Stephen Marlowe

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Stephen Marlowe (born Milton Lesser on August 7, 1928 in New York City ; died on February 22, 2008 in Williamsburg , Virginia ) was an American writer. He wrote under his maiden name as well as under various pseudonyms - besides Stephen Marlowe he used Adam Chase , Andrew Frazer , Jason Ridgeway and CH Thames - adventure , crime and science fiction stories , among others .

Life

Lesser was the son of Norman Lesser, a broker , and Sylvia Lesser, née Price. He studied philosophy at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1949 . He then worked for the Scott Meredith Literary Agency until 1950 . Since 1954 he has been a freelance writer.

In 1950 he married Leigh Lang, from whom he divorced in 1962. In his second marriage he was married to Ann Humbert, with whom he had two daughters. In 1950 he changed his legal name to Stephen Marlowe.

plant

His first release was the SF short story All Heroes are Hated! , which appeared in Amazing 1950 . His science fiction stories published mainly in the pulp magazines of Ziff Davis . In 1952, the first SF novel Earthbound was published , in which a young space cadet is wrongly excluded from the Solar Academy and is tempted to get involved with space pirates. The science fiction stories mostly appeared with Milton Lesser as the author and were aimed at a young audience. It has been attested to his SF works, which mostly come from the first years of his writing career, that although they are rich in action, they show little care in setting up the plot and are generally quite conventional.

Marlowe is best known for his thrillers and spy novels, especially for the series with the protagonist Chester Drum. The novels The Summit (1970), Colossus (1972) and The Man with No Shadow (1974) are considered Marlowe's most successful works. He served intermittently on the board of directors of the Mystery Writers of America and was recognized for Lifetime Achievement by the Private Eye Writers of America in 1997 .

After switching from SF to the genre of detective and espionage novels, he turned to fictional autobiography in his final years, which eventually gave him recognition in the literary world. In 1988 he received the French Prix ​​Gutenberg du Livre for The Memoirs of Christopher Columbus (German: Die Memoiren des Christoph Columbus ) .

bibliography

Series

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

John Hastings (series of short stories, as Milton Lesser)
  • Secret of the Black Planet (1952)
  • Son of the Black Chalice (1952)
Johnny Mayhem (series of short stories, as CH Thames)
  • My Name Is Mayhem (1955)
  • They Sent a Boy (1955)
  • The Burning Man (1956)
  • Magellan Was a Piker (1956)
  • This Planet Is Mine (1956)
  • A Place in the Sun (1956)
  • Think Yourself to Death (1957)
  • Get Out of My World (1957, also as Darius John Granger)
  • A Coward Named Mayhem (1958)
  • Mayhem Enslaved (1958)
  • World Beyond Pluto (1958)
  • Johnny Mayhem (2013, collection)
Chester Drum Mystery (novel series, as Stephen Marlowe)
  • The Second Longest Night (1955)
    • German: The second longest night. Pabel crime novels # 96, 1960.
  • Trouble Is My Name (1957)
  • Killers Are My Meat (1957)
    • English: Murderers are my prey. Pabel crime novels # 90, 1960.
  • Violence is My Business (1958)
    • German: Violence is my business. Pabel crime novels # 88, 1960.
  • Drum Beat (1960, short story)
  • Danger Is My Line (1960)
    • German: The danger is my companion. Pabel crime novels # 98, 1960.
  • Francesca (1963)
  • Drum Beat Berlin (1964)
  • Drum Beat - Dominique (1965)
    • English: murder of a dead man. Loh (erotic thriller # 16), Grosshansdorf b. Hamburg 1969.
  • Drum Beat – Madrid (1966)
    • German: Adventure in Spain. Desch (The Midnight Books # 389); 1968.
  • Drum Beat - Erica (1967)
    • German: You want murder? Loh (top thriller # 204), Grosshansdorf b. Hamburg 1970.
  • Drum Beat – Marianne (1968)
    • German: Secret files, Spanish gold. Desch (The Midnight Books # 434), 1969.

Novels

as Milton Lesser (mostly SF)
  • Earthbound (1952)
  • The Star Seekers (1953)
    • German: Die Weltensucher. Moewig (Terra # 475), 1966.
  • The Golden Ape (1959, also as Adam Chase)
    • German: The white god. Moewig (Terra # 180), 1961.
  • Recruit for Andromeda (1959)
    • German: Committed to no man's land. Moewig (Terra special volume # 27), 1960.
  • Stadium Beyond the Stars (1960)
  • Spacemen Go Home (1961)
  • Lost Worlds and the Men Who Found Them (1962, children's book)
  • Walt Disney's Strange Animals of Australia (1963, children's book)
  • The Lighthouse at the End of the World (1995)
as Stephen Marlowe (mostly thriller)
  • Catch the Brass Ring (1954)
  • Turn Left for Murder (1955)
  • Model for Murder (1955)
    • German: At the last second. Translated by Helmut u. Edith Bittner. Lehning (partner book # 41), Hanover 1955.
  • Dead on Arrival (1956)
    • German: Murder on arrival. Pabel Kriminal-Romane # 37, 1959.
  • Mecca for Murder (1956)
    • German: My way to Mecca. Pabel crime novels # 101, 1960.
  • Violence Is Golden (1956)
  • Murder Is My Dish (1957)
    • German: Death is my partner. Pabel crime novels # 94, 1960.
  • Terror Is My Trade (1958)
    • English: Smugglers have no friends. Pabel crime novels # 104, 1960.
  • Blonde Bait (1959)
  • Double in Trouble (1959, with Richard S. Prather)
  • Find Eileen Hardin — Alive! (1959, as Andrew Frazer)
  • Passport to Peril (1959)
  • Homicide Is My Game (1959)
    • English: Fate shuffles the cards. Pabel crime novels # 108, 1961.
  • Death Is My Comrade (1960)
  • The Fall of Marty Moon (1960, as Andrew Frazer)
    • English: The case of Marty Moon. Desch (The Midnight Books # 373), 1968.
  • Peril Is My Pay (1960)
  • Dead Man's Tale (1961, as Ellery Queen )
  • Manhunt Is My Mission (1961)
  • Jeopardy Is My Job (1962)
    • German: corpse in good company. Loh (Top Thriller # 203), Grosshansdorf b. Hamburg 1970.
  • Blood Is My Brother (1963, as CH Thames)
  • The Shining (1963)
  • The Search for Bruno Heidler (1966)
  • Come Over, Red Rover (1968)
  • The Summit (1970)
    • English: When Bogutin left town. Translated by Karin Kaiser. Molden, 1970, ISBN 3-217-00323-3 . Also Bastei Lübbe # 11088, 1975.
  • Colossus (1972)
  • The Man with No Shadow (1974)
  • The Cawthorn Journals (1975)
  • Translation (1976)
    • German: The city and the curse. Horror novel. Translated by Ingrid Rothmann. Bastei Lübbe # 70017, 1979, ISBN 3-404-01420-0 .
  • The Valkyrie Encounter (1978)
  • 1956 (1981)
  • Deborah's Legacy (1983)
  • The Memoirs of Christopher Columbus (1987)
  • The Death and Life of Miguel De Cervantes (1991)
as Jason Ridgway
  • West Side Jungle (1958)
  • Adam's Fall (1960)
    • English: Adam's Fall. Translated by Peter Th. Clemens. Goldmann's pocket thriller # 1125, 1962.
  • People in Glass Houses (1961)
  • Hardly a Man is Now Alive (1962)
    • German: The strange sanatorium. Translated by Peter Th. Clemens. Goldmann's pocket thriller # 1158, 1963.
  • The Treasure of the Cosa Nostra (1966)
    • German: be silent or die. Goldmann pocket thriller # 3011, 1967.

Short stories

Collections
  • Secret of the Black Planet (1965)
  • “A” as in Android and Other Tales (2013)
  • The Iron Virgin and Other Stories (2013)
  • Forever We Die! and Other Stories (2014)
SF short stories
  • All Heroes Are Hated! (1950)
  • Who's That Knocking at My Door? (1950, as SM Tenneshaw)
  • It's raining frogs! (1950)
  • When Flame Globes Dance (1951)
  • Gordak's Cargo (1951)
  • Trans-Plutonian (1951)
  • “A” as in Android (1951)
    • German: "A" for androide. In: Ivan Howard (Ed.): Man and the Universe and Other Stories. Moewig (Terra # 551), 1968.
  • The Circle (1951)
  • Pen Pal (1951)
  • From Hidden Worlds (1951)
  • The Sense of Wonder (1951)
  • Forty Days Has September (1951)
  • You Take the High Road (1951, as Stephen Marlowe)
  • Anything Your Heart Desires (1951, as Stephen Marlowe)
  • Fugue (1951, as Stephen Marlowe)
  • The Old Way (1951)
  • Voices in the Void (1951)
  • Somewhere I'll Find You! (1951)
    • German: Hunt through the worlds. Pabel Utopia Science Fiction # 468, 1965.
  • The Impossible Weapon (1952)
  • The Last Revolution (1952, as Stephen Marlowe)
  • "What's on Your Mind?" (1952)
  • Ordeal on Syrtis (1952)
  • Black Eyes and the Daily Grind (1952)
  • He Fell Among Thieves (1952)
  • Ride the Crepe Ring (1952)
  • Jungle in the Sky (1952)
  • Resurrection Seven (1952, as Stephen Marlowe)
  • Rules of the Game (1952)
  • Ask a Foolish Question (1952)
  • The Lion's Mouth (1952)
  • The One and the Many (1952)
  • All Flesh Is Brass (1952)
  • Wild Talents, Inc. (1952)
  • Ennui (1952)
  • Make Way for Your Corpse (1952)
  • Exterran (1953)
  • Come blow your horn! (1953)
  • Earthsmith (1953)
  • Crack of Doom (1953)
  • The Agent (1953, as Stephen Marlowe)
  • The Idols of Wuld (1953)
  • Finders Keepers (1953)
  • Picnic (1953)
  • Tourist on Minotaur Moon (1953)
  • Voyage to Eternity (1953)
  • Halt the Blue Star's Rising (1953)
  • World Without Glamor (1953)
  • The Irrationals (1953)
  • Tyrants of Time (1954)
  • Pariah (1954)
  • Give Away (1954)
  • Slaves to the Metal Horde (1954)
  • You Can Live Forever (1954)
  • Double or Something (1954)
  • Intruder on the Rim (1954, also called Operation Zero )
  • Cosmic Appetite (1954)
  • Dead on Departure (1954)
  • Quickie (1954)
  • Sell ​​It to Satan (1954)
  • A Cold Night for Crying (1954)
  • Revolt of the Outworlds (1954)
  • No Way Out (1955, as Christopher Thames)
  • The Dictator (1955)
  • The Double Occupation (1955)
  • No-Risk Planet (1955)
  • The Rusted Jungle (1955)
  • Bye Bye, Mindy (1955)
  • The Big Bluff (1955)
  • The Eye and I (1955, as CH Thames)
  • King of the Black Sunrise (1955)
  • The Killer Within (1955, as CH Thames)
  • But the Planet Died (1955, as CH Thames)
  • Newshound (1955)
  • He Ran All the Way (1955)
  • Farewell, Mr. Ridley (1955)
  • No Place to Live (1955)
  • Es Percipi (1955, as Stephen Marlowe)
  • Between Two Worlds (1955)
  • He Took What He Wanted (1955, as CH Thames)
  • Ladies in Waiting (1955, as Darius John Granger)
  • The Poison Pen (1955)
  • A Day for Battle (1956, as CH Thames)
  • Code of the Bluster World (1956)
  • The Girl from Nowhere (1956, as Darius John Granger)
  • Better Change Your Mind (1956, as CH Thames)
  • Stop, you're killing me! (1956, as Darius John Granger)
  • The Cosmic Snare (1956)
  • No Place for an Earthman (1956, as CH Thames)
  • The Iron Virgin (1956, as CH Thames)
  • Through a Glass Darkly (1956)
  • Meet Miss Solar System (1956)
  • Prison of a Billion Years (1956, as CH Thames)
  • The Graveyard of Space (1956)
  • The Hero (1956)
  • A Town for Mr. Sntzl (1956, as Stephen Wilder)
  • Gateway to Infinity (1956, as Darius John Granger)
  • Intruder from the Void (1956)
  • The Final Quarry (1956, as Adam Chase)
  • The Girl Who Hated Air (1956)
  • The Ivory Tower (1956)
  • All Good Men (1956)
  • Everybody's Watching You (1956, as CH Thames)
  • Planet of Doom (1956, as CH Thames)
  • The Thing from Underneath (1956)
  • Field Trip (1956, as Darius John Granger)
  • The Man Without a Planet (1956, as Adam Chase)
  • Forever We Die! (1956, as CH Thames)
  • We Run from the Hunted! (1956, as Darius John Granger)
  • A World Called Crimson (1956, as Darius John Granger)
  • Operation Disaster (1956, as Darius John Granger)
  • Social Climber (1956)
  • The Music of the Spheres (1956)
  • You'll Go Mad on Mars! (1956, as CH Thames)
  • An Eye for the Ladies (1956, as Darius John Granger)
  • Centauri Vengeance (1956, as Darius John Granger)
  • My Shipmate - Columbus (1956, as Stephen Wilder)
  • Summer Snow Storm (1956, as Adam Chase)
  • The Passionate Pitchman (1956, as Stephen Wilder)
  • World of the Hunter (1956, as CH Thames)
  • Microscopic Nightmare (1956, as CH Thames)
  • The Valiant Die Hard! (1956, as Adam Chase)
  • Chance of a Lifetime (1956)
  • My Sweetheart's the Man in the Moon (1956)
  • Revolt of the Brains (1956, as CH Thames)
  • The Thing in the Truck (1956, as Darius John Granger)
  • The New World to Conquer (1957, as Adam Chase)
  • The Enemy Within (1957, as Darius John Granger)
  • Home Is Where You Left It (1957, as Adam Chase)
  • Legs on Olympus (1957, as Adam Chase)
  • Time Out (1957, as Darius John Granger)
  • Disaster Revisited (1957, as Darius John Granger)
  • Quest of the Golden Ape (1957, with Paul W. Fairman)
  • The Early Bird (1957)
  • School for Conquerors (1957, as Adam Chase)
  • He Fired His Boss (1957, as Darius John Granger)
  • Name Your Tiger (1957)
    • German: Faces of Fear. In: Walter Spiegl (Ed.): Science-Fiction-Stories 34. Ullstein 2000 # 63 (3029), 1973, ISBN 3-548-03029-7 .
  • So You Want to be President (1957, as Adam Chase)
  • The Earthman (1957)
  • The Man Who Made His Dreams Come True (1957, as CH Thames)
  • Winged Planet (1957, as Adam Chase)
  • Deadly Honeymoon (1957, as Adam Chase)
  • Gods Also Die (1957, as Darius John Granger)
  • His Touch Turned Stone to Flesh (1957, as Adam Chase)
  • The Exquisite Nudes (1957, as Adam Chase)
  • Do It Yourself (1957)
  • The Lady Had Wings (1957, as Darius John Granger)
  • Blonde Cargo (1958, as Adam Chase)
  • Excitement for Sale (1958, as Stephen Wilder)
  • Drumbeat (1958, as Adam Chase)
  • The Space Breed (1958, as Adam Chase)
  • The Man Who Would Not Die (1958, as Darius John Granger)
  • The Shill (1958, as Stephen Marlowe)
  • The Most Important Man in the World (1959, as Darius John Granger)
  • Divvy Up (1960, as Milt Lesser)

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ George Kelley: Lesser, Milton . In: Noelle Watson, Paul E. Schellinger: Twentieth-Century Science-Fiction Writers. St. James Press, Chicago 1991, p. 485.
personal data
SURNAME Marlowe, Stephen
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lesser, Milton (real name); Chase, Adam (pseudonym); Granger, Darius John (pseudonym); Lesser, Milt (pseudonym); Tenneshaw, SM (pseudonym); Thames, CH (pseudonym); Thames, Christopher (pseudonym); Wilder, Stephen (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American writer
DATE OF BIRTH August 7, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City
DATE OF DEATH February 22, 2008
Place of death Williamsburg , Virginia