name the 5 best Ripper books

[Tom_Wescott]

Fenian Fire

Maria,

I know you're on a budget, but amazon.com is selling copies of Fenian Fire for one penny, plus shipping and handling, so total price is $4, making it cheaper than any kindle downloads. I recently bought mine this way and suggest anyone else interested do the same. As for the Molony book, I didn't buy it because a seemingly knowledge reader posted a very detailed and discouraging review. But given the paucity of books on the Phoenix Park murders, I'll probably have to get it eventually.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[The Good Michael]

I want to recommend Tom's book: Ain't Life LeGrand? Or. STRANDED, the East End Murders.

Mike

[Tom_Wescott]

Thanks for the plug, GM. I'm glad you like my titles. It's unfortunate that 'The Grapes of Wrath' was already taken.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Pontius2000]

Thanks for the plug, GM. I'm glad you like my titles. It's unfortunate that 'The Grapes of Wrath' was already taken.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

do you have a book out? I would like to read your theory on LeGrand. I saw a reference to an article you wrote on jtrforums but have not been able to find that either.

[The Good Michael]

Thanks for the plug, GM. I'm glad you like my titles. It's unfortunate that 'The Grapes of Wrath' was already taken.

Tom,

Had your book been out, I have no doubt I'd be recommending it.


How about: STALKing LeGrand, in pursuit of a Killer

[mariab]

Maria,
I know you're on a budget, but amazon.com is selling copies of Fenian Fire for one penny, plus shipping and handling, so total price is $4, making it cheaper than any kindle downloads. I recently bought mine this way and suggest anyone else interested do the same. As for the Molony book, I didn't buy it because a seemingly knowledge reader posted a very detailed and discouraging review. But given the paucity of books on the Phoenix Park murders, I'll probably have to get it eventually.

Thanks for the tip. I might buy it, as $4 won't kill me. I don't have kindle (I consider it an atrocity!). And by the by, I too check out amazon reviews, not just for books, but for movies too.
And I'm about to order the AFs for N.Y. for about $100. What I don't consider paying for books, I don't mind paying for sources.

It's unfortunate that 'The Grapes of Wrath' was already taken.

What's funny is that this guy's an Okie, his name is Tom, and he writes about grapes. Is it déjà vu?

[The Grave Maurice]

If, instead of a socialists' club, the IWEC had been a bakery, the book could be entitled Buns on Berner.

[Tom_Wescott]

Hi Pontius,

I regret to say that I'm still writing my book and will be for some time, but it's on its way.

Hi Good Michael,

Thanks for saying you'll recommend my book. I appreciate the positive encouragement, as already today one semi-prominent Ripperologist is threatening to leave the field in disgust over the fact that I'm bothering to write a book. Let's hope that his estimation of my abilities is below the mark or else I'll be in a world of hurt.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Stephen Thomas]

A definite 'must have' would have to be The Rip-off and the Royals with the exclusive Abberline diary and photo of Hutchinson's son.

[AndrewL]

Great idea for a thread, Pontius, but I've got to say that I don't think you can take any titles as automatic choices - for example, I haven't yet read Scotland Yard Investigates as I'm not sure what exactly is new in it (can anybody enlighten me?).

With that in mind, here are my top 5:

1. Donald Rumbelow. Ok, so it's now quite outdated and the recent edition did a very inadequate job in this regard. But purely as a 'good read', I'm not sure this has ever been bettered. Wry, erudite and sometimes irritating, it's still the book I'd give to someone who wants to see why JTR is such a fascinating subject.

2. Paul Begg (The Facts). For sheer thoroughness and reliability, this has to be on the list. My only criticism is that Begg sticks to his 'just the facts, ma'am' brief a little too scrupulously - I would have loved to read more about his gut instincts as well.

3. The JTR A-Z. For obvious reasons, this is indispensable - but what a pity it's not twice as long!

4. Philip Sugden. Again, the comprehensive scale of this book makes it impossible to overlook. But be warned - it's written in quite a dense style that mean some novices may struggle to keep up. And if you want to write a complete overview of JTR, you can't just dismiss the Royalist conspiracy and the Maybrick diary in a couple of sentences - ok, they may be objectively rubbish, but rightly or wrongly they're now an integral part of Ripper monthly.

5. Stewart Evans and Paul Gainey. A tough choice for the last slot, but this gets the nod - because whether you think he was JTR or not, Tumblety is undeniably a valid suspect and this book did a superb job in bringing him to light.

Honourable mentions - Tom Cullen is still worth a read, even if his central theory about Druitt's motivation is daft and some of the local colour sounds a bit suspect.
Martin Fido's book did important work on Kosminski, although his reasoning is sometimes a little tortuous.
Bruce Paley contains valuable information about Victorian London, but the Barnett theory is just too speculative for my tastes.

So, who have I left out?

[Tom_Wescott]

I have to say that I actually LIKE more Ripper books than I dislike, and sometimes it's just for readability, as opposed to factual accuracy. It would be easier for me to make a list of books that I dislike. You can count on MJ Trow being on the list.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[lynn cates]

Mannly

Hello Tom. No MJ Trow? Mann oh Mann. (heh-heh)

Cheers.
LC

[Scott Nelson]

I thought Leanne Perry's "Catch Me When You Can" was an excellent suspect book about Barnett.

[mariab]

I thought Leanne Perry's "Catch Me When You Can" was an excellent suspect book about Barnett.

I don't have access to it, but I've heard that essentially it doesn't offer anything new compared to the book by Bruce Paley (which I own, JTR: The simple truth)?

[Jonathan H]

To AndrewL

I don't agree with you about Cullen's 'daft' deranged-social-reformer theory, though I am alone on that one. I think it is vivid and sublime though driven, of course, by his Marxist ideology than say, eh, evidence.

Cullen's book is this sub-genre's one, authentic, literary-historio masterpiece, though in a minor key.

I strongly recommend you get 'Scotland Yard Investigates'.

eg. the opening chapter on Warren's early life as an explorer is surprisingly compelling; it is excellent on all the police (except, I argue, Macnaghten) comings and doings; it makes it clear, in detail, that the 1891 Coles murder was considred a Ripper murder at the time; and its classic next-to-last chapter argues a very clever and -- for me -- very convicning theory as to the real story behind Anderson's alleged slam dunk witness identification of an alleged chief suspect, which in 1910 came out of the blue.

The copious, often beautiful illustrations, both photographic and drawn, are another reason it is a must.