unearths some literary gems.
rom The Mayfair Mystery, by Frank Richardson:
[This so-called mystery novel, first published in 1907 as 2835 Mayfair, might be better described as a steampunk-horror paranormal transgender romance. (I'm not trying to be funny; it seems to be a quite remarkable--and largely forgotten--book for its time.) Most of the comic relief pertains to whiskers, which I've learned was Richardson's claim to fame. (You'll recall "Mainly about Whiskers" as a chapter title in the previous Richardson book I read.) Among the attachments here, the one called "face-fungus" comes from the 2015 preface to a reprinted edition (and the OED does show Richardson as the first citation for the term); the others are from the body of the book, and only the vast majority of them involve whiskers. Incidentally, the supporting character who is obsessed with whiskers, "Frank Robinson," is presumably the author's self-parody--and Robinson is disliked by his club acquaintances, so Richardson obviously has a sense of humor about himself.][Bonus: an offstage character called the Hon. Otho Trigg]
