The Eloquence of Herr Martin Tolmaque
By Kent Blackmore, with the writings of Martin Tolmaque
Published June 2024 - 329 pages in hardcover
…and finally conjuring, to which I have faithfully kept for nearly 20 years, during which time I have performed in most parts of the world and in the dens of disreputability, encountering all the vicissitudes inseparable from the career of a travelling showman. Many a time and oft my heart has failed me, and my spirits have been bowed to the very dust with misfortunes and failures connected with such a life; illness, want of knowledge of the world, especially the world to which I now belong, have frequently tempted me to wish for another and more certain career; but - ‘There is a divinity which shapes our ends, rough hew them as we may.’
- Tolmaque, ‘The Struggles of Life’ Chapter V
- Tolmaque, ‘The Struggles of Life’ Chapter V
Herr Martin Beaufort Tolmaque (1834 - 1907) was a conjuror, escape artist, mesmerist, actor, anti-spiritualist, phrenologist and writer. He had some fame as a magician, but in Australia his main claim to attention was to have been incarcerated in the New Norfolk Hospital for the Insane at Hobart Tasmania, from which experience he wrote a series of blistering newspaper stories which resulted in his complaints being examined by official commissions of enquiry.
We are fortunate to have not only Tolmaque’s ten chapters of ‘The Treatment of the Insane, or Nine Months in the Lunatic Asylum’ from 1885, but also thirty-eight autobiographical stories written under the heading ‘The Struggles of Life, or the True Adventures of Herr Tolmaque’ and nine more tales written for the newspapers. With an added history compiled from news sources and public records, this is the true history of the eloquent Herr Martin Tolmaque.
