JAMES HADLEY
CHASE- A Tribute by a Die Hard Fan
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Miss Callaghan Comes to Grief |
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If
No Orchids for Miss Blandish (1939)
was Chase's first and most controversial book, and also the most well-read, Miss
Callaghan Comes to Grief (1941) may be the least read of his
works. Although, it is equally controversial in its own way. Plus the fact
that the novel is now a collector's item. The violence and
sexuality depicted in the book became the cause of a lawsuit against Chase
himself, as well has his publisher, M/s Jarrolds, in 1942. During the trail, the
prosecution stated that, "Far from being a work of literature, it was
deliberately pornographic, and pornography of the vilest type, being produced at
the psychological moment when it was likely to cause the greatest evil and make
the most money for its publishers. It was a new type of obscenity, so far as the
Courts were concerned. In nearly every case where books had been the subject of
proceedings they had dealt frankly with, or expressed too freely, normal sex
relationships. Although they had been undesirable, the appeal was to a natural
instinct. The book in question described acts of debased sexual perverts, and
the appeal was to sadism. There were descriptions of the stripping, beating,
torturing and raping of young women. This must have been abundantly clear to the
publishers when they read the book, yet they had foisted it on to the public and
made large profits. …"
The Old Bailey court apparently agreed with the prosecution and fined the author as well as publisher, £ 100 each, a tidy sum in those days. The novel disappeared from the UK and US and was never reprinted in English. However, the French version, Méfiez-vous, fillettes! as well as Dutch translation, Meisjes Opgepast can still be procured from rare book auctions. The novel was filmed in France, with the same title. The original English version is purportedly available in few libraries in the UK, but the copies are not for issue.
The unique aspect of this novel is that it is not the story of any particular Miss Callaghan, but of the hundreds of Miss Callaghans who disappear regularly and mysteriously from their homes and are seen no more by those who knew them or loved them. The story is narrated by a reporter, Phillips, of St. Louis Banner, to another reporter, Franklin and a taxi driver, Joe. The three visit the local morgue and come across the body of a dead prostitute, Julie Callaghan. To prove his point that not all prostitutes are greedy and beyond redemption, he narrates the story of a gangster called Raven, who built up an organized prostitution ring in the small town of St. Louis, after being run out of Chicago. The ruthlessness of Raven towards his opponents as well as his penchant for playing with toy trains were two conflicting personality traits of this Chase villain.
It appears that the novel, Miss Callaghan Comes to Grief, will no longer be available for Chase fans to enjoy or researchers to study. Which is indeed a pity.
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