McKay's ads transcribed from the Edsel B. Grimshaw review

THE OLDEST WRITERS' SERVICE

Literary Agent, established 35 years. Manuscripts criticized, revised, typed, marketed. Special attention to Book manuscripts. Poetry. Catalogue on request.

AGNES M. REEVE,

Dept. B. Franklin, O.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

LAURENCE ROBERTS, LITERARY AGENT

STORIES, NOVELS, ARTICLES, BOOKS MARKETED.

Highly recommended for publication of fiction and non-fiction. Editorially recognized advice, recommendations, editing, for revision, sales, publication. Un-established writers assisted. Write for information before sending manuscripts.

3 West 42^nd St., New York City

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

LITERARY AGENTS 29 YEARS

We sell short stories, articles, books, radio scripts, plays. Verse also considered. Constructive criticism for new writers. Personal representation for established authors. Editing, revision. For information and references,

E. Madison Ave. at 4 St., New York, NY

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

BOOKS LOCATED PROMPTLY

All subjects, out-of-print, rare, etc. Special items for collectors acquired. New books at publishers' prices postpaid.

19 Hopedale Street, ALLSTON 34(?), BOSTON, MASS.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

BOOKFINDERS

Unusual, hard-to-find, out-of-print books at reasonable prices. Send your wants. Institutional lists accepted. Fast thorough(?) service. No obligation.

Box 1884-H(?) LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ATHEIST BOOKS

22-page catalogue free. SEEKER CO.,

8 Park Row, New York, N. Y.

No. :--UNUSUAL LITERARY ITEMS

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

WE PUBLISH

-print and distribute your manuscript in pamphlet or book form. Send for free folder.

PAMPHLET DISTRIBUTING CO., 11(?) W. 5 St., N.Y.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Just the book for Lenten Reading

THE LIGHT

by

STEFAN TATE

At all bookstores......$3.95

Two Shoes Publishing

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

OUT-OF-PRINT and HARD-TO-FIND

books supplied: also genealogies; Incomplete sets completed: magazine back numbers supplied, etc. All subjects, all languages. Send us your list of book-wants ---no obligation. We report quickly. Lowest prices.

LIBRARY SERVICE

17 WEST 48th(?) Street, Dept. H., New York, N.Y.

P.S. We also BUY old books and magazines.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Daring, vivid, exciting!

MOONLIGHT

By JOSHUA LEE

Thrilling intrigue in the remaining “nights” of the war. Enemies change allegiances in the guise of darkness. A diabolical tale of about the worse in men before the dawn of a new world order.

“...a story about the war within a war.”

-MICHAEL GRUBE, Sentient.

“A must read in moonlight or daylight.”

-BENJAMIN JAMES, Examine.

At all bookstores MACMILLAN

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“WHO ARE THE MASTERS OF POWER?'

ANDREW SILVER authority on the changing social-political geography of our post-war world, identifies 15 persons who cradle the specter of power that will dictate unwritten rules and boundaries. He foresees an arms race between East and West. A cold war fought under the guise of regional, post-colonial conflicts. A chilling question arises. Will preventing the end of the world mean sacrificing the lives of thousands?

THE POWER 15

ROSE & BLATT

Publishing

at bookstores $3.50

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Monkey's Marginalia, No 14

1. I am pleased to point out that Terry Priest has updated his great resource on all things Traven with some of his notes on S. and a comparison of of the two reclusive authors, Straka and Traven.

2. Geekyzen pointed out to me in the comments of an earlier post that another blogger has mentioned Stephen King in relation to S.  I am feeling a bit sheepish as I forgot all about it until after I had written my post on King.

3. I have found marginalia notes to support the alternate ending found on the Jen Heyward's tumblr blog.

• Filomela gives a sealed envelope to Eric and Jen.  According to Arturo, Filomela was given the envelope by a Frenchman (Desjardins, probably) in the 1970s and although it was in her possession, she never opened it.  (marginalia, pp. 422 & 452)
• Eric's note in pencil noting the shifting point of view from S to Vevoda VI.  Jen adds a coment about the monkey's vantage point. (marginalia, p. 343)  
• Jen also notes that this version gives her nightmares: "All those women..." which is a reference to S finding the three women dead along with a baby in Vevoda's cellar.  (marginalia, p. 452)
• Jen notes that the naval mines are not included in ending of the print book, and Eric notes that Filomela probably didn't know that Straka was going to include them. (marginalia, p. 455) 

4.  More fun and games with anagrams. The printing on the back of the photo of the mysterious arch can anagram to a number of things. Oh, btw, the arch is a blind arch as its purpose is decorative and is not supporting anything.  The wording on the back of the photo reads:  This paper manufactured by Spectra Photo.

• pirate treasure map
• suspect s estate map phony bouchard paris fr
• the postcards are not ciphers
• arch coordinates are by a sea (remaining letters PRMUFUCTPHT) 

5. And there may be a possible transposition cipher in Chapter 5, Down, and Out.  I put both paragraphs on a grid and left off the last part of the second paragraph which allows both pieces of text to fit on a 18x18 square.  Instead of putting the paragraphs on top of each other, I turned them so they are facing each other; because when you hold hands, it's the palms of the hands that face each other and touch.   As the number of characters in both text strings are divisible (50 & 49 characters) and therefore can fit onto a grid, they are good candidates for some sort of transposition cipher. 

AUREETKTEUNIEINEDWTETAYSHGOHOTHSPDAEOEMTEWHCBLTWAP

BTENHODHMMOHKGOHIOTYTEITEUEYEHUIDIDFLISOVAKOEGMEA

(8/17/14, edited for grammar and tags added)

The Nazca King

I had left off with a teaser about how I thought Stephen King might be the Nazca king as mentioned in the previous Monkey's Marginalia.  I enjoy King's writing, but I've never really been a fan of horror, so I gleened what I could off of what I remembered and from the internet. If there are any King fans out there who can add to this list, I will be happy to include your contributions (and give you credit).

1. My mom pointed out that 19 is a very important number in King's Tower series.  Wikipedia says the the series was inspired by Browning's Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came; and the character Roland Deschain was inspired by the Clint Eastwood character, "the man with no name."  Even the Michael Whelan illustration for the Dark Tower bears a striking resemblance to Eastwood.   The primary antagonist of the series is the Crimson King, aka, Lord of Spiders.  His purpose is to tear down the foundations of the dark tower to destroy the existing worlds so he can rule the resulting chaos, not unlike Vevoda, who seeks to control the narrative so that he can rule the world by hiding his true intent. 

2.  King does use other authors for inspiration and real events for his stories.  Ray Bradbury, Robert Browning, Richard Matheson, Joseph Payne Brennan, and many others have inspired King.  It was an anthology of H.P. Lovecraft that inspired him to become a writer of horror fiction.

3.  According to the Eotvos Wheel website:

The Nineteenth Prince of Spiders (c. 400 A.D.), allegedly an important religious and political leader from the third phase of the Nazca civilization. (N. b.: The Nazca lived in what is present-day Peru and are known for their creation of mysterious geoglyphs that extend over long stretches of desert ground.) According to Straka, Prince of Spiders, a 1951 book by the American clairvoyant/amateur archaeologist/Straka enthusiast Sullivan Dunn, this Nazca prince was his society’s “keeper of narrative” and has continued to deliver stories, Muse-like, to writers throughout the world and throughout the ages. Dunn speculated that the prince’s transcendent powers may have stemmed from a connection to a wise and culturally-advanced race of extraterrestrials, though he noted, helpfully, that he had not yet unearthed conclusive proof of this. Dunn’s disciples, though much fewer in number today, are still extant (and vocal) in the world of amateur Straka sleuthing. 

King wrote the introduction for the 400th issue of Batman (DC Comics).  DC Comics was at one point known as Adventure Comics before the name evolved to what it is today.  We already know 19 is important to Stephen King, but as far as I can tell 51 might be a reference to his 51st book appearing in print, 11/22/63, which could also be another potential vintage for Vevoda's cellar.
The name Sullivan Dunn can be related to William Dunn, who purchased the film rights for Pet Semetary with King; and possibly to William Sullivan who appears in three short stories of King's, or Timothy Robert Sullivan, author, (from Bangor, Maine) who has appeared as Oberon in Ill Met by Moonlight, and adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream. (Just a reminder that Ill Met by Moonlight is one of the reference ads used as inspiration in the McKay's review.)

4.  The Shining.  King hated Kubrick's adaptation of novel, even though it is considered by many to be a masterpiece.  Perhaps just as interesting is Kubrick's own copy of The Shining, which he used for reference when making the film.

Look familiar? (image from openculture.org)

5.  The monster in It takes the form of a spider. Stephen King's father was born in Peru, Indiana and the Nazca lived in what is now the country of Peru.  This involves world play, but King was the surname of Stephen King's father, so in essence, King is a king (from is his surname) and a prince (as he is the son of a "king").  

(8/17/14 edits for grammar and tags added)

Another package recieved from our fine feathered friends...

Since June 6 is the anniversary of Straka's death, it seemed fitting to release another version of Chapter 10 from Ship of Theseus at midnight, Havanna, Cuba time.  Hope you all enjoy these alternate versions as much as I have.

The Monky's Marginalia, No 13

Once again, I've collected enough bits and pieces to create a new edition of The Monkey's Marginalia.


1.  Ever wonder why "follow the monkey" sounds so familiar?  It might be due to its similarity to the phrase, "follow the money,' which was popularized in the film, All the President's Men about the Watergate Scandal.

2. Amritsar, India (as in A Hundred Aprils in Amritsar) was the site of a massacre April 13, 1919 and may be a reference in itself to the century-long control over India held by the East India Company before control was turned over to the British crown and/or the almost century-long rule of India by the British Crown.

3.  Geekyzen was on the right path with the morse code from the whoisstraka.com website, but I think her error was in adding too many dashes.  I only added a dash when there was a space under a corresponding dot at the end of the lines of what we think is the encrypted message to get this:  dot dash dot dash dash dash dot dash dash dot dash dash dot dash dash dot dot dash dot dash dash dot dash dot dot dot dash dot dash dash dot dash dash dot dash dash dot dot dot dash dot dash dot dot.

The only translation that I could get to work was: ROW AN MEET AT A STATE MAN INNE or ROW AN MEET AT A STATE MAN IN NE (New England).  I think it's a reference to George Washington at the Delaware River.  Washington would have been a "state man" in his support for the colonies' independence from British rule.  At the time of Washington's crossing, the war was not going well for the colonies.  The revolutionary forces were seriously demoralized from a series of crushing defeats by the British who had more men and better equipment.  Washington's subsequent victories on the other side of the Delaware turned the tide for the American Revolution.  There is also also an inn at the spot where Washington crossed which is known today as the Washington Crossing Inn, which makes sense; we know Dorst likes his layers.

One of the images on the website says, "safety in numbers won't keep you dry."  According to one of the soldiers who crossed the Delaware with Washington, "It blew a hurricane."  Facing rain, sleet and snow during the crossing, the revolutionaries were cold and wet having reached the other side.

4. Zorro first appeared in print in 1919 in The Curse of Capistrano. Written by pulp fiction author and screenwriter Johnston McCulley, who wrote under several pseudonyms, it was originally written as a one-off story.  It was the silent movie version that prompted to McCulley to write additional Zorro novellas and short stories, causing some discontinuity problems with the original story and those following after.

 Zorro is a composite of the Scarlet Pimpernel, Robin Hood, several real-life bandits, perhaps a guy named Lampton and maybe even a penny dreadful version of Spring Heel'd Jack, who instead of terrorizing London like he does in other versions, he is a nobleman/vigilante.   Also interesting as some of these guys were real criminals, but the Scarlet Pimpernel was a a nobleman saving French nobility during the Reign of Terror; so their purposes and intents changed over time.

McCulley, creator of Zorro,  also wrote a story featuring a bad guy known as the Spider. Many of McCulley's stories were printed in the The Argosy magazine founded by Frank Munsey.  Several of his authors used pseudonyms and he was known to completely retool/rename his magazines, sometimes overnight.

5.  Jorge Luis Borges continues to be fruitful in subtler ways.  I bought an anthology he edited and one of the stories, Enoch Soames, features a "black wine" that is connected to a Mephistopheles-type character.  I should note that Enoch Soames in the story wears a grey oil-cloth cloak and a black hat described as "clerical."

6.  I suspect that Stephen King is the Nazca king.  More to come.

I am Straka...?

The Desjardins letter has always bugged me.  So I took another stab using word counts of 9 and 10 to equal 19 and using the words that fell in between.  I had to move one sentence to near the end ("scrutiny, please and confident" I think was the hint to move the sentence) and one count actually came to 20 (Perhaps because the message was written with some urgency as Desjardins may have already been murdered?).  I'm fairly confident this is the message:

"I am Straka and sure the moment when you contact me for clarity, I will be this careful."    

I dropped the letter into a spreadsheet to show the counts.  Also note that the words in the close of the letter "stay careful" rhyme with playfair, as in the cipher.

I should also note, that I have gotten some interesting anagrams from taking the first and last letters of each line from the body of the letter.  Mystery, MCrinitus, Curious and Bury are all anagrams that come from these letters, but attempts to try to decipher a message using a rail fence have been unsuccessful.  Since some of the lines contained the same letter at beginning and end it seems the play fair cipher is not viable here for a solution, but I'll be the first to admit I'm not good with ciphers.  So if anyone has thoughts on a possible cipher solution, please speak up!

Mulligan Stew, or It's All Burgoo to You, Part 2

The Hemingway hodgepodge

I know I've touched on Hemingway before; Hemingway is one of the handful of real persons identified in S.  In Footnote 2, F.X. Caldeira describes Ernest Hemingway, though originally an admirer, as one of "Straka's harshest critics."    In 1935, Hemingway was reputed to have given a interview to Le Monde stating his high regard for Straka.  There is no way that Le Monde could have interviewed him in 1935 since Le Monde didn't exist until 1944.  Le Monde started on December 19, 1944 using the same building, machines and masthead of its predecessor, the most circulated paper in France, Le Temps, which shut down after the liberation of France under accusations of Nazi collaboration.

It is known that Hemingway could be spiteful.  I've talked about Dos Passos before, whose friend Jose Robles was most likely assassinated during the KGB purges that took place during the Spanish Civil War.  David Burke, author of Writers in Paris called A Moveable Feast a hatchet job on the people he once associated with, not unlike the mythical A Swindle of Cowbirds by Guthrie MacInnes. And as Malcolm Cowley noted to the Paris Review:

"Hemingway had the bad habit of never forgiving anyone for giving him a hand up."

Gertrude Stein, Sherwood Anderson, T.S. Eliot, among others, became targets for his spiteful behavior.

Also interesting is the coded reference to the loss of Straka's valise which mirrors an incident in Hemingway's own life.  Hemingway's first wife, Hadley, accidently lost a satchel full of his writings on a train in Europe.  Hemingway was deeply upset with the loss and there has been much speculation that given Hemingway's personality, it was something he ultimately couldn't forgive.

In case you missed my earlier posts about John Dos Passos, his break from Hemingway occurred due to the murder of Dos Passos' friend, Jose Robles.  Robles was Spanish and was the one who introduced Dos Passos to bull fighting, who in turn, introduced Hemingway to the spectacle.  It was Robles who introduced Dos Passos to Spanish culture; and it was Robles who noted that the culture was static, unchanging, and stagnating.

Robles' death galvanized something in Dos Passos and marked the beginning of his political reversal into conservative politics.  Dos Passos began to understand that revolution meant nothing without civil liberties, and that communism as administered by the Russians only replaced one form of repression with another.  Dos Passos was understandably distraught from Roble's disappearance and when he sought help from Hemingway, was labelled a traitor to the communist cause by Hemingway and Gellhorn who felt that Robles was a fascist spy.

In page 6 of Ship of Theseus, Eric and Jen discuss the death of Amarante Durand, supposedly shot by the fascists during the Spanish Civil War after being thrown from a roof.  Dos Passos, Hemingway and Gellhorn are mentioned in the marginalia as having knowledge of the murder.  It is hinted that Dos Passos knew the full details of Durand's death.  It's likely though, that Dos Passos never knew the full details of Roble's murder during his lifetime.  According to the author Stephen Koch, Robles was killed because as a translator for the Soviets, he knew too much about their activities.

The Spanish Civil War is discussed again later in the marginalia by Eric and Jen, but the timelines are off from the actual events.  Page 186 discusses the events again and mentions an October 1937, photo from the Hotel Florida in Madrid.  From my research, I know that Robles disappeared in early 1937.  Dos Passos left Spain in May 1937 with Liston Oak, saving Oak's life in the process.  Hemingway and Dos Passos were both on their way back to the states later that month.   And before Dos Passos left, he had an interesting and engaging conversation with the young man later known by his pen name, George Orwell, who had been on the front lines.  Hemingway was a known admirer of Orwell, but it's very possible that the feeling was not mutual.   Hemingway seemed to have a knack for self-deception and confabulation.   Stephen Koch notes in The Breaking Point:

"He [Orwell] was not unduly impressed by the power of language to intoxicate.  It was a little too close to the original sin of language: the power to lie.  His supreme test for seriousness in any writer was whether she or he knew how to undo a lie." 

Also, it is mentioned in the marginalia on page 186 that Hemingway made a pass at Durand and she punched him out.  Interestingly, I can't find any record of a woman punching Hemingway, although several men had the opportunity throughout the years, including the poet, Charles Wallace Stevens.  Hemingway did return to Spain with Gellhorn a few months later and finished his play, The Fifth Column, in December 1937.

And Hemingway's perception of the war is distorted in For Whom the Bell Tolls according to Arturo Barea, who himself lived through the events in Spain (via The New Yorker),

“I find myself awkwardly alone in the conviction that, as a novel about Spaniards and their war, it is unreal and, in the last analysis, deeply untruthful.”

And The Guardian reported that Hemingway was a failed KGB spy according to Stalin-era archives.   Hemingway was a volatile braggart who Gellhorn called "...the biggest liar since Munchausen."

Dates are off, perceptions are skewed, at times MacInnes seems to be analog for Hemingway with his A Swindle of Cowbirds, as is Amarante Durand for Jose Robles.  But then MacInnes is listed separately from Hemingway and in his own context, and seems to include echoes of Ford Madox Ford and Ezra Pound with their love lives.  The timing for Amarante Durand's murder is off from Jose Robles, who was a translator, professor, and revolutionary.  Robles was from the Spanish aristocracy, but Durand was French.  And there was the conversation that Mystimus and I had regarding Vonnegut.

And so we go back to burgoo.   Even the theme of defenestration that appears in S. seems to be an allusion to layers, as the victims fall several stories, are they really falling through different books and/or authors?