Query (Digit of the Moon)

[Allen W Thrasher]

A Digit of the Moon was composed by F. W. (Francis William) Bain,
1863-1940, a teacher in India, and was not as he at first pretended a
translation.  He said the earlier ones in his series of imitations of
the Kathasaritsagara were translations from a ms left him by a pandit
who was grateful for Bain's nursing him during his fatal illness in the
Poona Plague.  In the introduction to one of the later ones he admitted
his use of pseudonomy.  This and the rest of his life is discussed in
Keshav Mutalik, "Francis William Bain," Bombay: University of Bombay,
1963.  His romances were apparently enormously popular in England, the
U.S., and India, to judge from the large numbe of editions and the
frequency ones encounters them in used book shops.  I think they are
marvelous.

Allen


Allen W. Thrasher, Ph.D.
Senior Reference Librarian
Southern Asia Section
Asian Division
Library of Congress
Jefferson Building 150
101 Independence Ave., S.E.
Washington, DC 20540-4810
tel. 202-707-3732
fax 202-707-1724
athr at loc.gov
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