Colonel Thomas Hoyer Monstery was one of the most celebrated swordsmen in American history. During his long life, he served under the flags of twelve nations, participated in more than fifty duels with the sword, knife, and pistol, and took part in countless battles, conflicts, and revolutions.
In this semi-autobiographical novel, originally published in 1881 under the title El Rubio Bravo, King of the Swordsmen: Or, the Terrible Brothers of Tabasco, Monstery recounts his adventures in Spanish America, where he journeyed during the 1850s as a soldier-of-fortune and itinerant master-of-arms. Among its pages--which read like a combination of swashbuckler, Spaghetti Western, and Indiana Jones, and with shades of Robert E. Howard--Monstery tells of his duels with espadachíns (sword-wielding bravos), of evading assassination among moonlit tropical glades, of battling bandits in the wind-swept deserts of Mexico, and of pursuing a lost Aztec civilization, reportedly still in existence deep within the jungles of the Yucatan. Accompanying Monstery on these journeys are his two indefatiguable companions: the revolver-toting, pugilistic Englishman, Dr. Charlie Brown, and the honorable but roguish Hispanic cavalier, Don Jose Ramirez. Together, these three seek their fortunes while attempting to rescue the beautiful but fiery Carmelita Ximenes--a character directly based on Monstery's own wife.
Of this classic adventure novel, now in print again for the first time in more than a century, one modern scholar has favorably written:
"A curious work that reads (apart from occasional romantic elements) much like an authentic account by one of the early nineteenth-century travelers in Central America...It is one of the very few dime novels worth reading for their own merit." - Everett Franklin Bleiler, Science-fiction, the Early Years
This edition has been annotated, and contains a new, extensive introduction by the editor. Drawing upon a wealth of previously unknown sources, Monstery's historical activities in Spanish America have been chronicled in greater detail than ever before, so that readers can now dissect the facts of his real life from the fiction of his novel. The text has also been supplemented with nearly one hundred rare photographs and engravings from the period.
Miller, Ben: - Ben Miller is an American filmmaker and author. He is a graduate of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, was the winner of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Grant for screenwriting, and has worked for notable personages such as Martin Scorsese and Roger Corman. For the last fourteen years, Miller has studied fencing at the Martinez Academy of Arms, one of the last places in the world still teaching an authentic living tradition of classical fencing. He has served as the Academy's chef de salle, and has authored articles for the Association of Historical Fencing, focusing on the fencing and dueling of the American colonial period. He is the author of Irish Swordsmanship: Fencing and Dueling in Eighteenth Century Ireland (New York: Hudson Society Press, 2017), a contributor to Scottish Fencing: Five 18th Century Texts on the Use of the Small-sword, Broadsword, Spadroon, Cavalry Sword, and Highland Battlefield Tactics, and the editor of Colonel Monstery's Self-Defense for Gentlemen and Ladies: A Nineteenth-Century Treatise on Boxing, Kicking, Grappling, and Fencing with the Cane and Quarterstaff (Berkeley: North Atlantic Books, 2015). He also wrote the foreword to the republication of Donald McBane's classic martial arts treatise, The Expert Sword-Man's Companion: Or the True Art of Self-Defence (New York: Jared Kirby Rare Books, 2017). Miller's articles about fencing and martial arts history can be found on the websites martialartsnewyork.org and outofthiscentury.wordpress.com.
Monstery, Thomas Hoyer: - Thomas H. Monstery was born on April 21, 1824, in Copenhagen, Denmark. At age twelve he joined the Danish navy, and he later completed his military training at the Royal Military Institute of Gymnastics and Arms in Copenhagen. He went on to study at the Central Institute of Physical Culture in Stockholm, Sweden, from which he graduated a master of arms. As a soldier he fought under twelve flags in Europe and the Americas, took part in numerous revolutions, ascended to the rank of colonel, and participated in more than fifty duels with the sword, knife, and pistol. After immigrating to the United States, he embarked on a distinguished career as an instructor of fencing and pugilism, opening schools in Baltimore, Berkeley, San Francisco, New York, and Chicago, and became recognized as one of the greatest fencing masters in America. During this time, he authored a number of articles on self-defense, republished under the title Self-Defense for Gentlemen and Ladies: A Nineteenth-Century Treatise on Boxing, Kicking, Grappling, and Fencing with the Cane and Quarterstaff (Berkeley: North Atlantic Books, 2015).
