William Le Queux

William Tufnell Le Queux (født 2. juli 1864 i London i England, død 13. oktober 1927 i Knokke i Vest-Flandern i Belgia) var en engelsk journalist, forfatter og diplomat av fransk avstamming.

Liv og virke

Bakgrunn 
Le Queux var sønn av en fransk tekstilhandler fra London og hans britiske hustru. Han tilbragte skoletiden i England og studerte deretter kunst, blant annet under Ignace Spiridon (1860–1900). Etter en god slutteksamen foretok Le Queux en Grand Tour, som tok ham – for det meste til fots – gjennom Tyskland, Italia og Frankrike.

Journalist, forfatter 
Høsten 1898 var han tilbake i London og der grunnla han tidsskriftene Gossip og Picadilly, som imidlertid gikk inn etter en kort tid. Fra 1891 rapporterte Le Queux som krigskorrespondent fra første balkankrig og som politisk journalist fra parlamentet for avisen The Globe. Denne oppgaven oppgav han i 1893, og viet seg da fullt ut sin egen litterære virksomhet.

Fra utbruddet av første verdenskrig beskjeftiget Le Queux seg intensivt med det nye massemediet radioen og dens muligheter. Fra 1924 tok han i denne forbindelse del i en rekke eksperimenter; blant annet assisterte han John Logie Beard under hans forsøk i de sveitsiske fjellene. Le Queux ble medlem av Institute of Radio Engineers og man valgte ham også til den første president av Hastings, St. Leonard's and District Roadio Society.

I en alder av 63 år døde William Le Queux i Knokke (Belgia) og ble begravet der.

Forfatterskap 
Le Queux' forfatterskap var allsidig, fra kriminalromaner og thrillere til mysteriefortellinger og spionromaner, og saklitteratur som til dels utløste heftige diskusjoner. Flere av hans verker ble til i samarbeid med hans forlegger Alfred Harmsworth. Mange av Le Queux' fortellinger utkom først som føljetonger i forskjellige boulevardaviser før de (ofte i bearbeidet form) ble utgitt på nytt i bokform. En av hans mest kjente romaner var The Invasion of 1910.

Verker i utvalg

Romaner 
 Guilty Bonds (1891)
 Strange Tales of a Nihilist (1892)
 The Great War in England in 1897 (1894)
 Zoraida (1894)
 Guilty (1895)
 The Temptress (1895)
 The Great White Queen. A Tale Of Treasure And Treason (1896)
 A Secret Service, being Strange Tales of a Nihilist (1892) [reprint of Strange Tales]
 A Secret Sin, or, A Madonna of the Music Halls) (1897)
 Devil's Dice (1897)
 Whoso Findeth a Wife (1897)
 The Eye of Istar; a Romance of the Land of No Return (1897) as The Eye of Ishtar (US)
 Scribes and Pharisees; A Story of Literary London (1898)
 If Sinners Entice Thee (1898)
 The Bond of Black (1899)
 The Day of Temptation (1899)
 The Veiled Man (1899) stories
 England’s Peril (1899)
 The Wiles of the Wicked (1900)
 An Eye for an Eye (1900)
 In White Raiment (1900)
 Of Royal Blood (1900)
 Her Majesty's Minister (1901)
 The Sign of the Seven Sins (1901)
 The Gamblers (1901)
 The Court of Honour (1901)
 The Under -Secretary (1902)
 The Unnamed: A Romance of Modern Italy (1902)
 On the “Polar Star” in the Arctic Sea (1903)
 The Tickencote Treasure: Being the Story of A Silent Man, A Sealed Script and A Singular Secret (1903)
 The Seven Secrets (1903)
 Three Glass Eyes (1903)
 As We Forgive Them (1904)
 The Sign of the Stranger (1904)
 The Man from Downing Street (1904)
 The Hunchback of Westminster (1904)
 The Idol of the Town (1904)
 The Red Hat (1904)
 Sins of the City (1905)
 The Valley of the Shadow (1905)
 The Czar's Spy: The Mystery of a Silent Love (1905)
 Behind the Throne (1905)
 Who Giveth This Woman? (1905)
 The Spider’s Eye (1905)
 The Mask (1905)
 The Mystery of a Motor-Car (1906)
 The Pauper of Park Lane (1906)
 The Woman at Kensington (1906)
 The Invasion of 1910 (1906) with H. W. Wilson
 The Mysterious Mr Miller (1906)
 The House of the Wicked (1906)
 Whatsoever a Man Soweth (1906)
 Whosoever Loveth: Being the Secret of a Lady's Maid (1907)
 The Great Plot (1907)
 The Woman in the Way (1907)
 The Secret of the Square (1907)
 The Great Court Scandal (1907)
 The Crooked Way (1908)
 The Looker-On (1908)
 Stolen Sweets (1908)
 The House of Whispers (1909)
 The Red Room (1909)
 Fatal Thirteen (1909)
 Lying Lips (1910)
 The Unknown Tomorrow (1910)
 Hushed Up!: A Mystery of London (1911)
 The Money Spider (1911)
 An Eye for an Eye (1911)
 Revelations of the Secret Service (1911) stories
 The Indiscretions Of A Lady's Maid, A Mystery Novel (1911)
 The Mystery of Nine (1912)
 Without Trace (1912)
 The Death-Doctor (1912) stories
 Fatal Fingers (1912)
 The Lost Million (1913)
 The Room of Secrets (1913)
 Mysteries (1913) stories
 The Hand of Allah (1914) (also as The Riddle of the Ring)
 Her Royal Highness; A Romance of the Chancelleries of Europe (1914)
 Sons of Satan (1914)
 The White Lie (1914)
 The German Spy, a Present-day story (1914)
 The War of the Nations (1914) with Edgar Wallace and others
 The Maker of Secrets (1914)
 The Four Faces (1914)
 The Sign of Silence (1915)
 The Devil's Spawn (1915)
 The Mysterious Three (1915)
 At the Sign of the Sword (1915)
 The Mysterious Three (1915)
 The German Spy System from Within (1915)
 The Mystery Of The Green Ray (1915)
 The Double Shadow (1915)
 The White Glove (1915)
 The Man about Town (1916)
 Number 70, Berlin (1916)
 The Spy Hunter (1916) stories
 The Way to Win (1916)
 Cinders of Harley Street (1916)
 The Broken Thread (1916)
 The Place of Dragons: A Mystery (1916)
 Annette Of The Argonne: A Story Of The French Front (1916)
 The Scandal-Monger (1917) stories
 Beryl of the Biplane (1917)
 The Breath of Suspicion (1917)
 The Devil's Carnival (1917)
 No Greater Love (1917)
 Two in a Tangle (1917)
 Bolo, The Super-Spy, by Armand Mehjan (1918)
 Sant of the Secret Service: Some Revelations of Spies and Spying (1918)
 The Secret Life of the Ex-Tsaritza (1918)
 The Little Blue Goddess (1918)
 The Lure of Love (1918)
 The Yellow Ribbon (1918)
 The Catspaw (1918)
 The Sister Disciple (1918)
 The Stolen Statesman: Being the Story of a Hushed-Up Mystery (1918)
 The Doctor of Pimlico, Being the Disclosure of a Great Crime (1919)
 Cipher Six: A Mystery (1919)
 The Forbidden Word (1919)
 The King's Incognito (1919)
 No. 7 Saville Square (1920)
 Secrets of the Foreign Office (1920)
 Whither Thou Goest (1920)
 The Heart of a Princess: A Romance of To-Day (1920)
 The Intriguers (1920)
 The Secret Telephone (1920)
 The Terror of the Air (1920)
 The Red Widow, Or The Death-Dealers of London (1920)
 Mademoiselle of Monte Carlo: A Mystery of To-day (1921)
 The Fifth Finger: A Mystery (1921)
 The Open Verdict: A Mystery (1921)
 This House to Let (1921)
 The Lady in Waiting: A Royal Romance (1921)
 The Marked Man (1921)
 The Power of the Borgias (1921)
 The Golden Face: A Great Crook Romance (1922)
 The Stretton Street Affair (1922)
 Three Knots (1922)
 The Voice from the Void: The Great Wireless Mystery (1922)
 The Young Archduchess (1922)
 The Bronze Face (1923) as Behind the Bronze Door (US)
 Where the Desert Ends (1923)
 A Woman's Debt (1924)
 Fine Feathers (1924)
 The Crystal Claw (1924)
 The Blue Bungalow: A Mystery (1925)
 The Broadcast Mystery (1925)
 The Valrose Mystery (1925)
 Hidden Hands (1926) as The Dangerous Game (US)
 The Letter "E" (1926) as The Tattoo Mystery (US)
 Blackmailed (1926)
 The Fatal Face (1926)
 The Mystery of Mademoiselle (1926)
 The Black Owl (1926)
 The Scarlet Sign (1926)
 The Lawless Hand (1927)
 The Chameleon (1927) as Poison Shadows (US)
 Double Nought (1927) as The Crime Code (US)
 The Office Secret (1927)
 The House of Evil (1927)
 Twice Tried (1928)
 The Sting (1928)
 The Rat Trap (1928)
 Concerning This Woman (1928)
 The Secret Formula (1928)
 The Amazing Count (1929)
 The Crinkled Crown (1929)
 The Golden Three (1931)

Sakprosa 
 The Near East. The present situation in Montenegro, Bosnia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Roumania, Turkey and Macedonia. London 1907.
 Plotting the downfall of England. Cassell, London 1996, ISBN 0-7146-4278-9 (opprinnelig Spies of the Kaiser).
 Further secrets of Potsdam. London 1917.
 Love intrigues of the Kaiser's Sons. London 1918.
 The minister of Evil. The secret history of Rasputin's betrayal of Russia. London 1917.
 Rasputinism in London. Revelations of the secret cult of Beauty and Happiness established by the monk Grichtaka. London 1919.
 Things I know about kings, celebrities and crooks. London 1923 (selvbiografi).

Litteratur 
 Clive Bloom: Bestsellers. Popular fiction since 1900. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke 2008, ISBN 978-0-230-53688-3, S. 181.
 Russell W. Burns: John Logie Baird. Television Pioneer. IET, London 2000, ISBN 0-85296-797-7 (History of Technology Series; 287).
 Niall Ferguson: Der falsche Krieg. Der Erste Weltkrieg und das 20. Jahrhundert („The pity of war“). Dtv, München 2001, ISBN 3-423-30808-7.
 Chris Patrick, Stephen Baister: William Le Queux. Master of Mystery. Patrick & Baister Books, Purley, Surrey 2007, ISBN 978-0-9554791-0-6.
 Norman S. Sladen: The real Le Queux. The official biography. Nicholson & Watson, London 1938.
 John Sutherland: The Longman companion of victorian fiction. 2. Aufl. Pearson Books, Harlow 2009, ISBN 978-1-4082-0390-3, S. 372-373.

Referanser

Eksterne lenker 
 
 
  Werke von William Le Queux i Projekt Gutenberg

Britiske forfattere
Britiske journalister
Britiske diplomater
Personer fra London