Robert Arthur (Author)

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Portrait (1931)

Robert Arthur (born November 10, 1909 in Fort Mills on the island of Corregidor , Philippines , † May 2, 1969 in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania ) was an American author and journalist . He was best known as the creator of the youth detective series The Three Investigators , better known in German-speaking countries as Die drei ??? .

Life

Arthur's father Robert Sr. was a lieutenant in the United States Army , his mother Sarah Fee was from New Orleans . He had a younger brother, John. He studied English at the University of Michigan ( Ann Arbor ), where he received his bachelor's degree in 1930 and a master's degree in journalism in 1932 . He then moved to New York .

It was here that he began writing for pulp magazines ; between 1935 and 1941 he invented Pocket Detective Magazine . His first marriage was from 1938 to 1940 with the radio play speaker Susan Smith Cleveland. From 1944 to 1952 he produced The Mysterious Traveler and Adventure Into Fear, weekly radio shows. In 1946 he married his second wife, Joan Vaczek; the couple moved to Sharon (Connecticut) and later Yorktown Heights (New York), where their son Robert Andrew (* 1948) and daughter Elizabeth Ann (* 1953) grew up. 1950 and 1953, Arthur was awarded the Edgar in the category Best Radio Drama American by the Association crime writers, the Mystery Writers of America , excellent. In the McCarthy era his writing for the radio came to a standstill, but he continued to work as a co-producer and wrote for Pulp magazine.

After divorcing his second wife, he moved to Hollywood in 1959 and wrote screenplays for television series such as The Twilight Zone and worked as an editor and scriptwriter for Alfred Hitchcock's TV series Alfred Hitchcock Presents . In 1962 he moved back to the east coast to Cape May , where he lived until his death. In 1961 Arthur was hired by the Random House publishing house as an editor for a Hitchcock crime anthology based on the TV series Alfred Hitchcock Presents (short: AHP). The short story volumes AHP: Stories For Late At Night (1961), AHP: Stories My Mother Never Told Me (1963), AHP: Stories Not For The Nervous (1965), AHP: Stories That Scared Even Me (1967) were published under his direction. and AHP: Stories They Wouldn't Let Me Do On TV (1968). Each volume contained at least one story by Arthur and a foreword which he wrote on behalf of Hitchcock. At the same time, he publishes other volumes of short stories aimed at children and young people.

Alfred Hitchcock and the three ???

Logo of the series The three ???

Because of his work as an editor, script writer and his professional contact with Alfred Hitchcock , he had the idea of ​​his own crime series for children and young people in 1963. Under the title Alfred Hitchcock and The Three Investigators , the first episode was published by Random House in 1964: The Secret of Terror Castle (known in German as Die Drei ??? und das Gespensterschloss ). To ensure long-term success of the series, Arthur advertised by the name Hitchcocks. Arthur wanted to create an alternative to the then popular youth series Hardy Boys with his crime stories . In German-speaking countries, the series is entitled Die drei ??? known. The series achieved cult status primarily through its German radio play and is continued to this day by various German-speaking authors.

Between 2005 and 2008, a legal dispute over Arthur's legacy with Arthur's children and the German licensees of the series Die Drei ??? , specifically the Kosmos-Verlag (book) and the label Europa (radio play). In a judgment against an injunction issued by the Europa label on the publication of two novels by the three ??? The Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court saw it as proven by the Kosmos-Verlag that the University of Michigan was the legal heir to Arthur's works. This is clear from his will. In principle, however, it remains to be clarified to what extent audio usage rights have been transferred. The parties involved finally agreed out of court to continue the series in Germany ( further information on the legal dispute ).

Works

The ten volumes in the Alfred Hitchcock and The Three Investigators series written by Robert Arthur :

year Original title German translation
1964 The Secret of Terror Castle ... and the haunted castle
1964 The Mystery of the Stuttering Parrot ... and the super parrot
1965 The Mystery of the Whispering Mummy ... and the whispering mummy
1965 The Mystery of the Green Ghost ... and the green spirit
1966 The Mystery of the Vanishing Treasure ... and the missing treasure
1966 The Secret of Skeleton Island ... and the ghost island
1967 The Mystery of the Fiery Eye ... and the curse of the ruby
1967 The Mystery of the Silver Spider ... and the silver spider
1968 The Mystery of the Screaming Clock ... and the strange alarm clock
1969 The Mystery of the Talking Skull ... and the talking skull

Editorial support of the adult book series Alfred Hitchcock Presents :

  • Stories For Late At Night (1961)
  • Stories My Mother Never Told Me (1963)
  • Stories Not For The Nervous (1965)
  • Stories That Scared Even Me (1967)
  • Stories They Wouldn't Let Me Do On TV (1968)

Editorial support of the youth book series by Alfred Hitchcock:

  • Alfred Hitchcock's Haunted Houseful (1961)
  • Alfred Hitchcock's Ghostly Gallery (1962)
  • Alfred Hitchcock's Solve them yourself Mysteries (1963)
  • Alfred Hitchcock's Monster Museum (1965)
  • Alfred Hitchcock's Sinister Spies (1966)
  • Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbinders in Suspense (1967)

Editorial support for other short story volumes for young people, published under their own name:

  • Davy Jones Haunted Locker (1965)
  • Spies and More Spies (1967)
  • Thrillers and More Thrillers (1968)

Volumes of short stories written by Robert Arthur:

  • Ghosts and More Ghosts (1963), German: ghosts I called (Boje-Verlag 1970)
  • Mystery and More Mystery (1966)
Remarks:
  1. ↑ In Germany initially under the title Alfred Hitchcock - Who was the perpetrator? Published in 1966 in a translation by Leonore Puschert , published in 1975 under the title Hitchcock's Krimi-Box - youth crime novels for self-redeeming in a cover design by Aiga Rasch . The translation of the short story The Mystery of the three blind Mice is missing in both publications. All stories, as well as the foreword and Hitchcock's intervening comments, were written by Rober Arthur. With the exception of the story The Five sinister Thefts , which was edited and edited by him. In Alfred Hitchcock and The Three Investigators in The Mystery of the Silver Spider , Justus makes direct reference to this book and the short story The Mystery of the Man Who Evaporated . The translator Puschert liked the idea of ​​Hitchcock's fictional comments so much that she later used it as a hint in The Three ??? -Book series has included.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Interview with Elizabeth Arthur . rocky-beach.com. Retrieved December 26, 2013.
  2. ↑ Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court, judgment of April 24, 2007 (I-20 U 175/06). For the legal situation in the USA cf. 17 USC § 203 (a) (2), § 304 (c) (2).
personal data
SURNAME Arthur, Robert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American author
DATE OF BIRTH November 10, 1909
PLACE OF BIRTH Fort Mills , Corregidor , Philippines
DATE OF DEATH May 2nd 1969
Place of death Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , United States