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Contents (80)
  1. CONTENTS
  2. ACTING ON IMPULSE
  3. CONTENTS
  4. INTRODUCTION
  5. “A PROPOSAL TO CICELY”
  6. INTRODUCTION
  7. A PROPOSAL TO CICELY
  8. THE END
  9. READING “A PROPOSAL TO CICELY”
  10. “THE LITTLE LADY”
  11. INTRODUCTION
  12. THE LITTLE LADY
  13. I.
  14. II.
  15. III.
  16. THE END
  17. READING “THE LITTLE LADY”
  18. “LINCKES’ GREAT CASE”
  19. INTRODUCTION
  20. LINCKES’ GREAT CASE
  21. I.
  22. II.
  23. III.
  24. IV.
  25. V.
  26. VI.
  27. VII.
  28. THE END
  29. READING “LINCKES’ GREAT CASE”
  30. “THE BULLDOG AND THE BEAST”
  31. INTRODUCTION
  32. THE BULLDOG AND THE BEAST
  33. THE END
  34. READING “THE BULLDOG AND THE BEAST”
  35. “ACTING ON IMPULSE”
  36. INTRODUCTION
  37. ACTING ON IMPULSE
  38. I.
  39. II.
  40. III.
  41. IV.
  42. THE END
  43. READING “ACTING ON IMPULSE”
  44. “WHOSE FAULT WAS IT?”
  45. INTRODUCTION
  46. WHOSE FAULT WAS IT?
  47. THE END
  48. READING “WHOSE FAULT WAS IT?”
  49. “THE CHINESE SHAWL”
  50. INTRODUCTION
  51. CONT
  52. THE CHINESE SHAWL
  53. I.
  54. II.
  55. III.
  56. IV.
  57. V.
  58. VI.
  59. VII.
  60. VIII.
  61. THE END
  62. READING “THE CHINESE SHAWL”
  63. “THE OLD MAID”
  64. INTRODUCTION
  65. THE OLD MAID
  66. THE END
  67. READING “THE OLD MAID”
  68. “LOVE”
  69. INTRODUCTION
  70. LOVE
  71. I.
  72. II.
  73. III.
  74. THE END
  75. READING “LOVE”
  76. THE SEARCH FOR “ON SUCH A NIGHT”
  77. GEORGETTE HEYER’S BIBLIOGRAPHY
  78. FURTHER READING
  79. COMING SOON!
  80. OCTOBER 29, 2019

** This is An Infamous Army, of course. And Woman’s Journal never did end up serializing it.

Wow. Leaving aside the “folly of Woman at the Helm” crack, which had been quoted in the biography – oh, Georgette! – this letter helped make a few things more abundantly clear. One, They Found Him Dead was under option as a serial to Woman’s Journal as early as December 1936, months before its publication in May of 1937. (This makes sense, since the purpose of these serials was to drum up interest in, and sales of, the novels when they were released, so they would necessarily have to be organized far in advance of each book’s launch). Two, Woman’s Journal editor Dorothy Sutherland did not think it was good enough as-is, and asked Heyer to make some considerable changes before it could be published in her august pages. Three, we already know that Sutherland had a propensity for altering Heyer’s titles – hence Gay Adventure instead of Regency Buck – and so could very well have changed the title of They Found Him Dead, especially as she wanted Heyer to “stress on the love interest” (Georgette Heyer: Biography of a Bestseller, pg. 163), perhaps making it into more of the “romantic thriller” that the 2GB radio sessions claimed: They Found Him Dead does have some romance, as do most Heyer works, but that designation does seem something of a stretch for it as it exists to us, quite honestly.

And then there is this, also from Jen’s biography:

In December, King Edward VIII abdicated to marry Mrs. Wallis Simpson. The change in the Succession meant a change in Woman’s Journal editorial policy. Dorothy Sutherland felt that a murder mystery was not wanted in an edition about the abdication and the Royal family and consequently had decided not to serialize They Found Him Dead.

It was in response to this move that the above-printed letter was so furious – and, as the biography points out, it would be ten years before Woman’s Journal got to serialize another Heyer work.

But none of that really explained how the Australian Women’s Weekly ended up serializing on the radio a book that was probably They Found Him Dead under an alternate title most likely bestowed upon it by Dorothy Sutherland.

Jen and I discussed this at length, over a number of days, eventually referring once more to the original sales list on which the discovery of “On Such a Night” as a “short story” hung. The list, in part, read:

TITLE SOLD TO RIGHTS LANGUAGE

HAZARD

1936 Australian Women’s Weekly One Serial Use Australian

1938 Ullstrated Familie Journal " Scandinavian

ON SUCH A NIGHT

1935 Australian Women’s Weekly Serial rights Australian

GAY ADVENTURE

1935 Australian Women’s Weekly Serial rights Australian

So, Gay Adventure was included in that list, and we know that was not a short story. And while the definite short story that is “Hazard” was sold to both the Women’s Weekly and “Ullstrated” [sic] Familie Journal (most likely Danish publication Illustreret Familie Journal, aka Familie Journalen, also published in Sweden and Norway) for “One Serial Use,” both the ersatz On Such a Night and Gay Adventure were sold as proper serials. (Let us also take note that “Scandinavian” and “Australian” are both, apparently, languages.)