Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace (April 1, 1875-February 10, 1932) was an English author and journalist. He was born in Greenwich to actors and was raised by foster parents. He enlisted during the Boer War and later became a war correspondent in that conflict. He also served as a correspondent in the Balkans during the Russo-Japanese War of 1905 before turning to fiction as a career. His personal and financial life was at times messy, but he continued to have success as an author, finally turning to writing screenplays for Hollywood.
He wrote 175 novels and 24 plays, most of them in the mystery and crime genre. He also was co-creator and wrote an early version of the screenplay for the movie “King Kong.” During his heyday, he was so enormously popular that his publisher claimed that one quarter of all the books read in England had been written by Wallace. His novels served as the basis for over 160 movies. Among the characters he created were the detective J. G. Reeder, the “Four Just Men,” and the Green Archer.

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