The Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu
New York: McBride, 1913. First Edition. Hardcover. 1st American edition of the first Fu Manchu book (the London edition, also 1913, was titled The Mystery of Fu Manchu). Bookplate else fine in the rare dustjacket with “we dare you to read the first 3 pages” across the front. Light edgewear and a 1” tear to the fold where the spine panel meets the rear panel, else it’s near fine, unrepaired and very fresh, the spine letters still white. This is a high demand book, the first copy in a dustjacket I have seen since the ’90s, and by far, the finest of the 3 total copies in jacket I have seen, in 40 years of paying attention. Fine / near fine. Item #333
Fu Manchu, the master of a secret underground criminal society (Si–Fan, or The Council of Seven) bent on bringing down Western Imperialism and particularly the British government, was the archetyp e for evil genius and mad scientist. Beyond Rohmer’s 13 books, Fu has been the title character in 15 or so films (the first in 1923), series for radio (the first in 1927) and television (1956), comic strips (since 1931), comic books (beginning in Detective Comics number 17, July 1938, 10 issues before the first appearance of Batman), rock bands and songs, and his image became so recognizable that his name was attached a moustache still know as the Fu Manchu. Rohmer borrowed the base elements of the criminal mastermind concept from Dumas’ Cagliostro (1849), Conan Doyle’s Professor Moriarty in the Sherlock Holmes stories (1892) and from L.T. Meade's Madame Koluchy in The Brotherhood of the Seven Kings (1899), but with Fu Manchu the model was perfected and has hardly been improved upon in comics (Lex Luthor in Superman) or novels (Ernst Blofeld in James Bond).
Price:
$25,000.00