Photo: Sasha (Aleksander Stewart) (1931)
Sample of authors
Wallace, Edgar
During his most productive period, the English author Edgar Wallace was one of the most popular authors in Europe. Allegedly, every fourth book sold in Britain was written by him. This is debatable, but his output was still vast and his books were printed in unusually large editions. He was also a playwright with some success both at home and on Broadway. Many of his stories were adapted for the...
Photo: Louis Monier/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images (1999)
Sample of authors
Crumley, James
The American author and teacher James Arthur Crumley never reached bestseller status. However, he was instrumental in the development of hardboiled crime fiction from the 1970s onwards.
Crumley was born at Three Rivers, southern Texas. His father was an oil field foreman and his mother a waitress. The family was poor; his mother forced her son to attend church, but she never went herself since...
