THE
WOLD NEWTON UNIVERSE
Part V
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I. A Study in Identity
In Tarzan Alive (Doubleday, 1972) and Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life (Doubleday, 1973), Philip José Farmer did much more than just fashion biographies of two popular fictional characters. He formulated a genealogy linking scores of heroes and villains from literature. Mr. Farmer dubbed this exercise "creative mythology." In linking all these characters, some loose ends were left dangling. One such case was the true identity of Captain Nemo.
As most people are aware, Captain Nemo was the enigmatic commander of the submarine Nautilus in Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea (1869). Most people today visualize Captain Nemo bearded due to James Mason's portrayal of the seaman in the 1954 film adaptation of Verne's classic novel. In reality, Nemo didn't have a beard in his first appearance in Verne's works. Nemo was initially described as follows: "He was tall, had a large forehead, straight nose, a cleverly cut mouth, beautiful teeth, with fine tapered hands, indicative of a highly nervous temperament." He also possessed black eyes set wide apart.
Nemo is Latin for "no one." The real name of the mysterious individual was not disclosed in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea. The impression was given that Nemo was an anarchist philosopher rebelling against the repressive governments of the world. He supplied gold to people on the island of Crete. Anyone reading this novel in 1869 would be aware of the natives of Crete were fighting for independence from Turkey. The contemporary reader assumed that Nemo was funding the rebels.
One of the most memorable scenes of the novel has Nemo risking his life to rescue an Indian pearl diver from a shark. After the incident, Nemo made this intriguing remark: "That Indian, sir, is an inhabitant of an oppressed country; and I am still, and shall be, to my last breath, one of them!" If Nemo was not an Indian himself, then he at least identified with some inhabitants of the subcontinent.
The Nautilus caused many ships to sink by ramming them. Some of these incidents were accidental, but others were definitely intentional. The deliberate acts of destruction were aimed against vessels of an unnamed nation which had persecuted Nemo. While Jules Verne didn't name the country which was the object of Nemo's wrath, most readers assumed it was Great Britain. During an attack on a warship of the "accursed nation," Nemo made these revealing comments about his past life:
"I am the law, and I am the judge! I am the oppressed, and there is the oppressor! Through him I have lost all that I loved, cherished, and venerated--country, wife, children, father and mother. I saw all perish! All I hate is there! Say no more!"
Displayed in Nemo's cabin aboard the Nautilus was a photo of a woman and two children. One would assume they were the wife and progeny Nemo lost.
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea concluded with Nemo and the Nautilus seemingly destined for oblivion in the Maelstrom, a large whirlpool off the coast of Norway. Captain Nemo and his underwater craft reappeared in The Mysterious Island (1874). This novel concerned a group of American Civil War refugees who found themselves marooned on an uncharted island in the Pacific. The plot remained a Robinson Crusoe story until the castaways concluded that they had an unknown benefactor assisting them against the island's perils. This ally revealed himself to be Captain Nemo. The leader of the Americans, Captain Cyrus Harding, knew all about Nemo from having read Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea.
Having escaped the Maelstrom, the Nautilus sailed the oceans of the world until all its crew but Nemo had died. Presumably the other crewmen perished from natural causes. Now an old man with a beard, Nemo returned the Nautilus to the island where the submarine had originally been built. This was the same island where the Americans had found themselves stranded. Nemo revealed himself to be Dakkar, an Indian prince who had lost his family and kingdom in the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857-58. Leaving the castaways treasure chests of Indian jewels, Nemo died from old age. Harding buried him in the Nautilus. When the island sank due to a volcanic eruption, Harding and his comrades were rescued by a British yacht.
To the casual reader, the mystery of Captain Nemo had been solved. To the more discerning reader, Verne's solution raised even more questions about the skipper of the Nautilus. The inconsistencies between Captain Nemo's two appearances were noted in H.W. Starr's "A Submersible Subterfuge or Proof Impositive" in Leaves From The Copper Beeches (Livingston Publishing Company, 1959).
A few of Mr. Starr's sharp observations will be noted. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea has Nemo commanding the Nautilus during 1866-68, but The Mysterious Island has the Captain aiding Harding and company since 1865. Nemo was judged by Professor Aronnax, the narrator of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea, to be somewhere between thirty-five and fifty years of age, but Nemo was sixty years old in The Mysterious Island. Aronnax noticed only Europeans among Nemo's followers, but The Mysterious Island suggested that the sailors aboard the Nautilus were Indians. How could Harding have read Twenty Thousand Lea~ues Under The Sea by 1865 when it wasn't published until 1869?
Mr. Starr is not totally correct in arguing that Aronnax only observed Europeans among Nemo's followers. When first meeting Nemo, Aronnax saw him conversing in a strange language with one of his crew. The sailor is described thusly:
"One was short, very muscular, broad-shouldered, with robust limbs, strong head, an abundance of black hair, thick mustache, a quick, penetrating look, and the vivacity which characterizes the population of Southern France."
Aronnax concluded that Nemo and his henchman were members of the same nationality:
"...I am inclined to think that the commander and his companion were born in low latitudes. There is southern blood in them. But I cannot decide by their appearance whether they are Spaniards, Turks, Arabians or Indians. As to their language, it is quite incomprehensible."
Though the idea that Nemo may be an Indian crossed Aronnax's mind, such a possibility seems remote because the Captain's skin was described as "rather pale."
As a result of the numerous discrepancies between the two books featuring Nemo, Mr. Starr completely dismissed The Mysterious Island as a totally impossible sequel. Seeking to clear up the question of Nemo's identity, Mr. Starr propounded that the Captain was Professor James Moriarty, the archenemy of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes.
The premise that Moriarty was Nemo can be bolstered by many similarities between the two men. Both have high foreheads. Moriarty was a Professor of Mathematics, and Nemo was seen performing mathematical calculations aboard the Nautilus. Moriarty and Nemo shared a love of art. Moriarty owned an expensive painting by the French artist Greuze. Nemo had the works of several old Masters in his cabin.
Details of Professor Moriarty's life can be gleaned by examining The Valley of Fear (1915) and "The Final Problem" from The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1894). After deducing Moriarty's role as ruler of the London underworld in the 1880s, Sherlock Holmes engaged in a duel of wits with the mastermind which culminated in the Professor's death in 1891. As Mr. Starr has noted, Moriarty's life before his battles with Holmes is very sketchy. At the age of twenty-one, Moriarty wrote an acclaimed treatise on Newton's Binomial Theorem. The fame resulting from this achievement enabled Moriarty to be appointed to a mathematical chair at a British university. Rumors at the educational institution forced him to resign his faculty position. He then became an army coach in London. An army coach was a private tutor who prepared soldiers for either entrance exams into the officer corps or for exams which officers must pass to guarantee promotion. While an army coach, Moriarty erected a criminal empire. Since Conan Doyle did not provide any dates about Moriarty's career, Mr. Starr reasoned that the Professor could have disappeared for a few years to pursue his activities as Nemo.
Philip José Farmer adapted Mr. Starr's theory for a novel, The Other Log of Phileas Fogg (Daw Books, 1973). In fact, Mr. Starr's article was reprinted as an afterword to Mr. Farmer's novel. The Other Log of Phileas Fogg was supposedly the "true story" of the 1872 trip undertaken by the hero of Jules Verne's Around The World In Eighty Days (1872). In Verne's original novel, Phileas Fogg traveled around the globe just to win a bet. Mr. Farmer's book bestowed on Fogg an ulterior motive for participating in the journey. The spaceships of two opposing alien races, the Eridaneans and the Capellans, crash-landed on Earth in the 1600s. Disguised as human beings, these two groups of aliens conducted a secret war against each other. Several humans were adopted into the ranks of their humans. These humans received blood transfusions from their alien masters. As a result of these transfusions, the humans became virtually immortals.
The Eridaneans recruited Fogg while the Capellans did likewise with Moriarty. The Capellans had funded Moriarty's construction of the Nautilus. Four years after the destruction of his submarine in the Maelstrom, the former Captain Nemo was seeking to retrieve a group of teleportation devices which had been lost in the battles between the Eridaneans and the Capellans. Fogg embarked on his global trip to find the devices for his superiors. The novel concluded with the Capellans utterly defeated, but Moriarty was still at large.
Mr. Farmer modified somewhat Mr. Starr's ideas. Captain Nemo had black eyes, and Moriarty's orbs were gray. Mr. Starr speculated that Verne endowed Nemo with black eyes because Byronic heroes traditionally had such a facial characteristic. Mr. Farmer had Moriarty using contact lenses to deliberately perpetuate the illusion that he was an Indian prince.
In the Sherlock Holmes stories, Moriarty had two brothers. "The Final Problem" identified one of the Professor's siblings as Colonel James Moriarty. Conan Doyle initially neglected to give the Professor a first name. When referring to the master criminal in "The Adventure of the Empty House" in The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1905), he was called Professor James Moriarty. Numerous theories have been generated by Sherlockian scholars as to how two brothers could have the same first name. The Valley of Fear reveals the existence of a "younger brother" who was a stationmaster in western England. No Christian name was given for the third Moriarty.
H.W. Starr suggested that the photo of Captain Nemo's family was really that of the Professor and the Colonel as children with their mother. Philip José Farmer argued that the photo was actually of the Professor's wife and children. Unable to abide her husband's egotism, Mrs. Moriarty allegedly left him and took their children with her.
The Other Log of Phileas Fogg contains an explanation of why the Colonel and the Professor were both named James. The Professor was the eldest of the three brothers. The Colonel and the stationmaster had a different mother than the Professor. Even though her stepson was named James, the second Mrs. Moriarty insisted on naming one of her progeny in the same manner. Her decision resulted because her father's name was James.
A completely contradictory ancestry of the Professor is given by Mr. Farmer in Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life. Instead of having different mothers, the three brothers each had a different father. The Colonel is now designated as the eldest. Their common mother was Morcar Moriarty, an Irish housemaid Only the Professor's father was named. He was Sir William Clayton, a sort of heroic version of George MacDonald Fraser's Sir Harry Flashman. Clayton had been created in Tarzan Alive. Mr. Farmer fashions a daughter, Urania, for the Professor, but there is no elaboration on the two boys in Nemo's family portrait. All that is mentioned about the Professor's wife was that her maiden name was Caber.
A difficulty with depicting the three Moriarty brothers as illegitimate children stems from a statement made by Sherlock Holmes in "The Final Problem." Holmes said that the Professor was "a man of good birth." The sleuth never would have uttered this remark if he knew that the Professor's parents were unmarried.
The Professor's brothers were never physically described in Doyle's stories. Theories have been put forth by Sherlockian devotees about the appearance of the Colonel and the stationmaster. Nicholas Utechin's "The Tree That Wasn't" from The Baker Street Journal (New Series, Vol. 22, #4, December, 1972) proposed that the Colonel was a tall, lean man with colored glasses from Doyle's "The Adventure of the Empty House." In "The House of Moriarty" from The Baker Street Gazette #1 (Summer, 1987), a fanzine published by Baker Street Publications (P.O. Box 994, Metaire, Louisiana, 70004), I altered Mr. Utechin's theory by substituting the stationmaster for the Colonel. I also identified the stationmaster with Andrew Lumley, a master criminal from John Buchan's The Power House (1916).
The stationmaster did not put in an appearance in The Other Log of Phileas Fogg. He was only briefly acknowledged by the Professor as "the other idiot" in his family. The Colonel, however, did enter the novel as an accomplice of his more infamous brother.
Philip José Farmer utilized a theory about the Colonel advanced in Jack Tracy's "Some Thoughts on the Suicide Club" from The Baker Street Journal (New Series, Vol.22, #2, June, 1972). "The Suicide Club" was not written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Its author was Robert Louis Stevenson. Together with "The Rajah's Diamond," "The Suicide Club" related the adventures of Prince Florizel of Bohemia in Stevenson's New Arabian Nights (1882).
Conan Doyle fashioned a similar character, the King of Bohemia, in "A Scandal in Bohemia" from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892). Edgar W. Smith's "A Scandal In Identity" from Profile By Gaslight (Simon and Schuster, 1944), a collection of Sherlockian articles, theorized not only that Stevenson's and Doyle's Bohemian characters were the same individual but also that these characters were disguised portrayals of the Prince of Wales, the future Edward VII. A reference to a nameless "celebrated detective" in "The Suicide Club" was interpreted by Mr. Smith to indicate the indirect involvement of Sherlock Holmes in the story.
The Suicide Club was a murder society which the Prince of Bohemia was combating. In the story's conclusion, the Prince fought a duel with the President of the Suicide Club. The Prince recruited strangers to act as his seconds. This proposition was made to four men. Only two accepted. The men who accepted were officers in the British army, but the two who declined were never identified. One of the individuals who rejected the Prince's request was a tall man with a heavy stoop. Jack Tracy's "Some Thoughts on the Suicide Club" wondered if this unknown person could be Colonel Moriarty. Accepting Mr. Tracy's suggestion, Philip José Farmer presented the Colonel as the tall man in The Other Log of Phileas Fogg.
One of the theories from "Some Thoughts on the Suicide Club" of which Mr. Farmer did not avail himself was related to the parentage of Professor Moriarty. In his war on the Suicide Club, the Prince received assistance from Dr. Noel, a retired English master criminal living in France. Dr. Noel cocked his head like a bird while Moriarty's head oscillated like a snake's. Noel could be Moriarty's father.
Another tall man with a heavy stoop played a prominent role in "The Pavilion on the Links" from Stevenson's New Arabian Nights. This tall man was Bernard Huddlestone, an embezzling banker. It is impossible for Huddlestone to be the character from "The Suicide Club" because the banker perished years before Prince Florizel's adventure.
The remainder of this article is an attempt to redefine the theory that Captain Nemo was Professor Moriarty. In Tarzan Alive and Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life, the great heroes and villains of fiction received their extraordinary abilities because their ancestors had been exposed to radiation unleashed by a meteorite which crashed in Wold Newton, Yorkshire, during 1795. The Other Log of Phileas Fogg augments the talents of Fogg and Moriarty by having them receive blood transfusions from alien races. While I greatly enjoy The Other Log of Phileas Fogg its concept of warring aliens is really too outlandish to fit snugly with the concepts of Verne, Doyle and Stevenson. Even though The Mysterious Island was an extremely contradictory sequel, it is still an entertaining work which should not be totally ignored.
In order to create a more coherent picture of Moriarty's existence as Nemo, specific dates have to be assigned to the Professor's career as sketched by Doyle. Nicholas Utechin's "Professor James Moriarty, 1836-91" from The Baker Street Journal (Vol.24, #1, June, 1974) gives a rather exact approximation of the mastermind's probable career. I have made two slight alterations in Mr. Utechin's findings. In repeating the talented scholar's explanation of how two brothers could be both named James, I have reversed the ages and the medical condition of the two brothers. Rather than have Professor Moriarty become an army coach immediately upon his resignation from the university, I have assigned Moriarty's activities as Nemo between his resignation and his arrival in London.
The Other Log of Phileas Fogg has Prince Dakkar appearing in a total different context as a leader of the Thuggee cult in India. Thuggee also played a role in Conan Doyle's "Uncle Jeremy's Household," a short story which can be found in these collections: The Final Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Castle Books, 1981), Masterworks of Crime and Mystery (Doubleday, 1982) and The Unknown Conan Doyle: Uncollected Stories (Doubleday, 1984). Besides linking the events of "Uncle Jeremy's Household" to Professor Moriarty in the section which follows, I have utilized concepts about Thuggee from the film "Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom" (1984) and the works of Talbot Mundy.
Even though I am dismissing the events of The Other Log of Phileas Fogg, I do offer an explanation for the existence of a "phony" diary of Phileas Fogg.
II. Alias Captain Nemo
Due to a strange twist of fate, it could be argued that the great-grandfather of Sherlock Holmes is responsible for the criminal talents exhibited by Professor James Moriarty. Dr. Siger Holmes of Yorkshire had befriended a young medical student, Sebastian Noel, in 1795. Intending to visit relatives in Rayleigh, Dr. Holmes invited Noel to accompany him and a party of distinguished aristocrats to their destination. There was no room for Noel in the two coaches which were to transport Holmes and the others to Rayleigh. Therefore, Noel followed the coaches on a horse. At Wold Newton, a meteorite struck twenty yards away from the coaches and Sebastian Noel. As a result of radiation released by the meteorite, all of the genes of the travelers underwent mutation. Their descendants would demonstrate superhuman abilities in the future.
Sebastian Noel married Thomasina Vandeleur in 1803. Thomasina was the aunt of the Vandeleur brothers who appeared in Stevenson's "The Rajah's Diamond." Thomasina gave birth to a son, James Noel, in 1804. Like his father, James Noel became a doctor. He became extremely popular with certain members of the aristocracy because he was willing to discreetly handle the births of their illegitimate children. One of the clients for whom Dr. Noel performed such a service was Sir William Clayton.
Sir William had committed the folly of conducting a liaison with Morcar Moriarty, an Irish housemaid in his employ. Being married to Lorina Dacre at the time, it became extremely awkward for Sir William when Morcar became pregnant.
Morcar's mother had been Bernice Huddlestone, the sister of Bernard Huddlestone, a prominent banker. Although Bernice came from a wealthy English family, she had been disinherited for eloping with an Irishman, Robert Moriarty. Because her family was financially destitute, Morcar (born in 1815) had been forced to seek work as a servant.
The illegitimate son of Sir William and Morcar was born in 1835. The child was christened James after the doctor who delivered him. Raised as James Moriarty, Sir William's son would eventually become a colonel in the British army. Despite Sir William's precautions, his wife soon learned about her husband's adultery. Divorcing her spouse in 1835, Lorina was granted custody of their two children, Phileas (b. 1832) and Roxanna (b. 1833). After their mother married Sir Heraclitus Fogg, the children were formally adopted by their stepfather.
Young James Moriarty was a sickly child in his early months of life. Both his mother and Dr. Noel feared that James would perish at an early age. Besides the emotional distress that the demise of her baby would cause, such an event would terminate the income from a trust fund which Sir William had established for Morcar and her offspring. In love with Morcar himself, Dr. Noel proposed a rather flamboyant stratagem to guarantee the child support payments from Sir William. The doctor offered to father another child by Morcar. If the child was fortuitously a boy, he could also be named James. If the elder James later died, his younger brother could take his place. Because Sir William never visited his offspring, the substitution would never be detected.
Morcar accepted Dr. Noel's proposal. Another James Moriarty was born in 1836. He would grow up to become the archenemy of Sherlock Holmes. In order to be as far as possible from Sir William, Morcar moved with her two children to Ireland.
In addition to the money supplied by Sir William, Morcar also received ample money from Dr. Noel. From simply providing his services to hide the indiscretions of wealthy patrons, Noel began to establish himself as a prominent leader among the criminal circles of London. Occasionally taking a respite from his illegal activities, Noel would visit Morcar in Ireland. Seeking to maintain the outward appearance of respectability, Morcar claimed to be the wife of an Irish sea captain. When visiting his mistress, Noel assumed the identity of this fictitious Captain Moriarty. Another son was born to James Noel and Morcar Moriarty in 1840. The youngest of the Moriarty brothers was named Noel.
Dr. Noel's illegal enterprises began to expand far beyond London. Gradually, he became intimately acquainted with all the criminal gangs of Europe. When his power reached its zenith, Dr. Noel would command the loyalties of rogues of many different nations. Being forced to spend much of his time outside the British Isles, Dr. Noel found it necessary to terminate his relationship with Morcar in 1842. He bought Morcar's compliance by continuing to send money for her upkeep and that of the children. Hoping to eventually find a real husband, Morcar told her children and her neighbors that the non-existent Captain Moriarty had perished in the recently concluded Opium War (1839-42) with China.
Morcar did find a husband in Robert Northmour. During 1843, Northmour had been courting Claire Huddlestone, the daughter of Bernard Huddlestone. Reckless financial speculation had not only ruined the banking business of Bernard Huddlestone, but revealed him to be an embezzler. Among the funds entrusted to Bernard's unscrupulous care were the sayings of the Carbonari, a secret society plotting revolution in Italy. The last significant revolutionary acts of the Carbonari were the unsuccessful 1831 uprisings in Bologna, Parma and Modena. Since the economic depression of 1837, Huddlestone had handled the Carbonari's English investments.
As told in Robert Louis Stevenson's "The Pavilion on the Links," Huddlestone attempted to flee Britain aboard Northmour's yacht, the Red Earl. In exchange for his help, Northmour was promised the hand in marriage of Claire Huddlestone. Before the yacht could leave Scotland, Bernard Huddlestone was murdered by agents of the Carbonari. As for Claire, she married another man.
After failing to wed Claire, Northmour went to Italy where he became involved with the societies which had supplanted the Carbonari. Befriending the famous Guiseppe Garibaldi, Northmour participated in the Italian revolutions of 1848-49. The failure of Garibaldi's ambitions caused Northmour to return to the British Isles in 1850. Meeting Morcar in Ireland, Northmour was struck by her strong resemblance to her cousin, Claire Huddlestone. Northmour quickly wooed and married Morcar. All of Morcar's children adored their new stepfather.
The older James Moriarty followed a military career. Being a tall stooped man, this James Moriarty was reminiscent of his uncle, Bernard Huddlestone. The Colonel's brothers would similarly demonstrate a poor posture in their later years.
During 1853-56, the younger James Moriarty studied mathematics at Trinity College, Dublin. Moriarty then published an 1857 treatise on the Binomial Theorem which received critical acclaim in Europe. Even Sir William Clayton heard of Moriarty's achievement. Mistakenly assuming that this James Moriarty was his illegitimate progeny, Clayton would later identity the mathematician as his child by Morcar in his memoirs.
On the strength of his treatise, Moriarty was appointed to the post of Professor of Mathematics at the University of Manchester in 1858. He became infatuated with a beautiful prostitute, Emily Caber, in the following year. Since marrying a woman of such doubtful antecedents would jeopardize his academic career, Professor Moriarty set Emily up as his mistress. Three children were born to the Professor and Emily. Twin boys, James and Emile, were born in 1860. A daughter, Urania, was born in 1862. She was named after the muse of astronomy.
Whatever joy the birth of his children brought Professor Moriarty in those years, it was offset by the woe caused by the deaths of his mother and stepfather. Starting in 1859, Garibaldi launched a series of military campaigns which would result in the unification of most of Italy under the leadership of Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia. The Sardian government allied itself with France against the Austrian Empire. It was the intention of France's ruler, Napoleon III, to establish a weak Italian federation which he could dominate. When hostilities broke out between Austria and its enemies, Mr. and Mrs. Nortlirnour were vacationing in Sardinia. Northmour was quickly contacted by the British embassy in Sardinia. The British government was distrustful of Napoleon III's designs in Italy. Northmour was asked to infiltrate Garibaldi's army to discover the exact extent of French ambitions. Adhering to the embassy's request, Northmour joined his former comrade from the insurrections of 1848-49. Because of the intense love she felt for her husband, Morcar insisted on accompanying him. Both Northmour and his wife died in the fighting along the Austrian Tyrol in May, 1859.
Further tragedy laid ahead for Professor Moriarty. Events in India would eventually lead to the deaths of others whom he loved deeply. Indirectly responsible for the Professor's heartbreak would be Prince Dakkar. Born in 1808, Dakkar had left India at the age of ten to study science in Europe. Dakkar was the son of a Rajah of Bundelkhand, a territory in central India. Jules Verne would refer to Bundelkhand as "Bundelkund" in such works as The Mysterious Island and Around The World In Eighty Days.
Returning to India in 1849, Dakkar became acquainted with Achmet Genghis Khan, a resident in the city of Jubbulpore (spelled Jublepore in Doyle's "Uncle Jeremy's Household"). Achmet had been the Maharajah of Pankot, a kingdom in the Punjab. Pankot figured prominently in the film "Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom." The Maharajahs of Pankot historically had been the high priests of Thuggee, a cult which sacrificed human beings to the Hindu goddess Kali (also known as Bhowanee). Captain William Sleeman's campaign against Thuggee in the 1830's forced Achmet and his followers to flee the Punjab for central India.
Both Dakkar and Achmet joined the violent Sepoy Mutiny against the British in 1857. Due to the breakdown of British authority, Achmet and his Thuggee supporters were able to reoccupy the palace at Pankot. There they performed elaborate rites to Kali before joining the fighting against the British. Achmet and most of his adherents were slain in a battle with the British. Pankot Palace would remain unoccupied until 1935 when it would be visited by a noted American archaeologist, Dr. Indiana Jones. The newly installed Maharajah of 1935, Zalim Singh, was not descended from Achmet Genghis Khan but from another prominent cult member, Ramdeen Singh.
Ramdeen had been the tutor of Achmet's daughter. Achmet's wife had been an Englishwoman named Warrender. At the age of fifteen, Achmet's daughter was left destitute at her father's death. A German merchant adopted Achmet's daughter in Calcutta during 1858. The merchant took the young girl to Europe.
The suppression of the Mutiny in 1858 also caused Dakkar to leave India. Dakkar was accompanied by several fellow mutineers. Among them were many fellow disciples of Achmet Genghis Khan. These Thugs had certain scrolls which they entrusted to Dakkar. For centuries, the cult of Thuggee had been aware of the existence of the Nine Unknown, a secret society which preserved the scientific records of an ancient civilization. Seeking these secrets, the Thugs had even established a rival Nine to combat the genuine organization. For details of the real Nine and its fraudulent counterpoint, consult Talbot Mundy's The Nine Unknown (1924; serialized in 5 parts in Adventure, March 20, 1923 through April 30, 1923). The scrolls which the Thugs gave Dakkar had been plundered from the Nine Unknown.
Translating the scrolls, Dakkar discovered they were plans for a submersible vessel. Retreating to an island in the Pacific, Dakkar and his underlings planned to construct two such submarines. They would use these submarines to destroy British ships bringing supplies to the troops in India. Cut off from supplies and further reinforcements, the British soldiers would then be vulnerable to a re-enactment of the Sepoy Mutiny.
The Thugs who had joined Dakkar in his flight also bestowed on him a bountiful fortune in jewels which the cult had accumulated through its murderous activities. With these jewels, Dakkar funded the construction of the various components of his submarines by companies in Europe and the United States. The engines were made by Krupp in Prussia, the iron plates of the hulls were created at Laird's of Liverpool, and so forth. Indian agents of Dakkar were present at each of the cities where the submarine parts were being fashioned.
By 1862, Dakkar's envoy in Liverpool heard a rumor that the daughter of Achmet Genghis Khan was living somewhere in Yorkshire. When this news reached Dakkar's island base, his Thuggee allies asked permission to send a representative to Britain for the purpose of arranging the return of Achmet's offspring to India. Dakkar agreed to the request of the Thugs.
As related in Doyle's "Uncle Jeremy's Household," the Thugs found Achmet's daughter working under the name of Miss Warrender as a governess in Yorkshire. Still faithful to the religion of her ancestors, Miss Warrender had strangled one of her charges as an offering to Kali. The conclusion of "Uncle Jeremy's Household" implied that Achmet's daughter returned to India, but it should not be assumed that the likewise was true about the Thug who found her.
This Thug stayed with Dakkar's agents in Liverpool until 1863. Just before he was about to leave Britain, the Thug was consumed by religious fervor. He felt the need to perform human sacrifices to Kali. Rather than jeopardize Dakkar's operation in Liverpool, the Thug decided to travel 35 miles in order to commit his murders in Manchester. He strangled two young children. They were the sons of Professor Moriarty and Emily Caber.
The police official investigating the crime was a mediocrity in the tradition of Inspector Lestrade. The investigator arrested Emily for the murders. Distraught over her children's deaths, Emily hanged herself in her cell. Emily's only surviving child, Urania, was placed in an orphanage. Malicious rumors spread throughout Manchester about Professor Moriarty's relationship with the dead "child murderess." For the purpose of avoiding a public scandal, Moriarty was forced to resign from his position at the University of Manchester.
Preparing to depart from Manchester, the grief stricken Professor received an unexpected visitor. For years, the Professor believed that his father had died in the Opium War. He was stunned to see the supposed Captain Moriarty in the identity of Dr. James Noel of London.
Through his underworld connections, Dr. Noel had heard of the Caber murders. When he learned of his son's connection with the case, Dr. Noel rushed to Manchester. He offered to assist his son to track down the true killer.
One of Dr. Noel's criminal underlings was a garroter named Parker. This Parker would later play a minor role in the events of Conan Doyle's "The Adventure of the Empty House". Born in India, Parker was the son of a English soldier and an Indian woman. Because his father had participated in Sleeman's campaign against Thuggee, Parker knew a lot about the worshippers of Kali. He even studied their methods of strangulation. Requested by his superior to offer an opinion on the Caber child murders, Parker quickly identified the perpetrator as an expert Thug.
Dr. Noel had been aware of the unusual business transactions being conducted between Laird's and a group of mysterious Indians in Liverpool. Parker was dispatched to Liverpool to conduct inquiries. Because of his ancestry and his knowledge of Indian dialects, Parker was able to ingratiate himself with Dakkar's subordinates. He soon learned the nature of Dakkar's great scheme. Acting under the instructions of Dr. Noel, Parker suggested the recruitment of European artisans to help in the construction of submarines.
Dr. Noel was pursuing his own complicated stratagem. The artisans recruited by Parker would be Dr. Noel's henchmen. After they had aided in the completion of Dakkar's vessels, they would stage a mutiny. The submarines would then be utilized by Dr. Noel in a campaign of piracy.
Because the slayer of his children would probably be on Dakkar's island, Professor Moriarty insisted on being one of the artisans. Acceding to his son's request, Dr. Noel equipped him with a set of contact lenses to make his grey eyes appear to be black. With Parker's coaching, Moriarty passed as a man of Anglo-Indian heritage. Together with the iron plates made at Laird's, the Professor, Parker and Noel's other agents arrived at Dakkar's island.
Moriarty was disappointed to discover that his children's slayer was in India. However, the Professor did learn that a delegation of Thugs, including his quarry, would come to the island once the submarines were finished. Therefore, Moriarty poured all his efforts into the completion of Dakkar's project. Ingratiating himself with Dakkar, Moriarty did invaluable work on the construction of the ships' engines. From the records of the Nine Unknown, Dakkar and Moriarty had uncovered the secret of atomic energy.
The Professor and Parker befriended a group of Indian pearl divers whom Dakkar had brought to the island as laborers. Dakkar treated the divers as if they were slaves. Due to their harsh treatment, the pearl divers were willing to join in Moriarty's planned theft of the submarines. The pearl divers were so fond of Moriarty that they initiated him into a secret society which worshipped a divine nautilus. In a strange sort of way, Moriarty could consider himself one of the pearl divers.
The underwater vessels were ready to be launched in 1864. The Thuggee delegation including the object of Moriarty's vengeance landed on the island to witness the event. Moriarty then staged his revolt. The Professor personally strangled his children's murderer. The pearl divers allied to Moriarty were all slain by Dakkar's forces. Moriarty and his confederates seized control of one of the submarines to flee the island. Dakkar and his loyal subordinates launched the other submarine in pursuit. Little did Dakkar suspect that Moriarty had sabotaged the nuclear reactors in both his crafts. Removing a key component from each nuclear reactor, Moriarty had guaranteed the development of a severe radiation leak if either ship was activated. The Professor had restored the component in the reactor of the vessel in which he had absconded.
Although Dakkar was able to stop the leak, he and his henchmen had suffered fatal radiation poisoning. Possessing enough power to return to his island, Dakkar brought the ship back to his base. By the next year, all of Dakkar's followers had perished. The Indian prince would not perish from the radiation poisoning until a few years later.
Christening his new vessel the Nautilus after the god of the pearl divers, Moriarty now began his career as Captain Nemo. Possibly because his father's name was Noel, Moriarty chose the Latin word for "no one" as his alias. The Nautilus had sustained some damage during the fighting on the island. It took about one year to adequately repair the craft. The Nautilus was relaunched in 1865. One year later, it began to be sighted by ships which mistook it for some form of sea monster.
Many of Nemo's crew were social outcasts with revolutionary convictions of an anarchist nature. Moriarty felt it expedient to maintain their loyalty by often expressing radical views himself. To a degree, these left-wing opinions were sincere on Moriarty's part. Having been raised in Ireland, Moriarty could assert that he was a member of "an oppressed country." As a youth, he had seen the devastation caused by British negligence during the potato famine of 1846. Moriarty's family had been immune to the effects of the famine due to the money supplied them by Sir William Clayton and Dr. Noel.
To Moriarty, the British flag represented all the recent tragic setbacks in his life. The British government had sent his mother and stepfather on a mission which cost them their lives. The British police had driven his beloved Emily to suicide. The Professor even held the British authorities indirectly to blame for his children's death because of the failure of India's administrators to apprehend Prince Dakkar and his Thuggee allies. In Moriarty's hate-filled brain, Britain had done irreparable harm to "country, wife, children, father and mother."
Still desiring to hide his true identity, Moriarty continued to wear the contact lenses with which he had been supplied by Dr. Noel. When seen next to Parker, a stocky Anglo-lndian with a mustache, the black-eyed Captain Nemo could be mistaken for a Spaniard, a Turk, an Arab or an Indian. The Professor added to this illusion by conversing to Parker in an obscure Indian dialect which the garroter had taught him. Due to the grief he endured after the deaths of Emily and his sons, Moriarty appeared older than he actually was. Although only thirty-one in 1867, he looked somewhere between thirty-five and fifty.
Throughout his campaign of piracy. Moriarty was given information on the movement of ships by Dr. Noel and his European associates. Noel arranged regular rendezvous in Crete between his agents and the Nautilus. There the Nautilus dropped off the spoils of its piracy. Noel then converted the booty into cash which would be divided into numerous bank accounts. A percentage of the profits went to Noel's colleagues in Crete. They may have used the money to fund anti-Turkish activities, but they probably kept most of the money for their own personal enrichment.
When the Nautilus collided with an American ship in 1867, Moriarty took prisoner Professor Aronnax, his servant Conseil, and Ned Land the harpooner. Moriarty normally would have disposed of his captives, but he desired Aronnax's intellectual companionship. When the Nautilus was lost in the Maelstrom during 1868, Aronnax and his companions escaped to the Norwegian coast. Unknown to them, Nemo (alias Moriarty) with some crewmen including Parker, also managed a similar escape.
The Professor and Parker made it back to England. Moriarty was reunited with his father. The British police had begun to suspect Dr. Noel's involvement in numerous crimes unrelated to the Nautilus. Having accumulated vast profits from their joint venture, Dr. Noel and Professor Moriarty thought it prudent to retire from crime. Dr. Noel left England for Paris. Moriarty established himself as an army coach in London during 1869.
Dr. Noel had gained custody of Urania from the orphanage in 1864. While his son was absent from England, James Noel had raised his granddaughter. Upon leaving for France, Noel left Urania in her father's care. The Professor arranged for the legal adoption of his illegitimate daughter. She could now officially use the surname of Moriarty.
Professor Aronnax's account of his travels with Moriarty was published under Jules Verne's auspices as Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea in 1869. Upon reading the manuscript, Moriarty regarded it with amusement. Another reader, Captain Cyrus Harding of the U.S. Army, viewed it with amazement and confusion.
While the siege of Richmond was transpiring in 1865, Harding and a group of Union soldiers escaped from Confederate captivity in a weather balloon. Blown off course by a hurricane, they landed on an uncharted island in the Pacific. The castaways would not be rescued until 1869. Throughout their years on the island, Harding and his companions received assistance from a mysterious hermit. Their benefactor revealed himself in 1868 to be Prince Dakkar. When Harding conversed with Dakkar, the Prince was nearly dead from the radiation poisoning contracted in 1864. In his death throes, the Prince rambled about his life. From what Harding could discern, the Prince had come to the island after the Sepoy Mutiny. After launching a submarine, all of Dakkar's followers perished. The submarine was currently docked in a cavern which served as a harbor. Harding discovered the submarine and buried Dakkar in it. In accordance with Dakkar's dying wishes, Harding caused the submarine to sink to the ocean floor after he left it.
After being rescued with his comrades by a British yacht, Harding stumbled across a copy of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea in 1869. Harding concluded that Dakkar must be Captain Nemo. He assumed that Verne had altered the dates of Aronnax's narrative for some peculiar reason. Putting himself in communication with Verne, Harding offered his story as a solution to the mystery of Captain Nemo. Verne knew that the dates of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea were correct, but he wrote a modified version of Harding's story to satisfy readers clamoring for a sequel. In penning The Mysterious Island, Verne severely altered the conversations between Harding and Dakkar in order to make it appear the Prince really was Captain Nemo. Verne also made the description of the interior of the submarine inspected by Harding conform to that of the Nautilus.
Jules Verne was far more accurate in his depiction of Phileas Fogg's famous trip Around The World In Eighty Days. Unknown to Jules Verne, the true Captain Nemo was involved in a minor way with Fogg's travels in 1872. Like many other misguided people, Professor Moriarty was foolish enough to bet that Fogg would not accomplish his trip in eighty days. If the Professor had been as intelligent as Lord Albermarie (who bet five thousand pounds on Fogg), he could have made a fortune. Instead, Moriarty lost a sizable sum of money but not enough to put a dent in his sizable wealth. Since Fogg's success did cost Moriarty a financial loss, it could be said that the world traveler was the only other man (besides Sherlock Holmes) to beat the Professor.
Professor Moriarty spent most of the 1870s writing a scientific book, The Dynamics Of An Asteroid. Occasionally, he involved himself in criminal matters as an intellectual diversion. He played no role in the 1878 Suicide Club case which Robert Louis Stevenson immortalized. The Professor's lack of participation is rather puzzling since the scholarly research of Edgar Smith and Jack Tracy have established the involvement of the master criminal's father, older brother, and future archenemy with Stevenson's tale.
The Professor was a collector of expensive art. By 1883, it became quite apparent that Moriarty could not continue to purchase additions to his art collection unless he returned full time to a life of crime. He then began to erect a gigantic crime network that would dominate the London underworld.
Recognizing that a Napoleon of Crime needed capable Marshals, Moriarty recruited talented lieutenants to carry out his schemes. One such man was John Clay. The Professor recruited Clay by having Urania seduce him. As a result of this liaison, Urania gave birth to a son in 1883. The Professor's grandson would later pursue an illegal career under the name of Dr. Caber. Lord Dunsany would write of Caber's exploits in three tales: "The Invention of Dr. Caber" from Jorkens Has A Large Whiskey (1940) plus "'The Strange Drug of Dr. Caber" and "The Cleverness of Dr. Caber" from The Fourth Book Of Jorkens (1948).
To act as his chief of staff, the Professor recruited Colonel Sebastian Moran. Moran was an accomplished solider who had left India under a cloud. Being an exceptional marksman, Moran committed murders with an airgun designed by a blind German mechanic.
Another important member of Moriarty's gang was his younger brother. Noel Moriarty was a stationmaster in the west of England. Feeling the need for an expert on railways, the Professor conscripted his brother into the growing crime syndicate. Noel Moriarty demonstrated his criminal expertise most skillfully in 1890. A man known only by his alias of Horace Moore caused a train to disappear. Detail of the spectacular crime can be found in 'The Lost Special" from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Round The Fire Stories (1908). Doyle did not reveal Horace Moore's true identity, but his real name was Noel Moriarty.
A woman just as dangerous as any of the members of Moriarty's organization came to England in 1885. She was Katherine Koluchy, the head of the Brotherhood of Seven Kings, an Italian secret society like the old Carbonari. Details of Katherine's illegal activities can be found in The Brotherhood Of Seven Kings (1899) by L.T. Meade and Robert Eustace. During 1884, she had failed to convince her lover, an Englishman named Norman Head, to aid her diabolical schemes. Head had fled to England, and Katherine came looking for him there in the following year. Hoping to use the Professor's organization to help in her search, she made contact with Noel Moriarty. She conducted a passionate affair with the stationmaster which made her forget totally about Head.
Professor Moriarty was extremely distrustful of Katherine Koluchy. He saw her as a threat to his own authority. Perhaps this suspicion was due to the fact that the Professor's uncle, Bernard Huddlestone, had been liquidated by an Italian secret society. Coercing Katherine to return to Italy, the Professor embittered his younger brother. Katherine gave birth to Noel Moriarty's son, Dominick, in Naples during 1886.
John Clay crossed swords with Sherlock Holmes in "The Adventure of the Red-Headed League" from The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes. Dr. Watson placed this story in 1890, but the chronology of William S. Baring-Gould's The Annotated Sherlock Holmes (1967) assigns it to 1887. After capturing Clay at the scene of an attempted bank robbery, Holmes recognized a sinister power behind Clay. By 1887, Holmes had deduced that most of London crime was controlled by Professor Moriarty.
The Professor engineered Clay's escape from prison in 1888. Clay went to France, where he received a visit from Urania. As a result of this romantic reunion, their second son was born in 1889. Dr. Caber's sibling grew up to be Carl Peterson, the chief adversary of H.C. "Sapper" McNeile's Bulldog Drummond.
Sometime during 1887, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson had their first conversation about Professor Moriarty. In his early remarks on the Professor, Holmes described the criminal as a man of "good birth." Having only traced Moriarty's family to their time in Ireland, Holmes was then unaware of the Professor's illegitimate birth. Certainly Holmes would have changed his view of Moriarty's birth by 1888, the year in which Sir William Clayton's scandalous memoirs, Never Say Die, were printed. Holmes would have read Sir William's claim that the Professor was his son. Even though Sir William's assertion was mistaken, it would have lead Holmes to conduct more strenuous inquiries into the origins of the Moriarty brothers.
Dr. Watson caused considerable confusion about the year of his first conversation with Holmes about Professor Moriarty. In order to quickly inform his readers about the Professor, he inserted the conversation into "The Final Problem," the story which related the Professor's final defeat. The conversation recorded in "The Final Problem" had Watson stating that he never heard of Professor Moriarty. When The Valley Of Fear, a novel set in the late 1880s, was published, it contained a remark by Watson showing that he knew about Moriarty long before the Professor's final duel with Holmes in 1891.
Baring-Gould placed The Valley Of Fear in January, 1888. Holmes was now paying an unknown member of Moriarty's gang for information. Corresponding with the informant through coded messages sent by mail, Holmes only knew the traitor by the alias of Fred Porlock. Paul Zens' "A Case of Identity" from The Baker Street Journal (New Series, Vol. 25, #2, June, 1974) established that Porlock was the Professor's younger brother. He chose the alias of Fred Porlock because he was a stationmaster of Minehead, a Bristol Channel port near the town of Porlock. Noel Moriarty probably engaged in this betrayal because he hoped to manipulate Holmes into removing his brother. With the Professor gone, Noel Moriarty could then seize control of the crime syndicate. Concluding that Holmes was too formidable to use as a pawn, the youngest of the Moriarty brothers terminated his communications with the sleuth.
The final showdown between Holmes and Moriarty came in 1891. Holmes had compiled evidence which would enable the police to smash Moriarty's organization. Eluding Moriarty's assassins, Holmes gave his evidence to the authorities. As his crime cartel crumbled, Moriarty chased Holmes to Switzerland. The Professor cornered his nemesis on the cliffs overlooking Reichenbach Falls. As told in "The Final Problem," both adversaries appeared to fall in the abyss. In actuality, only the Professor had fallen to his death.
Aware that key members of Moriarty's gang would not be arrested, Holmes thought it fortuitous to fake his death. The phony demise soon became merely an effort to hide the detective's whereabouts from the outside world because Colonel Moran witnessed the survival of the Professor's antagonist. Since the remnants of the Moriarty gang would desire his life, Holmes felt that he would be more difficult to trace if the public believed him dead.
Besides Moran, the authorities were unable to bring to trial Noel Moriarty as well as Parker, whose subservience to the Professor continued after the destruction of the Nautilus. Parker shifted his loyalties to Colonel Moran. Reluctantly, Noel Moriarty also acknowledged Moran as the Professor's successor.
Under Moran's leadership, the Moriarty gang remained in a state of stagnation. Moran's sole source of illegal income seemed to be derived from cheating at cards in fashionable London clubs. When one of his fellow club members, Ronald Adair, uncovered the cheating in 1894, Moran slew him with his airgun. When news of the Adair murder reached Sherlock Holmes, he returned to London for the purpose of trapping Moran. Aware of the detective's return, Moran instructed Noel Moriarty and Parker to search for Holmes. Posing as a plainclothes detective investigating Adair's death, Noel Moriarty was unable to spot a disguised Holmes. As related in "The Adventure of the Empty House," Holmes engineered Moran's arrest for Adair's murder.
Sebastian Moran's downfall paved the way for Noel Moriarty to make his bid for power. Re-establishing his alliance with the Brotherhood of Seven Kings, Noel Moriarty summoned Katherine Koluchy to London in 1894. Whether or not she ever battled Holmes is not known, but her former lover, Norman Head, emerged as her principal enemy in England. In 1897, Head and the police cornered Katherine in her hideout. She unleashed a fire which seemingly burned her to a crisp.
Katherine did not perish in the flames. She escaped the conflagration through a secret exit. However, her failure to adequately protect her eyes from the fire rendered her blind. Katherine now became known in criminal circles as the Blind Spinner. Under this alias, she appeared in John Buchan's The Three Hostages (1924).
Katherine's defeat caused a serious setback in Noel's plans. He quietly assumed the identity of Andrew Lumley, a respected philanthropist. When Sherlock Holmes retired in 1903, Noel and Katherine began to build a new edifice from the ashes of the Moriarty organization and the Brotherhood of Seven Kings. This new syndicate was called the Krafthaus (German for "power house"). The activities of Andrew Lumley were unmasked during 1910 by a British politician, Edward Leithen, in John Buchan's The Power House.
Supposedly Lumley committed suicide in exchange for a promise not to publicly reveal his Machiavellian plots. There is a rumor that Noel Moriarty did not take his own life, but murdered someone else who was buried as Lumley. The alleged victim was Noel's surviving brother, Colonel James Moriarty. This rumor has yet to be confirmed.
If Noel Moriarty did survive the events of The Power House, he was certainly dead by 1921. His empire was inherited by his son Dominick. Noel and Katherine had schemed to make their son Prime Minister of the British Empire. To achieve this goal, they created a false ancestry for their son. Dominick posed as the scion of the Medina clan, a family of Spanish descent which had been settled in Ireland for centuries. Before Dominick. Medina could accomplish his treasured goal, his crime network was severely crippled due to the efforts of Sir Richard Hannay in Buchan's The Three Hostages. As Professor Moriarty pursued Holmes to Reichenbach, Dominick stalked Hannay in the Scottish Highlands. Like his uncle before him, Dominick fell to his death.
Before their demises, Noel Moriarty was concerned that some investigative effort would uncover Dominick's true origins. To perpetuate Dominick's cover identity, the Krafthaus hoped to hide the true history of the Moriarty family. Because Sir William Clayton's controversial memoirs mentioned Morcar Moriarty, nearly all copies of the book were burnt by the Krafthaus. The thoroughness of this literary crime is demonstrated by the fact that only Philip José Farmer appears to own a copy of Never Say Die.
Like the CIA and the KGB, the Krafthaus practiced the art of spreading disinformation. False records discussing Professor Moriarty were forged by his brother and nephew. The fraudulent records were then hidden away for scholars to find. No doubt these forgeries would have been found earlier than the 1970s if Dominick had not perished in 1921.
Displaying his expertise in cryptography which he aptly utilized as Fred Porlock, Noel Moriarty fabricated the coded notebooks of the Professor. Discovered by John Gardner, these notebooks formed the basis of two novels, The Return Of Moriarty (1974) and The Revenge Of Moriarty (1975). Here Noel Moriarty attributed to himself all of his more infamous brother's accomplishments. The stationmaster allegedly murdered the Professor, assumed his identity and committed spectacular crimes which Holmes never checkmated. There were also sleazy charges about the Professor's sexual preferences. In depicting himself, the stationmaster not only gave himself the same first name as his two older brothers, but also changed his true physical appearance as well.
Dominick Medina also contributed to the effort to mislead the world about the Professor. Having been trained in the ancient languages of European secret societies by his mother, Dominick chose one of these tongues to serve as the reputed language of an extra-terrestrial race. Forging the log of Phileas Fogg, he then hid his fraudulent work in the house once occupied by the world traveler. He then fabricated a child's notebook as a key to the log. This notebook was secreted in the former residence of Sir Heraclitus Fogg, the stepfather of Phileas. The log was found in 1947, but the notebook would not be unearthed until 1962. In manufacturing Fogg's secret log, Dominick did make use of some true information (e.g., the relationship between the Professor and Captain Nemo, the physical description of Colonel Moriarty), but he also distorted pertinent details about the Moriarty family (e.g., the parentage of the three brothers, the intellectual prowess of the stationmaster). Dominick was fortunate indeed that an author as talented as Philip José Farmer reconstructed The Other Log of Phileas Fogg in 1973. While the forgery was never used to maintain the secret of Dominick's descent, it provided enthralling entertainment for numerous readers.
Probable Chronology
1795 Sebastian Noel is exposed to radiation when a meteorite crashes at Wold Newton.
1803 Sebastian Noel marries Thomasina Vandeleur.
1804 Birth of Dr. James Noel.
1808 Birth of Prince Dakkar.
1815 Birth of Morcar Moriarty.
1818 Dakkar begins to study science in Europe.
1830s Achmet Genghis Khan vacates Pankot Palace and moves to Jubblupore.
1831 The Carbonari incite unsuccessful uprisings in Italy.
1832 Birth of Phileas Fogg.
1833 Birth of Roxanna Fogg.
1835 Birth of Colonel James Moriarty. Divorce of Sir William Clayton and Lorina Dacre.
1836 Birth of Professor James Moriarty. Morcar and her two children move to Ireland.
1837 Bernard Huddlestone becomes the Carbonari's banker.
1840 Birth of Noel Moriarty.
1842 Dr. Noel discontinues his romantic relationship with Morcar Moriarty. Birth of Achmet's daughter (Miss Warrender).
1843 Death of Bernard Huddlestone.
1848-49 Robert Northmour participates with Garibaldi in Italian revolutions.
1849 Dakkar returns to India.
1850 Marriage of Robert Northmour to Morcar Moriarty.
1853-56 James Moriarty the younger attends Trinity College in Dublin.
1857 James Moriarty the younger writes a celebrated treatise on the Binomial Theorem. The Sepoy Mutiny starts in India. After reoccupying Pankot Palace, Achmet is killed while fighting the British.
1858 James Moriarty the younger becomes Professor of Mathematics at the University of Manchester. The Sepoy Mutiny is suppressed in India. Achmet's daughter leaves India. Dakkar begins to construct two submarines at a Pacific island.
1859 Death of Robert and Morcar Moriarty Northmour in the Tyrol. Professor Moriarty falls in love with Emily Caber.
1860 Birth of James and Emile Caber.
1862 Birth of Urania Caber (Moriarty). Achmet's daughter is found by a Thug in Yorkshire.
1863 Death of Emily Caber and her two sons. Professor Moriarty resigns from the University of Manchester. The Professor is reunited with Dr. Noel.
1864 Professor Moriarty steals a submarine (the Nautilus) from Dakkar. The other submarine is sabotaged by the Professor. Dakkar is exposed to dangerous dose of radiation.
1865 Cyrus Harding and other Americans are marooned on Dakkar's island. After extensive repairs, the Nautilus is relaunched under command of Captain Nemo (Professor Moriarty).
1866 The Nautilus is mistakenly identified as a sea monster by ships.
1867 Captain Nemo captures Professor Aronnax and his two companions.
1868 Destruction of the Nautilus. Death of Dakkar.
1869 Cyrus Harding is rescued from Dakkar's island. Professor Moriarty becomes an army coach in London. Dr. Noel relocates in France.
1872 Phileas Fogg travels around the world in 80 days.
1878 Dr. Noel, Colonel Moriarty and Sherlock Holmes become involved with the Suicide Club.
1883 Professor Moriarty builds a new crime network. John Clay is seduced by Urania. Birth of Dr. Caber.
1884 Professor Moriarty recruits Sebastian Moran and Noel Moriarty. Norman Head leaves Italy after a love affair with Katherine Koluchy.
1885 Katherine meets Noel Moriarty in Italy.
1886 Birth of Dominick Medina.
1887 John Clay is arrested in connection with the Red-Headed League. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson discuss Professor Moriarty's background.
1887-88 As Fred Porlock, Noel Moriarty sends coded messages to Holmes.
1888 After breaking out of prison, John Clay emigrates to France.
1889 Birth of Carl Peterson.
1890 As Horace Moore, Noel Moriarty causes a train to disappear.
1891 Death of Professor Moriarty at Reichenbach Falls.
1894 Arrest of Colonel Moran for Ronald Adair's murder. Katherine Koluchy starts a crime wave in London.
1897 Katherine is blinded in a fire.
1898 Noel Moriarty assumes the identity of Andrew Lumley.
1903 Sherlock Holmes retires. Andrew Lumley and Katherine Koluchy erect the Krafthaus.
1910 Alleged death of Andrew Lumley.
1921 Death of Dominick Medina.
1935 Indiana Jones visits Pankot Palace.
1947 Discovery of Dominick's forgery of Phileas Fogg's log.
1962 Discovery of Dominick's forgery of Fogg's childhood notebook of an extraterrestrial language.
All rights reserved. The text of this article is © 2001-2004 by the author, Rick Lai. No copying or reproduction of this article or any portions thereof in any form whatsoever is permitted without prior written permission and consent of the author.
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The master criminal known as Dr. Caber appears in three short stories by Lord Dunsany, “The Invention of Dr. Caber," “The Strange Drug of Dr. Caber,” and “The Cleverness of Dr. Caber.” All of these stories are narrated by Joseph Jorkens, a world traveler who told fantastic stories in the Billiards Club of London (1). Although Caber was a dangerous criminal, he and Jorkens were not enemies. They were actually old friends.
Born in 1883, Dr. Caber was the illegitimate son of John Clay, the master thief from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Adventure of the Red-Headed League,” and Urania Caber (alias Urania Moriarty), the daughter of Professor James Moriarty (2). Under the name of James Caber (3), Moriarty’s brilliant grandson went to Eton during his teenage years, where he met fellow student Joseph Jorkens (4). Jorkens was three years older than Caber (5), but their age discrepancy did not prevent them from becoming close friends. Under mysterious circumstances, Caber was forced to leave Eton. It is probable that he was expelled.
The paths of Jorkens and Caber diverged during their college years. Jorkens went to Cambridge, and Caber somehow managed to inveigle his way into Oxford to study medicine (6). One of Dr. Caber’s instructors was Professor Presbury (7), whose tragic story was the subject of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Adventure of the Creeping Man.” Presbury was conducting experiments to reverse the aging process using a rare serum acquired from H. Lowenstein of Prague. Lowenstein extracted his serum from the langur monkey of India. Presbury confided the nature of his experiments to young Caber. Unknown to Presbury, Caber secretly contacted Lowenstein in order to be supplied with large quantities of langur fluid for his own independent experiments (8).
While Presbury experimented on himself, Caber gave his langur-derived drugs to others. Unfortunately for Caber, Presbury’s activities resulted in a scandal. Presbury’s assumed simian characteristics and wandered around at night like an ape. Sherlock Holmes was called in to investigate Presbury and uncovered the Lowenstein drug connection. Presbury’s experiments ended when he was nearly slain by his own dog (the langur fluid had changed the Professor’s scent). Holmes turned over his discoveries about Lowenstein to Scotland Yard. The subsequent criminal inquiry by Scotland Yard led them perilously close to Caber. Although he was not arrested, Caber was forced to abandon his medical studies at Oxford. Despite its inability to gain compelling evidence against Caber, the Scotland Yard did gain a copy of his fingerprints.
Although Caber never formally qualified for a medical degree, he adopted the title of Doctor. He continued his experimentation with langur fluid, but he abandoned Lowenstein as a supplier. Instead, Caber contacted an international drug syndicate headed by a mysterious unseen Asian known as Mr. King. The liaison between Mr. King and Caber was a beautiful Eurasian named Mahara, also known as “Our Lady of the Poppies.” Caber and Mahara had a brief romantic fling that resulted in a birth of a daughter in 1905. Caber took no interest in his offspring, and left her education to her mother. When Mahara drowned in the Thames while fleeing Scotland Yard in 1909 (9), Mr. King’s criminal underlings took her daughter to Canada where she grew up to be a noted drug smuggler under the alias of Rose Emily Templeton (10).
Before the outbreak of World War I, Caber established a business creating drugs and inventions for other criminal. He took a partner, Henry Lakington, a brilliant young scientist whom he had met at Oxford. The partnership of Caber and Lakington would be disrupted by another warped genius. This criminal was actually Caber’s brother. Born in 1889 to John Clay and Urania Moriarty, this noted felon would use a string of aliases, the most notable of which was Carl Peterson (11). Caber’s brother had little aptitude for science, but demonstrated great ability in the arts of disguise and organization. Peterson wanted Caber to work exclusively for him inventing deadly devices. Believing that it would be more profitable to offer his services to a variety of criminal clients, Caber rejected his brother’s offer. However, Peterson persuaded Lakington to abandon Caber. Lakington would become Peterson’s right-hand man until his death at the hands of Captain Hugh “Bulldog” Drummond in 1919 (12). Anger at his brother’s recruitment of Lakington sparked family feud between Caber and Peterson (13). For this reason, the two siblings never collaborated on any major crimes together.
We know nothing of Caber’s activities during World War I and the 1920’s. Jorkens re-encountered Caber by the 1930’s. At this time, Caber’s experiments with langur fluid had yielded an unexpected result. Rather than reverse the aging process as Presbury and Lowenstein had intended, Caber had found a way to accelerate it. For a fee of a thousand pounds, he could add twenty years to a man’s age. He offered this drug to criminals wanted by the British authorities. His argument was that the police would be unable to recognize a man twenty years older. One of the criminals who purchased this service was a vicious murderer named Boran. In exchange for the “old school-tie” of Eton (Caber wasn’t qualified to get one of them on his own), the criminal genius related Boran’s story to Joseph Jorkens, who repeated the tale to members of The Billiards Club in “The Invention of Dr. Caber.” Caber also gave the drug to other felons besides Boran (14).
“The Strange Drug of Dr. Caber” revealed an unusual alliance between the criminal and the British Secret Service. In 1938, a Nazi spy had uncovered a strategic gap in the British air defenses. The Secret Service hired Caber to plan the spy’s murder before he could communicate his knowledge to Hitler. On learning that the Nazi was guarded by a particularly savage Alsatian dog, Caber gave the Secret Service a drug, which would alter the Nazi’s scent. The Secret Service followed Caber’s instructions and secretly administered the drug to the Nazi. The Alsatian dog killed its master. Although Jorkens neglected to mention this vital fact in the Billiards Club, the drug supplied by Caber was actually the same langur derivative utilized by Professor Presbury in 1903. Just as Presbury’s dog had attacked its master, so had the Nazi’s.
Unlike his brother Carl Peterson, Caber possessed no particular animosity towards Britain. While Carl would align himself with any foreign government or financial combine that could possibly bring Britain to his knees, Caber seemed to be more interested in preserving the status quo.
“The Cleverness of Dr. Caber” even reveals that Caber checked his criminal tendencies because of the threat of Adolf Hitler. In the late 1930’s, Caber discovered a scientific way to control the movements of the moon. The potential for mischief was vast. Caber could influence tides, cause eclipses and so forth. However, he kept quiet about his invention because he felt that the British government needed to crush Fascism. It wasn’t until World II ended with an Allied victory 1945 that Caber tried to blackmail the British government. He only asked for a million pounds, which is a paltry sum if you consider what Carl Peterson or Ernst Stavro Blofeld would have asked for if they controlled such a device. Caber was promptly jailed on an old charge by Scotland Yard, and sentenced to five years. However, Jorkens’ government contacts informed him that Caber would never get out of prison. It is more than likely that the Secret Service arranged for an “accident” to befall Caber in prison.
NOTES
1. Joseph Jorkens appeared in five short story collections, The Travel Tales of Joseph Jorkens (1931), Jorkens Remembers Africa (1934), Jorkens Has a Large Whiskey (1940), The Fourth Book of Jorkens (1948) and Jorkens Borrows Another Whiskey (1954). “The Invention of Dr. Caber” can be found in Jorkens Has A Large Whiskey, while the other two Caber stories are contained in The Fourth Book of Jorkens.
2. This valuable piece of information was revealed by Philip José Farmer in the genealogical discussion of Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life (1973).
3. Caber’s first name is never mention in Dunsany’s stories, but it seems logical that he would be named after his grandfather.
4. “The Invention of Joseph Jorkens” mentions that Caber and Jorkens attended the same unnamed school as teenagers. The assumption that the school was Eton is based on that fact that John Clay, Caber’s father, attended Eton.
5. The conclusion that Jorkens was born in 1880 is based on a close examination of “The Witch of the Willows” from The Travel Tales of Joseph Jorkens. The story supposedly took place thirty years before Jorkens related it in The Billiards Club. Since “The Witch of the Willows” was published in 1931, its events must have transpired in 1900 or 1901. Jorkens would seem to be at least twenty years old in the story.
6. “How Jembu Played for Cambridge” from The Travel Tales of Joseph Jorkens revealed that Jorkens had attended Cambridge. I doubt that he ever graduated from it because he seems to have been wandering around the world when he was twenty or twenty-one years old. The assertion that Caber attended Oxford is bolstered by the fact that John Clay, his father, attended Oxford.
7. Doyle identified the university where Presbury taught as “Camford,” an obvious alias for either Cambridge or Oxford. N. P. Metcalfe’s “Oxford or Cambridge or Both” from The Baker Street Journal Christmas Annual (1956) put forth strong evidence that “Camford” was Oxford.
8. In “The Adventure of the Creeping Man,” Lowenstein claimed to have another unnamed client in England. Caber was this client. I originally advanced this identification in a Sherlockian article, “Lowenstein’s Other Client,” published in Wheelwrightings (January 1985).
9. Mr. King and Mahara appear in Sax Rohmer’s The Yellow Claw (1915). A reference to the second of September falling on a Thursday would suggest that this novel transpired in 1909 or 1915. The novel’s lack of references to World War I points to 1909. Rohmer’s The Golden Scorpion (1919) revealed that Mr. King was an associate of the more infamous Dr. Fu Manchu. Mr. King and Mahara supposedly drown at the conclusion of The Yellow Claw, but there is the possibility that Mr. King survived. The alias of Mr. King was employed by Yu’an Hee See, the evil mandarin of Rohmer’s Yu’an Hee See Laughs. Like the mastermind of The Yellow Claw, Yu’an Hee See was heavily involved in opium smuggling.
10. Rose’s criminal activities are the subject of Agatha Christie’s Why Didn’t They Ask Evans (1933, also known as The Boomerang Clue). Rose had another alias, whose first name is similar to the surname of one of Caber’s ancestors. Unfortunately, I must refrain from revealing that alias in order not to spoil a major twist in Christie’s novel.
11. The relationship between Caber and Peterson was revealed in Philip José Farmer’s Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life.
12. Lakington’s demise is described in Bulldog Drummond (1920) by H. C. “Sapper” McNeile.
13.There may be an additional reason for the animosity between Caber and Peterson. Philip José Farmer suspected that Carl Peterson was engaged in an incestuous relationship with his mistress Irma, who often posed as his daughter. However, Peterson was too young to be Irma’s father. There are various discrepancies about Irma’s age and appearance in the Drummond novels by McNeile and Gerard Fairlie. She was clearly in at least her early forties during World War II (see Fairlie’s Captain Bulldog Drummond (1945). She could have been born no later than 1901 (she had to be at least eighteen when Drummond met her in 1919). Peterson would only have been 12 years old at the probable year of Irma’s birth, but Caber would have been 18 years old. Maybe Caber was Irma’s father, and Carl was only her uncle. If this speculation were true, then Caber would have been shocked by the relationship between Carl and Irma.
14. There is strong reason to suspect that one of the criminals who received Caber’s treatment to augment aging was John Sunlight, the nemesis of Doc Savage. In Fortress of Solitude by “Kenneth Robeson” (Lester Dent), it is mentioned that Sunlight “was not a young man, and had worked all his evil life towards one hideous goal” (chap. 10). The first part of that quote implied that Sunlight was in at least his forties during the events of this novel, which transpired in 1937. Consequently, Sunlight was probably born no later than 1897. However, three different theories speculate that Sunlight was born much later. Dafyd Neal Dyar’s “Sunlight, Son Bright” from The Doc Savage Club Reader #8 (1979?) places John Sunlight’s year of birth in 1908. I also opted for 1908 in my own article, “The Dark Ancestry of John Sunlight” in The Shadow/Doc Savage Quest #11 (December 1982). Win Scott Eckert’s The Doc Savage Chronology asserts that Sunlight was born in 1919. The only way that any of these theories could be correct would be to speculate that Sunlight had somehow aged himself 20 years. Caber’s invention provides a useful explanation to reconcile any of these theories with Dent’s observation that Sunlight wasn’t a young man. By the way, all of the three theories have totally different ancestries for Sunlight. Mr. Dyar believes Sunlight to be the son of Fu Manchu, I assert that his parents are Carl Peterson and a daughter of Fu Manchu (not Fah Lo Suee), and Mr. Eckert claims that Sunlight is the son of Doc Savage and Countess Lily Bugov.
All rights reserved. The text of this article is © 2001-2004 by the author, Rick Lai. No copying or reproduction of this article or any portions thereof in any form whatsoever is permitted without prior written permission and consent of the author.
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The following graphic family tree combines and reconciles information from the following sources:
With many thanks to Mark Brown, Jess Nevins, Cheryl Huttner, Dennis Power, Matthew Baugh, and Jean-Marc Lofficier for their helpful suggestions and contributions
Much of the framework of The
Demmed Fine Blakeney Family Tree is built upon John
Blakeney's family tree from his biography, The Life and
Exploits of the Scarlet Pimpernel, which can be viewed here.
However, there are a few inaccuracies and omissions, perhaps
purposeful, in this particular tree. A new, expanded tree has
been constructed and is available for reference at the conclusion
of this article.
My fellow researcher, Cheryl Huttner, pointed out that Peter Blakeney was descended from Jack Blakeney, as described in Baroness Orczy's The Pimpernel and Rosemary, not from George Blakeney, as described in the original family tree from The Life and Exploits of the Scarlet Pimpernel. Jack Blakeney, described as Sir Percy's eldest son, obviously needed to be added to the tree, but where? Another researcher, Matthew Baugh, proposed that Jack and George (also known as Jaques and Georges) were twins. Consequently, Jack has been added and is George's older brother, if only by a short while.
To synch up the tree from The Life and Exploits of the Scarlet Pimpernel with the information from The Pimpernel and Rosemary, Peter Blakeney's line of descent runs through both brothers, Jack and George Blakeney. How is this possible? According to the tree in The Life and Exploits of the Scarlet Pimpernel, a woman named Barbara married Anthony Blakeney, the son of Jack Blakeney. Jean-Marc Lofficier, in his Genealogies of the French Wold Newton Families, proposed that Barbara herself was a Blakeney and was first married to Marcel de Belcamp. In order to preserve Mr. Lofficier's suggestion, I theorize that Barbara is the child of George Blakeney. Since Jack and George are brothers, Anthony and Barbara are cousins (obviously of the kissing variety). Therefore Peter, the son of Anthony and Barbara, is descended from both Jack and George, thus preserving the information given in both The Pimpernel and Rosemary and The Life and Exploits of the Scarlet Pimpernel.
The Pimpernel and Rosemary raises other questions, both chronological and genealogical. The birthdate given for Peter Blakeney in the tree in The Life and Exploits, 1859, is a clear error, since his father is listed as being born in 1861. Furthermore, The Life and Exploits states that Peter's mother is Joan Fielding, whereas in The Pimpernel and Rosemary, Peter's mother is the Hungarian Baroness Heves. The solution is that Anthony Blakeney actually has two sons, not one as described in the tree for The Life and Exploits. These sons were Percy (b. 1861) and Peter (b. 1863). Percy was married to Joan Fielding and had one son, John Blakeney (b. 1893). Peter was married to Baroness Heves and had one son, Peter Blakeney, Jr. (b. 1891), who is seen in The Pimpernel and Rosemary.
Going back in time, Dennis Power proposes that Francis Blake(ney) is the son of the first Sir Percy, and was born in 1650:
Pearl Prynne and John Burlingame's daughter was Hester Burlingame born 1666. Hester married in 1687 to Francis Blake, a formerly dissolute member of the Blakeney family. Having been disowned by his father for continued gambling and drinking, he found himself in serious debt. He opted for transportation to the New World and served out a bondage of five years. Francis Blake moved to the Boston area and became a fairly wealthy lumberman. Hester Burlingame and Francis Blake had four children, Alan 1688, Dorothy 1690, Samuel 1693 and Priscilla 1700.
For the further details of this lineage, please see The Magnificent Gordons and their Swift Kin and Big Valley Small World: The Barkleys.
This is a good a place as any to mention the 1787 portrait of "Percy Blakeney and wife," which was seen in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Though it is possible that Sir Percy actually was married at the time, information from The Life and Exploits would tend to discount this. In 1789 he was involved with a woman named Mary de Courcy. The courtship ended badly and Percy left for Paris. It is probable they knew each other even earlier, that the woman in the 1787 portrait was Mary de Courcy, and that Percy and Mary were forced to pose as husband and wife during the as-yet unchronicled 1787 mission, much like Allan Quatermain and Mina Murray were twice obliged to pose as a married couple during their 1898 adventure. Percy and Mary's 1787 mission lead to a romantic entanglement, but it soon became clear that any romance was due to the adventure they had shared, and not any true passionate emotions for each other.
And now we come to the most demmed controversial proposition of all: Sir Percy Blakeney, The Scarlet Pimpernel himself, had a mistress, and happened to beget not one, but five children with her. The problem arises out of the genealogy in Philip José Farmer's Tarzan Alive, in which Mr. Farmer postulates that all sequels to The Scarlet Pimpernel are fictional, due to the fact that Marguerite St. Just had died (presumably without issue) sometime prior to the Wold Newton meteor event in December 1795. Mr. Farmer had thought that Marguerite must have died (thus making all Pimpernel sequels fictional) because he had concrete evidence that Sir Percy was married to Alice Clarke Raffles, and that in December she had to have have been carrying his child, Percy Armand Blakeney (b. 1796).
The key question is, when were Percy and Alice married? The record does not indicate. When Mr. Farmer wrote Tarzan Alive, he did not have access to John Blakeney's family biography, The Life and Exploits of the Scarlet Pimpernel (although, by the time he wrote Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life, he was at least aware of the existence of the Blakeney family biography; he mentions it in Chapter One). Mr. Farmer did not know that Marguerite had issue with Percy, and thus, he did not research the question of Marguerite's presumed death more closely; he presumed it based on the evidence of Percy's marriage to Alice and the evidence of their issue.
The fact is that Percy did marry Alice, but the marriage did not occur until 1799, after three of their five children had been born. Marguerite did die, but not until 1798; her death opened the door for Percy to marry the only other woman in his life that he had loved, and to confer legitimacy upon the remainder of his children.
It is no wonder that Mr. Farmer did not discover the actual date of marriage of Percy and Alice; Percy, of course, took great pains to ensure that the records were concealed. He must have succeeded, and thus, it appears that the Pimpernel had one last jest, upon the eminent researcher, Mr. Philip José Farmer himself.
The only other alternative, suggested by Wold Newton researcher Jess Nevins, is that Percy Blakeney was simultaneously married to Marguerite St. Just and Alice Clarke Raffles. Fellow researcher Mark Brown writes:
This tentatively works for me, and doesn't really question Percy's ethics. Jean-Marc Lofficier implies that Sir Percy may have been a member of the Conspiracy. Now, we add in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. These are not necessarily mutually exclusive organizations. Now, several branches of the convoluted conspiratorial combines have somewhat divergent religious beliefs (and Philip José Farmer tells us that the Greystokes had divergent religious beliefs for centuries after their neighbors had converted to a more orthodox Christianity). What if the branch Sir Percy belonged to permitted or specifically encouraged bigamy? If so, then Sir Percy would be acting according to the moral precepts of his ethical subgroup by having two wives. Living in late 18th Century England, the Blakeneys may well have kept this information from the general public. Even Baroness Orczy and, yes, Philip José Farmer may not have had all the facts. A little far out maybe, but doesn't require resurrections or amnesia or more complicated subterfuges.
Whatever the true explanation, it is clear that Sir Percy, concurrently and within a period of a few years, had several children by two different women, as the chart below demonstrates.
All rights reserved. The text of this article is © 2001-2004 by the author, Win Eckert. No copying or reproduction of this article or any portions thereof in any form whatsoever is permitted without prior written permission and consent of the author.
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JOHN CARTER IS PHRA THE PHOENICIAN!
by Peter Coogan
Richard Lupoff in Edgar Rice Burroughs: Master of Adventure (Ace 1965) in a chapter called "A Phoenician on Mars" argues that Edwin Lester Arnold's Lieut. Gullivar Jones: His Vacation (1905) was the unacknowledged source for Burroughs’ Barsoom. Lupoff asserts that the hero of the series, John Carter, derives from another of Arnold’s novels, Phra the Phoenician (1890). I believe the association between these books goes even deeper.
Phra is a Phoenician merchant who sails to Britain on a trading mission during Julius Caesar's invasion of the island. Phra joins with the native Britons because he loves a red-haired slave girl, Blodwen, whom he bought from a pirate captain off the coast of Africa and later married, thus joining her tribe, the Veneti. Caesar defeats an alliance of British tribes, taking control of the island. Phra is taken prisoner, and escapes after being interrogated by Caesar. The druid priest, Dhuwallon, takes his uninjured return from capture for treason and denounces him as a spy. He meets his death on a druidic altar, but wakes four hundred years later in an underground cavern where he has evidently been laid to rest. The rest of the novel tells of his repeated "deaths" and reawakenings at each point of Britain's fall to new invaders — Saxons, Normans, the French, etc. The novel ends in roughly 1586 with Phra writing the story of his life, "dying friendless and alone." He has been living in the manor house of Adam Faulkner, a recluse philosopher. When Phra and Faulkner's daughter Elizabeth declare their love for one another to her father, Emanuel the steward brings a silver bowl of wine to toast the loving couple. The jealous Emanuel has poisoned the wine. Elizabeth, Faulkner, and Phra all drink. The father and daughter die quickly, but Phra keep his strength and chases Emanuel over a cliff to his death. Fading, Phra locks himself and his book in his "secret den," a small cell in a wall of the manor house's turret. There he dies, seeing a vision of his beloved Blodwen. The novel closes with Phra proclaiming, "My princess, my wife, has come near and touched my hand, and at that touch the mantle of life falls from me! Blodwen! I come, I come!"
Phra and John Carter share much in common, both physically and temperamentally. Burroughs describes John Carter as "a splendid specimen of manhood, standing a good two inches over six feet, broad of shoulder and narrow of hip, with the carriage of the trained fighting man. His features were regular and clear cut, his hair black and closely cropped, while his eyes were of a steel gray, reflecting a strong and loyal character, filled with fire and initiative" (5) (Citations from the Ballantine editions). Phra's hair is black and his skin "tawny." Carter is white-skinned, but he is described as being tanned. Phra does not describe himself physically, but in an illustration by H.M. Paget that accompanies the text, he stands slightly taller than Caesar. Phra is a fighting man, taking part frequently in battle. He is strong and brave – he kills a charging Bull with a spear and is hurled to the ground and springs up with his sword in his hand. John Carter is the greatest swordsman on two worlds. Phra describes himself as having a “hasty temper and [an] inability to stomach an affront in any guise” (90). Carter also does not suffer insults gladly. Phra is evidently handsome as women across the ages fall in love with him, just as women across Barsoom fall for the Virginian captain. In each iteration Phra falls in love, generally with a woman whom he rescues from death, several of whom seem to be his Blodwen reincarnated. Carter similarly bonds with his Martian princess, Dejah Thoris.
Phra dies in despair, wanting to forget his life. John Carter opens Princess declaring "I am a very old man; how old I do not know. Possibly I am a hundred, possibly more; but I cannot tell because I have never aged as other men, nor do I remember any childhood. So far as I can recollect I have always been a man, a man of about thirty. I appear today as I did forty years and more ago" (11). In Llana of Gathol Carter says, “Perhaps I am the materialization of some long dead warrior of another age” (51). Both these comments lend weight to the idea that Phra awoke sometime after his last “death” with a form of self-induced amnesia.
In Gods of Mars Burroughs notes that John Carter dandled his grandfather’s great-grandfather on his knee (Gods v). The narrator Burroughs (as opposed to the historical Burroughs) was five years old just prior to the opening of the Civil War (1861), so he was born in 1855 (making him 20 years older than he was in reality). John Carter was active at some point between 1705 and 1765 in order to have known Burroughs' grandfather's great-grandfather as a child.* Phra “died” circa 1586, and he could have reawakened after about a century and emigrated to America at some point prior to in the 18th century when he became associated with the Burroughs family, perhaps even fathering the boy he dandled on his knee. Carter does claims that ERB has his blood in his veins (Chessmen 8).
This speculation does not contradict Philip José Farmer’s assertion that Carter is Norman of Torn. Phra could have been Norman. Phra does not record an adventure in the 13th century. His book skips from the Norman invasion in 1066 to 1346. The Outlaw of Torn begins in 1243 under Henry III. Arnold might have excised the Norman of Torn section from his published version of Phra the Phoenician because it did not fit with the theme of the fall of civilizations to invaders that seems to be at the core of his novels, also playing a role in Gullivar Jones. Burroughs might have taken this excised section of Phra’s memoirs and turned it into The Outlaw of Torn. He had to change some details -- such as the age of Norman of Torn -- to make his story work and to disguise its origin perhaps in accordance with a deal he had struck with Arnold.
There are any number of possible explanations for the connections between Phra the Phoenician, A Princess of Mars, and Gullivar Jones. The most likely explanation is that Burroughs and Arnold shared information or read each other’s manuscript. Carter wrote his work in 1885 and “died” in 1886. He left instructions for Burroughs to leave it sealed and unread for eleven years. i.e. 1897, and not to divulge its contents until twenty-one years after the captain’s death, i.e. 1907. Arnold published Gullivar Jones in 1905. Perhaps Burroughs read Carter’s manuscript in 1897 and became acquainted with Phra the Phoenician after that.† Noticing some of the similarities between Phra and Carter, he might have contacted Arnold. If the two of them corresponded and shared details of the manuscripts or perhaps exchanged them, Arnold might have based Gullivar on Carter’s text. If they merely exchanged information about their manuscripts, it would explain the great differences between Gullivar and A Princess of Mars, but also their similarities. Any of these scenarios are possible but cannot be resolved until someone with a more direct contact with the Wold-Newton family can confirm my speculation.
* If Burroughs was born in 1855 and generations are figured at 20 year intervals, then his father was born in 1835, his grandfather in 1815, his great-grandfather in 1795, his great-great grandfather in 1775, and is great-great-great grandfather (i.e. his grandfather's great grandfather) in 1765. If generations are figured at 30 year intervals, then with ERB born in 1855, his father in 1825, his grandfather in 1795, his great-grandfather 1765, his great-great-grandfather in 1735, and his great-great-great-grandfather, i.e. his grandfather’s great-grandfather, in 1705.
† Even thought it is unlikely given the well-established contention that Burroughs’ unnamed informant for the Tarzan material is Dr. Watson, Edwin Lester Arnold’s father is a possible candidate for personage. Sir Edwin Arnold was a noted poet, journalist, chief editor of the London Daily Telegraph, and “Orientalist” who traveled the world and had large estates in England. Perhaps in his travels he acquired John Clayton’s diary. If he is the source for the Tarzan material he could also have put Burroughs in contact with his son, or perhaps Burroughs met the son and the father at the same time since they traveled together frequently. Perhaps the large estates of the Arnolds included the lands of the extinguished Faulkner family.
All rights reserved. The text of this article is © 2001-2004 by the author, Peter Coogan. No copying or reproduction of this article or any portions thereof in any form whatsoever is permitted without prior written permission and consent of the author.
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Here is the Collins Family Tree I worked up Many Years Ago.
In 1795 , Joshua and Naomi Collins had 2 children, Barnabas and Sarah. Joshua had a brother, Jeremiah and a sister, Abigail. Barnabas married Angelique Bouchard. Jeremiah Collins married Josette DuPres. Only Joshua survived the events of 1795 and a cousin, Daniel Collins, inherited Collinwood. By 1840, Daniel had married Harriet (who was killed by Daniel before 1840!) and had had two sons, Quentin the First, and Gabriel. Quentin 1 was married to Samantha Drew and had a son, Tad. Samantha's sister was Roxanne Drew, who Barnabas turned into a vampiress. After Samantha died in 1840, Quentin 1 married Daphne Harridge. Gabriel Collins was married to Edith. Edith's son (name unknown) had four children, Edward, Judith, Quentin the Second (werewolf) and Carl. Edward married Laura the Phoenix and had two children, Jamison and Nora. Judith married Gregory Trask and had a step-daughter, Charity Trask, alias Pansy Faye. Quentin married a Gypsy, Jenny, and had two children, a boy who died in infancy and a daughter, Lenore. Lenore was the grandmother of twins, Tom and Chris Jennings and their sister, Amy. (Joe Haskell was their cousin!) As for Carl Collins, he was murdered by his own brother, Quentin! In the 20th century, Jamison was the father of Elizabeth and Roger. Elizabeth married Paul Stoddard and had a daughter, Carolyn. Carolyn married Jeb Hawkes. Roger unknowingly married his own grandmother, Laura the Phoenix and had a son, David. After Laura's "death," Roger married Cassandra Blair (Angelique). Nicholas Blair claimed to be "Cassandra's" brother.
All rights reserved. The text of this article is © 2001-2004 by the author, Jim Taylor. No copying or reproduction of this article or any portions thereof in any form whatsoever is permitted without prior written permission and consent of the author.
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The first clue is revealed in 1932 when Simon Templar, gentleman outlaw, bon vivant and probable Discordian agent is being held hostage and menaced by an evildoer, a Mr. Ganniman. Ganniman expresses frustration at his nonchalance, Templar calmly replies, "I've such a lot to do before he end of the volume, and it would wreck the whole show if I went and got bumped off before the end of the first volume. Have a heart, old garbage man." (The Saint v. Scotland Yard.)
The second clue can by found twelve years earlier, in 1920 hen the young Elijah Snow tracked down an elderly Sherlock Holmes, who had cleverly concealed himself in plain sight in his Baker Street residence. Holmes agreed to take Snow on as a pupil, but remarked, somewhat morosely, "You have no idea how often I have wished that I were allowed to die many years ago, sir. This second life of mine has not been fulfilling." (Planetary #13)
It is, of course, a common complain among Holmes critics that the Holmes stories that took place after his return from his supposed death at Reichenbach Falls lacked the vitality of the earlier Holmes stories. But whether Snow, a seeker of secrets, ever penetrated the true secret behind this remark remains to be seen. (That Snow was a keeper as well as a seeker of secrets can be shown by the fact the he collaborated with Holmes when Holmes again faked his death in 1925.)
A third clue can be seen when Humbert Humbert, the probably cousin of Hannibal Lector, commented in his memoirs of a document, "It was nothing but a collection of words, but then, so am I." (Lolita)
What is one to make of these statements?
Members of the Wold Newton family, and others, have long been accustomed to having fiction writers publish biographical accounts of their adventures in the form of thinly veiled fiction. Holmes, Doc Savage and Tarzan all, in fact, expressed dismay at the exaggerations of these works at various times. And, with the passage of time, it has been a strange irony that these accounts have often led the general public to believe that these heroic figures actually were fictional character. But there is a possibility that the truth is even stranger than that.
Inhabitants of the Wold Newton Universe have occasionally ventured into parallel universes that have been described in works of fiction. The psychologist Harold Shea, for example, found himself in several parallel worlds that were described in myth and legend. (The Incomplete Enchanter) J. Adrian Fillmore, one of at least two Fillmores who went for his umbrella and never came back, found himself in worlds described by Gilbert and Sullivan and met parallel versions of Dracula and Holmes (in this case Sherrinford Holmes) in other universes. (The Incredible Umbrella) This led Shea to speculate that creative artists were somehow in tune to these parallel dimensions. Shea was getting closer to the truth, but the real truth was stranger still.
The most astonishing revelation of the truth was when a manuscript by John H. Watson was uncovered by Richard Lupoff and published as The God of the Naked Unicorn.
The story in the midst of Holmes's retirement in Sussex. Watson, who is in London, is visited by a figure from the past, Irene Adler, who asks his help in recovering the prize statue of Bohemia, the God of the Naked Unicorn. Watson proceeds to help, when suddenly they are abducted and taken to the North Pole, to a building called the Fortress of Solitude.
If things start out strange, they become decidedly stranger. The woman Watson had thought to be Irene Adler turns out to be Pat Savage in disguise. It is revealed that the theft is only part of a larger scheme. Watson has been invited to a council of war. Also at the council are Doc Savage, the Avenger, the Shadow, the Spider, Captain Future, John Carter, David Innes, Flash Gordon and the Green Lama. They have gathered to rescue Holmes, and Tarzan, who have been abducted by a fiend.
After following a number of false leads, the assembled heroes, who are but a few of the many members of an organization called PULP (Personages United in League as Protectors) discover the fiend. Watson's words tell it best: "There I beheld the fiend seated at his infernal machine, operating its keys and lever with maniacal rapidity while upon the table beside him I saw the pitiful shrunken figures of Sherlock Holmes and John Clayton, dancing and twirling with each strike of the keys of the maniac's machine. To one side of the machine stood a huge stack of papers covered with typed writings."
Luckily, Holmes and Tarzan are rescued when Watson shoots the culprit, a miscreant named Albert Payson Agricola. But one wonders how the assembled heroes could live with the knowledge they had gained - that even the greatest of heroes could be made to dance like puppets with the clattering of typewriters keys.
They have been made to do worse than dance, however.
It has in fact, been discovered that writer are not only in tune with the events of other universes, they can also influence them and, in fact, create them. Robert Heinlein announced this most explicitly. Heinlein described this process, and later described a council, the Circle of Ouroboros, that was made up of representatives of several universes who attempted to correct flaws in time and stay clear of authors. Members of this council included Lazarus Long, a Barsoomian, a Lensman, Jubal Harshaw, Star, the Empress of the Twenty Universes, and several others. Given that Star, the former consort of Wold Newton Universe native Scar Gordon, and the Barsoomian are both from universes adjacent to the Wold Newton Universe, it would make sense that one of the universes represented was also the Wold Newton Universe. I suspect that Harshaw represented the Wold Newton Universe, but a good case can be made for the Lensman as well.
Templar's fellow Discordians, Hagbard Celine and Joe Malik, also discovered the identity of the secret chiefs. "This is a novel," Malik exclaimed, "and it's high camp!" This may have been the final secret of the Illuminati, or at least one of the final secrets. (Illuminati Trilogy.)
A man named Buddy Baker, however, discovered the greatest amount of damage ever wrought by an author. A distant relative of the Doolittle family, which included both Liza and Dr. John, Baker worked as a Hollywood stuntman until something happened to him. Accounts vary, but it seems as if Baker somehow acquired the ability to mimic the powers of animals. He led an unusual life after that point, working as a costumed mystery man, government agent, environmental activist and religious leader but perhaps the most unusual incident occurred when he began to investigate a little know and little understood event called the Crisis.
This began when Animal Man crossed paths with a physicist named James Hightower. A series of strange events had caused Hightower to doubt the nature of reality, and a series of strange clues, including a comic book that featured Animal Man, led him to seek out a criminal lunatic who called himself the Psycho Pirate.
The Psycho Pirate did not have confusion about the nature of reality, he had firm convictions about it. Unfortunately, they were sharply at odds with those of everyone around him. The Psycho Pirate was firmly convinced that he had been part of a gathering of hundreds of beings with strange powers from a number of parallel universes who had fought off a disaster that threatened to destroy what he called the multiverse. Apparently, only a few worlds survived. What was even stranger was that he believed that all of these trillions of people had died in order to provide entertainment for the readers of comic books.
At this point, Baker and Hightower began to have a number of surreal adventures that may have been hallucinations, but which convinced Baker that, not only was the Pirate correct, but that Baker himself was a character in a comic book. During these experiences, he met a number of duplicates and replicates of comic book characters, as well as a few historical figures who greatly resembled comic book characters, such as Superman and Batman.
These adventures came to a climax when he met a man called Grant Morrison, who convinced Baker that he was the man who wrote the comic book "Animal Man" and was, thus the man who controlled Baker's life.
The meeting was reportedly cordial.
Sources
Novels
Short Story
Comic Books
Thanks to Dr. Loki Carbis for suggestions regarding the Illuminati, and Dr. Dennis Power for revealing the identity of Mr. Agricola.
All rights reserved. The text of this article is © 2001-2004 by the author, Art Bollmann. No copying or reproduction of this article or any portions thereof in any form whatsoever is permitted without prior written permission and consent of the author.
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