NOTED AUTHOR DEAD

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 146, 12 February 1932, Page 5

NOTED AUTHOR DEAD

(Press Assn.-

MR; EDGAR WALLAGE ■ • }, ■ . ■+- • k- # from newspaper boy to income of million in 20 years k'EMARkABLE CAREkR

— By Telegraph— Copyright).

NEW YORK, Thursday. uMr. Edgar Wallace died at Beverley Hills ('Calif 0 jjiia| , t^ist jnprning at 4,45 o'clock from pneumonia', aged $'6, .Mr. W'ailace was stricken yfiih influenza on Sunday, and pneumonja developed on Mohday. jle had hpen in.. a .semi-eonscipus con'dition since Tuesday. 4At his hedside wprp Mr-. Robert Curtis, his secretary for : many years, Mr. WalfeP Hustoh, the actor, and his physician.

s Edgar, .Wallace ; hald'.a rejharkahl'e carecr. . Born in .p.ep'tfprd . in .,18.75, and ,at o.nce left,.a dpstitute orhhan, h© was adO(pted.,at..the age 'ofrnine days by George Freeman, a Billirigsgate fish porter, and . wife, who were very kin j to hiih. After a. little schooling Wallace staxted t selling pewspapers in the str'ee\'s- Uh.,Yas later employed • dt. vdrio'us printihg offices, in- a' bopt shop, a ruhher- factpry, wiring artificial roses f of street ! , §ale, Wofked for a foad-men'dihg ■ fiym, and as a milkmhh's hoy, and' ' went t'O -sea in a Hull trawler is cO'6k 1 npd cajitaih's hoy. S'easick all the' ■ time, he was cuffed- for his deficiencies as a cook, so he deserted, ikA begged the food that kept him. alive ■ ttn.his trarnp tPvL'ondoxi. Thefje he became a timek'epper , in . th.e Yictoria Do.ck Rpad, 'spent his l'ast shillmg, ]on a, .phnt'Ottiim'e, and then . jd\hed "the Ro'yil West Kent Regimenf. Later ,he transferred tP the Medlcal . Staff ! Corps, and began to Writ'e vetses, one' of j his efforts being accepted by Arfhur kphefts,- th© cojmedian, who; sapg it for yeafs.. S.ept jp ^P.uth Affica, he met Kfpling 4-t Capetown, also. Cecil Rhodes and W. Schreinqr. It was on the.hacks p^.aue'dlcaljreport fofms that he(,made his firs't pssays in wfi'ting. He later becamea. war eorrespondent and had a long cpnnection with the "Daily Mail" and other papers. Wallace wrote with (\mazing rapidity. , Give'n ; a commission once for a series pf ten shqrt, ptories, he was asked three weeks : Jater whether Ixe had one -ready. -Butting his Land in his pocket ;he, •nroduced the entire ten. One of his plays, "M'Lady," sta'ged i'n 1921, was 5 jyritten in- 14, hoxXrs,. while "The Ringer," one of the hest nlelo'dfafti'as Seen in London for y'ears, a.nd equally puceessful in Berlin, was diefated.m twsp , days. He foll'owed it up with "Double Dan," a sort .'Pf "crook" ; farce. Other s of his plays are "The Fl'ying SqxXa'd" and "The Squeaker." In addition to his many novels and dramas he wrote "This England," an analysis of present-day tendencie-s in yariouls sphere's, atid a fascinating hook .pf reminiscpnees. Tn spite of the rapidity with which he composed, due to his long _experience in working against time for the Lxess, his.style is excellent. Keenly interested in the turf, he was an owne-r of racehorses.