James Malcolm Rymer

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Standard Name: Rymer, James Malcolm
Used Form: M. J. Errym
Used Form: Malcolm J. Merry
James Malcolm Rymer was a prolific penny dreadfulist, novelist, and journal editor. Although he rarely published under his own name but instead employed a large number of pseudonyms, his works of fiction (which may have amounted to more than 120 titles)
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
quickly became some of the most popular reading in mid-Victorian Britain. His works are often misattributed to the invented Elizabeth Caroline Grey or the actual Catherine Maria Grey .
Most information surrounding the so-called, non-existent Elizabeth Caroline Grey derives from a false account submitted in a letter to Notes and Queries by independent scholar Andrew de Ternant . In a letter addressing a query from the journal's editor, Frank Jay , de Ternant built on Jay's misattribution of Gentleman Jack to a Mrs. E. C. Grey and convincingly orchestrated a detailed account of her life and writing. This account was quickly accepted by the editors of Notes and Queries and has since worked its way into respected institution catalogues and esteemed publications, causing much confusion.
Spedding, Patrick. “The Many Mrs. Greys: Confusion and Lies about Elizabeth Caroline Grey, Catherine Maria Grey, Maria Georgina Grey, and Others”. The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, Vol.
104
, No. 3, Sept. 2010, pp. 299-40.
327
Thanks to the work of Helen Smith and Patrick Spedding, the life and writing of Elizabeth Caroline Grey, after more than a hundred years, has been exposed as a dizzying case of academic mishap, compulsive lying, and lost identity. The popular Mrs Grey, usually presumed to be one Elizabeth Caroline Grey née Duncan, is now considered a likely mix of Catherine Maria Grey née Grindall (1789-1870), Maria Georgina Grey (a.k.a. the Honourable Mrs Grey, née Sherriff, who confusingly shared her birth and married names with her aunt and mother-in-law Maria Grey, 1782-1857), with works by James Malcolm Rymer (1814-84) added to her supposed output.
Spedding, Patrick. “The Many Mrs. Greys: Confusion and Lies about Elizabeth Caroline Grey, Catherine Maria Grey, Maria Georgina Grey, and Others”. The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, Vol.
104
, No. 3, Sept. 2010, pp. 299-40.
Smith, Helen R. New Light on Sweeney Todd, Thomas Peckett Prest, James Malcolm Rymer and Elizabeth Caroline Grey. Jarndyce, 2002.
Photograph of cover of the book Varney the Vampire, or the Feast of Blood. The image is black and white and depicts a skeletal being (presumably the titular vampire) in cloak, standing ominously over a sleeping woman. On either side there is a drawing of a demonic-looking creature with bat-like wings. At the bottom of the image a graveyard is depicted. The text on the cover notes that this book is "by the author of Grace Rivers, or the Merchant's Daughter."

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Author summary Catherine Maria Grey
CMG was a popular silver-fork novelist, most commonly known as Mrs. Grey to her readers. Her works are often misattributed to her daughter Anna Maria Grey , or to the unrelated Maria Georgina Grey (1816-1906)...
Textual Production Catherine Maria Grey
This work has been historically confused with James Malcolm Rymer 's penny dreadful, The Gambler's Wife; Or, Murder Will Out (1846), which borrows heavily from CMG 's novel. Besides this, both works have been misattributed...

Timeline

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Texts

Rymer, James Malcolm. “Ada, the Betrayed; Or, the Murder at the Old Smithy. A Romance of Passion”. Lloyd’s Penny Weekly Miscellany of Romance and General Interest, Edward Lloyd, 1843.
Rymer, James Malcolm. Gentleman Jack; Or, Life on the Road. E. Lloyd, 1852.
Rymer, James Malcolm. “Introduction”. Varney the Vampyre; or, The Feast of Blood, Part 1, edited by E. F. Bleiler, Dover, 2015, p. i - xv.
Rymer, James Malcolm. The String of Pearls; Or, The Barber of Fleet Street. E. Lloyd, 1850.
Rymer, James Malcolm. Varney the Vampyre. E. Lloyd, 1847.