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The Dennis Wheatley 'Museum' - Instant success as an author

Following up success ... 'Black August'


The first edition cover

DW's Christmas card for 1933, incorporating the book's endpapers

Click on the images to enlarge

Having published three books in 1933, DW was to publish the same number in 1934.

"Black August" was the story of a red revolution in England sometime in the future, and if "Such Power is Dangerous" took two weeks, "Black August" took the best part of forty weeks to write.

Gregory Sallust made his first appearance in this book as its hero, and as DW stated in his autobiography, "His physique and personality were based on those of my dear, unscrupulous friend of the First World War, Gordon Eric Gordon-Tombe."

As DW went on to say, "Black August did better than even I could have hoped. The advance copies sent to librarians and booksellers resulted in such staggering orders that the book had to be reprinted six times before it was published. There was no question about it. I had gone up to the top of the form and I was there to stay".

References: 'Drink and Ink' pp 119,121,125,260.
Phil Baker p 293.

Provenance:Private Collection