Victor Neuberg is perhaps still mostly known as an acolyte of Aleister Crowley.
Like Ranpo’s work, they may not be read for their style, but they have their furtive enthusiasts for their narrative drive. As John Howard recounts, this pseudonym was adopted by a young SF fan from Liverpool who went on to produce a score of brisk futuristic novels. Oliver Kerkdijk, in his celebration of the writings, concedes that Ranpo is no stylist, but celebrates the utter strangeness of his extraordinary fantasies.Ĭharles Eric Maine wrote what he liked to call ‘scientific thrillers’. The decadent thrillers of Edogawo Ranpo, who may have adopted his pen-name from an allusion to Edgar Allan Poe, ought to be better-known outside his native Japan. If he is right, this brings a whole new dimension to the work of another author in the supernatural fiction field.Ĭhris Mikul, meanwhile, looks into the unusual career of Julian Osgood Field, who wrote racy fin-de-siecle thrillers under the pseudonym ‘X.L.’ Though this identity has never been in doubt, the full extent of his other activities has not been revealed before, and they even involve an unfortunate contact with another noted literary family. Various theories have been suggested, but Peter puts forward a startling new proposal, supported by careful discussion.
The name was no doubt a pseudonym - but who was the writer behind the mask? Peter Bell considers ‘The Mystery of Mark Hansom’, an author who published a succession of weird thrillers in a five year period in the mid Nineteen Thirties, and then vanished. Several of our contributors in this issue discuss literary enigmas.
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