Sweeney Todd: The String of Pearls by James Malcolm Rymer

Sweeney Todd: The String of Pearls by James Malcolm Rymer

James Malcolm Rymer (1814-1884) was a British penny dreadful novelist who co-wrote both Varney the Vampire (1847) and The String of Pearls (1847) with Thomas Peckett Prest, in which the legendary villain Sweeney Todd makes his literary debut. Rymer's background is unknown. Despite being born in Clerkenwell, London on February 1, 1814, he was of Scottish heritage. He is mentioned as a civil engineer, living at 42 Burton Street, in the London Directory of 1841, and the British Museum collection identifies him as editing the Queen's Magazine in 1842. He wrote 115 bestselling novels for Edward Lloyd, an English bookseller and publisher, between 1842 and 1867, including the best-sellers Ada the Betrayed, Varney the Vampyre, and The String of Pearls.

In England, Rymer's novels were published under his own name and anagrammatic pseudonyms such as Malcolm J. Malcolm J. and Errym