E. A. Morphy

"The Last Tirah" continued:

The project took on the character of an archaelogical dig. Each time I shifted through the contents of the boxes I would discover and place another piece in the skeletal remains of Morphy's career. New connections added to old until I began to have a feel for his distinguished career. I supplemented the material with research into various bits of history, of Edwardian British Empire, West Australia's pearl industry, General Pershing's pursuit of Pancho Villa into Mexico, and the spread of sensationalist journalism. As I dug deeper, I discovered connections to many famous contemporaries like William Randolf Hearst, and Winston Churchill. It became apparent that he had been a first-hand witness to many of the significant historical episodes of his day and a participant in other events that shaped the history of contemporary journalism. In addition, his work has appeared alongside the work of such notables as Ambrose Bierce and A. Conan Doyle.

As I assembled the pieces, a story naturally unfolded. The disparate sources and chronology of when stories were written fell behind the more important organizing principle of the places he had been, the cultures he had lived in, and the events he had witnessed. This is the basis for the organization of this book. It begins with "As If It Mattered", his unfinished autobiography describing elements of his childhood in Ireland. Next is "The First Decade", covering the beginning of his career in New York, San Francisco and Japan. These geographical settings might have warranted separate chapters except there was little material available from this period of time. The story continues with "The Tirah Campaign", "Simla, India", "Singapore", etc. including each major geographical setting for which there is an identifiable body of his work. In many cases the stories themselves were written years later, but contain autobiographical elements or cultural influence from the geographic setting. The chapters are also peppered with quotations from articles written about him, typically late in his life, that describe elements of his career in each of the settings. Finally, the last chapter of the book contains a number of fragments of work spanning his career. I have included excerpts from these fragmentary pieces, and in one case multiple versions of a piece, to illustrate his writing process and variety of styles and topics.

Throughout the book, I use his own words whenever possible, to tell each of the stories. His words were available in his manuscripts, articles, and in quotations from other writers' stories about him. I have left British spellings where they originally were, since they represent his early training and a significant influence on his thinking. I have corrected obvious misspellings, since I think it would pain him to know that such errors ever went to press. When his words were not available, I used the words of his contemporaries first and then those of historians who have preceded me. For the remainder, I have conducted the additional research needed to provide context, allowing the reader to understand the stories and see how they weave together his career with the fabric of history. Finally, there are a few stories for which I do not have original titles. For those, I invented titles, based as much as possible on the content of the stories, and copying his style as best I could.