Sax Rohmer's Masterpieces of Oriental Mystery


Published by McKinlay, Stone & Mackenzie, 30 Irving Place, New York, NY

This series originally consisted of eleven matched volumes.  
They were reprinted as needed, and at least ten additional titles were added later.

From the collection of Lawrence Knapp

From the collection of Lawrence Knapp

Chinese-style ideogram
from the center of a McKinlay cover

The original ideogram
from the first edition of Return of Fu Manchu

  

    Original format: uniformly bound in light blue cloth with Chinese-style ideogram (from the cover of the McBride first edition of The Return of Dr. Fu-Manchu) blind-stamped on front cover; series title, book title, and author's name stamped in gold on spine; small drawing of Oriental figure (from the McBride first edition of The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu) on title page; overall size of books: 12.5 x 18.5 cm.  Later printings exhibit slight variations in size and paper, and some have the title and author blind-stamped on the spine instead of gold-stamped.
    Most titles have a frontispiece on coated paper.  The design is either an illustration reprinted from the book's first edition, or adapted from the first-edition dust-jacket.  In a small number of cases, a photographic illustration is used.  Some titles exist with different frontispiece illustrations in different printings.
    It should be noted that the copyright information in the McKinlay, Stone & Mackenzie volumes never refers to the MSM editions themselves, but to various printings from the original publisher.  The same MSM title can exist in printings with two or more different copyright pages. 
    The series was sold principally by mail order, through advertisements in pulp magazines and other popular magazines of the day.  The first series sold in 1923 for $13.00---a $1.00 deposit plus $1.00 a month for twelve months.  Each set of books was accompanied by a free pair of Sphinx polychrome book-ends, "standing five inches high and substantially made."  By 1931 the price had risen to $15.00 ($1.00 deposit plus $1.00 a month for 14 months), and the free premium was "a 16-inch Karamaneh necklace of fine imported simulated green jade and small moonstones."

From the collection of Robert E. Briney

First Series (1923):

The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu
The Return of Dr. Fu-Manchu
The Hand of Fu-Manchu
The Yellow Claw
The Golden Scorpion
Bat Wing
Fire-Tongue
Dope
Quest of the Sacred Slipper
The Green Eyes of Bast
Tales of Secret Egypt

Titles added later:

Grey Face
Daughter of Fu Manchu
The Dream Detective
Brood of the Witch Queen
Tales of Chinatown
Yellow Shadows
Moon of Madness
She Who Sleeps
The Emperor of America
The Day the World Ended


free!
IF YOU ACT NOW!

A fortunate circumstance enables us to offer you, as a premium for promptness, this beautiful 16-inch Karamaneh necklace of fine imported simulated light green JADE and small moonstones.
 

 

Eleven volumes plus the necklace were $1 a month for fourteen months.


Go to The Page of Fu Manchu

Drawn by Sax Rohmer

Copyright © 1997, 1998 Lawrence Knapp. All rights reserved.