Читать книгу The Thubway Tham MEGAPACK ® - Johnston McCulley - Страница 3

A NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER

Johnston McCulley will be forever famous as the creator of Zorro, the Robin Hood-like hero of old California. But few realize how truly prolific and creative McCulley was through­out his long career as a writer.

McCulley (1883-1958) made the first true specialist pulp-fiction periodical, Detective Story Magazine, a special home for his work. In its pages he launched series after series…The Avenging Twins (who appeared in a series of eight adventures between 1923 and 1926), the Black Star (fourteen stories from 1916-1930), The Crimson Clown (seventeen stories from 1926-1931), The Man in Purple (three stories in 1921), The Spider (eleven stories between 1918 and 1919), Terry Trimble (four stories between 1917 and 1919), The Thunderbolt (three stories between 1920 and 1921) but most especially Thubway Tham (who appeared in more than one hundred and eighty stories between 1916 and 1948, at first in Detective Story Magazine, but later in such places as Thrilling Detective, with later reprints in The Saint Mystery Magazine, Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine, and others). The Thubway Tham series, you will note, starts before and lasts longer than all of McCulley’s other mystery series combined! Clearly Tham was a favorite character, one to whom the author returned time and again.

Thubway Tham is a small, short-tempered gnome of a man, a professional pickpocket with an annoying lisp. But he is no mere thief…he is the king of his chosen profession, a master “dip” who works only in the subways of New York City. Like all such villains, he faces a cunning adversary in Police Detective Crad­dock, who is always half a pace behind. Craddock has sworn to put Tham behind bars, where he belongs. But Tham is clever enough to always remain one step ahead of Craddock and everyone else.

Despite being a criminal, Tham always comes off well: the people whom he relieves of their wallets are often deserving of it, and he has a tendency to take on other, much worse crooks to give them their just desserts. And, of course, there are scoun­drels aplenty in his world: a rival pickpocket who moves in on his turf in “Thubway Tham’s Baggage Check;” Shiftyd Shane, the holdup man, who calls Tham a coward because he doesn’t use a gun; and Mr. Clackworthy, a slick grifter from Chicago, who looks down on dips as the lowest of thieves.

Call him an early antihero. Tham endears himself to readers because he has a moral compass. He knows his place is in the gutter of the world, but that doesn’t mean he can’t strive to better himself—or others.

If there is one theme running through these stories, it is that Tham is a thief with a heart of gold, even when it isn’t always in his best interests. When he takes in a would-be apprentice in “Thubway Tham’s Understudy,” Tham knows very well that the boy may be his undoing. He does it anyway, and he nearly ends up in jail for his trouble. In “Thubway Tham’s Insult,” he takes offense at an actor’s attitude toward thieves and decides to teach the fellow a lesson. In “Thubway Tham’s Baggage Check,” he is disgusted by amateur thieves and plots to relieve them of their ill-gotten gains. Thiev­ing should be left to professionals; amateurs are not permitted to dabble in Tham’s trade. In “Thubway Tham, Philanthropist,” Tham encounters an el­derly couple living in squalor near his home and decides to help them, much to his eventual regret.

Tham also has time for charity on other holidays. On Thanks­giving, he gives a holiday dinner for nineteen newsies. On the Fourth of July, he takes time off to celebrate and gives advice to easy marks on how to protect their wallets and saves a lost little boy. On Christmas Eve, he sees an amateurish pickpocket steal a wallet on his beloved subway, so he steals in back and tries to return it to its rightful owner…with less than happy results. His heart really is in the right place.

So, give Tham a chance. Once you get beyond his lisp and gruff exterior, you’ll find a worthy and loyal friend. But keep an eye on your pockets; he’s a master of his trade—as Mr. Clackworthy and so many others find out!

I edited Tales of Thubway Tham (a collection of 10 stories) in 2005 as part of the Pulp Classics line from Wildside Press. Since then, I have had nothing but positive feedbwack about the clever little “dip.” We followed up that volume with a second collection of 10 more stories (plus a humorous anecdote). All of those are included in this volume… plus a few more tales. Those looking for the very first story in the series, “Thubway Tham,” can find it in The Victorian Rogues MEGAPACK™.

We are working on a volume of Mr. Clackworthy stories as part of the MEGAPACK™ ebook series. Tham and Mr. Clackworthy cross paths several times; both series ran in Detective Story Magazine at the same time.

Enjoy!

—John Betancourt

Publisher, Wildside Press LLC

www.wildsidepress.com

ABOUT THE SERIES

Over the last few years, our MEGAPACK™ ebook series has grown to be our most popular endeavor. (Maybe it helps that we sometimes offer them as premiums to our mailing list!) One question we keep getting asked is, “Who’s the editor?”

The MEGAPACK™ ebook series (except where specifically credited) are a group effort. Everyone at Wildside works on them. This includes John Betancourt (me), Carla Coupe, Steve Coupe, Shawn Garrett, Helen McGee, Bonner Menking, Colin Azariah-Kribbs, A.E. Warren, and many of Wildside’s authors…who often suggest stories to include (and not just their own!)

RECOMMEND A FAVORITE STORY?

Do you know a great classic science fiction story, or have a favorite author whom you believe is perfect for the MEGAPACK™ ebook series? We’d love your suggestions! You can post them on our message board at http://movies.ning.com/forum (there is an area for Wildside Press comments).

Note: we only consider stories that have already been professionally published. This is not a market for new works.

TYPOS

Unfortunately, as hard as we try, a few typos do slip through. We update our ebooks periodically, so make sure you have the current version (or download a fresh copy if it’s been sitting in your ebook reader for months.) It may have already been updated.

If you spot a new typo, please let us know. We’ll fix it for everyone. You can email the publisher at wildsidepress@yahoo.com or use the message boards above.