Sax Rohmer's Biography
Channel: Dixon Kinqade
Date: 2023-02-28

Dixon Kinqade.com
shangchimokf.blogspot.com/2016/12/sax-rohmer-biography.html

Arthur Henry "Sarsfield" Ward (15 February 1883 - 1 June 1959), was an English novelist famous for creating the character Dr. Fu Manchu. Ward adopted the pseudonym Sax Rohmer for his writing career. A "sax-roamer" is a wandering blade, a free-lance. He changed his middle name to Sarsfield after his mother's death, as she believed herself to be descended from the Irish Jacobite hero Patrick Sarsfield. 

Life and Work
Born in Ladywood, Birmingham, to working-class Irish parents William Ward and Margaret Mary, Ward grew up in London, where his parents moved in 1886. Ward initially pursued a career as a civil servant before concentrating on writing full-time. He worked as a poet, songwriter, and comedy sketch writer for music hall performers before creating the Sax Rohmer persona and pursuing a career writing fiction.

Like his contemporaries Algernon Blackwood and Arthur Machen, Rohmer claimed membership to one of the factions of the qabbalistic Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Rohmer also claimed ties to the Rosicrucians, but the validity of his claims has been questioned. His doctor and family friend Dr. R. Watson Councell may have been his only legitimate connection to such organizations.

His first published work was issued in 1903 when the short story "The Mysterious Mummy" was sold to "Pearson's Weekly". Rohmer's main literary influences seem to have been Edgar Allan Poe, Arthur Conan Doyle, and M. P. Shiel. He gradually transitioned from writing for music hall performers to concentrating on short stories and serials for magazine publication. 

He first used the pseudonym of Sax Rohmer with the publication of a song in 1908. In 1909, he married Rose Elizabeth Knox, a juggler, and sister of Teddy Knox, from the Crazy Gang. He published his first book "Pause!" anonymously in 1910. Ward published a collection of stories in collaboration with George Robey and authored an "autobiography" of the popular comedian Little Tich by 1911.  

Ward's first fiction, under the pseudonym of Sax Rohmer, was a serial that appeared in "Cassell’s Magazine" in 1912, "The Sins of Séverac Bablon". That same year, the first Fu Manchu serialization was published. It was subsequently published in book form in 1913 by "Methuen", The Mystery of Dr. Fu-Manchu. E.V. Lucas, a reader of "Methuen", made a serious attempt at persuading them not to publish the book. Something Rohmer would frequently mention to Lucas when they later became friends.

In November 1914, Sax Rohmer published a story, "The Crouching Man", in "The Story-Teller". It noted that "All fees accruing to the author will be devoted to the funds established for the assistance of those who must suffer from the Great War". However, it was not until 1915 that he took direct action in the war effort. He applied for a commission, joined the Artists' Rifles, and trained at Gidea Park in Essex. 

Like the other members of the Artists' Rifles, he received extended weekends at home every other week. In alternate weeks, wives and girlfriends were allowed to meet up near the camp. It was on one of those weekends that both Sax and his wife Elizabeth witnessed the downing of a Zeppelin on September 2, 1916. Reportedly, Rohmer was sickened by the way other witnesses cheered. All he could think of was that German airmen were being roasted alive.

At this point, Rohmer was said to have considered what the great intellect of Dr. Fu Manchu might do to end the war. Rohmer produced fourteen separate plans, which included details of how to assassinate Ludendorf and Hindenburg. Rohmer persuaded his friend T.P. O'Connor, an Irish MP and editor of the Journal of the Great War to introduce him to someone important in the War Office so he could present these plans. O'Connor failed him. However, Rohmer did manage on his own initiative to wangle a meeting with Ian Macpherson, who wasUnder-Secretary of State for War, and Rohmer delivered his "Fourteen Point Plan of Intensive Warfare".

Neither Ludendorf nor Hindenburg was assassinated. Although, Rohmer was subsequently invited to work in the department known as M.I. 7b, which was involved with propaganda. Rohmer worked here both before and after being discharged from the army for health reasons. Rohmer experienced a recurrence of "a lung weakness which had nearly killed him in infancy". 

In 1934, Sax Rohmer moved into a newly refurbished house on Gatton Road, Reigate, Surrey, England, where he lived until 1946. Sax and Elizabeth moved to America for a few years in 1947. However, Rohmer returned to London shortly before his death.

Rohmer died at University College London Hospital, after succumbing to Asian flu, on June 1, 1959, at the age of 76, and was buried in St. Mary's Roman Catholic Cemetery, Kensal Green, London Borough of Brent, Greater London, England.