Tales of Chinatown

Arthur Henry Sarsfield Ward (1883 - 1959), better known as Sax Rohmer, was a prolific English novelist. He is best remembered for his series of novels featuring the master criminal Dr. Fu Manchu. He issued the first Fu Manchu novel, in 1913. It was an immediate success. The Fu Manchu stories, together with his more conventional detective series characters-Paul Harley, Gaston Max, Red Kerry, Morris Klaw (an occult detective), and The Crime Magnet- made Rohmer one of the most successful and well-paid authors of the 1920s and 1930s. The first three Fu Manchu books were published in the four years 1913-17; but it was not until 1931 (some fourteen years after the third book in the series) that Rohmer returned to the series with The Daughter of Fu Manchu. The reason for the long interval was that Rohmer wanted to be well and truly done with the series after The Si-Fan Mysteries, much as Arthur Conan Doyle did with Sherlock Holmes. The first three books had been successfully filmed by Stoll in the twenties as a pair of serials. In 1928, Rohmer bowed to pressure and agreed to write a fourth novel as a serial for Collier's. Paramount had the first Warner Oland picture gearing up for production and the daily newspaper strip based on the series was in the offing.