H. Bedford-Jones (1887-1949) was a prolific pulp author with over 1,000 works, including several series. His longest series with a single character featured John Solomon, a mysterious cockney ship chandler who originally operated in Port Said, Egypt, before World War I with a network of agents.
Strangely, Solomon is often almost a secondary character in his own series. He usually works behind the scenes and is not seen for long periods. There is always a more adventurous young man as the main character of the story, who usually marries the girl and settles down at the end of the story.
I’ve been posting on this character now that Steeger Books is reprinting this series as part of their H. Bedford-Jones Library. They started out putting out paperback editions with one novel each originally, but as there will be about 14 volumes for the 24-story series, they have switched to two novels per volume. There is also a three-volume complete hardback collection as well. This latest paperback, volume #10, contains two stories: John Solomon, Incognito and The Wisdom of Solomon
While the series started in Argosy, it soon shifted to People’s, which is where the first story appeared. John Solomon, Incognito was cover featured in the Oct. 25, 1921, issue, which started this four-part serial. However, the cover from People’s of August 1916, which featured John Solomon, Argonaut, was used as the cover for this volume.
“The Wisdom of John Solomon” is an oddity. It was found in The Boston Globe for Sept. 29, 1926. But the Globe, while it ran fiction, only reprinted it. So it’s unclear where it originally appeared. If it did. Plus the story and characters in it harken back to the stories in the early part of the series. After these two stories, we would not see any more of John Solomon until he was revived in Argosy in 1930.
After the past couple of stories with Solomon in San Francisco, we again start there but will finish up in New Orleans. In many ways, this story turns the general formula of these stories on its ear. We meet Capt. Tom Wrexham, who sails his schooner into San Francisco, his crew dead or dying from ptomaine poisoning. He tries to get a new crew, but strangely can’t find anyone. But in a strange encounter in Chinatown, he is offered a crew on the condition he turns over an object in his possession. But fearing a betrayal, he engages another crew of blacks. His crew is provided due to the efforts of a mysterious Manchu who wants the object, and to get a hold of the captain in New Orleans. We will learn he isn’t so good a man, so not our proxy hero?
We turn to New Orleans, where Solomon is meeting with a Manchu known only as Ah Lee, not his real name. Solomon learns his old friend Adriene Lavergne has passed, leaving his daughter trying to run their old plantation on an island, with the help of an overseer. But her uncle and his son are trying to get the plantation, and are not good people. Ah Lee is looking out for the interests of the daughter, as will Solomon who will take a role as steward on their schooner. The uncle also has the services of an outlaw named Piet Jean.
So why do the uncle and son want the plantation? There has to be a reason. And when Wrexham shows up, he winds up protecting the daughter’s plantation as well. Why? And is there any connection between Ah Lee and Wrexham? It’s all complex as there are a lot of bad people involved and how does it all work out? After all, if the daughter is our damsel in distress, who is our hero who will come to her rescue and marry her? Read and find out.
Next is The Wisdom of Solomon. As noted, this one is an oddity. Why? Because as I said it’s set earlier in the chronology of this series. We are back in the days when Solomon ran his spy agency fighting against the Turks from Port Said. The main character of this story is Frederick Sargent, John’s agent and the main character from the fourth story, The Seal of John Solomon. And at the end of that story, he had retired to America with his new bride.
Here we again have a story of intrigue, dealing with a femme fatale and a dangerous Turkish agent.
It’s a mystery where this story came from. Was it published in a more obscure pulp, then much later reprinted in the Globe? Or maybe Bedford-Jones wrote it back then and for whatever reason it didn’t sell, he tossed it in his files, and then pulled it out to be published for the first time in the Globe, as he did other work for them. It would seem strange he would write a story set so much earlier. We may never know.
At this point, Solomon will return in the Argosy in shorter stories in 1930 for a total of 10. As I believe the plan is to have four more paperback volumes, which will reprint those final 10, starting with The Mysterious John Solomon. I look forward to seeing them.
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