Last week, on the eightieth anniversary of Talbot Mundy's death, I wrote a post looking at the legacy of Mundy, along with noting the fairly recent demise of Talbot's biographer, Brian Taves. I also wrote a fair bit about the radio serial, "Moon Over Africa", which is out there on the Webz being sold right now with the writing being attributed to Mundy.

A couple of years ago, Dan Ross, a Mundy fan, asked Taves via PM about "Moon Over Africa", as well as another serial attributed to Mundy, "Ghost Corps". Mr. Ross passed that message along to me, with Taves' posthumous blessing. Here is what Brian wrote, slightly edited:

"Years ago (ca. 20) in my research for the TM [Talbot Mundy] book [Talbot Mundy, Philosopher of Adventure], I went through tons of radio logs to see if anything sounded "Mundy-ish" besides his Jack Armstrong [a radio series that Mundy wrote for]. I contacted a number of people.

Guess what ... no responses. But Moon Over Africa started being sold as by Mundy. As more info on it has come to light, that is definitely disproven--it was produced in South Africa!

Ghost Corps is a bit less certain. Possible but unlikely.

The thing is that in his [episodes] of Jack Armstrong, TM repeatedly recycles situations from his novels, or character names. Hence the two JA Big Littles are from his story arcs, identifiable in this way. Nothing like that is in Moon at all, in fact it is completely incompatible, while Ghost is at best distant.

Sadly, TM's name is being used to sell these recordings. Indeed, the 1940-41 JA broadcasts, a Philippine adventure, are often sold as by him. They are by his successor on the show, Pascal Strong, who took over upon TM's death in Aug 1940.

You can read all that's known about TM's radio work in my bio. Feel free to pass this on--it is really sad that so many dealers have misled people about the authorship of these shows."

That's pretty damning stuff coming from one of the most learned authorities on both Mundy and his work. So, why didn't I spot this (apparent) imposture? Firstly, I'm not a learned authority on Mundy, I'm a fan. Sure, I started reading his work at thirteen. Yeah, I've read six or seven of Talbot's novels and about twenty of his short stories. I've read Ellis' bio of Mundy as well as Talbot Mundy: Messenger of Destiny from DMG. That's a lot more than most people, but it doesn't make me an authority on Mundy. I haven't read Taves' Mundy bio for reasons I'll go into below.

Secondly, I basically skimmed a few episodes of "Moon Over Africa". The reason for that is because my soundcard has gone out. I used another computer to do a quick listen. Things were rushed because the fifth of August was looming and I'm pretty damned busy in general. However, I asked the opinion of two fellow Mundy fans and both confirmed my general impression of the serial, as did the review I linked in my post. I thought I had done due diligence.

Thirdly, I've never listened to any of the few surviving Mundy Jack Armstrong radio episodes, though I intend to at some point. I do know they were aimed at a younger audience. I also know from the vintage radio dramas I have listened to, that even "adult" radio scripts tended to be dumbed down a little relative to their prose counterparts. In addition, "Moon Over Africa" is from the mid-1930s. I have read almost nothing by Mundy from that period. So, to me, "Moon Over Africa" could still be Mundy, just not "prime" Mundy, as I noted in my post.

Fourthly, the serial had an Atlantean city in it and I'm a sucker for that. The fact that Mundy never mentioned Atlantis in anything I've read actually sold me harder on the whole thing. That's because Talbot was a Theosophist in his later years and Atlantis is integral to Theosophy. I was like, "Cool! Mundy is finally gettin' his Atlantis on!"

Fifthly--and this is a good example of the credentialism that plagues this twenty-first century--I trusted the Old Time Radio guys. While I've never deeply researched that outfit, they've always seemed to have a generally good rep. It never occurred to me that they would sell radio episodes under false pretenses. Doing so is not some minor infraction or piddling moral lapse. I figured they had to have researched and authenticated the authorship of "Moon Over Africa". Also, nowhere could I find anybody disputing the authorship.

What I did see were numerous vintage radio fans disputing the serial's (alleged) South African provenance. If "Moon Over Africa" was not produced in South Africa, then that slightly weakens Mr. Taves' objections based on that point, though I still have to give his judgement regarding Mundy's non-authorship of "Moon Over Africa" more weight than just about anybody else's.

If I'd read Talbot Mundy, Philosopher of Adventure before writing that post, perhaps I might've been more sceptical. I have not read Mr. Taves' book because it's damned pricey. I'd thought about suggesting to Brian that he contact Steeger Books or some other pulp-friendly publisher to get a more affordable edition out there, but the Grim Reaper intervened.

I have to wonder if the Mundy literary estate knows about this situation.

Anyway, mea culpa. I still recommend The Peshawar Lancers and Tempest at Hazard, though.