Edgar Wallace

Though largely forgotten today, Edgar Wallace was one of the most successful and prolific British novelists of the interwar years. He was born in the London suburb of Greenwich in 1875 with the name Richard Horatio Edgar Freeman. Wallace's parents were unmarried, and he grew up in relative poverty in a foster family. After leaving school at the age of twelve, he worked in a number of jobs, eventually enlisting in the army in 1896, where he joined the West Kent Regiment under the name of Edgar Wallace. Posted to South Africa, he worked in the Royal Army Medical Corps, before being posted to the Press Corps, where he gained his first experience of writing professionally.

After leaving the army, Wallace became a war correspondent for the Daily Mail in 1900, before going on to publish his first novel, The Four Just Men, in 1905, setting up his own publishing company to do so. Although the book sold well, the project was mismanaged, and Wallace's company was eventually bailed out by the Daily Mail, as the editors feared that the fiasco would reflect badly on the newspaper. Wallace would later have the honour, in 1907, of being the first reporter to be fired from the Daily Mail.

With no other means of support, Wallace turned to writing fiction. Initially he concentrated on adventure stories set in Africa, writing over a hundred short stories in his Sanders of the River series. As his success grew, he turned his hand to thrillers, mysteries, and crime novels. In 1921 Wallace entered into a publishing contract with Hodder & Stoughton, who described him as the 'King of Thrillers' when promoting his work. The partnership would prove to be incredibly profitable for both parties; Wallace, who had previously sold his work piecemeal to newspapers and publishers could now allow his editors at Hodder & Stoughton to manage the publication of his work, and allow himself to focus on writing. By the end of his career Wallace would be responsible for at least 950 short stories, 170 novels, and 18 stage plays. It was estimated in 1929 that a quarter of all novels sold in England had been penned by Edgar Wallace.[1] To maximise his output, Wallace would dictate his stories, with the results being recorded on wax cylinder, and transcribed by a secretary. It was said that he could write a 70,000-word novel in three days. His productivity was well-known by the public, and the source of a number of jokes; a popular story averred that when a friend telephoned Wallace, and was told he had just started a novel and did not want to be disturbed, answered with the remark "I'll wait."

Although he enjoyed incredible success during the 1920s, Wallace was a gambler, and a reckless investor, and was frequently short of money. At the end of 1931 he left Britain for America, to work in the film industry in Hollywood. In January 1932, whilst working on the screenplay for King Kong, he reported suffering a series of painful headaches, and was diagnosed with diabetes. His condition deteriorated quickly, and Wallace died in California on 10 February 1932, from diabetes and pneumonia.