  frank morrison spillane (march 9, 1918july 17, 2006), better known as mickey spillane, was an american author of crime novels, many featuring his signature detective character, mike hammer. more than 225 million copies of his books have sold internationally.william l deandrea, encyclopedia mysteriosa : a comprehensive guide to the art of detection in print, film, radio, and television. new york: prentice hall general reference, 1994. isbn 0671850253 (pp. 336-7). in 1980, spillane was responsible for seven of the top 15 all-time best-selling fiction titles in the u.s. ==biography== born in brooklyn, new york city, and raised in elizabeth, new jersey, spillane was the only child of his irish bartender father, john joseph spillane, and his scottish mother, catherine anne. spillane attended erasmus hall high school, graduating in 1935.boyer, david. "neighborhood report: flatbush: "grads hail erasmus as it enters a fourth century", the new york times, march 11, 2001. accessed december 1, 2007. he started writing while in high school, briefly attended fort hays state college in kansas and worked a variety of jobs, including summers as a lifeguard at breezy point, queens, and a period as a trampoline artist for the ringling bros. and barnum & bailey circus. during world war ii spillane enlisted in the army air corps, becoming a fighter pilot and a flight instructor.rippetoe, rita elizabeth booze and the private eye: alcohol in the hard boiled novel. mcfarland, 2004. while flying over murrells inlet, south carolina, he said, "that is where i want to live." later, he would use his celebrity status to publicize the grand strand on tv, but when it became a popular resort area and traffic became a problem, spillane said, "i shouldn't have told people about it." lieutenant_frank_spillane,_usaaf_instructor_pilot.jpg|photo of lt. frank m. spillane f
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