King of the Swordsmen

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.