Earl Derr Biggers (1884–1933)
Author of The House without a Key
About the Author
Earl Derr Biggers was born in 1884 in Warren, Ohio. He graduated from Harvard University in 1907 with a Bachelor of Arts degree. After college, Biggers went to work at The Boston Traveler, where he wrote a humorous column, and then reviews, until 1911. By that time he had finished his first novel, show more "Seven Keys To Baldpate," migrated to New York with his first novel and also his first comedy, "If You're Only Human" and began writing plays. Biggers wrote magazine articles, stories, novels and plays, including a war play, "Inside The Lines," which ran 500 nights in London in 1915 and 1916. He published two more novels during the 1910s, Love Insurance in 1914 and The Agony Column in 1916, but his main activity was focused on humor writing, particularly in magazines and short stories. In 1919, Biggers decided to quit playwriting and go to California to write for motion pictures. His reputation spread among the public with his most famous creation, Charlie Chan. He developed the character of Charlie Chan for his novel "The House Without A Key" in 1925. He wrote six Charlie Chan novels, all moderately popular. All were adapted to the cinema, except for "Keeper Of The Keys". The Charlie Chan movies were one of the most successful screen series in history, with over 40 movies based on the character. There were also numerous Chan radio adaptations and comic strips, as well as attempts to bring the character to television. Earl Biggers died in Pasadena, California, in April of 1933 at the age of 48, from a heart attack. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Series
Works by Earl Derr Biggers
Charlie Chan: Five Complete Novels: The House Without a Key; The Chinese Parrot; Behind That Curtain; The Black Camel;… (1925) 137 copies
Charlie Chan's Caravan 10 copies
The Charlie Chan MEGAPACK ®: The Complete 6-Book Series Plus 16 more by Earl Derr Biggers (2013) 6 copies
MYSTERY CLASSICS Boxed Set - Earl Derr Biggers Edition (Illustrated): Seven Keys to Baldpate, Inside the Lines, The… (2017) 3 copies
NOVELAS ESCOGIDAS 3 copies
Delphi Collected Works of Earl Derr Biggers (Illustrated) (Delphi Series Ten Book 8) (2019) 3 copies
Earl Derr Biggers: The Complete Works: (Illustrated) (Bauer Classics) (All Time Best Writers Book 9) (2020) 2 copies
The Dollar Chasers 2 copies
Chinese Parrot 1 copy
Mannen med nøklene 1 copy
Novelas policíacas completas 1 copy
The Bird in the Cage 1 copy
Charlie Chan Vol. II 1 copy
Charlie Chan 1 copy
The Cruel Town 1 copy
Associated Works
Charlie Chan Collection: Volume One — Original characters — 22 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1884-08-24
- Date of death
- 1933-04-05
- Burial location
- Cremated
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Warren, Ohio, USA
- Place of death
- Pasadena, California, USA
- Places of residence
- San Marino, California, USA
- Education
- Harvard University (1907)
- Occupations
- playwright
novelist - Short biography
- Biggers is probably best known for his creation of Charlie Chan who was based on a real Chinese-American police detective he met in Honolulu.
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Statistics
- Works
- 49
- Also by
- 9
- Members
- 2,038
- Popularity
- #12,613
- Rating
- 3.7
- Reviews
- 109
- ISBNs
- 315
- Languages
- 13
- Favorited
- 8