Roger Harris presents

www.wejohns.com

Originally launched on 01.01.03

A BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF W. E. JOHNS

DOES ANYBODY HAVE THE BOYS’ FRIEND LIBRARY VERISON OF ‘BIGGLES LEARNS TO FLY’ OR ‘BIGGLES IN FRANCE’ AVAILABLE FOR SALE OR SWAP?

ART SALE!! - I AM SELLING OFF SOME OF MY ORIGINAL LESLIE STEAD ARTWORK – SEE LINK HERE http://www.biggles.info/Artwork2

(Click on the photograph of W. E. Johns to view the hidden letter or click on the drawing of W. E. Johns to read a short biography of his life)

William Earl Johns

Born Sunday 5th February 1893 - Died Friday 21st June 1968

There are 169 books by 'Captain W.E. Johns', which are divided below into eight different groups

The Biggles Books 96 books published between 1932 and 1970 with an additional 6 omnibus editions published within this period, plus two further books published in the late 1990's 104 books	The Worrals Books 11 books published between 1941 and 1950 with 3 other short stories published elsewhere. 11 books	The Gimlet Books 10 books published between 1943 and 1954 with one short story published elsewhere. 10 books	The Sci-Fi Books 10 books published between 1954 and 1963, with no short stories published elsewhere. 10 books
The Steeley Books 6 books published between 1936 and 1939 with one of these books, (The Missing Page) originally only being published abroad. 6 books	The Juvenile Books 8 other juvenile books published between 1938 and 1960 (including one book that contained unique Biggles, Worrals and Gimlet stories). 8 books	The Adult Books 12 books, eleven published between 1922 and 1960, for the adult market and a short story collection published in 2001. 12 books	The Factual Books 8 books published between 1932 and 1962 including 'The Biggles Book of Heroes' and 'The Biggles Book of Treasure Hunting'. 8 books
The Modern Boy First launched on 11^th February 1928 and always costing just 2d (two old pence) - This magazine ran initially for 523 weekly issues until 12^th February 1938. W. E. Johns started contributing illustrations and then articles and then from issue 257, the Biggles stories were published in it.	Modern Boy On 19^th February 1938 "The Modern Boy" was re-launched in a new size and this new “Modern Boy” was re-numbered from issue one again. It ran until issue 87 was published on 14^th October 1939. Production then ceased due to wartime paper shortages. W. E. Johns contributed an article to every issue called "Let's Look Around" and it continued to feature the Biggles stories.	Popular Flying This magazine was a monthly publication first published on Wednesday 16th March 1932 and it ran for 88 months before the last issue appeared in July 1939. W. E. Johns was editor until May 1939, (i.e. for 86 out of 88 issues)	Flying This magazine was a weekly publication first published on Friday 2^nd April 1938 and it ran for 84 weeks before the last issue appeared on Friday 4^th November 1939. W. E. Johns was editor until January 1939 (i.e. for 43 out of 84 issues)
Boy’s Own Paper First published on 19^th January 1879, this paper ran until February 1967. W. E. Johns started contributing Biggles stories with the October 1941 issue and Biggles stories appeared fairly regularly until June 1962. With a 3 part Gimlet tale and 57 appearances by Biggles, Johns appeared in 60 issues. You can see them here.	John Hamilton Ltd John Hamilton was the company that published the first five Biggles books. In 1935, W. E. Johns changed publishers to the Oxford University Press. John Hamilton Ltd was bombed out of business during WWII. The first editions of the first five Biggles books are highly sought after. However as they are undated, they can be hard to identify. This page tells you how to identify those first editions	My Garden This is a guide to the articles written by Captain W. E. Johns for “My Garden” magazine. He actually wrote 100 articles for this monthly magazine. This web page tells you which issues those articles were published in. The bulk of the articles were headed “The Passing Show”.	Norman Wright Norman Wright has been publishing W. E. Johns books in limited editions of 300 since 1994. In 2007 he started a run of hardback Biggles books in fantastic dust jackets painted by Andrew Skilleter. The books are highly collectable and you can see pictures of them here
Air Defence Cadet Corps Gazette First published in June 1939 this ran to 15 issues over two volumes. The first volume of 9 issues contains no W. E. Johns work but every issue of the second volume did. The last ever issue – January 1941 – is believed to be the rarest Johns magazine or periodical to obtain as it is thought that only 1000 issues were printed.	Air Training Corps Gazette First published in March 1941, this ran until June 1946 when that issue became the Air Reserve Gazette. The first volume had ten issues, running from March to December 1941. Volume two then commenced in January 1942 and each volume ran until the December, that being 12 issues. Johns’ work appears in the first three volumes only.	A Guide to Original Book Prices This guide is helpful is working out which dust jackets were on the first editions.	How Johns wrote the manuscripts Find out how the books were written!

Did W. E. Johns write any more books?

I ALSO HAVE FOR SALE THE BEST W.E. JOHNS NUMBER PLATE GOING

E-MAIL ME FOR FURTHER DETAILS IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN BUYING THIS FANTASTIC PLATE

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The copyright in all of W.E. Johns work is owned by the estate of W.E. Johns as represented by W. E. Johns (Publications) Limited.

This private limited company have appointed literary agent Pat White of Rogers Coleridge White to represent the interests of the estate. Their web site is here: http://www.rcwlitagency.com/

This is a non profit making fan based web site purely for the information of fellow fans - no infringement of copyright is intended.

The intention of this web site is to encourage people to read the works of William Earl Johns, one of the great authors of the 20th Century.

Thanks to Anne Shuker for correcting all of my typing errors in the story summaries