Irving Wallace(1916-1990)
- Writer
U.S. novelist, short-story writer, and screenwriter Irving Wallace
excelled at writing popular fiction based on current events. He began
writing for various magazines at age 15. He wrote screenplays for a
variety of studios from 1950 to 1959, when he turned solely to writing
books. His first major bestseller was "The Chapman Report" (1960), a
fictional account of a sexual research team's investigations of a
wealthy Los Angeles suburb. Among other fictional works by Wallace are
"The Prize" (1962) and "The Word" (1972). His meticulously researched
fiction often has the flavor of spicy journalism. Wallace's books are
structured around a strong narrative line and are laced with sex, facts
and, most importantly, a moral that gives cohesion to conflicting
elements. The universal appeal of Wallace's books has made most of them
best-sellers. With their recurring dramatic confrontations, his novels
lend themselves well to screenplay adaptation, and most of them have
been filmed. Wallace has also compiled several nonfiction works with
his family, including "The People's Almanac" (1975) and "The Book of
Lists" (1977), both of which have spawned sequels.
