James Malcolm Rymer

James Malcolm Rymer was a 19th-century British writer and editor, usually dated to 1814–1884. He is known above all for sensational serial fiction, especially the works commonly associated with the rise of penny dreadful publishing.

He is widely described as the probable co-author, with Thomas Peckett Prest, of Varney the Vampire and The String of Pearls. Those stories left a long cultural shadow: Varney became an early landmark in vampire fiction, while The String of Pearls introduced Sweeney Todd to literature.

Rymer’s life is less clearly documented than his influence. Even basic biographical details are sometimes presented cautiously, but his reputation as a hugely productive popular writer has endured because of the vivid, fast-moving stories that helped define Victorian mass-market horror and suspense.