Edgar Wallace

Edgar Wallace was born on 1 April 1875. His parents were unmarried actors. Nine days later he was adopted by a fish porter. At 11 years old he started his career selling newspapers on Ludgate Circus, London. After military service he became a journalist, working in South Africa and then London. He was a prolific and popular writer (despite Leon Trotsky's assessment of his work: 'It is hard to imagine anything more mediocre, contemptible and crude'). At one time Wallace's publisher claimed that a quarter of all books read in England were written by Wallace. He lost a fortune on gambling and lavish entertainment. One particular decision was his ruin: a competition in the Daily Mail, which serialised The Four Just Men, in which readers had to solve the mystery. Too many were successful, and Wallace had to underwrite the prize money. He died penniless in 1932, while working on the screenplay of the Hollywood film King Kong. Today a memorial plaque in Ludgate Circus reads: 'He knew wealth and poverty, yet had walked with Kings and kept his bearings. Of his talents he gave lavishly to authorship - but to Fleet Street he gave his heart.' --Naxos Audiobooks