Chums

[Mark Kohut]

Of course, the other word is that TRP spent a fair amount of time in London
at the British Museum
researching for some of his books....

I would bet he learned of them there rather than at home, including my
quick remark on the Annuals.

On Fri, Apr 20, 2018 at 8:34 AM, Paul Cray <pmcray at gmail.com> wrote:

> Frank Richards in the Greyfriars/Billy Bunter stories (
> http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/Greyfriars) that
> appeared in "The Magnet" (1908-40) often refers to the Famous Five (Harry
> Wharton and his four fast friends) as "chums". See, natch, Orwell's essay
> "Boys' Weeklies" (http://www.friardale.co.uk/Ephemera/Newspapers/George%
> 20Orwell_Horizon.pdf). Richards's work is the acme of the vast body of
> early C20th popular British boys' fiction, although whether TRP would have
> been likely to have come across much of it in 1940s Long Island is another
> matter.
>
> On 20 April 2018 at 11:59, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Perhaps his house had them there ANNUALS!?
>>
>> Great find.
>>
>> On Fri, Apr 20, 2018 at 6:35 AM, ish mailian <ishmailian at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>> > First I've read of CHUMS.
>> > Thanks
>> >
>> > On Fri, Apr 20, 2018 at 6:03 AM, matthew cissell <mccissell at gmail.com>
>> > wrote:
>> > > Another secondary literature question for your collective memory. Much
>> > has
>> > > been written about the Chums of Chance but I don't remember if anyone
>> has
>> > > found a firm source for the name. Folks have compared the CoC to
>> > exemplars
>> > > of the genre, that is true.
>> > >
>> > > Well, the other day while cooking I was listening to (and occasionally
>> > > glancing at) a BBC documentary series called Empire, it was Episode 3
>> > > "Playing the Game". In that episode it discusses British Empire and
>> > > colonialism in India and elsewhere, and it mentions the literature of
>> > > Empire (not Kipling and all that, but the popular press). At around 38
>> > > minute mark it shows a fine assortment of examples one of which is
>> held
>> > up
>> > > and is called: "Chums". Good image at 38:39.
>> > >
>> > > Turns out their is a Wikipedia entry. (If this is old news, just
>> consider
>> > > me slow and not much of a learner). You might look at this collector's
>> > page
>> > > also: http://www.collectingbooksandmagazines.com/chums.html
>> > > The serial stopped publishing in '41 when TP was just a kid. Perhaps
>> > there
>> > > were some in the house growing up.
>> > >
>> > > In light of this it makes some reviews look pretty clueless. For
>> example,
>> > > when Salon's Laura Miller wrote, "The Chums of Chance (as if that name
>> > > weren't bad enough)" I guess she thought it pretty clever. Doesn't
>> seem
>> > > clever.
>> > >
>> > > ciao
>> > > mc
>> > > --
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>> > --
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>> >
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>>
>
>