Max Pemberton

Sir Max Pemberton (19 June 1863 – 22 February 1950) was a popular English novelist and publisher working mainly in the adventure and mystery genres.

Life
He was educated at St Albans School, Merchant Taylors' School, and Caius College, Cambridge. A clubman, journalist and dandy (Lord Northcliffe admired his 'fancy vests'), he frequented both Fleet Street and The Savage Club.

Pemberton was the editor of boys' magazine Chums in 1892–1893 during its heyday. Between 1896 and 1906 he also edited Cassell's Magazine (see ), in which capacity he published the early works of R. Austin Freeman and William Le Queux.His most famous work The Iron Pirate was a best-seller during the early 1890s and it initiated his prolific writing career (see below). It was the story of a great gas-driven iron-clad, which could outpace the navies of the world and terrorised the shipping of the Atlantic Ocean. Other notable works included Captain Black (1911). Pemberton's 1894 collection Jewel Mysteries: From a Dealer's Note Book was a series of Mystery stories revolving around stolen jewels. Pemberton also wrote historical fiction. Pemberton's I Crown Thee King is set in Sherwood Forest during the time of Mary I. His novels Beatrice of Venice (1904) and Paulina (1922) centre on Napoleon's military campaigns in Italy.

During January 1908, and just one year after the death of Pemberton’s friend and fellow Crimes Club member, Bertram Fletcher Robinson, he had a story titled Wheels of Anarchy published by Cassell (publisher). This book includes the following book dedication in the form of an 'Author's Note':

'This story was suggested to me by the late B. Fletcher Robinson, deeply mourned. The subject was one in which he had interested himself for some years; and almost the last message I had from him expressed the desire that I would keep my promise and treat of the idea in a book. This I have now done, adding something of my own to the brief notes he left me, but chiefly bringing to the task an enduring gratitude for a friendship which nothing can replace.'

The Wheels of Anarchy is an adventure tale about anarchists and assassins, which is set across Continental Europe. The novel's hero, Bruce Driscoll, is a recent graduate of Jesus College, Cambridge and he appears to be modelled upon Robinson. In December 2010, Wheels of Anarchy by Max Pemberton was compiled, introduced and republished in facsimile form by Paul Spiring and Hugh Cooke.

During the autumn of 1914, Pemberton published a Father Brown story titled The Donnington Affair by G. K. Chesterton in an obscure British periodical named The Premier. This short story was reprinted in the Chesterton Review in 1981.

In 1920, Pemberton founded the London School of Journalism, and wrote a biography about Alfred Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe. He was married to Alice Tussaud, granddaughter of Madame Marie Tussaud and daughter of Joseph Tussaud.

Pemberton also wrote a biography of Sir Henry Royce published in 1934 soon after Royce's death.

Honours
Pemberton was knighted in the 1928 Birthday Honours, gazetted on 1 June 1928.

Selected works

 * The Iron Pirate (1893)
 * The Sea Wolves (1894)
 * Jewel Mysteries I have Known. From a Dealer's Note Book (1894)
 * The Impregnable City (1895)
 * The Little Huguenot: A Romance of Fountainebleau (1895)
 * A Gentleman's Gentleman (1896)]
 * Christine of the Hills (1897)
 * The Phantom Army (1898)
 * A Woman of Kronstadt (1898)
 * The Signors of the Night: The Story of Fra Giovanni (1899)
 * Féo (1900)
 * The Footsteps of a Throne... (1901)
 * The Giant's Gate: A Story of a Great Adventure (1901)
 * Pro Patriâ (1901)
 * I Crown Thee King (1902)
 * The Garden of Swords (1902)
 * The House Under the Sea (1902)
 * A Puritan's Wife (1902)
 * Doctor Xavier (1903)
 * The Gold Wolf (1903)
 * Beatrice of Venice (1904)
 * A Daughter of the States (1904)
 * Red Morn (1904)
 * Mid the Thick Arrows (1905)
 * The Lady Evelyn (1906)
 * My Sword for Lafayette (1906)
 * Aladdin of London or, Lodestar (1907)
 * The Amateur Motorist (1907)
 * The Diamond Ship (1907)
 * Love, the Harvester: A Story of the Shires (1908)
 * Sir Richard Escombe (1908)
 * Wheels of Anarchy, the Story of an Assassin (1908)
 * The Adventures of Captain Jack (1909)
 * The Mystery of the Green Heart (1910)
 * The Show Girl (1910)
 * White Walls (1910)
 * Captain Black: A Romance of the Nameless Ship (1911)
 * White Motley (1911)
 * The Hundred days (1912)
 * Swords Reluctant (1912)
 * Two Women (1914)