Wed 6 Jul 2016
JONATHAN LEWIS: Stories I’m Reading — REX DOLPHIN “Off the Map.”
Posted by Steve under Pulp Fiction , Stories I'm Reading[10] Comments
REX DOLPHIN “Off the Map.” First published in Weird Tales, July 1954. Reprinted in 100 Wild Little Weird Tales, edited by Stefan R. Dziemianowicz, Robert Weinberg, & Martin H. Greenberg (Barnes & Noble, 1994).
Rex Dolphin (1915-1990) was the pen name of one Reginald Charles Dolphin, a British accountant who also wrote under the pseudonyms Peter Saxon and Desmond Reid. His sole contribution to Weird Tales, a story entitled “Off the Map†appeared in the pulp magazine’s July 1954 issue.
The product of a vivid imagination and a mind steeped in fantasy literature, “Off the Map†is a minor, albeit imperfect, gem of a tale. The story is based on a premise that readers of historical fantasy and weird fiction have surely encountered in myriad forms over the years: what if there’s a city that’s marked on an older map, but that doesn’t appear on any contemporary ones:
The town in question is Wychburne, an English city that no longer appears in modern cartography. In “Off the Map,†the story’s unnamed protagonist-narrator sets out to discover what happened to this village. Does it still exist? And if so, what happens there?
The story unfolds in a rather predictable manner, with one local who learns of the narrator’s quest showing his absolute displeasure with the notion. As it turns out, the village — or some phantasmagoric facsimile of it, does still exist. But the small burg’s historical trajectory has been scarred by the experience of a great plague, making this town off the map a burial ground for the ages.
It must be said that, while “Off the Map†has a more interesting premise than a conclusion, the work does demonstrate that the writer was certainly well versed in both the style and substance of early twentieth-century high fantasy literature.
July 6th, 2016 at 1:43 pm
I’ve read a couple of the Peter Saxon novels featuring the occult detective team known as The Guardians. Really great stuff if you love lurid supernatural tales like those found in old Hammer horror movies. What makes some of them unique is the use of arcane myths and legends like the Scottish kelpie (a water spirit that takes the form of a horse) and Ankou, the personification of Death in Breton mythology. If “Dolphin” was part of the team that created those books I’d definitely seek out any of his stories.
July 6th, 2016 at 2:08 pm
Actually, after reading this story, I went to my local used bookstore and happened upon a paperback copy of Peter Saxon’s THE GUARDIANS #1. Am planning on reading it tonight
July 6th, 2016 at 4:26 pm
Off the Map can also be found in the 1988 Doubleday Weird Tales anthology edited by Marvin Kaye and republished 1996 by Barnes & Noble. Harder to find, and identify as his work, are the books Dolphin wrote for editor-publisher W. Howard Baker’s various Press Editorial Services ventures in the 1960s and ’70s. Baker used the work of an experienced team of UK light-fiction writers that also included Wilfred McNeilly, T. H. Martin and Stephen Frances (the original “Hank Janson”) publishing them mainly under house names like Peter Saxon, Desmond Reid, and W. A. Ballinger. The best Guardians book that was actually Rex Dolphin’s was probably The Vampires of Finistere. Pick that one up if you get the chance, Jonathan. Most of Baker’s team was put together while he was editing the famous detective series Sexton Blake Library for the Amalgamated Press/Fleetway Publications Ltd in Farringdon Street, London, in the late 1950s and early 1960s. During the time I worked as Baker’s editorial assistant at Fleetway House, I was invited by Rex Dolphin to his outer suburban home in Amersham, Buckinghamshire. He was a careful, painstaking writer, and a courteous, friendly and helpful man to a late teenager just entering the jungle of mass-market publishing. Around this time I believe Dolphin was also the accountant or treasurer for the British Crime Writers’ Association. Later, Dolphin was a contributor to the Edgar Wallace Mystery Magazine I launched and edited for Micron Publications Ltd. I am told by one prominent British bibliographer that when he contacted Dolphin’s family after his death he found them apparently disenchanted over Mr Dolphin’s fiction career and much averse to assisting any cataloguing or review of his work.
–Keith Chapman
July 6th, 2016 at 7:26 pm
Agree with Chap re VAMPIRES OF FINISTERE. Some of the Saxon books aren’t bad for what they are — lurid being the operate word, though not always a bad thing.
Little town that wasn’t there? Next door to Brigadoon no doubt.
July 6th, 2016 at 8:34 pm
Thank you for your informative comments on Rex Dolphin’s life and work. I will be sure to find THE VAMPIRES OF FINISTERE. I have a soft spot for Hammer horror at its most lurid.
And yes, David, I am sure the town was close by Brigadoon!
July 6th, 2016 at 10:28 pm
Thanks for a long meaty comment, Keith. I took especial note of your last paragraph. I think it sad that families of writers and other creative people often think so badly of their relative’s work as to effectively deny its very existence.
As for The Guardians, Al Hubin’s CRIME FICTION IV suggests that The Vampires of Finistere was Rex Dolphin’s only contribution to the series.
July 7th, 2016 at 3:36 pm
The identity of the people behind the Guardians books, and others with Press Editorial Services copyright, has always been somewhat doubtful.
I know of several books with Peter Saxon, W. Howard Baker, W. A. Ballinger, or Richard Williams bylines wrongly assumed to be solely Baker’s own work when that isn’t the case. His “ghost writers” over the years certainly included Jack Trevor Story, Australian John Laffin, George Paul Mann, and Wilfred McNeilly. I’ve also read that after Baker’s death, most surviving records of his business activities were consigned to a bonfire.
Under his own name, Dolphin wrote two or three novels for the post-Fleetway, Howard Baker-packaged Sexton Blake Library fifth series. But from what I can remember, Dolphin wasn’t supportive of Baker’s “Desmond Reid” collaborative/rewrite system as practised at Fleetway. It may be remarkable that Dolphin wrote even one Guardians book as “Peter Saxon”. Very likely, and sadly, we shall never know.
July 7th, 2016 at 7:21 pm
For the record, as currently given in Hubin:
Books as by Rex Dolphin or by him under house names:
_The Castle on the Mountain [as by Julie Wellsley] See entry under Julie Wellsley.
[] *The Devil to Pay (Amalgamated Press, 1961, pb) [Sexton Blake; England]
[] *Driven to Kill (Baker, 1969, pb) [Sexton Blake; England]
[] *Guilty Party (Amalgamated Press, 1959, pb) [Sexton Blake; England]
[] *Murder Goes Nap (Mayflower, 1966, pb) [Sexton Blake; England]
[] *Ride the Man Down (Mayflower, 1967, pb) [England]
[] *Some Died Laughing! (Amalgamated Press, 1960, pb) [Sexton Blake; England]
[] _Speak Ill of the Dead [as by Richard Williams] See entry under Richard Williams.
[] *Stop Press-Homicide! (Amalgamated Press, 1959, pb) [Sexton Blake; England]
[] *The Trail of the Golden Girl (Mayflower, 1967, pb) [Sexton Blake; England] Macfadden, 1969.
[] *Trouble Is My Name (Amalgamated Press, 1961, pb) [Sexton Blake; England]
[] _The Vampires of Finistere [as by Peter Saxon] See entry under Peter Saxon.
[] *Walk in the Shadows (Amalgamated Press, 1959, pb) [Sexton Blake; England]
[] _The World-Shakers [as by Desmond Reid] See entry under Desmond Reid.
Plus:
DEVON, NICOLA; pseudonym of Rex Dolphin, (1915-1990)
[] *House of Illusion (Ace, 1969, pb)
And here’s a list of the books in the Peter Saxon “Guardians” series:
Dark Ways to Death (n.) Baker 1968 [by W. Howard Baker]
The Curse of Rathlaw (n.) Baker 1969 [by Thomas Hector Martin]
Through the Dark Curtain (n.) Baker 1969 [by Ross Richards]
The Haunting of Alan Mais (n.) Mayflower 1970 [by W. Howard Baker]
The Killing Bone (n.) Baker 1970 [by W. Howard Baker]
The Vampires of Finistere (n.) Baker 1970 [by Rex Dolphin]
July 8th, 2016 at 3:54 am
Thank you for posting the lists, Steve. A quick check in the Library of Congress Catalog of Copyright Entries finds the copyright of House of Illusion registered by Ace under “Baker, W. Howard … by Nicola Devon, pseud.” And The Castle on the Mountain, by Julie Wellsley, pseud., Dell, is again under “Baker, W. Howard”. This time the copyright is registered to Baker’s name, too. I think this underlines the confusion that surrounds work by Rex Dolphin and most of the other authors who sold their work to Baker as an editor at Fleetway and later as a packager and publisher. I believe it’s unwise to assume anything allegedly written by “W. Howard Baker” is predominantly his work. That goes as well for “Peter Saxon” (including the “Guardians” books) and the various other pen and “house” names associated with Baker. My conclusion results from personal witness while working under Baker for Fleetway, from what other writers have said, and from the few surviving and conflicting records of Baker’s later Press Editorial Services operations. Unless deception per se is a cause for worry, I guess none of it really matters to readers if you can obtain the books and find enjoyment in them.
July 8th, 2016 at 9:47 am
Walker
Thanks for reminding me about the Ballantine edition, which I’ve added to the publishing notes in the review. That’s the one I bought and read when it first came out, but when I recently came across a beat up copy of the Perennial edition, I thought I’d buy it and read it again. I’m glad I did.