publication date: Tuesday, December 11, 2018 (part of Winter 2019)

category: Literature

clue: This author roamed between genres like pastoral fantasy, Islamic terrorism, and mummy-based horror, but his most enduring creation was a racist caricature of a crime lord with distinctive facial hair.

explanation: Among the works of Rohmer ("roamer"), his best known creation is Fu Manchu, the villain of several Yellow Peril novels. He also wrote works like The Orchard of Tears, The Quest of the Sacred Slipper, and "The Mysterious Mummy." more…

intended difficulty: hard

solved by: Russ Wilhelm and Samir Mehta

Gothic Goodbye: The RPG Gothic Earth> has been set in a world of literary creations roughly contemporary to its 1899 setting, with characters like Sherlock Holmes and Count Dracula driving much of the storyline. After a decade of play, the game is now in its final weeks. Here's sending it off with a two-week retrospective of authors of that era whose works captured the popular imagination, in the order in which they shaped the world of Gothic Earth.

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Edgar Allan Poe

A raven, a cask of Amontillado, a black cat, a tale-telling heart, a purloined letter, and a fallen house of Usher are the legacy of this master of the macabre, whose obscurity is nevermore. Go »

W. Somerset Maugham

This mostly gay would-be doctor wrote about human bondage, a razor's edge, and a magician not unlike Aleister Crowley. Go »

Nathaniel Hawthorne

This early American master gave us Hester Prynne, Hepzibah Pyncheon, Dr. Heidegger, and Giacomo Rappaccini. Go »

H.P. Lovecraft

Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn. Go »

Mary Shelley

Daughter of philosophers, wife of a novelist, she had plenty of Promethean figures in her life before she created one of her own. Go »

H.G. Wells

This author, who wrote classic novels about time travel, genetic horrors, an invisible person, and alien attacks, created a deep well of science-fiction concepts to inspire later authors. Go »