A bibliographical point came up on a list-serve I'm on, and with the permission of fellow-researchers Phil Stephensen-Payne and Endre Zsoldos I recap it here.
The story known as "A Dead Secret" appeared anonymously in Harper's New Monthly Magazine for November 1853. Francis Wolle, in his seminal Fitz-James O'Brien: A Literary Bohemian of the Eighteen-Fifties (1944), noted that the story is in "one of the various styles in which O'Brien was accustomed to write, and it alone deals with the sort of material which later became a source of his strength" and he called it "the first of O'Brien's mystery stories" despite noting that the 1853 Index for Harper's New Monthly Magazine attributed only one story to O'Brien for that year--and the story was not "A Dead Secret." So Wolle's attribution of the story to O'Brien was educated guesswork.
"A Dead Secret" was collected in Jessica Amanda Salmonson's The Supernatural Tales of Fitz-James O'Brien (two volumes, 1988), and in its one volume form, The Wondersmith and Others (Ash-Tree Press, 2008). Salmonson clearly included the story in her collection based on Wolle's attribution.
However, "A Dead Secret" appeared previously (and also anonymously) in the U.K. journal Household Words for 19 September 1853, when Charles Dickens was the editor, publisher, and a major contributor to it. Dickens apparently kept good records, and these were utilized by Anne Lohrli for her book Household Words: A Weekly Journal 1850-1859 conducted by Charles Dickens (1973), and she attributes the story to George Augustus Sala, a frequent contributor to the journal during that period. Lohrli notes that "Six of Sala's H.W. contributions were reprinted in whole or part in Harper's" (p. 114).
Based on these records, "A Dead Secret" should be removed from the list of Fitz-James O'Brien's stories, and hereafter attributed to George Augustus Sala (1828-1895), an editor, journalist and fiction writer, whose most successful work was probably the novel The Seven Sons of Mammon (1862). Sala pioneered the position of travelling reporter, covering current events around the world.
Sala was also a friend and drinking buddy of Ambrose Bierce during Bierce's English residence 1872-1875.
ReplyDeleteCool. From what I read, Sala was quite fond of the sauces.
ReplyDeletebtw fwiw Sala's The Seven Sons of Mammon (3 vols 1862)is quite collectable esp as a novel with stockbroking and financial doings te.,
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