The Flying Fifty-Five - Wallace, Edgar

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Résumé :
This early work by Edgar Wallace was originally published in 1922 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography. 'The Flying Fifty-Five' is a novel set in the horse racing community and follows the ups and downs of turf life. Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace was born in London, England in 1875. He received his early education at St. Peter's School and the Board School, but after a frenetic teens involving a rash engagement and frequently changing employment circumstances, Wallace went into the military. He served in the Royal West Kent Regiment in England and then as part of the Medical Staff Corps stationed in South Africa. Whilst in the Balkans covering the Russo-Japanese War, Wallace found the inspiration for The Four Just Men, published in 1905. Over the rest of his life, Wallace produced some 173 books and wrote 17 plays. These were largely adventure narratives with elements of crime or mystery, and usually combined a bombastic sensationalism with hammy violence.

Biographie:
British author Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace lived from 1 April 1875 to 10 February 1932. Wallace, a 12-year-old illegitimate kid from London who was born into poverty, quit school. He joined the military at the age of 21. He covered the Second Boer War for Reuters and the Daily Mail. At the age of 46, he passed very abruptly from untreated diabetes while the first draught of King Kong (1933) was being written. It's been said that Wallace wrote one-fourth of all literature in England. His works have been adapted into more than 160 movies. He is famous for writing the colonial imagination, the J. G. Reeder detective novels, and The Green Archer serial in addition to his work on King Kong. The Economist referred to him as one of the most prolific thriller writers of [the 20th] century in 1997 despite the fact that the vast majority of his books are no longer in print in the UK but are still popular in Germany. He sold more than 50 million copies of his combined works in various editions. The Edgar Wallace Story, a 50-minute German television documentary, was produced in 1963 and starred his son Bryan Edgar Wallace.