You've likely never heard of him, if you have, it's probably not for his literary achievements, but Edgar Wallace is considered one of the great writers of the modern era, and history has largely forgotten him. An author that was compared to the likes of Charles Dickens, he remains virtually unknown despite his talent for storytelling and the innovations he brought to the craft.
Born in London on April 1st 1875, Edgar was originally Richard Freeman, the product of a brief and lustful affair. His parents, Richard Edgar and Mary Richards were both actors who descended from prominent theatrical pedigrees but didn't have the means to raise little Richard. Placed with the Freeman family on the recommendation of Mary's midwife....he was only one-week old. Richard took the name of his adopted family and by all accounts his childhood was a very happy one with the privilege of a decent academic education, thanks to his foster father's respect for education.
Much to his adoptive family's dismay, Richard ended his schooling at age twelve and like other young men of the late 19th-century, perceived Army life as an attractive adventure. He joined Queen Victoria's Army in 1894, taking a new name, Edgar Wallace, after Lew Wallace, the author of Ben-Hur and donned that khaki uniform with his new permanent identity. Sent to South Africa, Wallace went from the Infantry, to the Medical Corps, and finally settled on the Press Corps, a genesis in his future career. In 1898 he met and spoke with Rudyard Kipling in Cape Town creating a turning point, and Edgar Wallace desired to become a professional writer. His life in South Africa was less than rosy, and with a War on the horizon, he purchased his way out of the Army setting his sights on returning to England. From Africa he brought a wife and some early literary success, but experienced some serious losses. His first and only child had died and he was under tremendous financial debt due to his love of spending beyond his means, something that would plague him his whole life Nevertheless, he dived into the field, writing long hours (up to 72 hours straight by some accounts) and producing a body of work that kept him and his family afloat...but far from wealthy. Edgar always seemed to live way beyond his means and spent money like flowing tap water...
Until his death in 1932, Wallace's output was tremendous. Everything from adventure to crime novels, some science fiction, poems, screen plays for silent films, stage plays, short stories, and everything in between. Out of Wallace's extensive bibliography (175 novels, 15 plays, almost 1000 short stories), crime and mystery was the "bread and butter" of his craft, taking up a large portion of his works. Along with this, his narrative literary style was engaging, his innovations like using police as the main narrative characters being one example (as opposed to armature sleuths such as Doyle's Sherlock Holmes) made the books almost too hard to put down once a reader picked it up...
How is it that Wallace, talented and innovative, an author who singlehandedly invented the modern crime novel as we know it, has been virtually lost to our collective memory? One reason chanced to guess that the body of his work was so large there was no way the public could focus on one popular book or one of his characters...Wallace's works were associated with his name and fame and not with an Oliver Twist, an Ebenezer Scrooge, a Holmes and Watson, or a Tarzan. When Wallace was gone, so were the stories he churned out...with nothing definitive to hold onto. While he is not widely remembered for his literature, there is something Edgar Wallace will forever be immortalized...one particular American film...about a gorilla...
In late 1931 Wallace emigrated from England to Hollywood California for work in the film industry. He had been fairly successful in entertainment ventures from silents to talkies to stage plays. He had written the screenplay for the British film production of The Hound of the Baskervilles which premiered in 1932, as well as creating a very successful stage production called On the Spot, centered around Al Capone as the main character, with the name changed to Tony Perelli, of course. The star of the play was Charles Laughton, in his first breakthrough role. RKO assigned Wallace an idea for a film centered around a large ape in December, shortly after his physical arrival to Southern California. In typical fashion, Wallace went to work creating the plot, framing it up, and developing the storyline for what RKO was calling the "gorilla picture". This was eventually put to film and became one of the most iconic and well-known movies of all time, King Kong. Edgar Wallace never lived to see what debuted in 1933, dying from complication brought on by diabetes in Beverly Hills California in 1932. His lifeless body was returned to England and the film hit the theatres the next year...with a top-billing tagline...
"From An Idea Conceived by Edgar Wallace"...
