J. E. Preston Muddock

James Edward Preston Muddock also known as "Joyce Emmerson Preston Muddock" and "Dick Donovan" (May 28, 1843 – January 23, 1934), was a prolific British journalist and author of mystery and horror fiction. For a time his detective stories were as popular as those of Arthur Conan Doyle. Between 1889 and 1922 he published nearly 300 detective and mystery stories.

Life

Muddock was the third of four children, born near Southampton, England to sea captain James Muddock and Elizabeth Preston. At 14 he travelled to India. During his journalistic career he travelled to China, the United States, and Australia. Muddock's father had made poor investments and so was compelled to work overseas, so Muddock rarely saw his father in his early years. By 1870 Muddock had started publishing serial stories in English newspapers.

Works

Most of Muddock's stories featured his continuing character Dick Donovan, the Glasgow Detective, named for one of the 18th Century Bow Street Runners. The character was so popular that later stories were published under this pen name. Muddock also wrote true crime stories, horror, and 37 novels, most as "Dick Donovan". His non-fiction included four history books, seven guidebooks for areas in the Alps and his autobiography.

Muddock's detective stories differ from the psychological investigation of character in modern detective fiction, and they are described as having sensational plots but little character development. Atmospheric details of the setting were minimal, perhaps to ensure acceptance in markets of both the U.K and the U. S. Deduction and logical thought in the "Donovan" stories are of significantly less importance than in the nearly contemporary Sherlock Holmes stories.

Flin Flon, Manitoba

The town of Flin Flon takes its name from the lead character in a 1905 paperback novel by Muddock. In "The Sunless City", Josiah Flintabbatey Flonatin, pilots a submarine through a bottomless lake. Upon passing through a hole lined with gold, he finds a strange underground world. A prospector Thomas Creighton found the book in the wilderness. When he discovered a rich vein of almost pure copper, by a deep lake, it reminded him of the book. So he called it Flin Flon's mine, mercifully shortening the name.

References

* [http://abbookman.com/ABBookman_F080604.html Who Was Dick Donovan? Essay by Bruce Durie, retrieved Sept. 8, 2005]

External links

* [http://www.classiccrimefiction.com/dick-donovan.htm List of Muddock fiction publications under the pen name "Dick Donovan"]
* [http://www.erbzine.com/mag18/sunless.htm Online version of "The Sunless City"]

ee also

* Flin Flon, Manitoba for a city named after a Preston Muddock protagonist.