Vivian Meik (b.
at sea, registered at Calcutta , 21 July 1894; d.
San Clemente , California , 22 December 1955)
Vivian Bernard Meik was the son of Lorenzo Meik (1847-1918),
a maritime inspector based in India ,
and his wife Alice Gertrude Thomas (1856-1918). Meik’s family were originally
from Scotland , but his
father and grandfather had mostly lived in India . He was the oldest surviving
child of five (an older brother and an older sister had died in infancy); he had
two younger brothers.
Details of
his early life are sketchy, and by his own account (which often seems
exaggerated) he claimed to have circled the globe three times before he was
eighteen. In 1913 he was working on a
rice plantation in Borneo, and after the outbreak of war he was commissioned in
Calcutta and served with the British Sixth Division, being wounded a number of
times. He claimed to have earned the Croix de Guerre for acts of bravery. In
Calcutta, on 14 October 1916, he married a woman named Bernadette Marie
(1898-1981), whose original surname was possibly Desperadza (after her divorce
from Meik, probably in the late 1920s, she used the surname Cooke, before
changing it officially in 1946 to D’Esperance; it became Nightingale after her
1961 marriage to Peter Nightingale).
They had two children, a son Colvin Bernard Peter Meik (1917-1996) and
daughter Valerie (1924-2003).
After
demobilization in 1919, Meik joined the staff of the Bengali-Nagpur Railway,
based out of Calcutta ,
as an assistant traffic superintendent. For this (and other) railway-associated
work, he traveled extensively, and was eventually transferred to Central Africa . In 1928, bothered by war wounds, Meik
left the tropics and soon settled in London ,
where he took up writing. Probably in the late 1920s he was also divorced from
his first wife, and married Elsie May Howard (1903-1997), known familiarly as
“Eve”.
His first
book was a type of sensational nonfiction, The
People of the Leaves (1931), in which Meik claimed to have discovered a
race of primitive aborigines in a little-known section of India . It was fairly successful,
and also had an American edition, published by Henry Holt. Zambezi Interlude (1932) is a kind of follow-up, covering Meik’s experiences
in central Africa . Lacking the narrative hook
of the first volume, it is more personal and, perhaps as a consequence, more
interesting, but it did not sell nearly as well.
With Devils’ Drums (London: Philip Allan,
1933), Meik turned to fiction. A collection of ten short stories with recurring
characters, most of the tales concern central African voodoo, witch doctors,
and curses. These stories are well-executed and are a refreshing change from
the typical British horror stories of the 1930s. One story, “The Doll of Death”, was filmed in
1973 as an episode of Rod Serling’s Night
Gallery. Devils’ Drums was published as part of the famous “Creeps” series,
edited by Charles L. Birkin. Meik
contributed one related story to one of the “Creep” anthologies, Monsters (1934).
A follow-up
novel, focusing on new figures but with brief appearances by some of the
characters from Devils’ Drums, was The Veils of Fear (London: Philip Allan,
1934). In it a small group travels to
the Near East, to the Himalayas, and on to Hong Kong
in order to challenge two figures of supernatural evil. As a novel it is
unsuccessful, with long dream sequences that backtrack the plot, and a terrible
ending in which one of the major point-of-view characters realizes in the final
line that he is dead.
Philip Allan edition |
Hillman-Curl editoin |
Meik’s next
novel, The Curse of Shiva
(London: Philip Allan, 1936; New
York: Hillman-Curl, 1938), was also his
last, but it shows considerable improvement in pacing, and in the narrative
handling of a long story. It is a
non-fantasy thriller based on the enactment of a centuries-old Indian curse in
modern London . The Saturday Review described the book as a "blood and thunder yarn of slinking Eurasians, renegade whites, stranglings, etc., with reasonably good detective trimmings" (23 July 1938).
His final
book was the small polemic, Nemesis over
Hitler (1941), which is a sensationalist attack on Hitler, claiming to
cover supposed inside meetings of Hitler’s inner circle in Berlin . Towards the end of the war, Meik
began to investigate Mormonism, and he joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day
Saints in April 1946. The following
year, he moved with his family to Salt
Lake City , where the Church has its headquarters, and
where his uncle resided. Meik joined the staff of the church-owned Deseret News, where he was given a
column entitled “Interpreting the News”.
Medusa Press edition |
In 1953 Meik
moved with his family to San Clemente ,
California . In early 1955, owing
to ill health, he gave up his column. He suffered a fatal heart attack while
driving his car during the afternoon of 22 December 1955.
Vivian Meik
published six books: two novels, one short story collection, and three works of
nonfiction. His best work is to be found in his short stories. A long-overdue expanded edition of Devil’s Drums, adding two stray tales
and an excerpt from Zambezi Interlude, appeared in 2011 from Medusa Press. This edition is limited to 300 copies. For ordering information, see the Medusa Press website HERE.
NB: This entry updates and is based on part of my more detailed “Introduction” to the 2011 expanded edition of Devils’ Drums, published by Medusa Press.
your research is pretty good...but not quite accurate..Eve, Elsie Meik was my grandmother, and Valerie, was my mother...Vivian died before I was born, but my older brothers knew him. All the while I grew up hearing wonderful stories of what a great man he was, so kind, intelligent and top notch. One day I will post more of him
ReplyDeleteI have found these entries about Vivian Meik most interesting. My Grandfather was George Gelder (1879-1923) and he worked for the Calcutta Port Commissioners as a Boat Gunner at Kidderpore Docks, Calcutta with V. B Meik (believed to be Vivian Bernard Meik) and B. V. Mann (Source: 1915 edition of Thacker’s Indian Directory). A Boat Gunner or Supervisor was responsible for checking the ingress and egress of all craft entering or leaving the Docks.
DeleteI have also located Vivian Meik’s Baptism and marriage records in the British Library India Office Records.
I would be interested to know whether Vivian Meik has left any documents/memorabilia/recollections of his time working with George Gelder and/or at Kidderpore Docks or whether this features in any of his writing. Given the date of Vivian Meik's marriage I wonder if there are any photographs or guest lists of the occasion and whether his workmate George Gelder attended.
Look forward to hearing from you.
John Gelder
Thanks for writing. Please do post more of him someday. The details I have of his family come from genealogical sources and his books, none of which are sources free from error. I'll be glad to have further specifics.
ReplyDeleteMost interesting. Presently I lay claim to 197 MEIK cousins, based (I fear) too much on other people's information - and I'd be happy to share what I think I know with you & "Anonymous" - try me at don(dot)montague(at)virgin(dot)net.
ReplyDeleteMy wife is babete kenyon ne west,her father was born in India and was a cousin of Vivien.we live in Scotland and on land which was part of the carsie estate owned by the meiks. Thomas meil Laird of led carsie is buried in Bendochy church yard,we have located the grave and it bears the family coat of arms.
ReplyDeleteYdna from any of these Ledcarsie Meiks is wanted by the Meek Dna website.
Delete