Appartement n°2 - Wallace, Edgar

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Résumé :
Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace (1875 - 1932) was an English writer. Born into poverty as an illegitimate London child, Wallace left school at age 12. He joined the army at age 21 and was a war correspondent during the Second Boer War, for Reuters and the Daily Mail. Struggling with debt, he left South Africa, returned to London and began writing thrillers to raise income, publishing books including The Four Just Men (1905). Drawing on his time as a reporter in the Congo, covering the Belgian atrocities, Wallace serialized short stories in magazines such as The Windsor Magazine and later published collections such as Sanders of the River (1911). He signed with Hodder and Stoughton in 1921 and became an internationally recognized author. Wallace was such a prolific writer that one of his publishers claimed that a quarter of all books in England were written by him. As well as journalism, Wallace wrote screen plays, poetry, historical non-fiction, 18 stage plays, 957 short stories and over 170 novels, 12 in 1929 alone. More than 160 films have been made of Wallace's work. He is remembered for the creation of King Kong, as a writer of 'the colonial imagination', for the J. G. Reeder detective stories and for The Green Archer serial. He sold over 50 million copies of his combined works in various editions, and The Economist describes him as one of the most prolific thriller writers of [the 20th] century....

Biographie:
Edgar Wallace was born Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace in Greenwich, England, in 1875. Raised in modest circumstances by foster parents, he left school at an early age and worked at several jobs before joining the British Army. While stationed in South Africa, he began writing poetry and journalism and later became a correspondent covering the Second Boer War. These experiences helped launch a remarkably prolific literary career.Wallace became one of the most successful popular writers of the early twentieth century, producing crime novels, thrillers, adventure stories, plays, short fiction, and screenplays at an extraordinary pace. His best-known works include The Four Just Men, The Ringer, The Green Archer, The Crimson Circle, and the Sanders of the River stories. His fiction is characterized by rapid plotting, memorable villains, hidden identities, criminal conspiracies, and dramatic reversals.In addition to his novels and plays, Wallace worked in the developing motion-picture industry and helped create the original story for King Kong. He died in Hollywood in 1932 while working on film projects. His books sold in enormous numbers during his lifetime, and his influence remains visible in British crime fiction, international thrillers, and popular cinema....