VAN DE WETERING, JANWILLEM - Robert Van Guilik His Life His Work

Miami Beach, FL: Dennis McMillan Publications, 1987. Limited Edition; 1st Printing. Hardcover. Illustrated by Joe Servello. Cover Art; SIGNED EDITION. This Edition is limited to 350 copies, signed by the author. This is copy number 156. Th author has signed this book on the limitation page. The book is in Near Fine condition and has a Near Fine dust jacket. "During World War II van Gulik translated the 18th-century detective novel Dee Goong An into English under the title Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee (first published in Tokyo in 1949). The main character of this book, Judge Dee, was based on the real statesman and detective Di Renjie, who lived in the 7th century, during the Tang dynasty (AD 618–907) , though in the novel itself elements of Ming dynasty China (AD 1368–1644) were mixed in. [5]Thanks to his translation of this largely forgotten work, van Gulik became interested in Chinese detective fiction. To the translation he appended an essay on the genre in which he suggested that it was easy to imagine rewriting some of the old Chinese case histories with an eye toward modern readers. Not long afterward he himself tried his hand at creating a detective story along these lines. This became the book The Chinese Maze Murders (completed around 1950). As van Gulik thought the story would have more interest to Japanese and Chinese readers, he had it translated into Japanese by a friend (finished in 1951) , and it was sold in Japan under the title Meiro-no-satsujin. With the success of the book, van Gulik produced a translation into Chinese, which was published by a Singapore book publisher in 1953. The reviews were good, and van Gulik wrote two more books (The Chinese Bell Murders and The Chinese Lake Murders) over the next few years, also with an eye toward Japanese and then Chinese editions. Next, van Gulik found a publisher for English versions of the stories, and the first such version was published in 1957. Later books were written and published in English first; the translations came afterwards. " (from Wikipedia) ; Signed by Author. Near Fine in Near Fine dust jacket .

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