DRUMS OF THE DARK GODS--Baker or McNeilly?

[curt]

Hello everyone--

I've seen Drums of the Dark Gods by W. A. Ballinger attributed to W. Howard Baker here a number of times, and I'm curious what the basis for that attribution might be.

I'm very far from an expert on these things, but I wonder if Wilfred McNeilly might be the actual writer. His son John has sent me a list of novels he believes Wilfred wrote under a number of pseudonyms, and Drums is on it. Against the view that Ballinger was exclusively a Baker pseudonym, John McNeilly mentioned to me in correspondence that Wilfred often received author copies of Ballinger novels, and even won a suit against Baker over the Ballinger novel Call It Rhodesia. What's more, I forget exactly where, but it seems like someone here caught Baker red-handed putting his own name (not even a pseudonym) on an almost word-for-word rewrite of another of McNeilly's novels.

What's more, Drums seems to anticipate a lot of ideas and elements that would figure in the later Specialist series. The opening scenes of Drums and Zombie are remarkably similar. The descriptions of Baron Samedi are very similar, too, across Drums, Zombie, and McNeilly's Guardians novel Dark Ways to Death.

I know nothing about the Richard Quintain series, so here are some questions I have about it. In Drums, Quintain uses much of the same occult terminology, word-for-word, that would later pervade the Specialist series. He makes use of special amulets very much like the ones that figure so repeatedly in the Specialist. And his secretary, Julie Wellsley, has psychic talents stemming from her virginity, explained pretty much exactly as Mara's talents are explained to be rooted in her virginity throughout the Specialist. Are any of these elements present in any other Quintain novels? Is Wellsley even a virgin in the others, and is anything made of that in terms of her having psychic powers?

I'm interested in this because I'm working on a Specialist article for Justin, and I feel I should say something about these similarities between Drums and the Specialist series, especially Zombie. Is Drums, like Darkest Night, an earlier McNeilly that anticipates Specialist? And whichever way I answer that question in the article, how confidently can I state it and how much of a digression must I make to argue for it?

Thanks in advance to all the real Specialists here--lord knows I'm not one!

[pulphack]

i think the basis for attribution - at least for me - has always been that the Ballinger name was used solely by Baker on the SBL. however, that's possibly different outside the SBL - just as the Saxon name was originally Baker alone and then got used for other writers.

i'm not sure what SBL title - if any - that Drums was taken from. it could have been an original. looking at the elements of the story, and having flicked through it, it does have more of the MacNeilly hallmarks, and could have been written by him and then given Ballinger as a by-line because all other Quintains are Baker or Ballinger even the man who gave us Bill Rekab had a stab at continuity now and again!). certainly be interested to know more of what John MacNeilly told you, as first or second hand evidence of Press Ed activity is virtually impossible to come by these days.

[pulphack]

oops, forgot to add that Julie Wellsley in other Quintains is very much a dolly bird secretary/assistant (a watered down Paula Dane from the Blake originals), and has no powers on display... adds to your argument, i think.

[pulphack]

and again (it's late!) - Baker lifting MacNeilly wholsesale - the Teasure Hunters thread on here...

[curt]

Thanks, pulphack, for the perspective on the Ballinger pseudonym, the info about Wellsley, and reminding me about the Treasure Hunters thread. Are you the Andy Boot who wrote the Press Ed/Peter Saxon article for PBFan? I think I've seen you called "Andy Bugg" here?!?

Anyway, that was a great article, though the burning of all the rights documentation brought sad, angry tears to my eyes. What a waste!

As for what John McNeilly wrote to me, here's the relevant part:

I only know of the W A Ballinger novels that my father wrote from memory of having seen his author's copies arrive at the house when I was a teenager. The pen name had apparently started out as a shared title (for reasons that I have never understood) but gradually became his own because of the number of titles he wrote using it. The one over which he sued his agent, a man called W. Howard Baker (also a novelist) was called Call it Rhodesia. The way we found out about this was that my mother had told one of her sister's, who happened to be living in Washington at the time as her husband worked for the British Export Guarantee Department, attached to the Embassy, that the book was being published in America and she bought a copy and found a description of Baker on the sleeve. My father received a small payout after a court hearing in Dublin and was left wondering for years afterwards how many other of his books had been sold abroad by Baker without his knowledge. Baker is long dead.

He also provided me with a brief bio to post on my blog some time ago:

groovyageofhorror.blogspot.com/2005/03/on-wilfred-mcneilly-by-john-mcneilly.html

If you'd like, I can ask him if I may pass his e-mail along to you or vice-versa, though I'd probably better give him a little time to recover from the barrage of questions I've hit him with lately.

[pulphack]

ah yes, the andy bugg thing... don't ask me, i think rog started all that.

anyway, yes, it was me wot done the Press Ed piece. i'd love to get in touch with macneilly fils, so pm his details when you've finished picking his brains. what's interesting is that george mann gives the impression that the writers were complicit inthe repackaging and reselling of the titles. makes you wonder if it started that way, then changd when mann moved on and it was just down to the rougeish charm of WHB...

[Calenture]

Jun 29, 2008 19:45:18 GMT pulphack said:

ah yes, the andy bugg thing... don't ask me, i think rog started all that.

Sorry about that, Andy. Until now I'd been under the impression one of those names was your pseudonym. Just how it started, I don't know - unless I was Googling 'Andy Boot' and the 'Bugg' name came up in search results. Craig Herbertson became 'James Herbertson' for a while at my hands...

Oh well, I'm off to correct that name on The Treasure Hunters thread... or wherever else I find it.

[franklinmarsh]

Crikey! Who's responsible for this one then? Copyright Press Editorial Services 1970 (Well before Benchley's Jaws)
First published by Howard Baker (Publishers) Ltd 1970
Mayflower 1971

The Old One...

For longer than anyone could remember there were tales of the legendary great shark that cruised the world - its abnormal size and strength its passport to long life and peace.

The Old One was the catalyst which brought together the shark hunters, Ingolf and Bjorne, the strange but beautiful girl, Lorelei Mackinnon, who sailed the seas alone in her scarlet-coloured sloop, and the documentary film-maker Adam Lascelles, who saw in the situation the greatest artistic achievement of his life.

The climax came sooner, and more tragically than anyone expected.

"Delightful...exciting, perilous moments." Evening News

"An exciting and haunting novel...unusual and beautifully written...can only add to this writer's firmly established reputation." National Newsagent