Forefathers of Sword and Sorcery: Sax Rohmer
“But my favorite writers, both of prose and verse, are British or Americans. They are A. Conan Doyle, Jack London, Mark Twain, Sax Rohmer…” — Robert E. Howard, December 1932
Yesterday was Fritz Leiber’s birthday. I didn’t really have anything to post this year regarding ol’ Fritz—though I do recommend my post from last year. However, it occurred to me that there was a blog entry I could write that would warm the cockles of Leiber’s heart if he was still with us. Fritz was an avowed fan of Arthur Henry Sarsfield Ward, better known as “Sax Rohmer”.
I meant to write this post back in June, which marked the sixtieth anniversary of Rohmer’s death. That didn’t happen and I put it on the backburner. Now, as a Christmas gift to the spirit of Fritz and because Sax absolutely deserves it, I present this newest installment in my “Forefathers of Sword and Sorcery” series.
Sax Rohmer exploded onto the pop lit scene in 1913 with the publication of The Mystery of Dr. Fu-Manchu—published in the U.S. as The Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu. Sax’s tale of the machinations of the “Devil Doctor” was an instant sensation. Rohmer would write two more Fu-Manchu—or “Fu Manchu” as it came to be spelled—novels in the next four years. He wouldn’t write another such novel for nearly fifteen years, but the impact of those first three reverberated for decades.
One of the first novels that Rohmer wrote after his third Fu Manchu book was Brood of the Witch-Queen, which reflected his lifelong interest in the occult and the supernatural. Some consider it his masterpiece. I, for one, believe that it was read by Robert E. Howard and it influenced the Conan tales and Howard’s creation of the Hyborian Age world in various ways. REH held several Rohmer books in his personal library. In my opinion, they and other works by Rohmer have not been sufficiently studied in regard to possible influences upon Howard.
Even before he wrote Brood of the Witch-Queen, Sax had penned his non-fiction volume on magic, The Romance of Sorcery. Clark Ashton Smith owned a first edition of this tome. We know of no other Rohmer in CAS’ library, but I would point to Klarkash-Tonian tales such as “The Maze of Maal Dweb” as examples of Rohmer-influenced fantasy. Sax—along with Bram Stoker—was the author that really brought the “diabolical” and “fiendish” villainous mastermind to the forefront in popular literature.
Rohmer returned to writing tales of Fu Manchu in 1932 with the publication of The Mask of Fu Manchu. As REH scholars Dave Hardy, Rick Lai and Patrice Louinet have all pointed out, that novel was a major and undeniable influence upon REH’s classic Conan yarn, “Black Colossus”.
So, we have REH, CAS and Leiber all being influenced by Rohmer. What of L. Sprague de Camp, the founder of the “third branch” of S&S? Considering his 1964 article, “The Insidious Doctor Conan”, he was at least familiar with some of the Rohmer influences upon REH. In fact, he may have been the first one to actually write something specifically about it.
When it comes to the modern era of S&S, Karl Edward Wagner can be found numerous times comparing Rohmer’s Fu Manchu to his own Kane as an example of a “heroic villain”. Rohmer even anticipated KEW’s “bad guy fights the greater evil” formula in The Drums of Fu Manchu, wherein the Doctor attempts to take out thinly-veiled analogues of Hitler and Mussolini.
F. Paul Wilson, author of The Keep and of the S&S prequel to it, “Demonsong”, is an outspoken fan of Rohmer. His Sex Slaves of the Dragon Tong is a direct homage to ol’ Sax.
Robert E. Howard, Clark Ashton Smith, Fritz Leiber and Karl Edward Wagner. If Rohmer’s influence upon those S&S titans isn’t enough to rank him as a Forefather, then hardly anybody else rates the honor, either.*
*Though I seem to recall a few other S&S admirers of Rohmer, I couldn’t track them down in time for this article. If I can round up at least three more, that would justify another post on Sax and S&S.
Previous installments in the "Forefathers" series: