This critical biography chronicles both the actual travels and the philosophical meanderings of Talbot Mundy, one of the pioneers of the fantasy and adventure genre. Less celebrated than his contemporaries Rudyard Kipling and Joseph Conrad, Mundy was no less gifted when it came to the literary portrayal of faraway lands. He was one of the first Western writers to show an appreciation of Eastern culture, and his writing became an outlet for his radical ideas on religion and philosophy. At the age of sixteen, Mundy left his native England to begin his life of adventure--a journey that took him from India to the Middle East to Tibet and finally to America, which became his adopted home. The American spirit of adventure matched Mundy's own, and it was here that he found a true audience for his work. This book explores Mundy's oeuvre--much of it set in exotic locales through which he himself had traveled--and considers both his novels and his lesser known writing, as well as his film and radio work. Books such as Rung Ho!, King-of the Khyber Rifles, Caves of Terror, Purple Pirate and Tros of Samothrace are discussed and placed within the framework of Mundy's life and philosophy. The final chapter evaluates the enduring value of his writings. Appendices include a comprehensive list of Mundy's works and a chronological listing by their original publication dates.

A unique study of one of Hollywood's hallmarks, the historical adventure film.

Cottswold Ommony has guts and influence. He's in the Secret Service, and heading for McGregor's office. No one in India knows what Ommony will do next.And it's a good thing. Because there are evils on the land -- evils like OM, the Secret of the Abhor Valley.

During the Cold War, as part of its defense strategy against the Soviet Union, the U.S. was forced to establish means of massive long-range attack in response to Soviet advancements in weaponry. These defenses detected and tracked manned bomber aircraft, hostile submarines and missiles launched from the other side of the world. This book shows how these defenses evolved from fledgling stop-gap measures into a complex fabric of interconnected combinations of high-tech equipment over 40 years. Maps illustrate the extent of the geographic coverage required for these warning and response systems and charts display the time frames and vast numbers of both people and equipment that made up these forces.

Action-adventure writer Talbot Mundy made his name in the genre with a series of fast-paced, fan-pleasing page-turners set in the Middle East, India, and Africa, based largely on his own experiences these regions. Later in his life, however, Mundy became increasingly interested in mysticism and Theosophy. Caves of Terror blends both of these components seamlessly, combining supernatural elements with a thrill-a-minute plot.

An Emperor Asoka started a project around 260 BC to collate and guard advanced knowledge gathered from around the world over the years. The project ended with making the nine books of secret knowledge and from then on, the nine different men are assigned to guard the nine books. Father Cyprian, a Christian priest, believes that their contents total tip the almost absolute of evil, and wants to burn them, so he invites Jimgrim and his faithful compatriots Ramsden and Ross to help him bring down the secret society that holds the nine books.

In January 1966, Alan Napier became a household name on ABC's hit series Batman (1966-1968) as Alfred Pennyworth, loyal butler to the show's title character. This "overnight success" came after 16 years of stage work (and the occasional film) in his native England and 26 years of film and television work (and the occasional play) in the United States. In the early 1970s, Napier wrote an autobiography, detailing his childhood as a "poor relation" of the famous Birmingham political family the Chamberlains (Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain was a cousin), and his collaborations over the years with the likes of John Gielgud, Laurence Olivier, George Bernard Shaw, Noel Coward, Fritz Lang, Otto Preminger and Alfred Hitchcock. Almost 30 years after Napier's death, James Bigwood, who first read the manuscript in 1975 when interviewing the actor for a Films in Review profile, has prepared it for publication. This is Alan Napier's story in his own words, annotated and updated, with dozens of rare photographs.

Ince turned movie-making into a business enterprise. Progressing from actor to director and screenwriter, he revolutionized the motion picture industry through developing the role of the producer. Taves chronicles Ince's life from the stage to his sudden death as he was about to join forces with media tycoon William Randolph Hearst. He explores Ince's impact on Hollywood's production system, the Western, his creation of the first American movies starring Asian performers, and his cinematic exploration of the status of women in society.

This is a reference work on the novelist Jules Verne, one of the most important literary figures of all time. An in-depth listing of all English language versions of his novels is included.