R.R. Ryan
R.R. Ryan, author of such ominously sounding titles as Death of a Sadist, Freak Museum and The Subjugated Beast, has attained a cult status on the strength of his violent visions alone. But who was he, or she?
I had the honour of co-writing with James Doig the article 'Finding R.R. Ryan' on the identity of that mysterious British horror writer of the 1930's, R.R. Ryan in All Hallows: The Journal of the Ghost Story Society issue 37, 2004. At that time it was only known that the writer's name was a penname, but for whom? James finally solved that riddle and published his research results as 'R.R. Ryan Found', in All Hallows: The Journal of the Ghost Story Society issue 44 in 2008. James and I earned a small spot in Joshi's Supernatural Literature Of The World, An Encyclopedia with our first article. The honours in having solved the riddle that had led to much speculation, belong entirely to James.
But here's the fun part: there's a new and interesting website on R.R. Ryan that certainly merits a visit.
Hi Theo
ReplyDeleteIt's also worth pointing out I've an article and price guide on RR Ryan in the October 2009 issue of the Book and Magazine Collector - input came from Paul Caton (creator of the website) and david Medhurst, both of whom are RR Ryan's grandsons.
Cheers
James
Coming to R.R Ryan recently I can't get hold of the articles cited above.
ReplyDeleteThe Wikipaedia entry makes a great leap by going from R.R Ryan, Cameron Carr, and John Galton being a single author according to the Random House file, to it being Evelyn Bradley. Is there a bit missing from Wikipaedia explaining the link between Ryan/Carr/Galton and Bradley? How is it known that R.R. Ryan is Rex Ryan?
I havetwo areas of family connections to RR Ryan, through the second women and mother of his children and Adderly Howard.
ReplyDeleteMy 4th GG father signature appears on the last will and testament of Charles Dickens, also am the 7th GG son of the 18th century author Samuel Richardson,. I have began to produce Gothic horror play, which will be on stage in Australia later this year, cheers Steve
Steve, it sounds like you're continuing the family tradition! Are you from Australia?
ReplyDelete