 Sax Rohmer was born of Irish parents on February 15, 1883 and named Arthur Henry Ward. At various times, his mother Margaret told young Arthur that she was descended from an Irish General named Patrick Sarsfield, and about the time of her death in 1901, he adopted Sarsfield as a middle name.
Only twenty years old, he submitted "The Mysterious Mummy" to Pearson's Magazine and "The Leopard-Couch" to Chambers's Journal, expecting rejection. To his surprise, both were accepted and published in November, 1903 and January 30, 1904 respectively.
These early successes were followed by three more titles in Pearson's Magazine: "The Green Spider" in October, 1904, "The Mystery of Marsh Hole" in April, 1905 and "The M'Villin" in December, 1906 - all five with the byline of "A. Sarsfield Ward." He later explained that his pen name came from 'sax' which was Saxon for 'blade' and 'rohmer' which meant 'roamer'.
Sax Rohmer is best known for the master criminal Dr. Fu Manchu and his opponents Denis Nayland Smith, Dr. Petrie, named after the Egyptologist Flinders Petrie, and the beautiful Kâramanéh, the source of Petrie's daydreams, whose "eyes held a challenge wholly Oriental in its appeal." In spite of Rohmer's popularity, his family lived for long periods in poverty because of the bad deals he made with publishers.
Rohmer wrote comedy sketches for entertainers, and continued to produce stories and serials for the newspaper and magazine markets. These early writings were later gathered into collections. Rohmer's first book, Pause! appeared in 1910, and his first Fu Manchu novel, The Mystery of Dr Fu-Manchu, three years later. It gained immediate success.
The golden age of Fu Manchu stories - and also the peak of Sax Rohmer's career - was in the 1930s, although the Chinese super-criminal was revived again in 1957. Fu Manchu was also the inspiration for the evil Doctor No by Ian Fleming. [edit]
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