(1889-1949)
The Swiss-born Surdez was at once the most elegant prose stylist and the most realistic of all the pulpsters and novelists of the early 20th century who specialized in tales of the French Foreign Legion. His firsthand knowledge of the legionnaires and of the North African region where most of such stories took place assured him a wealth of inside information and rich, authentic detail. The immigrant to America settled in Brooklyn, New York, and was selling to the pulp magazines by the early 1920s. His first of many stories of the Legion for Adventure was “The Yellow Streak,” which appeared in the issue dated October 10, 1922. He became one of the magazine’s regular and valued contributors, no small feat in company that included Talbot mundy, Rafael sabatini, Arthur Howden smith, Gordon Young, and John Buchan. In later years his continuing chronicles of the legendary (or notorious) fighting force were printed in other top magazines, including Bluebook and Argosy, as well as in some of the more lucrative slick magazines. In addition, Surdez occasionally did the English translations for French authors of the time.
A journalist seeking the origins of the deadly game of Russian roulette determined that its first use was in a Foreign Legion story by Surdez. “Russian Roulette,” published in Collier’s in 1937, de-scribed—possibly for the first time in print—the now well-known dare. Instead of spinning a chamber with one bullet in it and firing, however, Sur-dez’s Russian soldiers speak of a far riskier game with just one empty chamber.
Adventure magazine, May 1923, featuring a story by Georges Surdez
Surdez’s novel The Demon Caravan was filmed in 1953 as Desert Legion, starring Alan Ladd and Arlene Dahl. For his efforts on behalf of the legion, he was made an honorary sergeant.
Works
- “Africa Landing” (Feb. 1943);
- “All Survivors Report” (July 27, 1940);
- “Another Man’s Chevrons” (June 9, 1934);
- “Badge of Hate” (June 10, 1933);
- “Clarions of Youth” (Sept. 28, 1935);
- “Coat of Monsieur Picart” (Feb. 13, 1938);
- “Demon Caravan” (1927);
- “Forever Glory” (June 1943);
- “France in Their Hearts” (Dec. 1943);
- “Homeland” (1946);
- “Jacket Number 6984″ (Mar. 4, 1933);
- “Madame X of the Legion” (June 27, 1936);
- “Outside the Walls” (May 30, 1923);
- “Russian Roulette” (Jan. 30, 1937);
- “Six Good Men” (Oct. 28, 1922);
- “Unknown Legionnaire” (Aug. 1949);
- “Yellow Streak, The” (Oct. 10, 1922)
