Four Just Men
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''The Four Just Men'' is a detective thriller published in 1905 by the British writer
Edgar Wallace Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace (1 April 1875 – 10 February 1932) was a British writer of crime and adventure fiction. Born into poverty as an illegitimate London child, Wallace left school at the age of 12. He joined the army at age 21 and was ...
. The eponymous "Just Men" appear in several sequels.


Publication

Edgar Wallace formed the idea of ''The Four Just Men'' — four wealthy gentleman
vigilante Vigilantism () is the act of preventing, investigating, and punishing perceived offenses and crimes without legal authority. A vigilante is a person who practices or partakes in vigilantism, or undertakes public safety and retributive justice ...
s (including a European
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) who punish wrong-doers who are beyond the reach of the Law – while returning to England in 1905. He had to create his own publishing company, Tallis Press, to publish it and decided to manage a 'guess the murder method' competition in the ''
Daily Mail The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily Middle-market newspaper, middle-market Tabloid journalism, tabloid conservative newspaper founded in 1896 and published in London. , it has the List of newspapers in the United Kingdom by circulation, h ...
'' with a prize of £1,000 (equivalent in
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to at least £101,000 in 2024). Wallace intended to advertise the book on an unprecedented scale, not just in Britain itself but across the
Empire An empire is a political unit made up of several territories, military outpost (military), outposts, and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a hegemony, dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the ...
. He approached the proprietor,
Lord Northcliffe Alfred Charles William Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe (15 July 1865 – 14 August 1922), was a British newspaper and publishing magnate. As owner of the ''Daily Mail'' and the ''Daily Mirror'', he was an early developer of popular journal ...
, for the loan of the £1,000 and was promptly refused, but Wallace pressed ahead anyway. His alarmed workmates at the ''Mail'' prevailed upon him to lower the prize money to £500: a £250 first prize, £200 second prize and £50 third prize, but were unable to restrain him in the privacy of his home. Wallace had advertisements placed on buses, hoardings, flyers, and so forth, running up an incredible bill of £2,000. Though he knew he needed the book to sell sufficient copies to make £2,500 before he saw any profit, Wallace was confident that this would be achieved in the first three months of the book going on sale, hopelessly underestimating the expenses. Enthusiastic, but without any substantial managerial skill, Wallace had also made a far more serious error. He ran the FJM serial competition in the ''Daily Mail'' but failed to include any limitation clause in the competition rules restricting payment of the prize money to ''one winner only'' from each of the three categories. Only after the competition had closed and the correct solution printed as part of the final chapter denouement did Wallace learn that he was legally obliged to pay every person who answered correctly the full prize amount in that category; if six people got the 1st prize answer right, he would have to pay not £250 but 6 × £250, or £1500, if three people got the 2nd prize it would be £600 and so on. Additionally, though his advertising gimmick had worked as the novel was a bestseller, Wallace discovered that instead of his woefully over-optimistic three months, FJM would have to continue selling consistently with no margin of error for two full years to recoup the £2,500 he had mistakenly believed he needed to break even. Unfortunately during this period the number of entrants correctly guessing the right answer continued to rise inexorably. Wallace's response was to simply ignore the situation, but circumstances were ominous. As 1906 began and continued without any list of prize winners being printed, more and more suspicions were being voiced about the honesty of the competition. In addition, for a working-class
Edwardian In the United Kingdom, the Edwardian era was a period in the early 20th century that spanned the reign of King Edward VII from 1901 to 1910. It is commonly extended to the start of the First World War in 1914, during the early reign of King Ge ...
family, £250 was a fortune and since those who were winners knew it (courtesy of the published solution) they had been waiting impatiently for the prize to be paid out. Harmsworth, having refused the initial £1,000 loan, was furious at having now to loan over £5,000 to protect the newspaper's reputation because Wallace couldn't pay. Wallace went bankrupt and hastily sold the rights to the novel for £75 to Sir
George Newnes Sir George Newnes, 1st Baronet (13 March 1851 – 9 June 1910) was a British publisher and editor and a founding figure in popular journalism. Newnes also served as a Liberal Party Member of Parliament for two decades. His company, George Newne ...
to provide token amounts to his creditors. In 1910 the murderer
Hawley Harvey Crippen Hawley Harvey Crippen (11 September 1862 – 23 November 1910), colloquially known as Dr. Crippen, was an American Homeopathy, homeopath, Otolaryngology, ear and Ophthalmology, eye specialist and medicine dispenser who was hanged in HM Prison P ...
was reading a copy of the novel during his journey on the
SS Montrose A number of steamships were named ''Montrose'', including - *, a Canadian ocean liner in service 1897–1914 *, a Canadian ocean liner in service 1922–39 {{DEFAULTSORT:Montrose Ship names ...
prior to his arrest. Wallace covered his subsequent trial and execution for the ''Evening Times''.


Sequels

''The Four Just Men'' is best known as a stand-alone novel, but Wallace wrote five sequels: *'' The Council of Justice'' (1908) *'' The Just Men of Cordova'' (1918) *''
The Law of the Four Just Men ''The Law of the Four Just Men'' is a 1921 thriller novel by the British writer Edgar Wallace Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace (1 April 1875 – 10 February 1932) was a British writer of crime and adventure fiction. Born into poverty as an ille ...
'' (1921) *'' The Three Just Men'' (1924) *'' Again the Three'' (1928) In 2012
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published ''The Complete Four Just Men'', a volume compiling all six books. ()


Characters

The four just men of the original novel are George Manfred, Leon Gonsalez, and Raymond Poiccart, who recruit a fourth, Thery, in their campaign to punish wrong-doers who are beyond the reach of the law. In later books, Wallace develops their backstory. The original fourth man, Merel, had died in
Bordeaux Bordeaux ( ; ; Gascon language, Gascon ; ) is a city on the river Garonne in the Gironde Departments of France, department, southwestern France. A port city, it is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the Prefectures in F ...
, and the remaining three either recruit a fourth ''ad hoc'' or operates as a team of three. After
The Great War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting took place mainly in Europe and th ...
, they are pardoned on condition that they remain within the law, and Poiccart retires to Spain. Gonsalez and Manfred continue to operate a legitimate detective agency.


Adaptations

''The Four Just Men'' was adapted as a silent film in 1921, as a film in 1939 and as a British television series in 1959.


References

* *


Bibliography

*Clark, Neil. ''Stranger than Fiction: The Life of Edgar Wallace, the Man Who Created King Kong''. Stroud, UK: The History Press, 2015.


External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Four Just Men, The 1905 British novels British novels adapted into films British novels adapted into television shows British thriller novels Locked-room mysteries Novels by Edgar Wallace