Leonard Wibberley

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Wibberley in a wet suit

Leonard Patrick O'Connor Wibberley (born April 9, 1915 in Dublin , † November 22, 1983 in Santa Monica , California ) was an Irish - American writer and journalist who worked under various pseudonyms . He became known for his satirical novels about the fictional duchy of Grand Fenwick, which were also made into a film.

Life

Born in Dublin, Leonard Wibberley left his Irish homeland at a young age and went to school in England . After dropping out of training at a book publisher, he began working as a reporter in London in the 1930s , where he learned journalism at one of the major Sunday newspapers. He spent some time in Trinidad before serving in the Second World War .

In 1943 Wibberley went to the USA, where he soon worked as a journalist again, first in New York and then in Chicago . Eventually he settled in California with his family and worked on the editorial staff of the Los Angeles Times .

plant

Leonard Wibberley wrote well over 100 books, including more than 50 children's books, many under the pseudonym Christopher Webb . Other pseudonyms were Patrick O'Connor and Leonard Holton . Under the latter name, he brought out his crime series about Los Angeles- based Father Joseph Bredder , a clergyman with a detective flair based on Gilbert Keith Chesterton's Father Brown . For young readers, he wrote The Treegate Adventures, a series of historical novels set around the time of the American Revolution and the British-American War of 1812.

Wibberley's greatest success with adult audiences was his satirical novels about the Duchy of Grand Fenwick, the smallest country on earth. In it he impaled the political developments in the time of the “ Cold War ” in a humorous and amiable way . In the first novel, The Mouse that Roared (1955; German edition initially under the title Small State Very Large ), Grand Fenwick declares war on the USA after the duchy's only export item , the “Pinot Grand Fenwick”, was misled by the label “Pinot Grand Enwick ”has got into a sales crisis for a Californian wine. Absurd entanglements are the result. The material suggested further processing. So Jack Arnold turned the original 1959 with Die Maus, which roared one of the most successful film satires, which was also thanks to the brilliant Peter Sellers in three roles, and Christopher Sergel turned the material into a play in 1963. Also, The Mouse on the Moon (1962), in which the once-strapped Grand Fenwick the USA with the apparent intention to build a moon rocket, anpumpt, came in 1963 under the German title The Mouse on the Moon , directed by Richard Lester to the cinema with Margaret Rutherford and Ron Moody. Sergel, in turn, designed the stage comedy Mouse on Mars based on the novel in 1972 .

bibliography

The series are arranged according to the year of publication of the first part.

Grand Fenwick
  • 1 The Mouse that Roared (1955, also as The Wrath of Grapes )
    • German: Small state very big: a not entirely unbelievable story. Translated by Heinrich Fraenkel. Ullstein, 1956. Also called: The mouse that roared. Vitolibro, 2012, ISBN 978-3-86940-101-0 .
  • 2 Beware of the Mouse (1958)
  • 3 The Mouse on the Moon (1962)
  • 4 The Mouse on Wall Street (1969)
    • German: Help, where to put the money? : a cheerful novel. Translated by Marlène Schwörer. Rüschlikon, 1972, ISBN 3-275-00489-1 . Also as: Ullstein TB # 3451, 1978, ISBN 3-548-03451-9 .
  • 5 The Mouse That Saved the West (1981)
Black Tiger (as Patrick O'Connor)
  • The Black Tiger (1956)
  • Mexican Road Race (1957)
  • Black Tiger at Le Mans (1958)
  • Black Tiger at Bonneville (1960)
  • Black Tiger at Indianapolis (1962)
  • A Car Called Camellia (1970)
Treegate
  • 1 John Treegate's Musket (1959)
  • 2 Peter Treegates War (1960)
  • 3 Sea Captain from Salem (1961)
  • 4 Treegate's Raiders (1962)
  • 5 Leopard's Prey (1971)
  • 6 Red Pawns (1973)
Father Bredder (as Leonard Holton)
  • 1 The Saint Maker (1959)
    • German: On your own. Translated by Georg Kahn-Ackermann. Desch (The Midnight Books # 86) 1961.
  • 2 A Pact with Satan (1960)
    • English: The dead man who committed a murder. Translated by Heinz Graef. Herder Library # 164, 1963.
  • 3 Secret of the Doubting Saint (1961)
    • English: murder in the confessional. Translated by Heinz Graef. Herder Library # 241, 1965.
  • 4 Deliver Us from Wolves (1963)
  • 5 Flowers By Request (1964)
  • 6 Out of the Depths (1966)
    • German: Father Bredder knows too much. Translated by Helmut Baus. Herder Library # 288, 1967.
  • 7 A Touch of Jonah (1968)
  • 8 A Problem in Angels (1970)
  • 8 The Mirror of Hell (1972)
  • 9 The Devil to Play (1974)
  • 10 A Corner of Paradise (1977)
  • The Father Bredder Mysteries Books (2016 f., Collective edition of 1–9 in 3 volumes)
Life of Thomas Jefferson
  • 1 Young Man from the Piedmont (1963)
  • 2 A Dawn in the Trees (1988)
  • 3 The Gales of Spring (1965)
  • 4 Time of the Harvest (1966)
Encounter Near Venus
  • 1 Encounter Near Venus (1967)
  • 2 Journey to Untor (1970)
Novels
  • The King's Beard (1952)
  • The Secret of Hawk (1953)
  • Mrs Searwood's Secret Weapon (1954)
  • The Wound of Peter Wayne (1955)
  • McGillicuddy McGotham (1956)
  • Kevin O'Connor and the Light Brigade (1957)
  • Take Me to Your President (1957)
  • The Quest of Excalibur (1959)
  • The Land That Isn't There (1960)
  • Mark Toyman's Inheritance (1960, as Christopher Webb)
  • Stranger at Killknock (1961)
  • The River of Pee Dee Jack (1962, as Christopher Webb)
  • Quest of the Otter (1963, as Christopher Webb)
  • A Feast of Freedom (1964)
  • Seawind from Hawaii (1965, as Patrick O'Connor, children's book)
  • The Ann and Hope Mutiny (1966, as Christopher Webb)
  • The Centurion (1966)
  • Matt Tyler's Chronicle (1966, as Christopher Webb)
  • Attar of the Ice Valley (1968)
  • The Road from Toomi (1968)
  • Hound of the Sea (1969)
  • Voyage By Bus (1970)
  • Meeting with a Great Beast (1971)
  • The Shannon Sailors (1972)
  • Flint's Island (1972)
  • The Testament of Theophilus: A Novel of Christ and Caesar (1973, also as The Seven Hills , 1973, The Merchant of Rome , 1974, Body of Proof , 2017)
  • The Last Stand of Father Felix (1974)
  • The Last Battle (1976)
  • One in Four (1976)
  • Homeward to Ithaca (1978)
  • Perilous Gold (1978)
  • Little League Family (1978)
  • The Crime of Martin Coverly (1980)
Non-fiction
  • Epics of Everest (1955)
  • The Life of Winston Churchill (1956)
  • The Trouble with the Irish (or the English, depending on your point of view) (1956)
  • John Barry (1957)
  • Wes Powell (1958)
  • Zebulon Pike: Soldier And Explorer (1961)
  • Man of Liberty (1968)

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Wibberley, Leonard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Holton, Leonard; O'Connor, Patrick; Webb, Christopher
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Irish-American writer
DATE OF BIRTH April 9, 1915
PLACE OF BIRTH Dublin , Ireland
DATE OF DEATH November 22, 1983
Place of death Santa Monica , California , USA