The Metolius River near my home in Sisters, Oregon, rises from a small spring. It is fed by other springs and tributary creeks and with a couple of miles becomes a glorious, rushing river. H. Rider Haggard embodies the headwaters of men’s adventure fiction. From his pen flowed a mighty river of genre fiction of many shades and colors, an his influence is felt more than a century on from his heyday — even if it is now somewhat obscured.
In his introduction to Stark House Adventure Classics’ collection Smith And The Pharaohs & Other Stories, our own Deuce Richardson writes:
The argument can be made that no author of the last century and a half has influenced Anglophone ‘genre’ fiction more than H. Rider Haggard. He was almost a living idol to British literary titans like Kipling and Doyle. H.P. Lovecraft praised him. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis were fans. The same can be said of Robert E. Howard and Fritz Leiber. ‘Modern thrillers’ exemplified by Ian Fleming and Clive Cussler can also be traced back — via authors like Sax Rohmer and others — to HRH novels like King Solomon’s Mines.
If you’ve read a Conan story, or The Lord of the Rings; if you’ve followed the treasure-hunting expeditions of Clive Cussler’s Dirk Pitt; if you’ve watched Vikings, Indiana Jones, or 1923, you have felt the influence of H. Rider Haggard — even if you have never read H. Rider Haggard. And, of course, you should read H. Rider Haggard. His work holds up remarkably well. It’s clearly Victorian/Edwardian, but Haggard was skilled enough — and “modern” enough — that the prose is accessible and the storytelling propulsive.
King Solomon’s Mines is the obvious starting place, but there is much, much more, and a lot of really wonderful stuff is found in the pages of this 2025 collection.
I am overdue in sending up a smoke signal about this collection, which Deuce describes as “a labor of love for Greg Shepard at Stark House” in honor of the centennial of HRH’s passing from this mortal coil.
The short works contained herein show the range of Haggard’s writing, including his bent toward mysticism. As Brian Murphy notes in his Silver Key review:
“In the first half of the collection there is nary a saber drawn nor a shot fired.”
Ah, yes, but as Murphy further notes, Haggard could really write, and these stories showcase those chops.
Of course, for Frontier Partisans, the main draw is bound to be the stories featuring Allan Quatermain – Hunter Quatermain as he is often called. Several of the stories are “prequels” t0 King Solomon’s Mines, and Haggard’s conceit is that they are “edited” from found papers or from conversations in which the hunter recalled events of his early career — tales of hunting or intelligence work in the run-up to the 1879 Zulu War. Concern is expressed that we will never hear from Quatermain again, as he has apparently disappeared into the dark interior of Africa. Or note is made of reports of a great treasure of “some antique people” discovered by Sir Henry Curtis and Captain Good…
These stories are a delight. Magepa the Buck highlights Haggard’s admiration for the Zulu people — which should put paid to shallow notions that HRH was a racist imperialist.
Other stories are straight up hunting yarns. If you have read Frederick Courteney Selous’ A Hunter’s Wanderings in Africa, you will recognize the inspiration FCS provided for the character of Hunter Quatermain and for his (mis)adventures in the bush.
Quatermain’s cinematic portrayals — particularly by Stewart Granger — have engraved an image of the hunter as a square-jawed, handsome archetype. In actuality, Haggard’s hero is small of stature, aging, wizened by the African sun, walking with a limp (and one of the stories in this collection recounts how he acquired it). Quatermain claims no great bravery, and is modest about his shooting abilities (both of which attributes are stouter than he lets on, of course). You can see his kind of ordinary heroism and resilience in Tolkien’s hobbits, and in the battered “it’s not the years, it’s the mileage” ruggedness of a certain professor of archaeology…
*
Deuce Richardson is probably best known for his work celebrating Robert E. Howard — but he is equally passionate about extolling the legacy of H. Rider Haggard. I appreciate him putting this collection in my hands and continuing to keep HRH in the forefront of our exploration of adventure fiction.
This collection will inspire a Frontier Partisan to pack his pipe with shaggy Boer tobacco and find a place by hearth or campfire to delve into pages that act as a portal into an immortal world of adventure and imagination.
Matthew Ilseman says
Haggard was one of the greatest storytellers during a time when there were a lot of Great storytellers. (Kipling, Doyle, et cetera.) Later the Modernist came in a placed an emphasis on style over story i. e. style over substance. I am not entirely against the Modernism but it was probably a wrong turn. Yes, Hemingway, Joyce, and Fitzgerald could write spectacular prose, but only Hemingway regularly write an interesting story. Joyce’s work has lot of innovation, but while it may be essential to writers and critics I am not sure the average person needs to read Ulysses. Fitzgerald wrote exquisite if showy prose, but honestly his stories were often stupid. I mean the Great Gatsby is about a guy who creates a fake identity and becomes a bootlegger to get back his college girlfriend. That’s not something people do. Oh, the girlfriend is based on an ex of Fitzgerald who could not help demonizing her because he was petty and narcissistic. So yeah.
The Black Tyrone says
I have walked many an imaginary mile with Macumazahn from my youth forward. Besides the “classics”, He wrote fabulous short stories often incorporating his travels in Egypt into the mix. Peter Berresford Ellis’s biography sits on the shelf and Tolkien as well as CS Lewis ranked HR very highly. Black Heart and White Heart: A Zulu Idyll, just one of several favorites, is a short story (almost a novella) incorporating fantasy elements Haggard was one of the three great titans of Victorian adventure literature. He knew both A Conan Doyle often corresponding and Rudyard Kipling. Kipling had a close lifetime friendship, even at one point collaborating on the 1927 Allan Quartermain novel “Alan and the Ice Gods”
deuce says
Ellis’ HRH bio is excellent. There’s a new one out now that I hear is great (but expensive).
The Black Tyrone says
Deuce, Nice work! I have read Smith and the Pharoh a very good tale. On reflection, it does not put whip wielding Dr Jones and his Fedora in a good light, if I recall correctly. The Mahatma and the Hare is quite different from HR’s usual fare. It is not well known but well worth the effort. I hope this volume gets deserving attention especially from those who cannot get their fingers off their electronics. Perhaps they will discover a new pastime called reading. You must be proud to have your name associated now with this Victorian titan of adventure.
The Black Tyrone says
Deuce In case a reader is scratching their head on my cryptic Dr Jones comment, I refer only to his predeliction for collecting antiquities. BT
deuce says
Hey BT. My apologies for the late reply.
Yeah, I took my duty/privilege of writing that introduction very seriously. It involved reading several HRH tales I’d never gotten to. Also, I had to reread his bio to correlate the stories with his life.
The Black Tyrone says
Well, as Mom always said…Any thing worth doing is worth doing well. I might add, this is especially true if you put your name on it.
Quixotic Mainer says
I’m ashamed to say I’ve read nothing of Haggard beyond Solomon’s Mines. Another thing to rectify someday.
Man the 80’s Chamberlain Quartermain movies were odd things. James Earl Jones twirling a tonfa handled battleaxe is a stylish way to avoid an arrow in the back while canoeing though!
JimC says
You’d really dig some of the other Quatermain pieces.
deuce says
Thanks for the shout-out, Jim!
Greg Shepard, the publisher of Stark House, put a lot of work into a collection not likely to appear on the bestseller lists. He did it because of his profound admiration for Haggard.
Andrew says
Thanks for the heads up on the HRH collection. It’s now on my EIC, I mean Amazon, list.
Over the past 12-18 months I’ve listened to Conan and Solomon Kane anthologies on Spotify. This collection isn’t showing on Spotify yet, but if/when it does I will add it there as well.
JimC says
They»d be great as audio — the conceit on several is that they’re verbally told stories.
Matthew Ilseman says
OT but here’s an interesting video on the history of the Weird Western:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXj6pT_85ug
Ugly Hombre says
Sorry to say I never read H. Rider Haggard seems a serious lacking and mistake as I am a big time addicted adventure story addict and bookworm eps EBR, REH etc.. Not sure how it escaped- have to look for it on pdf.? trying to curtail my book buying habit fat chance… lol, Haggard spent time in Africa and has a lot African supernatural topics and adventure in his works seems like-?
Maybe I told this before-? my pard Joe was a big time African fanatic he never went there but I would wager that he knew more about African white hunters and adventurers than most, he had a huge decades long collection of old safari books and was a pen pal with many African white hunters who wrote back and forth with him for years. Some of his books were signed by them. One that I saw was inscribed “To my friend Joe who knows more about Africa than most” by the lady that wrote out of Africa iirc.
Joe was a military graphics man and a artist one of the hunters that Joe wrote to had a Witch Doctor Amigo- the African hunter wrote to Joe and told him some stories about the man and I think he sent Joe a picture. Joe made an artwork of the Amigo from the picture and later sent it to the W.H. who gifted it to the Amigo who loved it and told the W.H. If Joe ever needed anything just ask me I will assist..
Later-Joe got in some deep trouble with some unsavory people and was super depressed and worried “how do I get out of this”? He mentioned it in a letter to the White Hunter. Next letter included a comment by the Doctor Witch. Don’t worry my friend in less than a year it shall be resolved.
And it was in a fashion that brought no harm to Joe or blow back but the effect on the two that worried him was epic.
Strange stuff comes out of there. I also knew a Baptist Preacher who has a correspondence with “General Buck Naked” a converted Christian hoodoo man about a adapted African kid who had been taken over by dark forces.. Weird one that was as well..
JimC says
Matthew Ilseman says
I once overheard a conversation in Church by someone who was in the mission field in South America. He was talking to a converted shaman who mentioned he could cause death with a look. The guy scoffed. A chicken comes walking by. The shaman stares at it. The chicken fell over dead.
Yes, you really need to read Haggard.
Ugly Hombre says
Agree Matthew I sure do! I just checked out some movies based on Haggard as well. E.G. The Hammer 65′ movie “She” with the delectable Ursala Andress may order it on DVD and I watched “Blood On The Devils Claw” on line by a Haggard descendant last night. Hammer is always fun.
I knew a Chinese guy on line in a KF forum who was raised from a kid in Africa he told some blood curdling African black magic stories holly chit!
Should have saved them-
Cheers!
Ugly Hombre says
Yes it was a helluva collection- when Joe left us my pard ‘Iron Ox” the book dealer- English Professor- Bartender- helped Joe’s English wife liquidate his book room via some rare book dealers and got a tidy sum.
She called me one day after “come over here” please”! ok ok..
She had found a bottle of booze from Thailand with a pickeled three step krait snake in it on a book shelf behind some lesser books.. lol
Get it out of here!
I still have it- its supposed to be a aphrodisiac and if it is must be atomic as it has to have been in that bottle for over 60 years.
But hell I will never know lol.
Still miss the Joe old school GI and a helluva fellow. R.I.P.