The Beetle a Mystery

Richard Marsh, a pseudonym used by English author Richard Bernard Heldmann, was born on October 12, 1857, and died on August 9, 1915. Author of numerous best-selling books during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Marsh is most known today for his supernatural thriller The Beetle, which came out the same year as Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897) and was initially sold six times more than the latter book. The Beetle was published until 1960. In addition to writing many short tales, Marsh authored about 80 volumes of fiction in the horror, crime, romance, and humor genres. Starting with The Beetle in 2004, many of these have been reissued in the last few years. Robert Aickman was a well-known author of short "strange stories" and the grandson of Marsh. On October 12, 1857, Richard Bernard Heldmann was born in North London, the son of lace manufacturer Emma Marsh (1830-1911) and trader Joseph Heldmann (1827-96). In 1880, Heldmann started releasing fiction in the style of adventure and boys' school tales for magazine publications. The most significant of these was Union Jack, a prestigious weekly journal for boys published in association with writers W. H. G. Kingston (1814-80) and G. A. Henty (1832-1902).