Sax Rohmer

Arthur Henry Sarsfield Ward (✦15 February 1883 – †1 June 1959), better known as Sax Rohmer, was a prolific English novelist. He is best remembered for his series of novels featuring the master criminal Dr. Fu Manchu.

Life and work

Born in Birmingham to a working-class family, Rohmer initially pursued a career as a civil servant before concentrating on writing full-time.

He worked as a poet, songwriter, and comedy sketch writer in Music Hall before creating the Sax Rohmer persona and pursuing a career writing weird fiction.

Like his contemporaries Algernon Blackwood and Arthur Machen, Rohmer claimed membership to one of the factions of the qabbalistic Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Rohmer also claimed ties to the Rosicrucians, but the validity of his claims has been questioned. His physician and family friend, Dr. R. Watson Councell may have been his only legitimate connection to such organizations. It is believed that Rohmer may have exaggerated his association in order to boost his literary reputation as an occult writer.

His first published work came in 1903 when the short story The Mysterious Mummy was sold to Pearson's Weekly. He gradually transitioned from writing for Music Hall performers to concentrating on short stories and serials for magazine publication. In 1909 he married Rose Elizabeth Knox.

He published his first novel Pause! anonymously in 1910 and the first Fu Manchu novel, The Mystery of Dr. Fu-Manchu, was serialized from October 1912 - June 1913. It was an immediate success with its fast-paced story of Denis Nayland Smith and Dr. Petrie facing the worldwide conspiracy of the 'Yellow Peril'. The Fu Manchu stories, together with his more conventional detective series characters - Paul Harley, Gaston Max, Red Kerry, Morris Klaw, and The Crime Magnet - made Rohmer one of the most successful and well-paid authors of the 1920s and 1930s.

Rohmer also wrote several novels of supernatural horror, including Brood of the Witch-Queen. Rohmer was very poor at managing his wealth, however, and made several disastrous business decisions that hampered him throughout his career. His final success came with a series of novels featuring a female variation on Fu Manchu named Sumuru.

After World War II, the Rohmers moved to New York only returning to London shortly before his death. Rohmer died in 1959 due to an outbreak of the virus subtype H2N2. His wife published her own mystery novel, Bianca in Black in 1954 under the pen name, Elizabeth Sax Rohmer. Some editions of the book mistakenly credit her as Rohmer's daughter. Elizabeth Sax Rohmer and Cay Van Ash, her husband's former assistant, wrote a biography of the author, Master of Villainy, published in 1972.

Bibliography

• Pause!, [published anonymously] 1910
• Little Tich, [autobiography of the Music Hall entertainer ghost-written by Ward) 1911
• The Mystery of Dr. Fu-Manchu, [US Title: The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu] 1913
• The Sins of Severac Bablon, 1914
• The Romance of Sorcery, 1914
• The Yellow Claw, 1915
• The Devil Doctor, [US Title: The Return of Dr. Fu-Manchu] 1916
• The Exploits of Captain O'Hagan, 1916
• The Si-Fan Mysteries, [US Title: The Hand of Fu Manchu] 1917
• Brood of the Witch Queen, 1918
• Tales of Secret Egypt, 1918
• The Orchard of Tears, 1918
• The Quest of the Sacred Slipper, 1919
• Dope, 1919
• The Golden Scorpion, 1919
• The Dream Detective, 1920
• The Green Eyes of Bast, 1920
• The Haunting of Low Fennel, 1920
• Bat-Wing, 1921
• Fire Tongue, 1921
• Tales of Chinatown, 1922
• Grey Face, 1924
• Yellow Shadows, 1925
• Moon of Madness, 1927
• She Who Sleeps, 1928
• The Emperor of America, 1929
• The Day the World Ended, 1930
• The Daughter of Fu Manchu, 1931
• Yu'an Hee See Laughs, 1932
• The Mask of Fu Manchu, 1932
• Tales of East and West, 1932
• The Bride of Fu Manchu, [original US Title: Fu Manchu's Bride] 1933
• The Trail of Fu Manchu, 1934
• The Bat Flies Low, 1935
• President Fu Manchu, 1936
• White Velvet, 1936
• Salute to Bazarada, 1939
• The Drums of Fu Manchu, 1939
• The Island of Fu Manchu, 1941
• Seven Sins, 1943
• Egyptian Nights, [US Title: Bimbashi-Baruk of Egypt] 1944
• The Shadow of Fu Manchu, 1948
• Hangover House, 1949
• The Sins of Sumuru, [US Title: Nude in Mink] 1950
• Wulfheim, [originally credited to Michael Furey, later printings listed as Sax Rohmer] 1950
• The Slaves of Sumuru, [US Title: Sumuru] 1951
• Virgin in Flames, [US Title: The Fire Goddess] 1952
• Sand and Satin, [US Title: Return of Sumuru] 1954
• The Moon is Red, 1954
• Sinister Madonna, 1956
• Re-enter: Fu Manchu, 1957 [UK Title: Re-Enter: Dr. Fu Manchu]
• Emperor Fu Manchu, 1959
• The Secret of Holm Peel, [posthumous anthology] 1970
• The Wrath of Fu Manchu, [posthumous anthology] 1973

See also:

• Master of Villainy, 1972 biography by Cay Van Ash and Elizabeth Sax Rohmer
• Ten Years Beyond Baker Street by Cay Van Ash, 1984
• The Fires of Fu Manchu by Cay Van Ash, 1987
• The Terror of Fu Manchu by William Patrick Maynard, 2009
• The Destiny of Fu Manchu by William Patrick Maynard, 2011
• The Sumuru Omnibus compiled by John Robert Colombo, 2011
• Tears of Our Lady compiled by John Robert Colombo, 2011

External links

• Works by Sax Rohmer at Project Gutenberg
• Audiobooks of Works by Sax Rohmer at Librivox
• Sax Rohmer - The Name http://www.njedge.net/~knapp/The_Name.htm