Evan Hunter

 ( 1926 Births ) 

Evan Hunter (born Salvatore Albert Lombino; October 15, 1926 – July 6, 2005) was an American author of crime fiction and mystery fiction. He is best known as the author of the 87th Precinct novels, published under the pen name Ed McBain, which are considered staples of police procedural genre.

His other notable works include The Blackboard Jungle, a semi-autobiographical novel about life in a troubled inner-city school, which was adapted into a hit 1955 film of the same name. He also wrote the screenplay for Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 film The Birds, based on the Daphne du Maurier short story.

Hunter, who legally adopted that name in 1952, also used the pen names John Abbott, Curt Cannon, Hunt Collins, Ezra Hannon and Richard Marsten, among others.

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Life

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Early life Salvatore Lombino was born and raised in New York City. He lived in East Harlem until age 12, when his family moved to the Bronx. He attended Olinville Junior High School (later Richard R. Green Middle School #113), then Evander Childs High School (now Evander Childs Educational Campus), before winning a New York Art Students League scholarship. Later, he was admitted as an art student at Cooper Union. Lombino served in the United States Navy during World War II and wrote several short stories while serving aboard a destroyer in the Pacific. However, none of these stories was published until after he had established himself as an author in the 1950s.

After the war, Lombino returned to New York and attended Hunter College, where he majored in English and psychology, with minors in dramatics and education, and graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1950. He published a weekly column in the Hunter College newspaper as "S.A. Lombino". In 1981, Lombino was inducted into the Hunter College Hall of Fame, where he was honored for outstanding professional achievement.

While looking to start a career as a writer, Lombino took a variety of jobs, including 17 days as a teacher at Bronx Vocational High School in September 1950. This experience would later form the basis for his novel The Blackboard Jungle (1954), written under the pen name Evan Hunter, which was adapted into the film Blackboard Jungle (1955).

In 1951, Lombino took a job as an executive editor for the Scott Meredith Literary Agency, working with authors such as Poul Anderson, Arthur C. Clarke, Lester del Rey, Richard S. Prather, and P.G. Wodehouse. He made his first professional short story sale the same year, a science-fiction tale titled "Welcome, Martians!", credited to S. A. Lombino.McBain, Ed, Learning To Kill, Harvest Books, 2006, pg. xi-xii

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Name change and pen names Soon after his initial sale, Lombino sold stories under the Evan Hunter and Hunt Collins. The name Evan Hunter is generally believed to have been derived from two schools he attended, Evander Childs High School and Hunter College, although the author himself would never confirm that. (He did confirm that Hunt Collins was derived from Hunter College.) Lombino legally changed his name to Evan Hunter in May 1952, after an editor told him that a novel he wrote would sell more copies if credited to Evan Hunter than to S. A. Lombino. Thereafter, he used the name Evan Hunter both personally and professionally. As Evan Hunter, he gained notice with his novel The Blackboard Jungle (1954) dealing with juvenile crime and the New York City public school system. The film adaptation followed in 1955.

During this era, Hunter also wrote a great deal of genre fiction. He was advised by his agents that publishing too much fiction under the Hunter byline, or publishing any crime fiction as Evan Hunter, might weaken his literary reputation. Consequently, during the 1950s Hunter used the pseudonyms Curt Cannon, Hunt Collins, and Richard Marsten for much of his crime fiction. A prolific author in several genres, Hunter also published approximately two dozen science fiction stories and four science-fiction novels between 1951 and 1956 under the names S. A. Lombino, Evan Hunter, Richard Marsten, D. A. Addams, and Ted Taine.

Ed McBain, his best known pseudonym, was first used with Cop Hater (1956), the first novel in the 87th Precinct crime series. Hunter revealed that he was McBain in 1958 but continued to use the pseudonym for decades, notably for the 87th Precinct series and the Matthew Hope detective series. He retired the pen names Addams, Cannon, Collins, Marsten, and Taine around 1960. From then on crime novels were generally attributed to McBain and other sorts of fiction to Hunter. Reprints of crime-oriented stories and novels written in the 1950s previously attributed to other pseudonyms were reissued under the McBain byline. Hunter stated that the division of names allowed readers to know what to expect: McBain novels had a consistent writing style, while Hunter novels were more varied.

Under the Hunter name, novels steadily appeared throughout the 1960s, 1970s, and early 1980s, including Come Winter (1973) and Lizzie (1984). Hunter was also successful as screenwriter for film and television. He wrote the screenplay for the Alfred Hitchcock film The Birds (1963), loosely adapted from Daphne du Maurier's eponymous 1952 novelette. Following The Birds, Hunter was again hired by Hitchcock to complete an in-progress script adapting Winston Graham's novel Marnie. However, Hunter and the director disagreed on how to treat the novel's rape scene, and the writer was sacked. Hunter's other screenplays included Strangers When We Meet (1960), based on his own 1958 novel; and Fuzz (1972), based on his eponymous 1968 87th Precinct novel, which he had written as Ed McBain.

After having thirteen 87th Precinct novels published from 1956 to 1960, further 87th Precinct novels appeared at a rate of approximately one a year until his death. Additionally, NBC ran a police drama called 87th Precinct during the 1961–62 season, based on McBain's work.

From 1978 to 1998, McBain published a series about lawyer Matthew Hope; books in this series appeared every year or two, and usually had titles derived from well-known children's stories. For about a decade, from 1984 to 1994, Hunter published no fiction under his own name. In 2000, a novel called Candyland appeared that was credited to both Hunter and McBain. The two-part novel opened in Hunter's psychologically based narrative voice before switching to McBain's customary police procedural style.

Aside from McBain, Hunter used at least two other pseudonyms for his fiction after 1960: Doors (1975), which was originally attributed to Ezra Hannon before being reissued as a work by McBain, and Scimitar (1992), which was credited to John Abbott.

Hunter gave advice to other authors in his article "Dig in and get it done: no-nonsense advice from a prolific author (aka Ed McBain) on starting and finishing your novel". In it, he advised authors to "find their voice for it is the most important thing in any novel"."Dig in and get it done"; Evan Hunter. The Writer. Boston: Jun 2005. Vol. 118, Issue 6

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Dean Hudson controversy Hunter was long rumored to have written an unknown number of pornographic novels, as Dean Hudson, for William Hamling's publishing houses. Hunter adamantly and consistently denied writing any books as Hudson until he died. However, apparently his agent Scott Meredith sold books to Hamling's company as Hunter's work (for attribution as "Dean Hudson") and received payments for these books in cash. While notable, it is not definitive proof: Meredith almost certainly forwarded novels to Hamling by any number of authors, claiming these novels were by Hunter simply to make a sale. Ninety-three novels were published under the Hudson name from 1961 to 1969, and even the most avid proponents of the Hunter-as-Hudson theory do not believe Hunter is responsible for all 93.

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Personal life He had three sons: Richard Hunter, an author, speaker, retired advisor to chief information officers on business value and risk issues, and harmonica player; Mark Hunter, an academic, educator, investigative reporter, and author; and Ted Hunter, a painter, who died in 2006.

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Death A heavy smoker for many decades, Hunter had three heart attacks over a number of years (his first in 1987) and needed heart surgery. A precancerous lesion was found on his larynx in 1992. This was removed, but the cancer later returned. In 2005, Hunter died in Weston, Connecticut from laryngeal cancer. He was 78.

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Awards

• Edgar Award nomination for Best Short Story, "The Last Spin" ( Manhunt, Sept. 1956)
• Edgar Award nomination for Best Motion Picture, The Birds (1964)
• Edgar Award nomination for Best Short Story, "Sardinian Incident" ( Playboy, Oct. 1971)
• Grand Master, Mystery Writers of America (1986)
• Diamond Dagger, British Crime Writers Assn (first American recipient, 1998)
• Anthony Award nomination for Best Series of the Century (2000)
• Edgar Award nomination for Best Novel, Money, Money, Money (2002)

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Works

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Novels

YA novel
Reprinted in 1956 as "So Nude, So Dead" under the name Richard Marsten Ed McBain (2015). 9781783293612, Titan Books (US, CA). . ISBN 9781783293612
YA novel
YA novel
Later credited as Ed McBain
Later republished as The Proposition
Later republished as Death of a Nurse by Ed McBain
1960 film adaptation The Pusher
Later republished as Tomorrow And Tomorrow by Hunt Collins, and as Sphere by Ed McBain
Later republished as by Ed McBain
Hunter finished this novel started by Rice, using his McBain pen name.
Later republished as by Ed McBain
Later revised and republished as The Gutter and the Grave by Ed McBain
1961 film adaptation The Young Savages
Children's book
Later republished as by Ed McBain
1961	Lady, Lady I Did It!	Ed McBain	87th Precinct
1961	Mothers And Daughters	Evan Hunter
1961	The Wonderful Button	Evan Hunter		Children's book
1962	Like Love	Ed McBain	87th Precinct
1963	Ten Plus One	Ed McBain	87th Precinct
1964	Buddwing	Evan Hunter
1964	Ax	Ed McBain	87th Precinct
1964	He Who Hesitates	Ed McBain	87th Precinct
1965	Doll	Ed McBain	87th Precinct
1965	The Sentries	Ed McBain
1965	Me And Mr. Stenner	Evan Hunter	Children's book
1965	Happy New Year, Herbie	Evan Hunter
1966	The Paper Dragon	Evan Hunter
1966	80 Million Eyes	Ed McBain	87th Precinct
1967	A Horse's Head	Evan Hunter
1968	Last Summer	Evan Hunter
1968	Fuzz	Ed McBain	87th Precinct
1969	Sons	Evan Hunter
1969	Shotgun	Ed McBain	87th Precinct
1970	Jigsaw	Ed McBain	87th Precinct	This novel was adapted as the Columbo episode "Undercover" in 1994.
1971	Nobody Knew They Were There	Evan Hunter
1971	Hail, Hail the Gang's All Here	Ed McBain	87th Precinct
1972	Every Little Crook And Nanny	Evan Hunter
1972	Let's Hear It for the Deaf Man	Ed McBain	87th Precinct
1972	Seven	Evan Hunter
1972	Sadie When She Died	Ed McBain	87th Precinct
1973	Come Winter	Evan Hunter
1973	Hail to the Chief	Ed McBain	87th Precinct
1974	Streets Of Gold	Evan Hunter
1974	Bread	Ed McBain	87th Precinct
1975	Where There's Smoke	Ed McBain
1975	Blood Relatives	Ed McBain	87th Precinct
1975	Doors	Ezra Hannon		Later republished as by Ed McBain
1976	So Long as You Both Shall Live	Ed McBain	87th Precinct	This novel was adapted as the Columbo episode "No Time to Die" in 1992.
1976	The Chisholms	Evan Hunter
1976	Guns	Ed McBain
1977	Long Time No See	Ed McBain	87th Precinct
1977	Goldilocks	Ed McBain	Matthew Hope
1979	Walk Proud	Evan Hunter
1979	Calypso	Ed McBain	87th Precinct
1980	Ghosts	Ed McBain	87th Precinct
1981	Love, Dad	Evan Hunter
1981	Heat	Ed McBain	87th Precinct
1981	Rumpelstiltskin	Ed McBain	Matthew Hope
1982	Beauty & The Beast	Ed McBain	Matthew Hope
1983	Far From The Sea	Evan Hunter
1983	Ice	Ed McBain	87th Precinct
1984	Lizzie	Evan Hunter
1984	Lightning	Ed McBain	87th Precinct
1984	Jack & The Beanstalk	Ed McBain	Matthew Hope
1984	And All Through the House	Ed McBain	87th Precinct	Short-story length work, issued (with illustrations) as a limited-edition novel. Reissued in 1994.
1985	Eight Black Horses	Ed McBain	87th Precinct
1985	Snow White & Rose Red	Ed McBain	Matthew Hope
1986	Another Part of the City	Ed McBain
1986	Cinderella	Ed McBain	Matthew Hope
1987	Poison	Ed McBain	87th Precinct
1987	Tricks	Ed McBain	87th Precinct
1987	Puss in Boots	Ed McBain	Matthew Hope
1988	The House that Jack Built	Ed McBain	Matthew Hope
1989	Lullaby	Ed McBain	87th Precinct
1990	Vespers	Ed McBain	87th Precinct
1990	Three Blind Mice	Ed McBain	Matthew Hope	Adapted as a TV Movie in 2001, starring Brian Dennehy
1991	Downtown	Ed McBain
1991	Widows	Ed McBain	87th Precinct
1992	Kiss	Ed McBain	87th Precinct
1992	Mary, Mary	Ed McBain	Matthew Hope
1992	Scimitar	John Abbott
1993	Mischief	Ed McBain	87th Precinct
1994	There Was A Little Girl	Ed McBain	Matthew Hope
1994	Criminal Conversation	Evan Hunter
1995	Romance	Ed McBain	87th Precinct
1996	Privileged Conversation	Evan Hunter
1996	Gladly The Cross-Eyed Bear	Ed McBain	Matthew Hope
1997	Nocturne	Ed McBain	87th Precinct
1998	The Last Best Hope	Ed McBain	Matthew Hope
1999	The Big Bad City	Ed McBain	87th Precinct
2000	Candyland	Evan Hunter and Ed McBain		Two-part novel that was billed as a "collaboration" between Hunter and his pseudonym.
2000	Driving Lessons	Ed McBain
2000	The Last Dance	Ed McBain	87th Precinct
2001	Money, Money, Money	Ed McBain	87th Precinct
2002	The Moment She Was Gone	Evan Hunter
2002	Fat Ollie's Book	Ed McBain	87th Precinct
2003	The Frumious Bandersnatch	Ed McBain	87th Precinct
2004	Hark!	Ed McBain	87th Precinct
2005	Alice in Jeopardy	Ed McBain
2005	Fiddlers	Ed McBain	87th Precinct

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Collections

• 1956: The Jungle Kids (Short Stories) (short stories by Evan Hunter)
• 1957: The Merry, Merry Christmas
• 1957: On the Sidewalk Bleeding
• 1960: The Last Spin & Other Stories
• 1962: The Empty Hours (87th Precinct short stories by Ed McBain)
• 1965: Happy New Year, Herbie (short stories by Evan Hunter)
• 1972: The Easter Man (a Play) And Six Stories (by Evan Hunter)
• 1982: The McBain Brief (Short stories by Ed McBain)
• 1988: McBain's Ladies (87th Precinct short stories by Ed McBain)
• 1992: McBain's Ladies, Too (87th Precinct short stories by Ed McBain)
• 2000: Barking at Butterflies & Other Stories (by Evan Hunter)
• 2000: Running from Legs (by Evan Hunter)
• 2006: Learning to Kill (short story collection by Ed McBain, published posthumously, featuring works written 1952-57)

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Autobiographical

• 1998: Me & Hitch! (by Evan Hunter)
• 2005: Let's Talk (by Evan Hunter)

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Plays

• The Easter Man (1964)
• The Conjuror (1969)

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Screenplays

• Strangers When We Meet (1960)
• The Birds (1963)
• Fuzz (1972)
• Walk Proud (1979)

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Teleplays

• The Chisholms, CBS miniseries starring Robert Preston (1979)
• The Legend of Walks Far Woman (1980)
• Dream West (1986)

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As editor

• 2000: The Best American Mystery Stories (by Evan Hunter)
• 2005: Transgressions (collection of crime by various authors edited by Ed McBain)

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Incomplete novels

• Becca in Jeopardy (Near completion at the time of Hunter's death. Apparently to remain unpublished.)

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Film adaptations

• Blackboard Jungle (1955) by Richard Brooks, from Blackboard Jungle
• The Young Savages (1961) by John Frankenheimer, from A Matter of Conviction
• High and Low (1963) by Akira Kurosawa, from King's Ransom
• Mister Buddwing (1966) by Delbert Mann, from Buddwing
• Last Summer (1969) by Frank Perry, from Last Summer
• Sans mobile apparent (1971) by Philippe Labro, from Ten Plus One
• Every Little Crook and Nanny (1972) by Cy Howard, from Every Little Crook and Nanny
• Blood Relatives (1978) by Claude Chabrol, from Blood Relatives
• Lonely Heart (1981) by Kon Ichikawa, from Lady, Lady, I Did It

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External links

• Official Evan Hunter and Ed McBain websites
• Evan Hunter and Ed McBain on Internet Book List
• 1993 interview, A Discussion with... National Authors on Tour TV Series
• 1995 interview, A Discussion with... National Authors on Tour TV Series
• 2001 interview with Leonard Lopate at WNYC (archived)
• 2005 interview with David Bianculli at NPR

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