of the works of Cynthia Stockley
including notes on Silent Film adaptations
by Jessica Amanda Salmonson
APRIL FOLLY. New York & London: G. P. Putnam, 1920. Scarce. I don't yet know if it is a reissue of Blue Aloes which includes "April Folly" among the four tales, or if was a completely separate issue of the long novelette retitled because of the 1920 Photoplay starring Marian Davies as April Poole.
BLUE ALOES: Stories of South Africa. London: Hutchinson, 1918; New York & London: G. P. Putnam, 1919. Four tales: "Blue Aloes" "The Leopard" "Rosanne Ozanne" & "April Folly." One of her most popular books. The last tale, reprinted from Cosmopolitan, was adapted as a silent film directed by Robert Z. Leonard & starring the great Marion Davies. This film happily survives & there's a bit of information on it at the Marion Davies webpage Here!
THE CLAW, A Story of South Africa. New York & London: G. P. Putnam, 1911; London: Hurst & Blacket, 1911; New York: Burt, 1913; New York: Grosset & Dunlap © 1911. A sometimes & marginally supernatural novel, deplored in its day for such moral lapses as the heroine being tricked into becoming a bigamist, but one of her more popular books perhaps because of the daring content. The Putnam edition has a tissued frontispiece from a painting by Bouguereau. I am informed the G&D edition is from 1927, reprinted that year for the second silent film version, though perhaps only the rare dustwrapper acknowledges it as a Photoplay edition; I've not seen the alleged Photoplay personally so may have to ammend this information once a copy comes into my hands to check. The tale was first filmed in 1918 starring Clara Kimball Young as the British gentlewoman who becomes embroiled in South African romance & adventure. The 1927 remake directed by Sidney Olcott starred Clair Windsor. Both film versions survive.
DALLA THE LION-CUB: A Story of South Africa. New York & London: G. P. Putnam, 1924; London: Hutchinson, 1924. A Photoplay edition (New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1924) is illustrated with stills from that year's film version. The film was titled "The Female" (directed by Sam Wood & starring Betty Compson, Warner Baxter, & Noah Beery). The novel is a tale set in South Africa, with Dalla Brand, a young Boer wildwoman, having a mystic kinship with jungle beasts. It is no coincidence that Stockley herself was called "The Tiger" by her friends.
THE DICE OF GOD: A Story of South Africa. New York & London: G. P. Putnam, 1926. A novella set in the lush, deadly environs of Victoria Falls in colonial Zimbabwe. Two women are working on a travel guide together until sundry developments conspire to threaten their friendship. Scarce.
THE DREAM SHIP. London: Constable, 1913. London: Eveleigh Nash & Grayson [1935]. The Eveleigh Nash edition's dustwrapper is shown on this page. Also issued as WANDERFOOT, which see.
THE GARDEN OF PERIL, A Story of the African Veld. New York & London: G. P. Putnam, 1924. A light romance despite elements of a thriller. The heroine, Peril Kelly, cares for a rocky garden, from which lofty vantage point she sees almost daily a desirable South African Mounted Police officer riding past. How he evades a lustful married woman & how Peril works her way into the officer's life provides most of the story's impetus. One of the scarcer titles.
KRAAL BABY, A Novel. New York: Doubleday Doran 1933; London: Cassell [1933]; New York: Grosset & Dunlap, © 1934. The G&D edition in my possession is actually the Doubleday Doran first edition in a G&D dustwrapper (which is shown lower on this page). Evidently G&D just bought up the remaining copies instead of printing their own edition. Tale of Dutch South Africa, about a young woman raised in the veld & almost certainly part black.
LEOPARD IN THE BUSH: A Sequel to "Dalla the Lion-Cub." New York & London: G. P. Putnam, 1927. Comparatively scarce sequel to one of her most popular novels. Dalla is not the name of a lion cub but of the white South African woman who has a mystic connection to the lions.
PERILOUS STUFF: Three Short Novels. London: Cassell, 1936. Contains "The Price of a Rose," "Show Week" & "The Suicide Season." Her last book, & quite scarce.
PERILOUS WOMEN: A Story of the African Veld.. London: Hutchinson, 1924. Scarce, I've not yet been able to obtain a copy.
PINK GODS & BLUE DEMONS. New York & London: Cassells, 1920; New York: Doran, 1923. One of the scarcer titles. Tale of South Africa in the wake of the Boar Wars in a diamond mining region. The Doran edition has blue diamonds embossed on grey cloth; I've not yet seen the Cassells.
PONJOLA. London: Constable, 1923; New York: G. P. Putnam, 1923. The edition with stills from the First National Pictures photoplay (New York: Grosset & Dunlap, ©1923) is first thus; I have been unable to find that the film survives. The novel was first serialized in Nash's Magazine & the editors' preface to the first installment is posted Here! Set in the "Rhodesian goldfields" of Zimbabwe, this tale of addiction/alcoholism depicts an Englishwoman in Rhodesia struggling to free a man from the evils of Panjola, a South African name for whiskey.
POPPY: The Story of a South African Girl. London: Hurst & Blackett, 1910; New York & London: G. P. Putnam, 1910; issued as a photoplay "first thus", New York: Burt, 1917. Frontispiece by G. F. Watts. An Englishwoman reclaims her own life in Rhodesia in what is regarded one of her two most important works, together with Ponjola. The silent film directed by Edward Jose starring Norma Talmadge has happily survived.
TAGATI (Magic). London: Constable, 1930; New York & London: G. P. Putnam, 1930. The US edition drops the parenthetical subtitle. Serialized in Cosmopolitan in 1929. Atmospheric to the verge of mystical, this is a tale of love, murder, & suicide.
THREE FARMS, A Story of South Africa. New York & London: G. P. Putnam, 1925; London: Hutchinson, 1926. Serialized in Cosmopolitan Magazine in 1925.
VIRGINIA OF THE RHODESIANS. London: Hutchinson, 1904. Her first book; highly autobiographical short stories of Zimbabwe: "A Little Season of Love & Laughter" "T'wards the Mist Where the Breakers Moan" "The Marrying of Kat" "Kat's Cradles" "Wild Oates" & "And the End of it's Sittin' & Thinkin'."
WANDERFOOT (The Dream Ship). New York & London: G. P. Putnam, 1913. Also issued as THE DREAM SHIP. London: Constable, 1913; London: Eveleigh Nash & Grayson [1935]. Shipboard tale of America, Jersey & France. Wanderfoot is the heroine's pen name, an author whose character reflects Stockley's own.
WILD HONEY, Stories of South Africa. London: Constable, 1914; New York & London: G. P. Putnam, 1914; New York: Grosset & Dunlap [1922]; London: John Long [1925]; Freeport, NY: Books for Libraries Press Short Story Index Series, 1971. The John Long edition states Ryerson on the spine, I'm not sure why, though I note that the Nash edition of The Dream Ship likewise says Ryerson (as well as Nash) on the dustwrapper spine. Contains the novella "Wild Honey" & the novelettes "Common or Garden Earth" "Watchers by the Road" "The Mollmeit of the Mountain" (a tale of a Dutch South African witchcraft murders), "On the Way to Beira" "Progress" & "The Promise of Life." The first edition has a lovely tissued color frontispiece, a landscape by A. Glossep. The Grosset & Dunlap edition is the Photoplay for the silent film adaptation of the title story is illustrated with four stills from the movie. The film was directed by Wesley Ruggles & starred Priscilla Dean as Lady Vivienne, forced to flee England for South Africa when wrongly implicated in a murder. Noah Berry Sr & Wallace Berry are also in the cast.
See also the illustrated essay:
About Cynthia Stockley
& see the article on:
Cynthia Stockley's Norfolk Home
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