Sir Max PembertonJP (19 June 1863 – 22 February 1950) was a popular English novelist and publisher working mainly in the adventure and mystery genres.[3]
His most famous work The Iron Pirate was a best-seller during the early 1890s and it initiated his prolific writing career (see below). It was the story of a great gas-driven iron-clad, which could outpace the navies of the world and terrorised the shipping of the Atlantic Ocean. Other notable works included Captain Black (1911). Pemberton's 1894 collection Jewel Mysteries: From a Dealer's Note Book was a series of Mystery stories revolving around stolen jewels.[3] Pemberton also wrote historical fiction. Pemberton's I Crown Thee King is set in Sherwood Forest during the time of Mary I.[6] His novels Beatrice of Venice (1904) and Paulina (1922) centre on Napoleon's military campaigns in Italy.[7]
During January 1908, and just one year after the death of Pemberton’s friend and fellow Crimes Club member, Bertram Fletcher Robinson, he had a story titled Wheels of Anarchy published by Cassell (publisher). This book includes the following book dedication in the form of an 'Author's Note':[8]
This story was suggested to me by the late B. Fletcher Robinson, deeply mourned. The subject was one in which he had interested himself for some years; and almost the last message I had from him expressed the desire that I would keep my promise and treat of the idea in a book. This I have now done, adding something of my own to the brief notes he left me, but chiefly bringing to the task an enduring gratitude for a friendship which nothing can replace.
The Wheels of Anarchy is an adventure tale about anarchists and assassins, which is set across Continental Europe. The novel's hero, Bruce Driscoll, is a recent graduate of Jesus College, Cambridge and he appears to be modelled upon Robinson. In December 2010, Wheels of Anarchy by Max Pemberton was compiled, introduced and republished in facsimile form by Paul Spiring and Hugh Cooke.[9]
During the autumn of 1914, Pemberton published a Father Brown story titled The Donnington AffairbyG. K. Chesterton in an obscure British periodical named The Premier. This short story was reprinted in the Chesterton Review in 1981.[10]
^General Register Office index of births registered in July, August, September 1863 – Name: Pemberton, Max District: Kensington Volume: 1A Page: 9.
^Note: He sometimes gave his place of birth as Edgbaston, Birmingham (his mother was from Birmingham)
^ abLeRoy Lad Panek, After Sherlock Holmes: The Evolution of British and American Detective Stories, 1891–1914.McFarland, 2014. ISBN9780786477654 (pp. 66-7).
^Jonathan Nield, A Guide to the Best Historical Novels and Tales. London, E. Mathews & Marrot, 1929 (p.151).
^Daniel D. McGarry, Sarah Harriman White, Historical Fiction Guide: Annotated Chronological, Geographical, and Topical List of Five Thousand Selected Historical Novels. Scarecrow Press, 1963 (p.221)
