Edgar Wallace

Edgar Wallace was a British crime and adventure novelist whose name became synonymous with prolific output, though his most famous credit came posthumously: he began the initial draft of *King Kong* before his sudden death. Born Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace on 1 April 1875 in London, he was an illegitimate child raised in poverty and left school at 12. After army service and a stint as a war correspondent during the Second Boer War, he returned to London and wrote thrillers to escape debt, starting with *The Four Just Men* (1905). His time reporting on Belgian Congo atrocities inspired the *Sanders of the River* stories. Signing with Hodder & Stoughton in 1921, he became an international sensation, churning out over 170 novels, 957 short stories, and 18 stage plays. After an unsuccessful 1931 bid for Parliament, he moved to Hollywood as a scriptwriter for RKO. He died on 10 February 1932 from undiagnosed diabetes while working on *King Kong*. Wallace is best remembered for his "colonial imagination" tales, the J. G. Reeder detective stories, and the *Green Archer* serial. More than 160 films have adapted his work, and he sold over 50 million copies worldwide. Though largely out of print in the UK, his books remain popular in Germany. He is credited on 18 comic issues from 1937 to 1992, including *Inspector Wade* and *Super Detective Library*.