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Max Pemberton

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This article is about the adventure/mystery novelist. For the UK doctor and journalist, see Max Pemberton (doctor).

Sir

Max Pemberton
ca. 1895
ca. 1895
Born(1863-06-19)19 June 1863
Paddington, London, England[1][2]
Died22 February 1950(1950-02-22) (aged 86)
London, England
OccupationJournalist and author
NationalityBritish
Alma materMerchant Taylors' School
Caius College, Cambridge.
Notable worksThe Iron Pirate
Notable awardsKnight Bachelor
SpouseAlice Agnes Tussaud

Sir Max Pemberton JP (19 June 1863 – 22 February 1950) was a popular English mystery and adventure novelist, biographer and publisher.[3] He was also a prolific editor and worked for various popular periodicals and magazines including Chums and Cassell's Magazine.[4]

Life

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Pemberton was educated at St Albans School, Merchant Taylors' School, and Caius College, Cambridge.[5] A clubman, journalist and dandy (Lord Northcliffe admired his 'fancy vests'), he frequented both Fleet Street and The Savage Club.[6] Pemberton married Alice Tussaud, who was the granddaughter of Madame Marie Tussaud.

Pemberton's most famous work The Iron Pirate became a best-seller after it was published in 1893 and it initiated his prolific writing career. This is a story about a great gas-driven iron-clad, which could outpace the navies of the world and terrorised the shipping of the Atlantic Ocean. The following year, Pemberton's collection of stories titled the Jewel Mysteries: From a Dealer's Note Book was published. This is a series of Mystery stories that each revolve around stolen jewels.[3]

Between 1896 and 1906, Pemberton edited Cassell's Magazine (see [2]), in which capacity he published the early works of R. Austin Freeman and William Le Queux. He also wrote historical fiction including I Crown Thee King (1902), which is set in Sherwood Forest during the time of Mary I.[7]

During January 1908, and just one year after the death of Pemberton’s friend and fellow Crimes Club member, Bertram Fletcher Robinson, he had a story titled Wheels of Anarchy published by Cassell (publisher). This book includes the following book dedication in the form of an 'Author's Note':[8]

This story was suggested to me by the late B. Fletcher Robinson,
deeply mourned. The subject was one in which he had interested himself for
some years; and almost the last message I had from him expressed the desire
that I would keep my promise and treat of the idea in a book. This I have now
done, adding something of my own to the brief notes he left me, but chiefly
bringing to the task an enduring gratitude for a friendship which nothing can
replace.

"I'm essentially an outdoor man." ca. 1903

The Wheels of Anarchy is an adventure tale about anarchists and assassins, which is set across Continental Europe. The novel's hero, Bruce Driscoll, is a recent graduate of Jesus College, Cambridge and he appears to be modelled upon Robinson. In December 2010, Wheels of Anarchy by Max Pemberton was compiled, introduced and republished in facsimile form by Paul Spiring and Hugh Cooke.[9]

Pemberton's novels Beatrice of Venice (1904) and Paulina (1922) centre on Napoleon's military campaigns in Italy.[10] Other notable works included Captain Black (1911) and Father Brown story titled The Donnington Affair by G. K. Chesterton in an obscure British periodical named The Premier (1914). This short story was reprinted in the Chesterton Review in 1981.[11]

In 1920, Pemberton founded the London School of Journalism, and wrote a biography about Alfred Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe. Pemberton also wrote a biography about Sir Henry Royce, which was published in 1934 shortly after Royce's death.

Honours

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Pemberton was knighted in the 1928 Birthday Honours, gazetted on 1 June 1928.[12]

Selected works

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Cover of A Puritan's Wife (1902).
Wheels of Anarchy (1908)

Sources

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References

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  1. ^ General Register Office index of births registered in July, August, September 1863 – Name: Pemberton, Max District: Kensington Volume: 1A Page: 9.
  2. ^ Note: He sometimes gave his place of birth as Edgbaston, Birmingham (his mother was from Birmingham)
  3. ^ a b LeRoy Lad Panek, After Sherlock Holmes: The Evolution of British and American Detective Stories, 1891–1914.McFarland, 2014. ISBN 9780786477654 (pp. 66-7).
  4. ^ "Pemberton, Max". Who's Who. Vol. 59. 1907. p. 1378.
  5. ^ "Pemberton, Max (PMRN881M)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  6. ^ Pemberton, Max. [1], Internet Archive. Retrieved on 6 July 2025.
  7. ^ Jonathan Nield, A Guide to the Best Historical Novels and Tales. London, E. Mathews & Marrot, 1929 (p.151).
  8. ^ "Fletcher Robinson, Pemberton & Doyle". BFRonline.BIZ. Archived from the original on 16 March 2010. Retrieved 24 July 2009.
  9. ^ Pemberton, Max; Cooke, Hugh; Spiring, Paul R. (December 2010). Wheels of Anarchy by Max Pemberton. MX. ISBN 978-1907685316.
  10. ^ Daniel D. McGarry, Sarah Harriman White, Historical Fiction Guide: Annotated Chronological, Geographical, and Topical List of Five Thousand Selected Historical Novels. Scarecrow Press, 1963 (p.221)
  11. ^ Smith, Marie (1987), Introduction, Thirteen Detectives, by Chesterton, G. K., Smith, Marie (ed.), London: Xanadu, p. 11, ISBN 0-947761-23-3
  12. ^ The London Gazette Issue 33390, 1 June 1928 (Supplement), p. 3846
  • The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes: Early Detective Stories, ed. Hugh Greene (Penguin, 1971)
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