Produced by David Starner, Valère Swinnen and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team.
Edited by BRADFORD M. DAY
A Bit of His Life
Talbot Mundy was born in London on April 23, 1879. He was educated atRugby, and served nearly ten years, beginning in 1900, as a governmentofficial in Africa and India. While in India, he wandered all over thesub-continent on horseback, and even into Tibet. Eastern occult lorefirst attracted, then fascinated, his active and unorthodox mind. Mundyabsorbed all he could learn of the Indian beliefs.
Government service next brought him to Africa where he studiedfirst-hand the nature magic of many of the tribes and cultures of EastAfrica. His quest for more information on this subject impelled him totravel extensively through Egypt and the Near East and even into partsof Arabia. This was truly adventurous at the time, but only in characterwith the man who killed dozens of lions and successfully hunted forivory.
Mundy visited Australia, and Mexico as far south as Yucutan. He firstarrived in the United States in 1911, and liked the country so much thathe decided to stay and become a citizen.
Mundy quickly turned his energies to writing, and an article, "PigSticking in India," was accepted and published in the April 1911 issueof Adventure Magazine, itself only a few months old. Another article andhis first story, "The Phantom Battery" soon appeared. For yearsthereafter, Adventure had short stories, novelettes, novels, and serialsby this master teller of tales in most of the issues that were printed.
The motif and locale of the stories and very infrequent articles usuallystemmed from the areas, people, and occult knowledge previouslymentioned. The manly art of self defense must have occupied some ofMundy's attention during his early career. A series of stories aboutBilly Blain, pugilist, appeared under the pen-name of Walter Gait,beginning with the February 1912 issue of Adventure. Two articles werealso printed under this pseudonym.
Scribners of New York produced his first book, "Rung Ho" in 1914, thenapparently forgot him. In 1916, Bobbs-Merrill of Indianapolis publishedone of his most famous stories, "King—of the Khyber Rifles," andCassell and Company of London brought out "The Winds of the World." Bothwere well received, and Mundy's career to a moderate renown was on itsway.
In succeeding years he continued to write for Adventure and othermagazines, most of the stories being snapped up by various bookpublishers. Many of the books were reprinted in several editions bydifferent companies, and, confusing to a bibliophile, the Englishpublications ware often re-titled.
During the 1920's Mundy bought a part of the Point Loma estate in
California, called The Cliffs. He settled there for several years and
became a member of the Theosophical Society presided over by Katherine
Tingley. A half-dozen of his books were written there and, "Om; the
Secret of Ahbor Valley," shows the influence of this occult society.
He contributed many articles to Tingley's theosophical magazines, hermost noted publication being the Theosophical Path. After her death in1929, Mundy left Point Loma but always retained his interest in andsympathy with Theosophy.
Mundy continued writing almost to the time of his death on August 5