Books Update: Re-Working our Crime, Spies & Sleaze Category: The Man Who Wrote Too Much – Edgar Wallace Part 1
*Crime, Spies & Sleaze: We’re continuing to introduce the new layout for our books categories, with an image for each book. This week, we return to our Crime, Spies & Sleaze category, for the first part of our inventory for the formidable crime, mystery and thriller author Edgar Wallace. Edgar Wallace died at 56 in 1932 (during the script drafting for the original King Kong film), but despite his relatively short life, had a reputation for being very prolific. One of his publishers claimed that a quarter of all books in England were written by him. As well as journalism, Wallace wrote screen plays, poetry, historical non-fiction, 18 stage plays, 957 short stories and over 170 novels, 12 in 1929 alone. More than 160 films have been made of Wallace’s work. I can remember growing up with re-runs of his characters The Four Just Men (who had their own TV series), plus the Edgar Wallace Mystery Hour, an anthology series of his mysteries and thrillers. Later, there was The Mind Of Mr J G Reeder, a detective series in 1969-1971. So Wallace’s popularity continued way beyond his death, although it has faded somewhat in the 21st Century, with few of his books still in print. His output earned him the title ‘The Man Who Wrote Too Much’ and I can recall in one of Agatha Christie’s Tommy & Tuppence novels, there was a reference to a bookshelf with a ‘yard of Edgar Wallace’. We start an impressive inventory of Wallace in our re-listings this week, including several editions published in his lifetime, which are among the oldest books we have. Condition notes and more about each book in our catalogue. More parts to come in future weeks.
PICTURED: ALL BY EDGAR WALLACE ALL SOLD
AGAIN THE RINGER Great Pan 1962 UK PB GD £4
ANGEL ESQUIRE Reader’s Library 1928 UK HC VG £25 With DJ (GD)
THE BIG FOUR Reader’s Library 1929 1st UK HC VG £25 With DJ (GD)
CHICK Ward Lock 1929 UK PB FA/GD £12
THE CALENDAR Great Pan 1961 UK PB VG £4
THE COUNCIL OF JUSTICE Ward Lock 1930s? UK PB GD/VG £4
THE CRIMSON CIRCLE Pan 1950 UK PB VG £6