Julian Gustave Symons (1912‐94) is one of the most distinguished British mystery writers, biographers, social critics and reviewers of the twentieth century. John J. Walsdorf explains in his Introduction to his bibliography that the reasons why he has “chosen to spend 15 years of [his] collecting life and countless dollars” are complex. They vary from a fascination with the personality of Symons, to admiration of his style. However, “perhaps the single greatest reason why Julian Symons has remained, from a collector’s viewpoint, such an interesting subject to pursue is the variety of his work”.
Walsdorf’s descriptive bibliography begins with a tribute to “Julian Symons, the writer” by H.R.F. Keating who claims that “A thread running through a great deal of Julian Symon’s fiction is the image of the mask, whether in the form of a disguise or as a metaphor for the elegantly exposed hypocrisies of everyday life”. Keating also believes that “when he has turned to social criticism, often melded with the literary, that Symons’s importance as a writer is perhaps most evident”. Walsdorf’s Introduction clearly explains the fascination for him of Symons and the reasons underlying the compilation of the bibliography based on Walsdorf’s own Symons collection. Unfortunately Walsdorf spends too little time explaining what exactly is included and excluded from his bibliography: the theory behind his procedure is somewhat wanting. Walsdorf is followed by “Julian Symons: autobiographical notes” reprinted from the Contemporary Authors Autobiography Series produced by Bruccoli, Clark, Layman and published by Gale Research Co., Detroit, MI, 1986. Symons speaks of his cosmopolitan background, his distinguished elder brother, A.J. Symons, who “became a dandy, a wit, book collector, connoisseur of wine and food”, his friendship with Wyndham Lewis, George Orwell and others, his army conscription in the Second World War, his love for his wife, the crime story genre and his writing. His wife Kathleen contributes a memoir “How lucky you are ...” reprinted from Mystery Writers Annual, 1987. The prefatory material concludes with a Chronology of Symons’ life including dates of significant publications.
The descriptive bibliography is divided into eight sections: “Section A, Fiction”; “Section B, Poetry”; “Section C, Non‐fiction”; “Section D, Works edited by Julian Symons”; “Section E, Contributions to books”; “Section F, Contributions to anthologies”; “Section G, Selected contributions to periodicals”; and “Section H, Contributions to Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine”. The first section contains title page transcription, followed by size, pagination, contents, binding details, dust‐jacket description, publication date, price, printing details and a note. Described in most instances are the first UK edition, the second UK issue, the first US edition and the first UK paperback edition. The number of copies printed is not given. The data are “taken from the book in hand”. Walsdorf has “not tried to cover foreign language publications” nor has he included “the hundreds of newspaper articles and letters written during the past 57 years”. Each section is numerically arranged, thus the first section runs from Al (a)‐(d), to A39, and the last ‐ an enumerative listing ‐ runs from H1 to H46.
There is an annotated Appendix of 18 items of “Selected materials on Julian Symons, biographical and critical” alphabetically arranged ‐ the previous sections are chronologically based. An Epilogue enumerates eight obituaries. The bibliography concludes with a detailed index divided into “Titles” (itself divided by genre: fiction, poetry, non‐fiction), “Publishers”, “Printers”, “Designers/illustrators”, “Photographers”, “Poems” and “Short fiction”. Also alphabetically arranged is a detailed general index. Julian Symons: A Bibliography contains 26 black and white illustrations, ranging from a photograph of Symons to photographs of title pages, a cover, flyleaf inscription and manuscript page, and a typed letter. The binding is firm and solidly constructed to withstand library usage, and the computer generated typeface is clearly laid out on the page and pleasant to read. The bibliography is a fitting tribute to its subject and is highly recommended for purchase for all libraries, public and general, in addition to those in higher education.
