| Author: | Albert W. Aiken | ISBN: | 9780463199879 |
| Publisher: | Dark Lantern Tales | Publication: | August 3, 2018 |
| Imprint: | Smashwords Edition | Language: | English |
| Author: | Albert W. Aiken |
| ISBN: | 9780463199879 |
| Publisher: | Dark Lantern Tales |
| Publication: | August 3, 2018 |
| Imprint: | Smashwords Edition |
| Language: | English |
It is 1883, and a patrolman making his midnight rounds in New York City’s Battery Park finds a dead man in the middle of a quiet carriage-way. Looking up from his grim discovery, his startled gaze rests on a bat-like spectre the size of a man, perched on a nearby structure. So begins a pursuit that soon involves Joe Phenix, the Private Detective. The demented murderer changes his appearance and demeanor almost at will, daunting the detective and the police by more frequent killing.
Meanwhile a young woman with a curious name is summoned by strangers from England. Before stepping foot on a New York dock, she is suddenly involved in the plot.
The Bat of the Battery, written by Albert W. Aiken, first appeared as a serial in the pages of the New York Saturday Journal in March of 1883. Dark Lantern Tales’ editor Mark Williams has carefully recovered this lost story from original sources, editing and adding information to help illuminate the settings in which the action unfolds.
The late 1800s in America are sometimes portrayed with artificial nostalgia as a simple, cozy, and well-behaved time. In reality, our forebears experienced a turbulent post Civil War culture, severe economic swings, and the visible contrasts of grinding poverty next to opulent wealth.
Low cost stories for the working class were sold on the streets at news stands, usually for a dime. Hard-living writers hammered out novels in just days each, writing manuscripts in long hand by gas light with little or no editing. Printing was on the lowest grade of pulp paper, and 130 years later many titles are not even known to still exist. Drawing stories from his own collection of originals and other sources, Mark Williams has respectfully and carefully edited the stories, and added information and illustrations to each title. The Joe Phenix stories were intended for adults and contrast the seamiest side of New York with the elegance of the world of the wealthy. Here is Historical Fiction written when it was simply, fiction. And here also is one of the earliest detectives in popular fiction. Your first chapter is waiting for you.
It is 1883, and a patrolman making his midnight rounds in New York City’s Battery Park finds a dead man in the middle of a quiet carriage-way. Looking up from his grim discovery, his startled gaze rests on a bat-like spectre the size of a man, perched on a nearby structure. So begins a pursuit that soon involves Joe Phenix, the Private Detective. The demented murderer changes his appearance and demeanor almost at will, daunting the detective and the police by more frequent killing.
Meanwhile a young woman with a curious name is summoned by strangers from England. Before stepping foot on a New York dock, she is suddenly involved in the plot.
The Bat of the Battery, written by Albert W. Aiken, first appeared as a serial in the pages of the New York Saturday Journal in March of 1883. Dark Lantern Tales’ editor Mark Williams has carefully recovered this lost story from original sources, editing and adding information to help illuminate the settings in which the action unfolds.
The late 1800s in America are sometimes portrayed with artificial nostalgia as a simple, cozy, and well-behaved time. In reality, our forebears experienced a turbulent post Civil War culture, severe economic swings, and the visible contrasts of grinding poverty next to opulent wealth.
Low cost stories for the working class were sold on the streets at news stands, usually for a dime. Hard-living writers hammered out novels in just days each, writing manuscripts in long hand by gas light with little or no editing. Printing was on the lowest grade of pulp paper, and 130 years later many titles are not even known to still exist. Drawing stories from his own collection of originals and other sources, Mark Williams has respectfully and carefully edited the stories, and added information and illustrations to each title. The Joe Phenix stories were intended for adults and contrast the seamiest side of New York with the elegance of the world of the wealthy. Here is Historical Fiction written when it was simply, fiction. And here also is one of the earliest detectives in popular fiction. Your first chapter is waiting for you.
