Irving Wallace
Encyclopedia
Irving Wallace was an American
best-selling author
and screenwriter
. Wallace was known for his heavily researched novels, many with a sexual theme. One critic described him "as the most successful of all the many exponents of junk fiction perhaps because he took it all so seriously, not so say lugubriously". Wallace was a blue-collar writer who wrote for a blue-collar audience. Most critics were scornful of his novels' flat prose and pedestrian characters.
. Wallace was named after his maternal grandfather, a bookkeeper and Talmud
ic scholar of Narewka
. Wallace grew up in Kenosha, Wisconsin
, where he attended Kenosha Central High School. He was the father of Olympic historian David Wallechinsky
and author Amy Wallace.
Wallace began selling stories to magazines when he was a teenager. In World War II
Wallace served in the Frank Capra
unit in Fort Fox along with Theodor Seuss Geisel - more popularly known as Dr Seuss - and continued to write for magazines. Soon, however, Wallace turned to a more lucrative job as a Hollywood screenwriter
. He collaborated on such films as The West Point Story
(1950), Split Second
(1953), Meet Me at the Fair (1953), and The Big Circus
(1959).
After an unsatisfying stint in Hollywood, he devoted himself full-time to writing books. He published his first non-fiction work in 1955, The Fabulous Originals, and his first fiction offering, The Sins of Philip Fleming, in 1959. The latter, ignored by critics, was followed by the enormously successful The Chapman Report
. Wallace published 33 books during his lifetime, all translated into 31 different languages.
Irving Wallace was married to Sylvia Wallace, a former magazine writer and editor. Her first novel, The Fountains, was an American best-seller and published in twelve foreign editions. Her second novel, Empress
, was published in 1980. She also helped produce, along with their two children, The Book of Lists#2 and The Intimate Sex Lives Of Famous People. Sylvia Wallace died October 20, 2006 at the age of 89.
Several of Wallace's books have been made into films. Among his best known books are The Chapman Report
(1960), The Prize
(1962), The Word
(1972) and The Fan Club
(1974).
and The Book of Lists
. Many of the odd facts Wallace uncovered he utilised in his novels. He placed an advertisement in The Times for listomaniacs as a precursor to The Book of Lists
and one of the respondents was Jeremy Beadle
who sent a long list without knowing but suspecting that Wallace was behind the advert. Beadle was given Wallace's home phone number and the two men spent hours talking. Wallace said that Beadle's lists were the best of all those sent in. He invited the Englishman to become the London editor of The People's Almanac 2 (1978).
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
best-selling author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
and screenwriter
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
. Wallace was known for his heavily researched novels, many with a sexual theme. One critic described him "as the most successful of all the many exponents of junk fiction perhaps because he took it all so seriously, not so say lugubriously". Wallace was a blue-collar writer who wrote for a blue-collar audience. Most critics were scornful of his novels' flat prose and pedestrian characters.
Life
Wallace was born in Chicago, Illinois to Bessie Liss and Alexander Wallace (an Americanized version of the original family name of Wallechinsky). The family was Jewish and originally from RussiaRussia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
. Wallace was named after his maternal grandfather, a bookkeeper and Talmud
Talmud
The Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism. It takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history....
ic scholar of Narewka
Narewka
Narewka is a village in Poland, in Podlaskie Voivodeship, Hajnówka County, Gmina Narewka. It is located near the border with Belarus. Many of the inhabitants belong to the Belarusian minority in Poland.The village has a Catholic and Orthodox churches...
. Wallace grew up in Kenosha, Wisconsin
Kenosha, Wisconsin
Kenosha is a city and the county seat of Kenosha County in the State of Wisconsin in United States. With a population of 99,218 as of May 2011, Kenosha is the fourth-largest city in Wisconsin. Kenosha is also the fourth-largest city on the western shore of Lake Michigan, following Chicago,...
, where he attended Kenosha Central High School. He was the father of Olympic historian David Wallechinsky
David Wallechinsky
David Wallechinsky has worked as a commentator for NBC Olympic coverage and is the author of many Olympic reference books and other reference books. He is a Jewish-American. He is the author of The Complete Book of the Summer Olympics and The Complete Book of the Winter Olympics series...
and author Amy Wallace.
Wallace began selling stories to magazines when he was a teenager. In World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
Wallace served in the Frank Capra
Frank Capra
Frank Russell Capra was a Sicilian-born American film director. He emigrated to the U.S. when he was six, and eventually became a creative force behind major award-winning films during the 1930s and 1940s...
unit in Fort Fox along with Theodor Seuss Geisel - more popularly known as Dr Seuss - and continued to write for magazines. Soon, however, Wallace turned to a more lucrative job as a Hollywood screenwriter
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
. He collaborated on such films as The West Point Story
The West Point Story (film)
The West Point Story is a 1950 musical comedy film directed by Roy Del Ruth and starring James Cagney, Virginia Mayo and Doris Day.-Plot:...
(1950), Split Second
Split Second (1953 film)
Split Second is a 1953 thriller film about escaped convicts and their hostages holed up in a ghost town, unaware of the grave danger they are in. It starred Stephen McNally, Alexis Smith, Jan Sterling, and Keith Andes.-Plot:...
(1953), Meet Me at the Fair (1953), and The Big Circus
The Big Circus
The Big Circus is a 1959 film starring Victor Mature as a circus owner struggling with financial trouble and a murderous unknown saboteur.-Cast:*Victor Mature as Henry Jasper 'Hank' Whirling*Red Buttons as Randy Sherman*Rhonda Fleming as Helen Harrison...
(1959).
After an unsatisfying stint in Hollywood, he devoted himself full-time to writing books. He published his first non-fiction work in 1955, The Fabulous Originals, and his first fiction offering, The Sins of Philip Fleming, in 1959. The latter, ignored by critics, was followed by the enormously successful The Chapman Report
The Chapman Report
The Chapman Report is a 1962 film made by DFZ Productions and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. It was directed by George Cukor and produced by Darryl F. Zanuck and Richard D. Zanuck, from a screenplay by Wyatt Cooper and Don Mankiewicz, adapted by Gene Allen and Grant Stuart from Irving...
. Wallace published 33 books during his lifetime, all translated into 31 different languages.
Irving Wallace was married to Sylvia Wallace, a former magazine writer and editor. Her first novel, The Fountains, was an American best-seller and published in twelve foreign editions. Her second novel, Empress
Empress (novel)
Empress is a French biographical novel by Shan Sa, a French author who was born in Beijing. It is based on the life of Empress Wu Zetian....
, was published in 1980. She also helped produce, along with their two children, The Book of Lists#2 and The Intimate Sex Lives Of Famous People. Sylvia Wallace died October 20, 2006 at the age of 89.
Several of Wallace's books have been made into films. Among his best known books are The Chapman Report
The Chapman Report
The Chapman Report is a 1962 film made by DFZ Productions and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. It was directed by George Cukor and produced by Darryl F. Zanuck and Richard D. Zanuck, from a screenplay by Wyatt Cooper and Don Mankiewicz, adapted by Gene Allen and Grant Stuart from Irving...
(1960), The Prize
The Prize (novel)
The Prize is a novel written by Irving Wallace in 1962 concerning the annual prize-giving ceremony of the Nobel Prize. A film, based on the book and starring Paul Newman, was made later in 1963....
(1962), The Word
The Word (novel)
The Word is a 1972 mystery/thriller novel by Irving Wallace, which explores the origin of the Bible.-Plot summary:The plot of the novel is based around the discovery of a new gospel written by Jesus' younger brother, James in the first century...
(1972) and The Fan Club
The Fan Club
The Fan Club is a novel by Irving Wallace published in 1974.-Plot summary:Adam Malone is a supermarket manager in Los Angeles who is obsessed with blonde movie star Sharon Fields. While watching her on a television in a bar one night he meets four other men who are also enamored of her. They get...
(1974).
The
Wallace had a idiosyncrasy in always using the definite pronoun in the titles of his novels. He also used the word in all but two of his non-fiction works.Non-fiction
Wallace loved and championed the underdog. He enjoyed writing the stories of outsiders, which interest saw light in The Square Pegs: Some Americans Who Dared to Be Different. With his son, daughter and wife he produced some notable non-fiction works, including three editions each of The People's AlmanacThe People's Almanac
The People's Almanac was a series of three books published in 1975, 1978 and 1981 by David Wallechinsky and his father Irving Wallace, the novelist responsible for co-authoring the series The Book of Lists. The format of the almanac departs from a conventional almanac and included many obscure...
and The Book of Lists
The Book of Lists
The Book of Lists refers to any one of a series of books compiled by David Wallechinsky, his father best selling author Irving Wallace and sister Amy Wallace....
. Many of the odd facts Wallace uncovered he utilised in his novels. He placed an advertisement in The Times for listomaniacs as a precursor to The Book of Lists
The Book of Lists
The Book of Lists refers to any one of a series of books compiled by David Wallechinsky, his father best selling author Irving Wallace and sister Amy Wallace....
and one of the respondents was Jeremy Beadle
Jeremy Beadle
Jeremy James Anthony Gibson-Beadle MBE was an English television presenter, writer and producer. During the 1980s, he was a regular face on British television and in two years appeared 50 weeks of the year. His shows regularly topped the charts beating Coronation Street and EastEnders on one...
who sent a long list without knowing but suspecting that Wallace was behind the advert. Beadle was given Wallace's home phone number and the two men spent hours talking. Wallace said that Beadle's lists were the best of all those sent in. He invited the Englishman to become the London editor of The People's Almanac 2 (1978).
Novels
- The Sins of Philip Fleming: A Compelling Novel of One Man's Intimate Problem (1959)
- The Chapman ReportThe Chapman ReportThe Chapman Report is a 1962 film made by DFZ Productions and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. It was directed by George Cukor and produced by Darryl F. Zanuck and Richard D. Zanuck, from a screenplay by Wyatt Cooper and Don Mankiewicz, adapted by Gene Allen and Grant Stuart from Irving...
(1961) - The PrizeThe Prize (novel)The Prize is a novel written by Irving Wallace in 1962 concerning the annual prize-giving ceremony of the Nobel Prize. A film, based on the book and starring Paul Newman, was made later in 1963....
(1962) - The Man (1964)
- The Three Sirens (1964)
- The Plot (1967)
- The Seven MinutesThe Seven MinutesThe Seven Minutes is a novel by Irving Wallace on the subject of pornography and freedom of speech. It is about a fictional obscenity trial of a banned book, The Seven Minutes, purported to be the thoughts in a woman's mind during seven minutes of sexual intercourse...
(1969) - The WordThe Word (novel)The Word is a 1972 mystery/thriller novel by Irving Wallace, which explores the origin of the Bible.-Plot summary:The plot of the novel is based around the discovery of a new gospel written by Jesus' younger brother, James in the first century...
(1972) - The Fan ClubThe Fan ClubThe Fan Club is a novel by Irving Wallace published in 1974.-Plot summary:Adam Malone is a supermarket manager in Los Angeles who is obsessed with blonde movie star Sharon Fields. While watching her on a television in a bar one night he meets four other men who are also enamored of her. They get...
(1974) - The R Document (1976)
- The Pigeon Project (1979)
- The Second LadyThe Second LadyThe Second lady is a political thriller by Irving Wallace. During a good-will visit to the Soviet Union, the American president's wife is kidnapped and replaced with a Russian spy who is visibly indistinguishable from the first lady...
(1980) - The Almighty (1982)
- The Miracle (1984/2005)
- The Seventh SecretThe Seventh SecretThe Seventh Secret is a 1985 novel by Irving Wallace using an alternate history of Adolf Hitler having survived World War II.-Plot summary:...
(1985) (with an additional chapter by Tom Posch in the Dutch translation of 1989) - The Celestial BedThe Celestial BedThe Celestial Bed is a 1987 novel by Irving Wallace, revolving around scientific issues of sex. It is based on some of the sex therapy techniques developed after Masters and Johnson, who created the term "sex surrogates". It was first published in 1987 by Delacorte Press...
(1987) - The Golden Room (1988)
- The Guest of Honor (1989)
Non-fiction
- The Fabulous Originals: Lives of Extraordinary People Who Inspired Memorable Characters in Fiction (1955)
- The Square Pegs: Some Americans Who Dared to Be Different (1958)
- The Fabulous Showman: The Life and Times of P.T. Barnum (1959)
- The Twenty-Seventh Wife (1961)
- The Sunday Gentleman (1966)
- The Writing of One Novel (1968)
- The Nympho and Other Maniacs: The Lives, the Loves and the Sexual Adventures of Some Scandalous and Liberated Ladies (1971)
- The People's AlmanacThe People's AlmanacThe People's Almanac was a series of three books published in 1975, 1978 and 1981 by David Wallechinsky and his father Irving Wallace, the novelist responsible for co-authoring the series The Book of Lists. The format of the almanac departs from a conventional almanac and included many obscure...
(1975) (with David Wallechinsky) - Stardust to Prairie Dust (1976)
- The Book of ListsThe Book of ListsThe Book of Lists refers to any one of a series of books compiled by David Wallechinsky, his father best selling author Irving Wallace and sister Amy Wallace....
(1977) (with David Wallechinsky and Amy Wallace) - The Two: Biography of The Original Siamese Twins (1978) (with Amy Wallace)
- The People's Almanac 2 (1978) (with David Wallechinsky)
- The Book of Lists 2The Book of ListsThe Book of Lists refers to any one of a series of books compiled by David Wallechinsky, his father best selling author Irving Wallace and sister Amy Wallace....
(1980) (with David Wallechinsky, Amy Wallace and Sylvia Wallace) - The People's Almanac 3 (1981) (with David Wallechinsky)
- The Intimate Sex Lives of Famous People (1981)
- The Book of Lists 3The Book of ListsThe Book of Lists refers to any one of a series of books compiled by David Wallechinsky, his father best selling author Irving Wallace and sister Amy Wallace....
(1983) (with Amy Wallace and David Wallechinsky) - Significa (1983) (with Amy Wallace and David Wallechinsky)
Quotes
- "To be one's self, and unafraid whether right or wrong, is more admirable than the easy cowardice of surrender to conformity."
- "If successful novelists had a formula, they would not have failures, and I know of no novelist who has not had a failure at one time or another."
- "Every man can transform the world from one of monotony and drabness to one of excitement and adventure."
- "We have placed security in a position of primacy and subordinated individual liberty to it."
External links
- Japan's Last Hope article in Liberty magazine (May 5, 1945)
- Irving Wallace on Kirjasto
- Irving Wallace: A Writer's Profile by John Leverence and Sam L. Grogg (Popular Press, 1974)
- The Miracle by Irving Wallace (Googlebooks preview)