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Sir Max Pemberton (19 June 1863 – 22 February 1950) was a popular English mystery and adventure novelist, biographer and publisher.LeRoy Lad Panek, After Sherlock Holmes: The Evolution of British and American Detective Stories, 1891–1914.McFarland, 2014. (pp. 66-7). He was also a prolific editor and worked for various popular periodicals and magazines including Chums and Cassell's Magazine.
Pemberton married Alice Tussaud, who was the granddaughter of Madame Marie Tussaud, on 9 February 1885. They had seven children together. In 1924, she was granted a divorce under the previous year's Matrimonial Causes Act, alleging that Max had begun living with another woman, Joan Berrill, in 1913. Pemberton subsequently remarried to Berrill.
Pemberton's most famous work The Iron Pirate became a best-seller after it was published in 1893 and it initiated his prolific writing career. This is a story about a great gas-driven iron-clad, which could outpace the navies of the world and terrorised the shipping of the Atlantic Ocean. The following year, Pemberton's collection of stories titled the Jewel Mysteries: From a Dealer's Note Book was published. This is a series of Mystery fiction that each revolve around stolen jewels.
Between 1896 and 1906, Pemberton edited Cassell's Magazine, in which capacity he published the early works of R. Austin Freeman and William Le Queux. He also wrote historical fiction including I Crown Thee King (1902), which is set in Sherwood Forest during the time of Mary I.
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. This book includes the following book dedication in the form of an "Author's Note":
The Wheels of Anarchy is an adventure tale about anarchists and Assassination, 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. (2010). 9781907685316, MX. ISBN 9781907685316
Pemberton's novels Beatrice of Venice (1904) and Paulina (1922) centre on Napoleon's military campaigns in Italy. Other notable works included Captain Black (1911) and Father Brown story titled The Donnington Affair by G. K. Chesterton in an obscure British periodical named The Premier (1914). 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. Pemberton also wrote a biography about Sir Henry Royce, which was published in 1934 shortly after Royce's death.
Pemberton died at his home in London on 22 February 1950. He was buried at St Mary's Catholic Cemetery, Kensal Green.
Honours
Pemberton was knighted in the 1928 Birthday Honours, gazetted on 1 June 1928. The London Gazette Issue 33390, 1 June 1928 (Supplement), p. 3846
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Categories: 1863 Births, 1950 Deaths, 19th-century English Novelists, 20th-century English Novelists, People Educated At Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood, People Educated At St Albans School, Hertfordshire, Alumni Of Gonville And Caius College, Cambridge, Knights Bachelor, London School Of Journalism, English Male Novelists, 19th-century English Male Writers, 20th-century English Male Writers, English Mystery Writers, English Historical Novelists, Writers Of Historical Fiction Set In The Early Modern Period, Burials At St Mary's Catholic Cemetery, Kensal Green
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