Violet Books

Here's Charles Boardman Hawes' classic swashbuckler The Great Quest, A Romance of 1826, wherein are recorded the experiences of Josiah Woods of Topham, & of those others with whom he sailed for Cuba & the Gulf of Guinea (Boston: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1921) is seen here in its Second Impression, with the same gorgeous ornate pictorial binding as on the first impression, besides thrilling interior plates & text illustrations by George Varian, & map endpapers.

Charles Boardman Hawes' Newbury Award-winning pirate swashbuckler The Dark Frigate was lengthily subtitled "Wherein is told the story of Philip Marsham who lived in the time of King Charles & was bred a sailor but came home to England after many hazards by sea & land & fought for the King at Newbury & lost a great inheritance & departed for Barbados in the same ship, by curious chance, in which he had long before adventured with the pirates" (Boston: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1923). This is the first edition's embossed pictorial binding. There are also nine lovely illustration plates within.

David Graeme's Monsieur Blackshirt (Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1931) launched a four-book series of witty Sabatiniesque adventures, the premiere volume seen here in its first edition dustwrapper. In the author's introduction he states that he is the cousin of Bruce Graeme who wrote a popular detective series about a modern character named Blackshirt. The Monsieur Blackshirt of this swashbuckler series set in 16th Century France was the ancestor of the modern Blackshirt. M. Blackshirt is "A gallant scallawag who is quick with his tongue & his sword & as quick to bandy words with a pretty wench." David Graeme was not Bruce's cousin however; they were both pseudonuyms of Graham Montague Jefferies.

The Vengeance of Monsieur Blackshirt is here shown in it's Burt edition printed from 1935 Lippincott first edition plates. Monsieur Blackshirt is said to be a "swaggering rogue in whose veins flows the blood of the great de Rohan and a tawny gypsy girl." The scene is 16th Century France and from the very first page Monsieur Blackshirt is involved in a series of duels, battles, conspiracies -- with intervals of amorous dalliance.

Here's the 1949 Sun Dial Press edition of Jeffery Farnol's The Happy Harvest. An unusual cross-genre tale, it's a swashbuckling murder mystery set in early nineteenth century England, described in the dustwrapper text as "a tale of a courageous hero, of a mettlesome heroine, of forest duels and moonlight escapes."

The Lonely Road: A Romance by Jeffery Farnol is seen here in it's attractive 1939 Sun Dial Press edition. The dustwrapper copy calls it "A lusty tale of flight and fisticuffs and a brave Jacobite with a price on his head." Farnol was himself a pugelist and athlete who brought a compolete verisimilitude to his fight sequences.

Jeffery Farnol was among the greatest of the swashbuckler authors, standing tall alongside Rafael Sabatini. Winds of Change is shown here in the 1939 Triangle Publishing edition's thrilling action pictorial with cutlasses all about. A pirate adventure with a touch of the Lost Race theme, depicting the last glory of the Incas. Farnol's usual spunky heroine is on the run from the rakehell & drunkard Lord Barrasdale, who would marry her by force to claim her lands -- then fate heaps suspense and folly upon her when she is unexpectedly kidnapped by the wild Captain Japhet Bly and whisked away to his tallmasted pirate ship.

This is the dustwrapper for the Burt reissue of the 1920 Little Brown title, Black Bartlemy's Treasure by Jeffery Farnol. In this exciting pirate adventure, Martin Coniston's noble father has been slain, with himself sold into slavery aboard a Spanish gallcass. Will our young Lord Wendover escape the galley to avenge his pop and get a gorgeous girl before all is said and done? Stranger things have happened.

MacBurney Gates wrote two adventure novels based on silent films. The first was Aloma of the South Seas (New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1926). The pictorial is simply marvelous, a colored film still of actress Gilda Gray dressed as an island princess in hammy dramatic pose to her calves in tropical waves -- really very striking. There's a second illustration on the back panel which seems likely to have been based on a lobby poster advertising the film. Plus numerous film stills scattered throughout the novel, some quite sexy. An adventuring sailor in the South Seas meets Aloma on her island paradise & the usual escapades develop.

MacBurney Gate's other film novel is really very marvelous: The Black Pirate (New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1926). This pirate swashbuckler is illustrated with six full color plates, these being brightly tinted stills from the silent film classic starring Douglas Fairbanks. Though they're colored photos, they give the impression of being elaborate paintings, resembling Howard Pyle. Douglas is marvelously depicted on the dustwrapper as well, astride a treasure chest and with an evocative painting of the sea as backdrop.

J. G. Sarasin's Corsican Justice (New York: Burt, 1927) features a thrilling pictorial dustwrapper of a duel in progress and our usual spunky heroine, in this instance the spicy Caterina, looking on (no doubt in an aroused state of interest). Our valiant hero is the "gallant cavalier, Gaston de Saulx, exiled from France during the Revolution and deprived of his estates." Other cool characters include the bandit Mazzarda, and Napoleon himself.

Herbert Ravenel Sass's War Drums is shown here in the Grosset & Dunlap issue printed from 1929 Doubleday 1st edition plates. This pirate adventure features Lachlan McDonald, son of a Scottish nobleman and an Indian princess, in old Charles Town of the Carolinia Colony -- it was an early Scottish stronghold in North America, and their actual history is no less heroic than any novel -- and McDonald's rival is the handsome privateer Captain Falcon. There's a girl (could there not be a girl?) who must be saved, and much dueling and courage both on the high seas and in the New World wilderness.