Evening star., 1932-02-10
EDGAR WALLACE,
AUTHOR, D|ESAT S
zone of Worlds Most Prolific
Writers" Started Life
in London SIumS.
By the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press.
BEVERLY HILLS, Calf, February
1O.-Edgar Wallace, who became one
Of the worlds most prolific and highest
paid writers after starting life as a
newsboy in the slums of London, died
this morning at 4:45 o'clock. Death
was due to double pneumonia. He was
56 years of age.
The noted author of mystery stories
was stricken Sunday with influenza.
Pneumonia developed Monday, and
since yesterday the writer had been in
q semi-conscious condition.
At his bedside when he died were
his secretary of many years, Robert
Curtis; Walter Huston, the actor, and
his physician.
Wallace came to Hollywood from his
home in England several months ago
to write scenarios for the R-K-O
Radio Studios.
known especially for his mystery
novels, which he often wrote as rapidly
as two a month, Wallace was one of
the most distinguished writer's OF the
day. He, however, laid no claim to
literary genius.
Birthplace in Slums.
Born in the squalor and poverty OF
London slums, Wallace's parents were
SO poor they had to leave him in the
care of a public boarding school.
At 10 he sold papers on the streets
and his education in school stopped at
that age. At II he engaged himself as
a cabin boy on a trawler which later
cruiSed the North Sea.
When 18 he enlisted as private
soldier and saw service in South Africa
for the period Of the Boer War. During
his six years of active campaigning he
developed latent talent for writing.
He began first by patterning after
the man he most admired, Kipling,
writing vigorous poetry of soldier life.
This attracted attention of various
journals throughout the world, with the
result that Wallace had a ready sale
for his material.
Accumulating money, he purchased
his discharge from the Army and COW
cred the rest Of the Boer War as spe-
cial correspondent for Reuters News
Agency and the London Daily Mail.
After the Boer War, he founded the
Rand Daily Mail, the first English news
raper in South Africa While editing
the paper he bagan writing adventure
stories, which were eagerly sought by
publishers in London.
During his career, he wrote approXi-
mately 200 novels, between 1900 and
1,400 short stories and 20 plays.
Funeral arrangements probably will
await the arrival of Mrs. Wallace, who
on hearing of her husbands illness
70 vnrH th,
liner Majestic. sailing today.
Criticism No Worry.
Wallace was one playwright to whom
the "boos" of dissatisfied first-night
audiences in London meant little. When
his play The Mouthpiece" brought this
expression of disapproval late in 1880,
he remarked:
What do I care? have plenty
more"
And he had, for verse, novel, detec-
tive thriller and drama poured from his
pen as if from an inexhaustible well.
To vary this activity he tried politics,
standing as a Liberal candidate for
Parliament in October, 1881. But he
was defeated in the Conservative land
slide.
Wallace was born in 1875 and began
writing 20 years later. He first put out
a book of songs, but quickly switched
to prose and appeared in 1898 as the
author Of novel, The Mission That
Failed"
This writing was done while he was
a private in the British Army, which
he joined after leaving school. He
served successfully in the Royal West
Kent Regiment and the Royal Army
Marine Corps and went to South Africa.
When the Boer War broke out, he be-
came a war correspondent for Reuters
British News Agency, and later wrote
from South Africa for the London Daily
News and the London Daily Mail. Then
he turned to journalism on his own
account, becoming editorial founder OF
the Rand Daily Mail, published at
Johannesburg.
Wallace was gray-haired, portly and
claimed to be as lazy as he looked
He smoked continuously. four full
packages of cigarettes day, and said
he had kept up that rate for 80 years.
When I'm working, 16 hours a day
isn't unusual. The difficult thing is to
get started. I sit and think about
work for an hour or so, then plunge in.
When I get started, can't stop"
His most profitable piece Of labor
was the play "On the Spot" He wrote
it in two days and received 100000
for It.
Mr.. Wallace was twice married. In
1900, while he was in South Africa, to
Ivy Maud Caldecott, and in 1921 to
Ethel Violet King. Two sons and two
daughters were born to him.
Wife Told After Sailing.
LONDON, February 10 (R.-Mrs
Edgar Wallace sailed for New York on
the liner Majestic today, half an hour
before word came of her husbands
death in California. Just before she
sailed a telegram came from Prime
Minister Macdonald, expressing SYM
pathy for her husbands Illness.
King George was host at q tea re-