Ed Lacy

Ed Lacy (born August 25, 1911 as Leonard "Len" S. Zinberg in New York City , † January 7, 1968 in Harlem ) was an American writer who was primarily known in Germany for his crime novels and detective stories . He also used the pseudonym Steve April and wrote under his birth name in his early years.

Life

Ed Lacy was the son of Elizabeth and Max Zinberg. The marriage of Lacy's parents failed after a few years. Elizabeth Zinberg then married the lawyer Maxwell Wyckoff, a bank clerk and a graduate of Yale University . Ed Lacy was then 10 years old. In the late 1920s he attended the City College of New York . He then roamed various US states and made a living doing odd jobs. In 1940 Lacy returned to New York and married his wife Esther, with whom he had a - possibly adopted - daughter named Carla.

He published many of his early short stories under his maiden name Leonard Zinberg as early as the 1930s, mainly in literary magazines such as Story Magazin or Coronet . Thrilling Sports , a sports magazine, published its second boxer story; He was later recognized for his enormous technical and professional competence in boxing. He was a member of the League of American Writers .

After the Second World War until his death, Ed Lacy continued to work as a prolific, freelance writer, partly financially dependent on his family. In his Edgar Award-winning crime novel Room to Swing , Lacy was the first author to have a black private detective act as the protagonist , Toussaint "Touie" Marcus Moore . In line with his political self-image, he usually left black private detectives to play the leading role in his books, but also to other minorities who he saw as oppressed. Although white New York citizens of Jewish faith, his stories appear in the collections of black authors, for example with the story The Right Thing in the anthology The Best Short Stories by Afro-American Writers, 1925–1950 .

Ed Lacy had a heart condition and had a first heart attack before 1960 . He died of a serious heart attack at the age of 56 in a laundromat near his home in Harlem .

Awards

1958 Edgar Allan Poe Award ( Best Novel category) for Room to Swing (German murder on Kanal 12. Goldmann, Munich 1968)

Works

Novels

(as Ed Lacy)

David Wintino series

1957 Lead with Your Left (German why Wales died . Siegel-Buch, Hamburg 1958)
1967 Double Trouble (German doll in a wedding dress . Goldmann, Munich 1966)

Toussaint M. Moore series

1957 Room to Swing (German murder on Kanal 12. Goldmann, Munich 1968)

1964 Moment of Untruth ( Ger . The death of the matador . Goldmann, Munich 1969)

Lee Hayes series

1965 Harlem Underground (German secret mission Harlem . Goldmann, Munich 1967)
1967 In Black & Whitey (German black on white . Goldmann, Munich 1973, ISBN 3-442-04243-7 )

Standalones

1951 The Woman Aroused
1952 Sin in Their Blood (dt. Sin in the blood . Goldmann, Munich 1972, ISBN 3-442-04247-X )
1953 Strip for Violence (German. Dangerous Curiosity . Siegel-Book, Hamburg around 1958)
1954 Enter Without Desire (German telephone - Sandyhook 776th Siegel-Buch, Hamburg 1958)
1954 Go for the Body
1955 The Best That Ever Did It (German special marks . Nest, Frankfurt / M. 1958)
1956 The Men from the Boys ( Ger.Dammter Polyp . Goldmann, Munich 1968)
1958 Breathe No More, My Lady
1958 Shakedown for Murder (Ger. A gentle end . Goldmann, Munich 1973, ISBN 3-442-04261-5 )
1959 Be Careful How You Live (Ger. With empty hands . Goldmann, Munich 1967)
1959 Blonde Bait (German blonde booty . Goldmann, Munich 1969)
1960 The Big Fix (German Knockout for Killer . Goldmann, Munich 1969)
1960 A Deadly Affair
1961 Bugged for Murder (Ger. The woman nobody knew . Goldmann, Munich 1969)
1961 The Freeloaders
1961 South Pacific Affair
1963 The Sex Castle
1963 Two Hot to Handle
1964 Sleep in Thunder (German. A good conscience . Goldmann, Munich 1958)
1965 Pity the Honest
1966 The Hotel Dwellers
1968 The Napalm Bugle
1969 The Big Bust

Short stories

1963 Two hot to handle (Ger. Zwei Eisen im Feuer . Goldmann, Munich 1969)
1969 The Short Night (German fleeting encounter . Goldmann, Munich 1969)

Ed Lacy in anthologies

1945 Don't Call Me Yellow! In: Fight Stories , Winter 1945
1948 Loudmouth . In: Fight Stories , summer 1948
1951 The Real Sugar . In: Esquire , April 1951
1951 The Paradise Package . In: Esquire , June 1951
1951 The Devil in Black Lace . In: Mystery Digest , July 1951
1957 Finders-Killers . In: Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine , March 1957
1957 As Red as Blood! . In: Off Beat Detective Stories , May 1962
1957 The Devil in Black Lace . In: Mystery Digest , July 1957
1958 Life Sentence . In: Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine , October 1958
1958 How Heavy Is Green? In: Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine , November 1958
1959 Less Lives Than a Cat . In: Off Beat Detective Stories , March 1959
1959 killer nymph . In: Mystery Tales , August 1959
1959 Big Brains - Big Dough! In: Off Beat Detective Stories September 1959
1959 Blood Won't Wash Out . In: Off Beat Detective Stories , May 1959
1960 You're My Knife! In: Off Beat Detective Stories , May 1960
1960 Freeze Creep! In: Two-Fisted Detective Stories , June 1960
1960 Crime Doesn't Pay - Enough . In: Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine , August 1960
1960 Burn for Me, Darling . In: Off Beat Detective Stories September 1960
1961 Ghost Beat . In: Web Detective Stories , January 1961
1961 Mask of Terror! In: Two-Fisted Detective Stories , January 1961
1961 The Naked Blanco . In: Argosy , April 1961
1961 So Young to Die . In: Web Detective Stories , May 1961
1961 The Death of El Indio . In: Manhunt , October 1961
1962 The Square Root of Death . In: The Saint Detective Magazine , (UK) March 1962
1962 Lucky Catch . In: Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine May 1962
1962 Murder in Paradise . In: Argosy , July 1962
1962 I Did It for - Me . In: The Saint Detective Magazine , September 1962
1963 The Devil You Know ... . In: The Saint Detective Magazine , April 1963
1963 Death, the Black-Eyed Denominator . In: Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine September 1963
1963 Tuxedo Junction . In: Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine , October 1963
1963 Book Bonus - Murder, Caribbean-Style! In: Argosy , November 1963
1966 Sic Transit . In: The Saint Detective Magazine , (UK) February 1966
1966 ... Who married Dear Old Dad . In: The Man from UNCLE Magazine , April 1966
1966 The Eunuch . In: The Saint Detective Magazine , August 1966
1966 I Dunit . In: PS , August 1966
1967 Murder, He Says? In: The Girl from UNCLE Magazine , October 1967
1968 The Taut Alibi . In: Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine , June 1968
1968 The Clean-Cut Murder . In: Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine , October 1968
1968 Night Games . In: Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine , November 1968
1969 Time to Kill . In: Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine , August 1969

Web links

Ed Lynskey: Portrait of the Author (English)

Individual evidence

↑ Jon L. Breen: From Victim to Detective . In: Nina Schindler: The murder book . Claassen, Hildesheim 1997, p. 318 f.

^ The Best Short Stories by Afro-American Writers, 1925-1950 . Meador Publishers, Boston 1950

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ simultaneously published by Krimi-Verlag, Wollerau / Switzerland

↑ 1969 by Goldmann, Munich, under the title Good targeted

↑ under the title Kein Spielraum , a German translation was published in 1969 by Aufbau, Berlin and Weimar, the distribution of which was only permitted in the GDR

↑ 1958 published under the title Payable in Mord bei Goldmann, Munich and by Krimi-Verlag, Wollerau / Switzerland

↑ 1956 also published by various publishers under the title Visa to Death

↑ 1960 under the title Dead End appeared

↑ 1969 also titled Shoot It Again appeared

↑ contains the two novels The Coin of Adventure and Murder in Paradise

↑ not listed in Allan J. Hubbin's Crime Fiction IV bibliography . The original edition was published by Grosset & Dunlap, New York; Source: WorldCat .

↑ possible spelling mistake, but reproduced in the directory of Off Beat Detective Stories , September 1959 issue ( Memento from July 15, 2010 in the Internet Archive )

personal data
SURNAME	Lacy, Ed
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Zinberg, Leonard S. (maiden name); Zinberg, Len S. (nickname); April, Steve (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American writer
DATE OF BIRTH	August 25, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH	New York City
DATE OF DEATH	7th January 1968
Place of death	Harlem

[1] Jon L. Breen: From Victim to Detective . In: Nina Schindler: The murder book . Claassen, Hildesheim 1997, p. 318 f.

[2] The Best Short Stories by Afro-American Writers, 1925-1950 . Meador Publishers, Boston 1950

[Wollerau-3] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ simultaneously published by Krimi-Verlag, Wollerau / Switzerland

[4] 1969 by Goldmann, Munich, under the title Good targeted

[5] under the title Kein Spielraum , a German translation was published in 1969 by Aufbau, Berlin and Weimar, the distribution of which was only permitted in the GDR

[6] 1958 published under the title Payable in Mord bei Goldmann, Munich and by Krimi-Verlag, Wollerau / Switzerland

[7] 1956 also published by various publishers under the title Visa to Death

[8] 1960 under the title Dead End appeared

[9] 1969 also titled Shoot It Again appeared

[10] tains the two novels The Coin of Adventure and Murder in Paradise

[11] t listed in Allan J. Hubbin's Crime Fiction IV bibliography . The original edition was published by Grosset & Dunlap, New York; Source: WorldCat .