Evan Hunter

Evan Hunter (born Salvatore Albert Lombino; October 15, 1926 – July 6, 2005) was an American author of crime 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 the 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.

Lombino published a handful of short stories under his birth name before adopting Evan Hunter in 1952 as both his legal name and the name he used for general fiction. He initially used Richard Marsten for genre fiction, but this fell by the wayside after the 87th Precinct series was launched under the name of Ed McBain. He also published one novel each as John Abbott, Curt Cannon and Ezra Hannon, and two novels as Hunt Collins. Most of the books he wrote as Marsten and under miscellaneous pseudonyms were later reissued as the work of Ed McBain.

Life

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.

Name change and pen names Soon after his initial sale, Lombino sold stories under the pen names 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".

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.

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.

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.

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)

Works Hunter's "Silent Partner" was the cover story on the August 1952 issue of Science Fiction Quarterly, credited to S. A. Lombino

Novels

1961 Lady, Lady I Did It! Ed McBain 87th Precinct 1961 Mothers and Daughters Evan Hunter 1961 The Wonderful Button Evan Hunter For young readers 1962 The Empty Hours Ed McBain 87th Precinct Three novellas 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 For young readers 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 Filmed as Last Summer (1969) 1968 Fuzz Ed McBain 87th Precinct 1969 Sons Evan Hunter 1969 Shotgun Ed McBain 87th Precinct 1970 Jigsaw Ed McBain 87th Precinct Filmed for television as the Columbo episode "Undercover" (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 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 Reissued as Ed McBain 1976 So Long as You Both Shall Live Ed McBain 87th Precinct Filmed for television as the Columbo episode "No Time to Die" (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 Reissued as Gangs! by Ed McBain 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 and the Beast Ed McBain Matthew Hope 1983 Far from the Sea Evan Hunter 1983 Ice Ed McBain 87th Precinct Filmed for television as Ed McBain's 87th Precinct: Ice (1996) 1984 Lizzie Evan Hunter A fictional life of Lizzie Borden 1984 Lightning Ed McBain 87th Precinct Filmed for television as Ed McBain's 87th Precinct: Lightning (1995) Three that did reach the stage are: The Easter Man (1964)Created at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre in June 1964 before transferring to the Globe (now Gielgud) in London in July. Revived in revised form as A Race of Hairy Men! at Henry Miller's Theater in New York in April 1965. The Conjuror (1969)Created at the Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre, Ann Arbor, in November 1969. Stalemate (1975)Created in New York in 1975.

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

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

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

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

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