Farnol

Book excerpt: For over 40 years, the swashbuckling historical romances of Jeffery Farnol (1878-1952) ranked with the best-selling fiction in the world. At least six movies were made of his books, featuring stars like Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Richard Barthelmess and Edna May Oliver. His stories were serialised in McCall's, Cosmopolitan, Collier's, Good Housekeeping, and other leading magazines and daily newspapers on every continent. They were translated into Afrikaans, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Norwegian, Polish, Spanish and Swedish. Radio adaptions were broadcast in England, the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, while dramatic and musical versions appeared in British and American theatres. Today, on the used book market, his rarer titles command prices up to $300. Farnol worked in the factories of Birmingham, as a scene-painter in Hell's Kitchen, N.Y., and as a war correspondent in France. Both Queen Mary and her son, King George VI, requested his services in providing stories and articles about charities they espoused; his reporting of the Jack Dempsey/Georges Carpentier world heavyweight championship was lauded by the famous 'Bat' Masterson as a masterpiece of sports writing. Here, finally, is the definitve authorised biography of this prolific storyteller whose work brought untold pleasure to millions over the years.