Van Dine, S.S.

▪ American critic, editor, and author

pseudonym of  Willard Huntington Wright 

born Oct. 15, 1888, Charlottesville, Va., U.S.

died April 11, 1939, New York, N.Y.

      American critic, editor, and author of a series of best-selling detective novels (detective story) featuring the brilliant but arrogant sleuth Philo Vance.

      Wright was educated at St. Vincent and Pomona colleges in California, at Harvard University, and in Munich and Paris. Pursuing a career as a writer, Wright became literary editor of the Los Angeles Times in 1907 and in 1912 moved to New York to become editor of Town Topics and The Smart Set, where he remained until 1914. With H.L. Mencken (Mencken, H.L.) and George Jean Nathan (Nathan, George Jean) he published a book of travel essays called Europe After 8:15 (1914). He also wrote the poetry collection Songs of Youth (1913), the novel The Man of Promise (1916), and several critical works on art and philosophy, including Modern Painting (1915) and What Nietzsche Taught (1915).

      While convalescing from an illness, Wright studied thousands of detective stories. As S.S. Van Dine he eventually wrote a dozen Vance novels in that genre. Among them are The Benson Murder Case (1926), The Bishop Murder Case (1929), The Kennel Murder Case (1933), and The Winter Murder Case (1939). The successful series inspired more than 15 films and many radio programs. Wright also edited the anthology The Great Detective Stories (1927) and wrote the essays “Twenty Rules for Writing Detective Stories,” which appeared in American Magazine (1928), and I Used to Be a Highbrow but Look at Me Now (1929).

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