Ensan Case

Christopher Ernest Case (July 3, 1950 – October 1, 2024), known by his pen name Ensan Case, was an American novelist and police officer.

Life and career

Christopher Ernest Case was born on July 3, 1950, in Savannah, Georgia, to Leon Case Jr. and Stella Case. He had two brothers and two sisters. Case began his first steps in writing in the mid-1960s, on a typewriter. After earning a Bachelor of Science in Behavioral Management from Georgia Tech in 1972, he served two years in the United States Navy. Case wrote his first novel — a contemporary gay tale set in San Francisco — in 1974. He submitted the manuscript to Avon Books, which expressed some interest in it but ultimately turned it down. He lived in Reno, Nevada, in the 1970s, and later in the Bay Area with a longtime male lover.

His first and most known published novel, Wingmen, was published in 1979 by Avon. The novel was written as a sort of retaliation for Richard L. Newhafer's novel The Last Tallyho (1964), which, according to him, portrayed gay characters "as totally irredeemable cowards and slackers." He retired in 2011 as a major. In the same year, he googled "Wingmen Ensan Case" on a lark and was "astounded to discover that it had not disappeared from existence, but had become a sort of cult classic." but this never materialized.

In October 2024, Case died in Claxton, Georgia, after a prolonged illness.