Frank Heller

Frank Heller was the pen name of the Swedish writer Gunnar Serner (20 July 1886 - 14 October 1947). He wrote novels and short adventure stories in the genres crime fiction and science fiction. His most well-known tales involve shady business transactions in an international milieu. His best known works concerned the recurring character Philip Collin, who was simultaneously a detective and a thief.

Personal life

Heller received a PhD in English literature at the age of 23 from the University of Lund. He accumulated a lot of debt which he attempted to cover with forged checks. He was forced to flee Sweden in 1912 due to this role in bank fraud. Living abroad, he began writing novels to make a living, producing forty-three novels, short stories and travelogues before he died in 1947 in a bicycle accident. Heller was the uncle of the actor Håkan Serner.

Works and their reception In the early decades of the 20th century, Heller was "one of Sweden’s most widely read and translated authors," translated most often into German, Finnish, English and Russian. The Russian poet Osip Mandelshtam, for instance, translated his novel The Thousand and Second Night. His plots frequently involved high-stakes financial swindles, international diplomacy, and the glamorous underworld of Monte Carlo (which he knew from personal experience

The list of English translations The Spirits and Furustolpe (Swedish title: Andarna och Furustolpe), 1920 The Emperor's Old Clothes, 1923 New York (also published as The Chinese Coats, London 1924) translated by Robert Emmons Lee The Marriage of Yussuf Khan, 1923, Crowell New York, Hutchinson & Co London 1924, translated by Robert Emmons Lee. The Grand Duke's Finances, translated by Robert Emmons Lee (1888-1925); the source of Murnau's film of the same name. The Perilous Transactions of Mr. Collin, 1924, likely the same as: The London Adventures of Mr. Collin, 1923, translated by Pauline Chary Collection of the following short stories: The story of the absent-minded gentleman The sorrowful adventures of Mr. Isaacs The mystery of the lost bullion Mr. Collin becomes a landlord Mr. Collin's holiday agency The Blue-eyed lie Mr. Collin is Ruined, 1925 The Strange Adventures of Mr. Collin, Crowell New York 1926 The Thousand and Second Night, An Arabesque, translated by Robert Emmons Lee (Williams & Norgate, London, 1926) Lead Me into Temptation, translated by Robert Emmons Lee (Crowell, New York, 1927) Twilight of the Gladiators, 1944