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Q

Quinn, Seabury (1889–1969)
Seabury Quinn was a prolific contributor to the pulp
magazines during the 1920s and 1930s, producing
scores of short stories for the weird- and occult-ori-
ented magazines. His prose is colorful but simple, his
plots are straightforward, and many of his stories
seem written to a specific formula. A very large num-
ber of these feature Jules de Grandin, a typical occult
detective who invariably solves the case, thwarting
various mundane and supernatural villains. Quinn’s
first book appearance was a short novel, Roads
(1938), which appeared in a limited edition that was
reprinted in 1948 and which is a convoluted but in-
ventive story of the origin of Santa Claus. A Viking
warrior who becomes immortal is present at the Cru-
cifixion and is eventually magically transformed into
a symbol of Christmas. It is not typical of the bulk of
his work and is actually more imaginative than most
of his supernatural fiction.
The first collection of Jules de Grandin stories
was The Phantom Fighter(1966), published only a
few years before the author’s death. The rest of his
books appeared posthumously and include the gen-
eral collection Is the Devil a Gentleman?(1970), five
volumes of de Grandin short stories, and Quinn’s
only full-length novel, The Devil’s Bride(1976, from
the 1932 magazine version), which also features the
occult investigator. The more recent Night Crea-
tures(2003) also assembles nonseries stories.

De Grandin first appeared in “Terror on the

Links” (1925), which involves a rather silly plot

about the transformation of humans into beasts.

He went on to defeat the usual array of supernatu-

ral entities, zombies, werewolves, ghosts, and vam-

pires. The vampire in “Restless Souls” (1928) is

one of his more interesting opponents, as is the

giant snake in “The Tenants of Broussac” (1925).

“The Curse of Evarard Maundy” (1928) describes

an encounter with a disembodied elemental, and

there is a particularly malevolent witch in “Daugh-

ter of the Moonlight” (1930). Several of the other

stories in the series contain no supernatural ele-

ments at all, and the novel, The Devil’s Bride,

though supernatural, verges on the incoherent and

is inferior to most of the short fiction.

Of his nonseries stories, “Is the Devil a Gen-

tleman?” (1942) is probably the most interesting, a

story of intervention from beyond the grave that

raises some interesting moral questions. “The

Globe of Memories” (1937) anticipates the current

popularity of time travel romances. “The Gentle

Werewolf” (1940) is an interesting nonhorrific

werewolf story. Although Quinn never produced a

single distinguished work, his creation of Jules de

Grandin and the success of that character con-

tributed to the popularity of occult detectives, and

the collections issued during the 1970s have be-

come collectors’ items.