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Robert Arthur (writer)
Encyclopedia
Corregidor
Corregidor Island, locally called Isla ng Corregidor, is a lofty island located at the entrance of Manila Bay in southwestern part of Luzon Island in the Philippines. Due to this location, Corregidor was fortified with several coastal artillery and ammunition magazines to defend the entrance of...
, Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
, - May 2, 1969, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
) was a mystery writer known for The Mysterious Traveler
The Mysterious Traveler
The Mysterious Traveler was an anthology radio series, a magazine and a comic book. All three featured stories which ran the gamut from fantasy and science fiction to straight crime dramas of mystery and suspense.-Radio:...
radio series and his Three Investigators
Three Investigators
The Three Investigators is an American juvenile detective book series first published as "Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators" but also expanded in Germany. It was created by Robert Arthur, Jr., who believed using a famous figure such as movie director Hitchcock would attract attention....
series of novels. He is frequently confused with the film producer Robert Arthur
Robert Arthur (film producer)
Robert Arthur was a film screenwriter and producer.Born Robert Arthur Feder in New York City, New York, he began as a screenwriter in 1937 with MGM and worked there for ten years...
, who was nine days older than the mystery writer Robert Arthur, Jr.
Arthur was a graduate of the University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
. Between 1930 and 1940, his stories were published in Amazing Stories
Amazing Stories
Amazing Stories was an American science fiction magazine launched in April 1926 by Hugo Gernsback's Experimenter Publishing. It was the first magazine devoted solely to science fiction...
, Argosy All-Story Weekly
Argosy (magazine)
Argosy was an American pulp magazine, published by Frank Munsey. It is generally considered to be the first American pulp magazine. The magazine began as a general information periodical entitled The Golden Argosy, targeted at the boys adventure market.-Launch of Argosy:In late September 1882,...
, Black Mask, Collier's, Detective Fiction Weekly, Detective Tales, Double Detective, The Illustrated Detective Magazine, Mystery, The Phantom Detective, The Shadow, Startling Stories, Street & Smith Mystery Reader, Street & Smith's Detective Story Magazine, Thrilling Detective, Unknown Worlds and Wonder Stories
Wonder Stories
Wonder Stories was an early American science fiction magazine which was published under several titles from 1929 to 1955. It was founded by Hugo Gernsback in 1929 after he had lost control of his first science fiction magazine, Amazing Stories, when his media company Experimenter Publishing went...
. He wrote a number of mystery books for children.
Television
Arthur worked on the anthology television series Alfred Hitchcock PresentsAlfred Hitchcock Presents
Alfred Hitchcock Presents is an American television anthology series hosted by Alfred Hitchcock. The series featured dramas, thrillers, and mysteries. By the premiere of the show on October 2, 1955, Hitchcock had been directing films for over three decades...
. In the 1950s and 1960s, as an uncredited ghost editor, Arthur anonymously compiled more than a dozen anthologies of mystery, suspense and supernatural stories, books purportedly edited by Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
. They were authorized by Hitchcock but were entirely edited by Arthur, who typically included at least one of his own stories in most of the anthologies. For each book he was the ghostwriter of a foreword allegedly authored by Hitchcock.
Radio
Arthur, along with his writing partner David Kogan, was twice honored by the Mystery Writers of AmericaMystery Writers of America
Mystery Writers of America is an organization for mystery writers, based in New York.The organization was founded in 1945 by Clayton Rawson, Anthony Boucher, Lawrence Treat, and Brett Halliday....
with an Edgar Award
Edgar Award
The Edgar Allan Poe Awards , named after Edgar Allan Poe, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America...
for Best Radio Drama: In 1950, for Murder by Experts, and in 1953 for The Mysterious Traveler
The Mysterious Traveler
The Mysterious Traveler was an anthology radio series, a magazine and a comic book. All three featured stories which ran the gamut from fantasy and science fiction to straight crime dramas of mystery and suspense.-Radio:...
.
Other radio credits include: Dark Destiny (1942), Adventure Into Fear (1945), The Sealed Book (1945), The Teller of Tales (1950) and Mystery Time (1952).
Robert Arthur, Jr. died in Philadelphia
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
in 1969.
Short story collections by Robert Arthur, Jr.
- Ghosts and More Ghosts (1963)
- Mystery and More Mystery (1966)
Short story collections edited by Robert Arthur, Jr.
- Alfred Hitchcock Presents Stories for Late at Night (1961)
- Alfred Hitchcock's Ghostly Gallery (1962)
- Alfred Hitchcock's Monster Museum (1965)
- Alfred Hitchcock's Sinister Spies (1966)
- Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbinders in Suspense (1967)
- Davy Jones Haunted Locker (1965)
- Spies and More Spies (1967)
- Thrillers and More Thrillers (1968)
- Monster Mix (1968)
Television writing credits
- The Unforeseen (1960)
- Matinee TheatreMatinee TheatreMatinee Theatre is an American anthology series that aired on NBC during the Golden Age of Television, from 1955 to 1958. The series, which ran daily in the afternoon, was frequently live. It was produced by Albert McCleery, Darrell Ross, George Cahan and Frank Price with executive producer George...
(1955) (episode: "The Babylonian Heart") - Alfred Hitchcock PresentsAlfred Hitchcock PresentsAlfred Hitchcock Presents is an American television anthology series hosted by Alfred Hitchcock. The series featured dramas, thrillers, and mysteries. By the premiere of the show on October 2, 1955, Hitchcock had been directing films for over three decades...
(episode: "The Jokester")
External links
- Robert Arthur, Jr. profile by his daughter, Elizabeth Arthur
- Three Investigators site Books of Robert Arthur, Jr.