Edgar Wallace

Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace was a British writer who virtually invented the thriller market and was the first to introduce police characters as leading protagonists rather than amateur sleuths. Born into poverty as an illegitimate child, in London, Wallace left school at the age of 12. He joined the army at age 21 and was a war correspondent during the Second Boer War for Reuters and the Daily Mail. Struggling with debt (he had a weakness for the horses), he left South Africa, returned to London and began writing thrillers to raise income, publishing books including The Four Just Men. Drawing on his time as a reporter in the Congo, Wallace serialized short stories in magazines and published adventure stories featuring his first series character Sanders of the River. He signed with Hodder and Stoughton, in 1921, and became an internationally recognized author.

Wallace was such a prolific writer that it was claimed that one of every four books published in England were written by him. Apart from his reportage, Wallace wrote screen plays, poetry, historical non-fiction, 18 stage plays, 957 short stories and over 170 novels, 12 in 1929 alone. Over 160 films have been made from Wallace's work. Adaptations of The Ringer: The Ringer, a 1929 play by Edgar Wallace; The Ringer (1928 film), a British crime film directed by Arthur Maude; The Ringer (1931 film), a British crime film directed by Walter Forde; The Ringer (1932 film), an Austrian-German mystery film by Martin Fric and Karel Lamac; The Ringer (1952 film), a British mystery directed by Guy Hamilton; The Ringer aka Der Hexer (1964 film), a German crime film; The Ringer, a 1972 short film by Jeff Lieberman; The Ringer (2005 film), a 2005 comedy starring Johnny Knoxville; The Ringer (2013 film), a drama written and directed by Chris Shepherd for Canal+ and CNC; "The Ringer”, an episode of the TV series The Legend of Zelda.