FRANCIS BANNERMAN--A MAN OF MYSTERY & HISTORY 1912--May

ELEPHANT HUNTING FOR A LIVING 1912--July




His sagas; with a story sequence of various characters
by Dr. J. Lloyd Eaton


Talbot Mundy was a prolific writer of historical tales and stories of
adventure-intrigue, his particular forte being tales of India and the
Near East. Twelve of his novels are listed in THE CHECKLIST OF FANTASTIC
LITERATURE, with themes of mysticism, black versus white magic,
lost-race, and even true science fiction. Many others of his stories are
borderline fantastics.

In the field of fantastic literature his works are highly prized (often
highly priced, also) and many such readers find, possibly to their
surprise, that they also enjoy his other stories. This may be due in
some part to the fact that Mundy used the same characters over and over
again, in novels in which each played the lead and as sub-characters in
other novels. One keeps meeting old friends.

This leads to one difficulty in reading Mundy, however. If one is going
to meet these characters, it is much more enjoyable to watch them
develop from birth, so to speak--and not vice versa, like coming into a
theatre in the middle of the picture. But, a reading sequence is a real