Edmund Crispin

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Edmund Crispin also Bruce Montgomery (born October 2, 1921 in Chesham Bois , Buckinghamshire , † September 15, 1978 in Devon , England; actually Robert Bruce Montgomery ) was an English crime writer and composer .

Life

At St John's College , Oxford , where he graduated in Modern Languages ​​in 1943, Crispin was organist and choirmaster for two years. His further career was also two-pronged.

During the following two years as a teacher, his first crime thriller ( Murder before the premiere , 1944) was published. He took the lead role in it from his student days: his detective is Professor Gervase Fen , Professor of English Literature at Oxford. His stories are among the more sophisticated, humorous crime novels with literary demands and literary allusions. He chose the pseudonym "Edmund Crispin" for his writing. Until 1951 a detective novel with Professor Fen was published annually.

Under his real name Bruce Montgomery, on the other hand, he first composed choral and vocal pieces before he discovered film music in the mid-1950s. From 1958 he was musically responsible for numerous films in the Ist-ja-crazy series. In 1961 he wrote both the music and the script for the film Scandal at Whigmore Hall .

In the 1960s, alongside his film work, he wrote crime thriller reviews for the Sunday Times and the occasional Fen short story. He has also edited a number of anthologies, not just crime fiction but also a seven volume science fiction anthology which greatly contributed to the popularity of the relatively new genre in Britain.

Serious alcohol problems, however, meant that not only did his creative output wane, but his health was also seriously affected. In 1977 one last Gervase Fen novel was published before Edmund Crispin died in 1978 after a heart attack.

Bibliography (as Edmund Crispin)

Crime novels

  • Murder Before Premiere ( The Case of the Gilded Fly , 1944)
  • Heiliger Bimbam (also as: See the motive and not the deed, Holy Disorders , 1945)
  • The moving toy shop (first translation as: Murder on the 1st floor, The Moving Toyshop , 1946)
  • Swan Song ( Swan Song , 1947)
  • With secret ink (new translation 2004: Love dies first, Love Lies Bleeding , 1948)
  • Funeral on Thursday (also as: The pastor and his poltergeist, new translation 2004: Buried with joy, Buried for Pleasure , 1948)
  • ... In front of the hearse's gate ( Frequent Hearses , 1950)
  • Anonymous letters (also as: Giftbriefe, The Long Divorce , 1951)
  • Morde - Zug um Zug ( Beware of the Trains , 1953, stories)
  • The moon breaks through the clouds ( The Glimpses of the Moon , 1977)
  • Fen Country (1979, stories, not published in German)

SF anthologies (ed.)

  • Best SF (1955)
  • Best SF 2 (1956)
  • Best SF 3 (1958)
  • Best Tales of Terror (1962)
  • Best SF 5 (1963)
  • Best SF 6 (1966)
  • The Stars and Under (1968)
  • Best SF 7 (1970)
  • Outwards from Earth (1974)

In 1977, a selection from Best SF and Best SF 2 appeared in Germany as "Science Fiction Stories 69" in the Ullstein Science Fiction series as volume 3378.

script

  • Scandal at Whigmore Hall ( Raising the Wind , UK 1961)

Film Music (as Bruce Montgomery)

  • among other things the Ist-ja-crazy series from 1958 to 1962

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Crispin, Edmund
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Montgomery, Robert Bruce (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English crime novelist, SF editor and composer
DATE OF BIRTH October 2, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH Chesham Bois , Buckinghamshire, England
DATE OF DEATH September 15, 1978
Place of death Devon (England)