James Malcolm Rymer

James Malcolm Rymer (1814–1884) was a British 19th-century writer of penny dreadfuls, and is the probable co-author with Thomas Peckett Prest of both Varney the Vampire (1847) and The String of Pearls (1847), in which the notorious villain Sweeney Todd makes his literary debut.

History

Information about Rymer throughout his life is difficult to find, possibly due to his infamous shyness and desire to escape the public eye, as well as his usage of many pseudonyms such as Merry or Errym. He was of Scottish descent, though born in Clerkenwell, London on 1 February 1814 to a working-class family. He later in life became a civil engineer of which he was still noted to follow as his profession in 1841. He married Caroline Huttley in 1839 and they had their first child in 1840.

Rymer began his literary career in 1842 when he began editing the Queen's Magazine, of which it is speculated he wrote the majority of the published articles. After only five months he was forced to declare the magazine a failure and was forced to seek out other work which he eventually found under the employ of Edward Lloyd. During this time, Rymer made a name for himself with the publication of Ada the Betrayed in 1843. This would later be followed up with the popular serials Varney the Vampire from 1845 to 1847 and The String of Pearls from 1846 to 1847 both of which serialized in People's Periodical and Family Library. Edward Lloyd moved on from publishing penny dreadfuls and began publishing newspapers in 1850, that same year a new publication of A String of Pearls was released with extra content. After this Rymer instead did work for Reynold's Miscellany and befriended the owner of the publication George W. M. Reynolds. During this time in 1855 he wrote The Unspeakable, which he claimed to partly be a biography; because of this, some have suggested Rymer suffered from a stutter in real life.