Edgar Wallace: The Man Who Created King Kong
By Neil Clark
4/5
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About this ebook
‘It is impossible not to be thrilled by Edgar Wallace.’ So said the blurbs of Wallace’s own books.
Indeed, he was a prolific author of over 170 books, translated into more than thirty languages. More films were made from his books than any other twentieth-century writer, and in the 1920s a quarter of all books read in England were written by him. His success is written in black and white, but his life got off to an inauspicious start.
Edgar Wallace, the illegitimate son of a travelling actress, rose from poverty in Victorian England to become the most popular author in the world and a global celebrity of his age.
Famous for his thrillers, with their fantastic plots, in many ways Wallace did not write his most exciting story: he lived it, and here Neil Clark eloquently tells his tale to allow you to live it too.
Neil Clark
NEIL CLARK is a journalist, broadcaster and award-winning blogger. He has contributed numerous articles to leading newspapers, such as the Guardian, Daily Mail and The Spectator. He is a regular pundit on sport and current affairs on television and radio, and in 1993-94 he was Chair of the Edgar Wallace Society.
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Reviews for Edgar Wallace
3 ratings1 review
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This read like a series of newspaper articles, sets of facts without too much comment, though there is a fair bit of comment on the treatment of popular literature of the time that sounds just like modern moments I've seen play out, both about popular literature and women's literature. And with Wallace's prodigious output it's impossible that he didn't write some dogs.It's always interesting to hear about how some things stay the same, the treatment of popular literature is one of those thing that never seems to change, though some of the writers seem to be rehabillatied by history. I have always found that some popular fiction sometimes depicts the social history and mores of the time better than many other sources. I am an Edgar Wallace fan, since my teen years and I do still enjoy them.Edgar was an illegimate child, adopted by a couple who left school at 12, went to South Africa just before the Boer War (and somehow managed to avoid being one of the combatants during it) instead being a war correspondent, he became an editor for a newspaper in South Africa and married his first wife there.His life is full of moments of being very financially stupid and generous at the same time, leaving some messes behind him but at the end his family weren't poor after him and his gererousity lives long in many people's memory.It's not a bad read but it left me wanting more.