A popular post-Soviet writer who became famous for crime stories about the 87 police station in the same fictional American city. Evan Hunter has been published under dozens of different pseudonyms. The circulation of his books in different languages amounted to more than 100 million copies.
early years
The future prolific author of detective novels Evan Hunter was born on October 15, 1928 in a family of Italian immigrants in New York. At birth, he was named Salvatore Albert Lombino. Until 12 years old, they lived in East Harlem, then the family moved to the Bronx. He studied at Evander Child High School, and later received a scholarship from a charity, studied art at Cooper Union.
During World War II, he was drafted into the Navy in the Pacific Ocean and served on a destroyer. At this time, he wrote several stories that were not published until he became a venerable writer.
After serving in the Navy, he returned to New York and continued his education at Hunter College, majoring in English and Psychology, and attended a drama and education course. At college, Evan Hunter ran a weekly column in a student newspaper.
On the way to the profession
Before becoming a writer, he changed many works. As emphasized in the biography of Evan Hunter, a little more than two weeks, in September 1950, he taught at the school. Later, this experience formed the basis for writing the book "School Jungle." In 1951, he began to work as a literary agent, among his clients were many famous writers. Evan represented the classics of American science fiction Arthur Clarke and Paul William Anderson, the English fiction writer Pal Gran Granville Woodhouse.
In the same year, Evan Hunter made his debut with the story "Welcome Martians," written in the genre of science fiction. His first literary experience was published under the name of S. A. Lombino.
First aliases
All of the following works were published under the pseudonyms Evan Hunter and Hunt Collins. The main pseudonym by which he became famous was composed of the names of the colleges "Evander Child" and "Hunter College". In May 1952, the editor invited him to change his name, saying that under Italian works would be worse accepted by English-speaking readers. And he officially changed his name, becoming Evan Hunter.
At this time, he wrote a lot of genre fiction, which was published under the names of Kurt Cannon, D. A. Addams and Ted Thein and many others. In total, he published several dozen science fiction stories and four novels. Basically, these were works in the genre of criminal fiction, therefore, in order not to spoil the literary reputation of a serious author, he began to be published under different names.
Famous writer
A great lover of pseudonyms, he also became famous under the fictitious name of Ed McBain. The first book, the novel "Hating Police Officers," was published in 1956. The famous detective series began with this story about the serial murder of police officers organized by a woman to cover up the elimination of her husband. The action of the books takes place around 87 police station, which is located in a city that strongly resembles New York. The protagonist Steve Carell, a smart and cold-blooded detective, investigates crime in more than 50 works, including the books The Robber (1956), The Price of Doubt (1965) and Weekdays (1971). After the extraordinary success of the first novels in 1958, Evan Hunter confesses his authorship, but continues to write detective stories under this happy pseudonym.
Other well-known criminal works of the writer is a series about the lawyer Matthew Hope. In the first book, Goldilocks (1977), the protagonist is transferred from New York to Florida, and strange stories begin around him, false clients appear, and later troupes. All the books in the series are named after popular fairy tales - for example, "Jack and the Bean", "Kitty in Boots", "Three Blind Mice." Novels differ from police detectives in a more free presentation, bringing them closer to the thrillers in format.
Call me heach
Several "serious" works were published under the real name, including the novel "Winter Is Coming" (1973) and the script for the film "Birds" (1963). About the work with the famous director Alfred Hitchcock in 1997, he wrote the book "Me and Hitch." Evan writes that when he turned to the famous director: “What should I call you?”, He answered: “Call, like everyone else - Heath.” Although the writer knew that for everyone he was "Mr. Hitchcock." In the memoirs, there are many more ironic reviews by Evan Hunter about working with the genius of horror films.
He also used different pseudonyms two more times - Ezra Hannon for the novel Royal Flush (1975) and John Abbot for Scimitar (1992). Later he began to use only two names. As he stated, this allows readers to know what to expect from the novel. If these are McBain’s novels, then this is a certain writing style, and the work will most likely be a detective story, and Evan Hunter’s books are very diverse.
In 2002, the writer was diagnosed with throat cancer. In 2005, Evan Hunter died. The last novel about his beloved 87 plot was published after his death.