From the February, 1963, Newsletter of early strips were by Magnet ar the Old Boys' Book Club, London. tist C. H. Chapman and not so Philip Swinnerton's work can "comic." There were also pie· be found in many issues of such ture-stories of Sexton Blake and early-20th century Amalgamated Tinker during the greater part Press papers as The Boys' Friend, of the paper's run. The Boys' Realm, The Boys' Herald, During recent years Knockout and Pluck Library. He illustrated atcracted the attention of older stories based on the Chaplin readers by reprinting pre-war comedies that appeared in Pluck stories, including the Jasper in 1915 and 1916. Todd/Red Fox Inn series from * * * The Bullseye and a Dick Turpin series, The Nightriders, from a Knockout is Knocked source that eludes us. There Out ! were also Rookwood School stories from The Boys' Friend. THE COMIC STRIP and sometime part-reading-story paper, Knock * * * out, was merged with the new On "Magnets and Gems" comer Valiant in February last. The first issue was dated March I ENJOYED READING Jack Over· 4th, 1939, and the last one Feb· hill's "Magnets and Gems" in ruary 16th, 1963, a run of almost Number 81. When I listened to 24 years. While there were no the radio broadcast I remember serial-numbers on the paper in se1zmg upon those sentences receint years, Derek Adley and which deal with his first intro Bi ll Lofts have calculated that duction to the Companion there were 1251 issues. (They Papers. I always find the storyof figure that Film Fun, discon· one's "first awakening" most in tinud last September, had 2225 teresting. Such stories probably issues.) fall in the same category as a If Knockout was famous for any man's passing reference to the thing, it was for the humorous first occasion he met the girl pieture-stories of Billy Bunter who later became his wife. 154 THE STORY PAPER COLLECTOR
In my own case I suppose, like We were like Topsies, just Topsy, I just growed. lt was no growing into a life-long love of sudden discovery: perhaps evolu all these numerous periodicals tion would be a better word. I and comics, aided and abetted, used to look at the pictures of it seems, by a most understand comics that came my way, rarely ing headmaster and staff. Bless read at any length and never 'em all ! -MAURICE KUTNER bought. Later, an elder brother * * used to clutter up our home with red Magnets, blue Cjems, Penny Dreadfuls : yellow Plucks, and pink Union Picture-Papers ? Jacks , but they were beyond me and contained too many long, FROM A picture-feature in Num hard words for me to make ber 1 of Boys' World, dated Janu much progress in any story, and ary 26th, 1963 - a new weekly I contented myself with the illus from Longacre Press - comes tration captions. this : The teaching staff at my The first Boys' picture-papers, old school were very tolerant called "Penny Dreadfuls," were towards their scholars' juvenile based on these melodramas. Nowa reading matter and not only days, we'd think them very dull. allowed them, without comment, to stuff their pockets full to Picture-papers ? Called "Penny capacity with anything from The Dreadfuls"? It appears that no Boys' Friend to Nick Carter (there one outside the ranks of old by cruelly creasing and crushing boys' books collectors now re many a beloved periodical in members that boys' papers were not always picture-papers - or the process), but they permitted · a special corner of the play "comics." grounds, near the tuckshop, to Boys' World is a brightly-prin be used as a market-place for ted picture and text paper and "sale or exchange." has a name that is old : it has As a new scholar, aged nine, been used twice before-1 879-86 I took little interest in this and 1905-6. miniature Petticoat Lane; but by * * * my tenth birthday I was among Slows Down, Stops those who made their meagre Swift spending-money go as far as pos SooN AFTER Boys' World began sible in the pursuit of beloved publication (see above) a long reading matter. established Longacre Press boys'
" STILL MORE POT-POURRI 155 weekly, Swift, was discontinued visit here in London-and how in its ninth or tenth year. The you would be received ! final issue was Volume 10, Num· Long may your little journal ber 9, dated March 2nd. If we fl ourish. My one regret is that remember correctly, Longacre you do not charge a nominal Press used to be Hulton Press. sum for it. Something that is
* * * free is not appreciated as it should be. D W Bunter = Variegated Kew Gardens, Surrey.- oN EBSTER I to "Bunter" mean· Thanks for your kind remarks, ingN REFERENCE "Brightly coloured and varie Don. Letter-writing and S. P. C. ap gated" - see More About Those pear to benefit more fr om our retire Bunter Beds on page 133 - while ment than does reading!-w. Billy Bunter himself is scarcely * * * H.G. that, perhaps the "stories" he Capt. A. Donnelly Aitken tries to get away with could be so regarded, in a figurative sort W informed by Bill of way ! LoftsE HAVE of theBEEN death of Captain * * * A. Donnelly Aitken, who was Source of Wonder Editor of Fun and FiClion ( 1911- 1914). We have no details. IT IS never-ending source of * * * wonder to me how you manage A "Comics" Remembered to publish The Story Paper Col leClor so often! • . I look for· I D ' Sunday Review for ward to it tremendously and FebruaryN uBLIN 17ths last a reader who have kept all of them since signs himself "Desperate Dan" Number 24. (I wasn't a Club recalls, in a letter to the Editor, member prior to that.) the endless hours of entertain· As you say, an acknowledg. ment that he derived from the ment occasi nally isn't asking "comics" when he was a young too much-y u may be sending ster. He wonders "where I could copies to those who are no purchase some of the old ones longer interested. of about 15 years ago," and lists I do hope you will be happy some of them : Film Fun, Radio in your retirement ; you will be Fun, The Champion, Wizard, and able to catch up with your read others. He continues: "Perhaps ing at last ! . . How pleasant some of your readers could it would be if you could pay a help ; I'd like to have them for 156 THE STORY PAPER COLLECTOR younger brothers of mine." The drawings of characters from the moral is, of course, keep them Greyfriars stories, that "fat Owl" as you buy them-don't throw predominating. them away. If you don't keep Let us hope that there are them, there will come a day more young collectors of Geoff when you will wish you had. Harrison's kind around. If there But in giving that advice in are, Greyfriars lore will last for these pages we are "preaching a long time. -0. W. W to the converted"! * * * ADHAM * * * More Footnotes to O.B.B. A Keen Young Collector Collecting Article h should be interesting T of the ·final to learnSURELY just who is the youngest paragraphHE SECOND on LINEpage 149 should collector of such story papers as re ad : collecting of old boys' books The Magnet and The (]em and is not . the comic papers contemporary W Colleetor's Miscellany with them. NumberRITING IN14, December, 1935, Young collectors are, I fear, Barry Ono referred to J. ]. Wil all too rare and those that are son's Old Boys' Book Club as active today should be given "entirely mythical." every encouragement. T of the Old Recently I was pleased to re BoysHE RE·SETBook Club PRINTING List on page 146 ceive letters from 16-year-old includes all the typographical Geoffrey Harrison, a pupil of errors in the original printing Wairoa College, Wairoa, New and none of our own. Zealand. If Geoff is not the * * youngest story paper collector he is surely one of the keenest. SEXTON BLAKE LIBRARY His "first love" in that long 1915 - 1963 lost land of schoolboy adventure ...... , .. . is Greyfriars. He writes: "I just THE STORY PAPER can't read enough about it," and COLLECTOR states that he is also interested Established 1941 in old school photographs. Edited, printed, and published by When he leaves school Geoff Wm. H. Gander, 202 Yale Ave. West, hopes to become a cartoonist. Transcona 25, Manitoba, Canada. The pages of his bright and in This Issue 280 Copies. teresting letters are headed with PRINTED AT THE ROOKWOOD PRESS ...