Georges Dodds, who maintains the R.U.R.itaninan Muglug web site -- where you'll find a number of electronic texts (including the Talbot Mundy story, "The Soul of a Regiment") -- provided the following newspaper story about Talbot Mundy, which appeared in 1919. These columns of type provide a look at Mundy's life after he had settled down to being a popular author of adventure fiction. Many thanks to Georges!
Dodds found these newspaper materials came at the Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers (BETA) 1900-1910 web site. The source and date for the story is noted at its beginning.
According to the story, among those named in the suit by Mundy was A.J. Drexel, Jr. I wonder if this might be the same A.J. Drexel who was a famous financier and founded Drexel University?
One of the Mundy stories involved is King, of the Khyber Rifles. This has been filmed twice, once as the 1929 movie The Black Watch (starring Victor McLaglen and Myrna Loy and directed by John Ford), and again in 1953 under the novel's title (starring Tyrone Power, Terry Moore and Michael Rennie, and directed by Henry King). The other story mentioned, "The Soul of a Regiment," apparently was never adapted to celluloid.
From New York Times
February 22, 1919, p. 3, c. 4
BRINGS $150,000 FILM SUIT
Talbot Mundy Names A.J. Drexel, Jr., A.B. Duke and Others in Action.
A suit for $150,000 damages for alleged fraud and misrepresentation filed in the Supreme Court yesterday by Talbot Mundy, African explorer and author, includes among the defendants Anthony J. Drexel, Jr., his brother-in-law, Angler B. Duke, George A. Hurty, member of Henry Clews & Co.; James R. Williston, member of the New York Stock Exchange, and Eliot Norton, a corporate attorney.
The suit is brought as the result of the sale of stock in the Standard Film Industries, Inc., of 69 West Ninety-first Street, in which the plaintiff alleges that he and other persons who got stock in the corporation sustained losses through the misrepresentation of several of the defendants and the neglect of others. The complaint also names as defendants Alexander H. Jackson, Secretary of the Corporation, and Louis B. Jennings, who was a voting trustee with Drexel and Norton.
Mundy sues as the result of two contracts made with the corporation, under one of which he got 500 shares of stock for the film rights to his story, "The Soul of a Regiment," and another giving him 334 shares for "The King of the Khyber Rifles," which, he says, had a sale of 15,000 copies in book form.
LINKS:
Learn more about Talbot Mundy's adventurous life from Brian Taves' Talbot Mundy, Philosopher of Adventure: A Critical Biography, which is available at Amazon.com. Learn more by clicking here.
Visit Georges Dodds' R.U.R.itaninan Muglug web site!
Learn more about Talbot Mundy's work from The Pulp Rack's selection of essays on Mundy. Click here.
Posted by ds at June 20, 2007 07:30 AM
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